GATINEAU – One option for getting over-the-air television to every Canadian when the transition to digital happens come August 31, 2011, appears now to be off the table.
Both Shaw Direct (formerly Star Choice) and Bell TV (formerly ExpressVu) have told the CRTC that since the Regulator insists on pushing ahead with distant OTA signal charges and increasing the Local Programming Improvement Fund, they no longer have any interest in offering up their satellite platforms to help small market local broadcasters serve everyone in their contours once the transition to digital happens in 2011.
Since Bell has twice presented this “Freesat”…
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GATINEAU – After receiving clarification from the CRTC, Bell TV is willing to put its satellite platform FreeSat back on the table as a possible solution to transitioning smaller over-the-air television stations to digital by August 31, 2011. Bell made the about-face after the CRTC told it that it would not necessarily be excluding FreeSat contributions in determining the market value of over-the-air TV signals.
In a July 21 letter to the CRTC, Bell TV noted “implementation of the proposal would remain dependent on acceptable outcomes in the local/distant signal negotiations and the LPIF.
Further details will…
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GATINEAU – The size of the 2008 Canadian Cartt market (cable, radio, television, telecom, that is) was $54 billion in 2008 according to the CRTC’s Communications Monitoring Report, released this afternoon.
Most Canadians have access to all of these services in one way or another and we spend a ton of time online, on the phone, in front of our TVs and listening to the radio.
We spend scads of dough on subscriptions and companies wanting our attention (advertisers) spend billions too. For the entire 299-page report, click here.
Or wait a bit and surf back to Cartt.ca later after we’ve…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has officially asked the Federal Court of Appeal to decide whether ISPs are the same as broadcasters.
As Cartt.ca readers know, the Commission released its highly anticipated new media report in early June, but said that it would ask the court to clarify the status of ISPs, and whether the Broadcasting Act should apply to them when they provide access to broadcasting through the Internet.
Click here to read more from the CRTC’s broadcasting order.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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OTTAWA – Janet Yale said that it just “seemed like a good time” to make the transition to politics from her 20 plus year career in the cable and telecom industries in Canada.
Yale, now on leave as the executive vice-president of corporate affairs for Telus, announced earlier this week that she is seeking the federal Liberal nomination for her home riding of Ottawa-Centre.
Well know to Cartt.ca readers through her roles at Telus, the now defunct Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association (CCTA), AT&T Canada and the CRTC, Yale said that her background and experience should prove invaluable as she…
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OTTAWA – Telus executive Janet Yale has announced that she is seeking the federal Liberal nomination for the riding of Ottawa-Centre, where she has lived for the last 28 years.
Yale, currently the executive vice-president of corporate affairs for Telus, once headed up the now defunct Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association (CCTA). She has more than 20 years of government and regulatory experience through senior leadership positions at AT&T Canada, the CRTC and the Consumer’s Association of Canada.
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The greater Montreal region will have another new area code starting next year.
The CRTC announced that new telephone numbers assigned in the 450 region may be given the area code 579 starting in August 2010 in order to help manage the telephone number shortage in the area.
The Canadian Numbering Administrator told the CRTC last year that area code 450, which is adjacent to the 514 region, is expected to run out of telephone numbers by February 2011.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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OTTAWA and TORONTO – For a guy whose new company is about to jump into the competitive world of mobile communications – but only after it has been scrutinized in a very public review by the CRTC – Globalive Holdings chair and CEO Anthony Lacavera seems pretty relaxed.
Calling the upcoming review of Globalive’s ownership and control “fairly standard procedure”, Lacavera told Cartt.ca that his only moment of concern came when he read that the CRTC could take up to 120 days after the close of the hearing in September to render a decision, which could have pushed back his launch…
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OTTAWA – The CBC has formerly applied to amend the broadcast licence of its specialty channel ‘bold’, formerly known as ‘Country Canada’.
The pubcaster re-launched its category 1 specialty Country Canada as bold on March 27 2008, after telling the CRTC that the change could be done without amending the nature of service of Country Canada. But the Commission disagreed, and scheduled a hearing to determine whether the way that CBC re-branded the channel had negatively impacted “the integrity of the licensing process”. The CRTC suspended the hearing after CBC agreed to make a formal application.
In Broadcasting Notice…
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WINNIPEG – While CHBC TV Kelowna will live on – rebranded from E! to part of the Global TV network – CHEK-TV Victoria and CHCA-TV Red Deer will be shuttered at the end of business on August 31, 2009, said the stations’ owner Canwest Global Communications.
As reported by Cartt.ca, the other two stations in the E! chain CHCH-TV in Hamilton and CJNT-TV in Montreal have been conditionally sold to independent broadcaster Channel Zero.
“When we began this process about six months ago to determine if there was any way to keep these local stations on the air in the…
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