TORONTO – A coalition of some of Canada’s biggest TV service providers have teamed up on a campaign to tell their side of the story on the contentious issue of fee for carriage.
Bell, Bell Aliant, Cogeco, EastLink, Rogers and Telus have joined forces on ‘Stop the TV Tax’ which they say is designed to ensure “that Canadians hear the whole story”.
"Cable and satellite subscribers have united to stop the broadcasters’ costly proposal because it amounts to a tax, pure and simple”, said Rogers vice chair Phil Lind, in a statement. “This tax will hit viewers for stations that have always…
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GATINEAU – The hearing the federal government asked for into fee-for-carriage will happen December 7th, the CRTC announced this morning.
The Commission is considering whether local television stations should be allowed to negotiate compensation from cable and satellite companies for their signals, and the industry’s hearing – BNC 2009-411 – on the matter (and group licensing) will go ahead on November 16th, but the consumer hearing looks to ask more questions.
“We are examining various facets of the Canadian broadcasting system as it adapts to an environment that is rapidly changing,” said Konrad von Finckenstein, chairman of the CRTC. “We are discussing a…
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GATINEAU – The fact that Globalive Wireless has altered its governance structure to mitigate CRTC concerns is just distracting everyone from the fact that its purse strings are tightly held outside of Canada.
And that means it can’t be a Canadian telecom operator, the three Canadian wireless incumbents told the Commission this morning.
During the final day into a hearing that began last week over the proposed structure of Globalive Wireless (which intends to come to market before year-end under the Wind brand name), representatives from Bell Canada, Telus and Rogers each played different verses of the same tune: Globalive…
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EDMONTON – Perhaps recognizing that calling for a boycott of an important supplier is not the best thing for its pay channels, Super Channel has distanced itself from a group calling for consumers to dump Rogers Cable.
In its own press release sent out late Wednesday, Super Channel tried to smooth over some of the relationship issues it has with Rogers Cable that were surely exacerbated Tuesday when a release from “The Friends of Super Channel”, signed former employee Nic Wry, went out calling for the boycott while also calling the big cableco a weasel.
“Although much of the content…
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EDMONTON – Using some of the most inflammatory language we’ve seen in a press release (invoking both a rodent and the seal hunt), supporters of pay TV service Super Channel are calling for people to boycott Rogers Cable.
The must-carry pay channel is currently operating under creditor protection and the Allard-family-owned service recently won a victory at the CRTC, where the Regulator said Rogers wasn’t marketing the new service fairly, as we reported nearly two weeks ago.
Super Channel also has a civil case pending against Rogers.
But the press release, issued Tuesday evening by “The Friends of Super Channel”…
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OTTAWA – The geographical territory served by the 613 area code will get an additional area code starting next spring.
Beginning May 17, 2010, area code 343 will be introduced in eastern Ontario, including the areas of Ottawa, Kingston, Belleville, Brockville, Cornwall and Bancroft.
The CRTC made the decision in response to high demand for new telephone numbers in the area. The 343 code will come into use gradually after May 2010. Until then, numbers with 613 will continue to be issued until they run out.
www.region613.comwww.crtc.gc.ca
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MONTREAL – The new area code 579 will be introduced in the territory served by the 450 code in Quebec beginning next August.
The CRTC made the decision to respond to high demand for new telephone numbers resulting from the growing popularity of communications tools such as wireless services, the Internet and IP telephony among consumers and businesses.
The 579 code will come into use gradually after August 2010, throughout the entire region served by the 450 code. Until then, numbers with 450 will continue to be issued until they run out.
The 450 area code, introduced in June 1998, covers a broad…
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GATINEAU – Thanks to the recent edict from the federal government telling the CRTC it must hold a public hearing into the fee for carriage issue (even though the Regulator has long had a public process in the works), the Commission is now mulling what it’s going to do with two hearings on the exact same issue now scheduled a month apart.
As readers will have followed, the CRTC scheduled a fall hearing (BNC 2009-411) earlier this year to consider group licensing for broadcasters and fee for carriage for local conventional TV stations. While the hearing was amended from…
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THE BIG BROADCASTERS and BDUs fought this, but by September 14th, those companies had to file their aggregate financial data from their 2008 fiscal years with the Commission.
On the weekend, the CRTC posted the figures on its web site and since the industry it currently roiling over the continuing fee-for-carriage debate, we looked at the numbers largely through that prism.
After spending several hours examining a lot of the data, I can tell you the most lucrative place to work is Bell TV – which paid its 1,398 employees an average salary of $90,136 – or CTV, whose average…
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OTTAWA – The Campaign for Competitive Broadband is setting its sites on Canadian consumers in its quest to overturn a CRTC decision that it claims will stifle competition in broadband Internet, Ethernet and other next generation communications services in Canada.
The group has launched the website www.consumersforinternetcompetition.com to educate consumers on the issue, as well as provide them with links to share their opinions with Industry Minister Tony Clement, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, and their local MP.
The business-oriented site www.competitivebroadband.com, which debuted on September 10, has already generated more than 7,000 emails…
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