TORONTO – The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) has thrown its support behind the broadcasters’ demands for fee-for-carriage, but only if they promise to put that money back into Canadian programming.
The group said that with “record high profits, cable companies can and should contribute more to Canadian broadcasting”, but should not be allowed to “pass the buck” to consumers.
“Private broadcasters and cable companies have been getting a free ride for too long, and consumers and audiences already aren’t getting what they’ve been paying for through their cable fees and taxes”, said national president Ferne Downey, in a…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – A portion of the subscriber fees paid by BDUs to specialty TV channels must be diverted to private broadcasters if conventional television is to survive, according to Quebecor Media.
In a statement on Wednesday morning prior to its appearance at the CRTC hearings, Quebecor proposed that two conditions should be attached to the payments: the fees paid by BDUs to private television stations, networks, specialty channels and pay TV services should be negotiated on a free market basis, and, the changes in fees must have no impact on the prices paid by consumers.
"I don’t see anything outrageous in…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – We could have a story here about the CBC’s plea for a skinny basic.
We could have re-analyzed its re-demands for new revenue in the form of a wholesale fee and how forcefully its executives argued it needs one, despite how detractors point out it already gets a billion dollars from taxpayers and as a public broadcaster an increase from that stream seems more appropriate.
We could have expended more words on Bell’s SD Freesat proposal and how the company re-iterated it will resist new fees to local broadcasters no matter what right to negotiate might be enshrined in…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein pronounced himself “frustrated” with the months-long public battle between broadcasters and BDUs heading into this morning’s Commission hearing into the future of over-the-air TV.
The public battle lines drawn have the broadcasters in one camp demanding a fee and cable/DTH in the other saying if the broadcasters gain the right to demand one, they’ll fight such a decision and if one does come to pass, the consumer will have to pay much more.
After watching months of back and forth in print, on TV and online, von Finckenstein said he was “frustrated…
Continue Reading
INDUSTRY CANADA will overturn the CRTC’s ruling against Globalive, allowing the nascent wireless entrant to begin operations later this year, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The story quotes Orascom Telecom chair Naguib Sawiris at a media conference Tuesday in Cairo as saying that he believes “the ruling will be overruled”.
As reported by Cartt.ca, Industry Minister Tony Clement has asked incumbent telcos and others involved in Globalive’s review process to submit additional information as he reviews the CRTC’s decision to prevent it from entering the Canadian marketplace on the basis that is not Canadian-owned and controlled.
Click here for the full…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – Rogers Cable customers will see some additional interactivity coming to their digital set top boxes in 2010 in the form of multimedia content format Enhanced TV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF).
On Monday in front of the CRTC when talking about new technology with commissioners, Rogers Communications’ vice-president of video product management David Purdy noted the cable company will roll out EBIF applications by mid 2010.
EBIF-driven applications work on any generation of set top boxes and will let Rogers, as well as broadcasters if they choose, enable “real time interactive applications in 30-second commercials in linear broadcasting,” noted Purdy.
So,…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – After listening to nearly all the words spoken by CTV and Rogers executives and the nine-member CRTC panel (taking over 6,000 words worth of notes and sending out an embarrassing number of tweets in the process), here’s what caught our ear loudest on day one of BNC 2009-411.
Besides the CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein’s wish that he could lock CTV and Rogers in a room and not let them out until you have a deal, that is…
• We now have three terms and their subsequent acronyms to describe what this fight is about: Fee-for-carriage (FFC),…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein pronounced himself “frustrated” with the months-long public battle between broadcasters and BDUs heading into this morning’s Commission hearing into the future of over-the-air TV.
The public battle lines drawn have the broadcasters in one camp demanding a fee and cable/DTH in the other saying if one is imposed, the consumer will have to pay more.
After seeing months of back and forth in print, on TV and online, von Finckenstein said he was “frustrated with this confrontational relationship.”
Could you not throw all into the mix – sit down and work out the relationship, what…
Continue Reading
IF YOU JUDGED BY the various ad campaigns, Facebook pages and Twitter streams, you’d be thinking that the hearing beginning today in Gatineau is only about whether or not conventional broadcasters should get a fee for their signal.
Well, granting the broadcasters the right to negotiate a fee for carriage of their local TV signals is a foregone conclusion. I’m convinced this will happen. The term “negotiation for value” – which has begun to replace “fee-for-carriage” in the industry lexicon – was coined by CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein himself earlier this year and while I’m not necessarily opposed to…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – We choked a little on our coffee when we read the co-signers, but a letter to Industry Minister Tony Clement – to be printed Monday in an ad in the Hill Times newspaper – urges him to respect the Telecom Act as he reviews the CRTC’s decision on Globalive’s lack of Canadian ownership.
Signed by western competitors Telus and Shaw Communications, along with the Canadian Film and Television Producers Association (which often doesn’t see eye-to-eye with carriers) and wireless newbie Public Mobile, the letter reinforces to the Minister that the CRTC was and is right to tell Globalive…
Continue Reading
