WINNIPEG – Canwest Global Communications said that the CRTC’s preliminary determinations relating to its 2009 conventional television licence renewal announced last week “represent a significant positive step forward for local television”.
The CRTC set an agenda and timetable for discussing issues facing local television stations, including potential solutions that provide on-going revenue support, last Friday.
“This decision demonstrates that the CRTC understands the serious issues facing local television in this country and recognizes the need to provide access to the same revenue streams afforded other broadcasters,” said Canwest president and CEO Leonard Asper, in a statement. “We are encouraged that…
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GATINEAU – Canadian convention broadcasters have had their licenses renewed for a year, won’t face a one-to-one foreign-Canadian programming spend requirement – and will have a LOT of regulatory work to do in the next 12 months,
As first reported by Cartt.ca this week, the CRTC announced its preliminary decisions on a few matters from the public hearing to renew the licences of most of Canada’s private conventional television broadcasters.
“We are making our initial determinations public to provide a measure of guidance to conventional broadcasters as they prepare for the upcoming broadcast year and embark on program purchases,”…
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TORONTO – ACTRA said that its “pleased” and “optimistic” by the CRTC’s announcement that it will consider reinstating programming expenditures for Canadian programming this Fall.
But the actors union also expressed disappointment that the broadcasting regulator “passed on the opportunity to put the brakes on private broadcasters’ Hollywood spending sprees” in the short-term.
“We’re relieved that the CRTC is putting minimum expenditures for Canadian programming back on the table this Fall,” said national president Richard Hardacre, in a statement. “We’ve been calling on the CRTC to force private broadcasters to invest in Canadian programming since expenditure requirements were…
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TORONTO and MONTREAL – The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has approved the sale of Look Communications’ spectrum and broadcast licence to Bell Canada and Rogers Communications, through their joint venture Inukshuk Wireless Partnership.
Under the agreement, Inukshuk will pay Look $80 million in cash for its 92 MHz of spectrum, which is equivalent to coverage of approximately 1.8 billion MHz/Pops, and its mobile broadcast license which has been renewed by the CRTC through August 2011.
As part of the agreement, Look and Bell Canada have also resolved all outstanding litigation, and Look’s parent company Unique Broadband Systems settled its…
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OTTAWA – CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein is pushing CTVglobemedia and the CBC to reach an agreement allowing the CBC to broadcast the 2010 Olympics on its French-language television service.
During an address to the Standing Committee on Official Languages in Ottawa on Tuesday, von Finckenstein said that while the CTV/Rogers Olympic broadcast media consortium intends to make French broadcasters TQS, RDS and RIS available free of charge to cable companies offering digital TV in markets with an English-speaking majority, this will still leave some francophones who rely on over-the-air television signals, or who subscribe to analog cable, without…
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OTTAWA – After Canada’s major English-language performers’ union and a community TV association testified before the Heritage Standing Committee about Canadian TV content rules, a specialty broadcaster raised concerns about getting carriage for the content once it’s made.
Wednesday’s testimony will help form part of the committee’s study on the evolution of the television industry in Canada and its impact on local communities, which launched March 25 and will conclude next week with a return visit by CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein.
Actors union ACTRA led off by reiterating many of the points it raised during its appearance on…
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TORONTO – When we talked to David Purdy about two weeks ago, Rogers still hadn’t quite settled on a brand name for the broadband video portal it will launch this year.
It probably won’t be called the “Purdy Portal” as CRTC commissioners dubbed it back in March during the Regulator’s New Media Hearing. We’re betting the name of the company founder will be in there somewhere, but the impromptu working title is an apt one for now since Purdy, RCI’s vice-president of video product management (yes, he’s in charge of video distribution across all platforms), has been the…
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OTTAWA – Canadian television programming can be, and is, profitable for Canadian broadcast groups, says a study by consulting firm Nordicity Group.
The report, which was widely referenced at the CRTC’s licence renewal hearings for conventional broadcasters, found that large corporate broadcast groups that own conventional and specialty TV channels are “well-positioned” to generate positive financial returns from Canadian programming, primarily through repeating the programming multiple times across their various platforms.
The study was commissioned jointly by ACTRA, the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA), the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC), and the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC)….
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OTTAWA and GATINEAU – The greater Montreal region will get a new area code next year.
The CRTC said that starting in October 2010, new telephone numbers assigned in the 450 region may be given area code 438. In 2003, area code 438 was introduced to deal with the shortage of telephone numbers in the region served by area code 514.
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 – The CRTC has asked for comments regarding the addition of Middle East-based news and current affairs channel Al Jazeera English (AJE) to the lists of eligible satellite services for distribution in Canada.
The Commission received a request on February 27 from Ethnic Channels Group Limited (ECGL) to add AJE to the lists of eligible satellite services for distribution on a digital basis.
In Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2009-254, the Commission asked that parties wishing that AJE not be authorized for distribution in Canada should provide detailed support for their position before June 8, 2009.
www.crtc.gc.ca…
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