QUEBEC CITY – The Quebec City market has enough listeners and advertisers to support two more private radio stations, the CRTC was told on Tuesday by Evanov Communications Inc., one of three broadcasters applying for four radio licenses in the provincial capital.
The city is bucking a national trend because its economic outlook is “bright,” the company told commissioners at a hearing in Quebec City. The city’s GDP will grow by an expected 2.7% in 2010, retail sales this year will increase by a forecast 5%, and unemployment is expected to stabilize from this year onwards. The CRTC’s recently…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has suspended its public hearing into CBC’s re-branding of its specialty channel ‘Country Canada’ to ‘bold’, after the public broadcaster acknowledged that bold’s programming may, in fact, be inconsistent with its nature of service condition of licence.
The hearing, scheduled for June 2, was to determine whether the way that CBC re-branded the channel had negatively impacted “the integrity of the licensing process”. CBC re-launched its category 1 specialty Country Canada as bold on March 27 2008, after telling the Commission that the change could be done without amending the nature of service of Country…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has taken the unusual step of offering to step in to help resolve a carriage dispute between Rogers Sportsnet and the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (CCSA).
The CCSA asked for the Commission’s assistance on February 26, 2009 to help resolve the year-old commercial dispute through either final offer arbitration or an expedited hearing.
At issue is the distribution of Rogers Sportsnet (RSI), the national, English-language specialty channel focused on regional sports programming, by the CCSA’s 98 small- and medium-sized independent cable companies. The network is packaged and distributed across Canada on four distinct regional feeds, as well as…
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Don’t miss your chance to register for the 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit, only a few weeks away.
Held June 15 – 17 in Toronto, the event promises to cover all segments of the Canadian telecommunications and IT industries, and bring together leaders from all constituencies – service providers, manufacturers, applications providers, policy makers and regulators.
Some of the confirmed participants to date are Mike Lazaridis, president and co-CEO of Research In Motion, Nadir Mohamed, president and CEO of Rogers Communications, CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein, and Richard Stursberg, executive vice president of English Services for CBC.
Sessions include social networking; new…
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OTTAWA – A coalition of consumer groups and independent telecos is appealing the CRTC decision on whether or not Bell Canada unfairly capped the bandwidth of third party Internet service providers (ISPs), a practice known as ‘throttling’.
The group says they believe that there is “substantial doubt as to the correctness” of Telecom Decision CRTC 2008-108, as a result of a “multitude of distinct errors of fact and law” committed by the CRTC.
In the decision issued last November, the Commission denied the Part VII application by the Canadian Association of Internet Providers requesting that the CRTC order…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) has found that parts of Radio-Canada’s controversial New Year’s Eve special ‘Bye Bye 2008’ violated the public broadcaster’s codes, regulations and conditions of license.
Radio-Canada and the CRTC received a flood of complaints from viewers about the satirical variety show, so much so that the CRTC, who usually handles complaints regarding the public broadcaster, asked the CBSC to examine the broadcast due to its “considerable experience with complaints about broadcast content” and “its well-recognized panel process” before making its own decision on the complaints
The CBSC’s Quebec regional panel examined the…
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TORONTO – Rogers, Bell, Telus, Cogeco, Eastlink and the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (CCSA) have banded together to file a complaint with the CRTC alleging that CTV has violated the Broadcasting Act by airing a “one-sided and unbalanced coverage” of its own advocacy campaign.
As reported by Cartt.ca, CTV has been promoting its ‘Save Local TV’ campaign across its television properties in an apparent attempt to pressure the government and the CRTC for fee-for-carriage. But incorporating the campaign into their local newscasts violates the Broadcasting Act and the Canadian Association of Broadcasters own Code of Ethics, say the group of BDUs.
"While we…
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TORONTO – CTV has, predictably, refuted the allegations made by Rogers and other BDUs regarding its ‘Save Local TV’ public advocacy campaign.
In a statement sent late on Friday afternoon, the network said it has remained in “full compliance” with both the Broadcasting Act and the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Code of Ethics, and called the complaint by the BDUs an “underhanded move by cable and satellite companies” and “an abuse of process designed to suppress freedom of speech and mislead the public”.
"The fact that the first we’re hearing about this is through a Rogers’ press release and still…
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ONE OF THE FORMER rules of thumb when it comes to opinionating was: Never Use “I”.
Saying “I think” or “I believe” in a column is redundant and lazy. To paraphrase what more than one editor has said in my presence over the years: “Readers already know it’s what you think, your name’s at the top of the piece. Be more creative in how you write.”
So, with apologies to all of my former bosses, I must say: I have a headache. I’ve grown just a little weary of thinking about the so-called crisis in conventional television. And judging…
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OTTAWA – The Community Radio Fund of Canada (CRFC) has chosen its first group of funding recipients through its radio talent development program and youth internship program launched earlier this year.
The recipients of the radio talent development program are:
– CFAD 92.1 FM, Salmo BC: “Salmo Community Radio Local News/Public Affairs Forum” $4,700 – CFUV 101.9 FM, Victoria BC: “Women’s Collective Coordinator – Summer Position” $2,970 – CHLS 100.5 FM, Lillooet BC: “Radio Legends” $9,750 – CHOQ 105.1 FM, Toronto ON: “Dossiers Choq” $7,350 – CIVR 103.5 FM, Yellowknife NT: “Recueillir et diffuser l’information locale, territorial” $10,000 -…
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