TORONTO and OTTAWA – Globalive could launch its Wind-branded mobile service as early as next week, chairman Anthony Lacavera said Friday after learning that Industry Canada had overturned the CRTC’s decision barring his company from entering the Canadian wireless market.
Amid cheers from staff, Lacavera thanked the government for its decision which he called “testament that this country needs (wireless) competition.”
Industry Canada declared Globalive a Canadian company that meets the Canadian ownership and control requirements under the Telecommunications Act early on Friday morning, contrary to the CRTC’s decision in the Fall which determined that the company was not sufficiently Canadian-owned…
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GATINEAU – The Shaw Communications legal team and the Commission share a difference of opinion.
Qu’elle surprise, you’re thinking.
However, the one that arose Wednesday as Shaw faced the Commission during 2009-614 (the hearing forced by an Order-In-Council that will inform a report to the Heritage Ministry on establishing a value for signal regime for local broadcasters) was a different conflict than some of the others we’ve followed between Shaw and the Regulator.
In its opener on Wednesday afternoon, Shaw’s SVP regulatory, Jean Brazeau, insisted that the CRTC can not issue a policy ruling on the hearing held last month on setting…
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QUIETLY POSTED TUESDAY on the CRTC’s web site were the 2009 aggregate financial data of the large Canadian broadcasters and BDUs. And, as we all knew, the BDUs are doing pretty well. The broadcasters, not so much.
CTV EVP Paul Sparkes tried to quickly introduce some of the data during its Q&A session Tuesday during the ongoing hearing into a broadcaster compensation regime because of the dramatically different bottom line numbers for his company compared to the big carriers. However, he was interrupted by Commission chair Konrad von Finckenstein before he could spit out the admittedly huge profit before…
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GATINEAU – For those of us who have been to a few of these CRTC get-togethers, Marjorie Lemieux will likely stick in our minds for a while.
Dressed in a bright purple sweatshirt, the Rogers Cable customer was on the first consumer panel of the day (a group pulled together from submissions via the “Stop the TV Tax” campaign) for hearing 2009-614, the one called by the CRTC in response to cabinet’s call for a report on the implications of paying a fee for conventional TV.
“My name is Marjorie and I want to stop the TV tax,” she began, adding…
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GATINEAU – With a light dusting of snow outside and a grey beginning to yet another week of talking about paying for conventional television signals, you’ll hopefully forgive us for feeling just a little like this.
This is the fourth hearing inside of two years (and the second one in the past month!) whose focus is on compensating local TV broadcasters for their signals). This one, as CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein pointed out right at the start, will not set policy, but instead will inform a report to be filed in the new year with Canadian Heritage Minister…
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OTTAWA – The CEOs from three of Canada’s biggest broadcasters have thrown their support behind the skinny basic concept, calling it a “consumer-first solution”.
In a press release issued after their appearance at the CRTC hearing Tuesday, CBC, CTV and Global said that a pared down basic television programming package will provide “affordable, accessible, and sustainable TV services for all Canadians.”
"Canadian consumers and TV viewers deserve a choice, and a new affordable bundle of basic TV channels is a start," said CBC president and CEO Hubert Lacroix, in the release. "With a regulated capped rate, Canadians will be protected from fee hikes with…
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OTTAWA – In what could be a first for a Canadian BDU, Rogers Cable has asked the CRTC if it may carry the digital multicast signals of a U.S. broadcaster.
In its application, Rogers requested that the Commission amend its Class 1 and 2 regional broadcasting licences in Ontario, and its Class 1, 2 and 3 regional broadcasting licences for its terrestrial BDUs in New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Specifically, Rogers has asked for the addition of the following condition of licence:The licensee is authorized to distribute, at its option and on a digital basis, the multicast service ThinkBright and Well Television…
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OTTAWA – Calling Canadians’ local television needs “fundamentally important objectives of Canada’s broadcasting policy”, the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) said that the upcoming analog-digital transition could breathe new life in to community television.
In a statement issued prior to its appearance at Monday’s CRTC hearing, CACTUS said that independent community TV organizations, such as those in Valemont and Ash Creek, BC, could help remote private and public signals remain available over the air to all communities, regardless of size.
The group also contrasted the amount of original, local TV programming produced by independent community TV channel NACTV in…
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I AGREE GREG.
I have been in the UK last month as a guest of the BBC and Granada TV – then last week to NYC for business with Hallmark Channel and Hearst Corporation.
In both important venues, I was asked by senior media executives “What the heck is going on back in Canada? We read that piece in Variety and it seems like kids fighting in a sandbox! Is your broadcasting system that messed up?”
Indeed.
If we don’t learn to pull together and stop pulling apart, all of us (producers, broadcasters and BDUs) risk doing some serious and possibly…
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GATINEAU – The next hearing into whether or not we’re going to adopt a new revenue model for conventional television broadcasters begins Monday and judging from the very few of the nearly 200,000 submissions we’ve read, Canadians are, well, ticked off.
Some are mad at their TV broadcasters, some at their cable or satellite companies. Some are mad at the Commission. Many are mad at any combination of them. Not many of them want to pay more for TV.
So at BNC 2009-614, the hearing into value for signal (yes, we hear you folks sticking to the “fee-for-carriage” terminology getting…
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