WINNIPEG – Add MTS Allstream to the ranks of BDUs opposing the contentious issue of fee-for-carriage.
The company filed a submission on the issue to the CRTC Wednesday, in preparation for the Commission’s hearing on broadcast issues scheduled for November.
"The solution to the broadcasters’ problems is not to hold Canadians ransom by forcing them to pay for something that is already available free of charge," said CCO Chris Peirce, in a statement. "The fee is simply a reaction to the current financial situation of its main proponents. There is no reason that service providers like MTS Allstream who are investing in innovative…
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GUESS WHAT? Canadians don’t want to pay any extra per month for their television. They also don’t want to lose their local TV stations.
Independent producers think that broadcasters should have to buy lots of shows made by them and those broadcasters would prefer to use those producers a little less, so that they can make (and sell) some of their own dramas.
The creative side of the industry is afraid of the word “flexible” when it comes to the broadcasters’ requests for changes to their Cancon requirements because flexible might mean less Canadian drama and comedies altogether, fewer hours in…
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OTTAWA – MTS Allstream, along with independent ISP Acanac, this week filed a motion with the Federal Court of Appeal seeking leave to appeal, and eventually to overturn, CRTC Telecom Order 2009-484.
The order, entitled “Bell Aliant Regional Communications and Bell Canada – Applications to introduce usage-based billing and other changes to Gateway Access Services,” approved a new charge, usage-based billing, that would be applied to each customer of third party ISPs who lease lines from the incumbents in order to provide Internet service.
The new charge would be applied to any customer whose data usage exceeded a set limit,…
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TORONTO – The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) has a prescription to fix what ails Canada’s broadcasting system – let Canadians see their own dramatic programming in prime time.
"What use are Canadian broadcasters if they only air foreign content?” asked national president Ferne Downey in a press release. “It’s time to end the free ride for broadcasters and big cable and make them earn the money Canadian consumers give them by giving something back.”
Noting that private broadcasters spent $740 million on U.S. and foreign programming versus $54 million on Canadian English-language drama last year, ACTRA…
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TORONTO – CTV, Canwest Global and CBC officially announced late Sunday they have joined together to launch a national campaign, dubbed “Local TV Matters”, aimed at striking back at Canadian BDUs and putting pressure on politicians and the CRTC in advance of the November Commission hearings which will again analyze the challenges facing Canadian broadcasters, including the contentious fee-for-carriage issue.
“Our viewers are telling us that local television is very important to them and to this country,” said Paul Sparkes, CTV’s executive vice-president of corporate affairs, in the group’s official press release. “Canada’s broadcasters are responding to our viewers’ concerns…
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TORONTO – Canadian wireless operators will likely see a three percent decline in their service ARPU for 2009, with data accounting for 20% of wireless service revenue – and all of the growth, says a new report from Toronto’s Convergence Consulting.
Over the last year Canadian wireless voice revenue growth has moved into negative territory, while data growth continues to be robust, thanks to the growing adoption of smartphones/data devices, which the report estimates will reach 23% by year-end 2009 (and break 50% in 2014).
Based on what Convergence projects in terms of new entrants pricing (Wind, Dave, Public Mobile), and…
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TORONTO and MONTREAL – The sale of Look Communications’ spectrum and broadcast licence to Inukshuk Wireless Partnership has cleared its final hurdle after receiving approval from Industry Canada Friday.
Inukshuk, a joint venture between Bell Canada and Rogers Communications, agreed to pay $80 million in cash for Look’s 92 MHz of spectrum and its mobile broadcast license in May.
In keeping with the agreement, Inukshuk has asked Look to support its application to the CRTC for the grant of a licence under the Broadcasting Act.
Look said that it will no longer offer services to subscribers as of November 15, 2009. It…
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TORONTO – The latest regulatory skirmish between an incumbent wireless operator and the new kids with the spectrum is “about fat cats looking to get fatter,” according to Public Mobile’s CEO Alek Krstajic.
In an e-mail to Cartt.ca, the former Rogers and Bell executive lashed out at Rogers Communications request for a review into the ownership of both Public and DAVE Wireless.
Rogers said in a letter to the Regulator that the ownership of both companies may not be sufficiently Canadian, as our regulations require, and that the Commission should analyze them in a public hearing, as Cartt.ca reported first…
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TORONTO – Last week, Rogers Cable customers received an e-mail from their big red TV provider urging them to make their voices heard in its fight against fee-for-carriage.
Or, if you want to buy into the new vernacular, “value for signal.”
Rogers customers are already a little tender about their bills, having just had under a dollar a month added thanks to the recently established Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF), a subsidy for smaller market television stations.
“I am now writing to inform you of yet another broadcasting policy proposal that is under consideration by the CRTC,” reads the e-mail message signed…
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TORONTO – Last week we published a story touting how new wireless company Globalive (to be branded as Wind) wants its primary Canadian banker to remain not only secret, but super-secret, if and when it meets the CRTC.
They would like to bring a representative from the bank in to its September 23rd hearing to tell the Commission how challenging it is for such a start-up to raise the money needed to launch in a competitive wireless marketplace dominated by three huge players, among other financial matters.
(The Regulator, due to concerns voiced by a number of people and companies,…
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