OTTAWA – The CRTC will hold a public proceeding in November to review its policies for campus and community radio.
Comments are due by September 11, 2009, and the hearing will begin on November 30 in Gatineau.
The Commission said that it will conduct a second proceeding in 2010 to examine its policies for community television. A notice of consultation will be announced some time this Fall.
For more on this broadcasting notice of consultation, click here.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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GATINEAU – According to the Campaign for Democratic Media, the CRTC’s hearing into network traffic management is about nothing less than “who will determine the way we use the Internet,” David Fewer, acting director of CIPPIC told commissioners Thursday morning.
Leaving network management practices up to the discretion of the networks owners can only invite disaster and make Canada “a backwater of online innovation,” he added. “The Canadian Internet is not simply the private property of Canadian ISPs.” (CIPPIC is the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic and a member of the CDM.)
While that may be true…
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GATINEAU – In back-to-back presentations this morning, the CRTC heard from two of Canada’s largest ISPs, Telus and Cogeco Cable, one of which uses no Internet traffic management techniques (yet) and one which uses them all the time.
Each want the same thing, however: to be left alone to manage their networks how they see fit.
Telus, the big western-based telco, uses no traffic management technology right now on either its retail consumers or wholesale business clients, said senior vice-president of regulatory and government affairs Michael Hennessy. But it wants the freedom to be able to deploy them, if needed, in…
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GATINEAU – Altogether now, let’s all agree that the networks upon which our broadband experiences are delivered has to be managed.
We can also all agree that congestion at certain times of the day and during certain events is a problem.
But what there hasn’t been much agreement about yet over the first three days of the CRTC’s network management hearing is just how that congestion can or should be mitigated (Using what tools? Targeting which applications, if any? Under what circumstances? What’s network neutrality mean anyway?)
And as the major ISPs themselves start to face the Commission Friday…
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OTTAWA, ON and GATINEAU, QC – The CRTC has issued the first ‘Notices of Violation’ against two telemarketers caught breaking the National Do Not Call List (DNCL) rules.
The companies were not named in the press release, and the CRTC said that as a general policy, it will not release the names of violators if the fine is paid without being contested. Telemarketers who have been served with a violation notice have 30 days to either pay the fine or contest it before a CRTC panel.
"Canadians who have registered on the National DNCL have noticed a reduction in the…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications says the CRTC has “betrayed Canadians’ trust” with Monday’s announcement of two new taxes on TV consumers.
"It is difficult to believe the CRTC is mandating these tax transfers – money from the pockets of ten million Canadians to three Canadian broadcasters", said president Peter Bissonnette in a statement released Wednesday.
Like its cable brethren Rogers, Shaw has vowed to fight the new fees “aggressively”, noting that broadcasters have not commited to spending more on local programming with the additional funds.
"Our customers are already heavily subsidizing the broadcasters with a CRTC ordered tax of…
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GATINEAU, QC – The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) is calling on the CRTC to “enshrine the principle of net neutrality”, saying that the Internet must be kept “free from interference by big service providers” in order for Canadian culture to succed.
“All Internet users must be treated equally, regardless of what content they are sending or receiving or whether their ISP is a big or small player”, said national executive director Stephen Waddell, in a statement. “Equal, unfettered access to the Internet is fundamental to the future of not only our broadcasting and telecom systems,…
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TORONTO – Thanks to the beefed up local programming improvement fund (LPIF), CTV will keep its ‘A’ Channel in Windsor open for at least for another year.
The broadcaster committed to continuing to operate the station through August 31, 2010, the full license renewal term that all of CTV’s conventional stations have received.
"Today’s announcement about saving Windsor’s only local private television station for one year is a direct result of the CRTC’s one year LPIF enhancement," said Paul Sparkes, EVP of corporate affairs for CTVglobemedia, in the announcement.
CTV also said that it will apply to convert CKNX-TV Wingham…
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OTTAWA and TORONTO – Not surprisingly, Monday’s CRTC’s decisions were praised by industry associations like The Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA) and the the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC).
Noting that all players in the Canadian broadcasting system, including independent producers, have felt the impact of “these trying economic times”, CFTPA president and CEO Norm Bolen commended the CRTC for upholding broadcaster’s Cancon requirements.
“By maintaining current terms and conditions of licence, the CRTC has recognized the importance of Canadian programming and independent production in the Canadian broadcasting system”, Bolen said in a statement. “Any reduction to…
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BELOW ARE A FEW OF what we think are the main talking points we pulled from yesterday’s CRTC releases on the LPIF, individual broadcasters’ one-year license renewals and the public notice on September’s hearing.
• The Regulator is clearly trying to rebrand the fee-for-carriage debate by banishing such language in favour of “value for signal.” The public notice on the hearing contemplates a negotiated new fee between broadcasters and carriers. This looks like a done deal and now it’s just about price. (Ed note: As for that price, TSN made $117 million from BDU subscriber fees in 2008. More…
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