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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OTTAWA – The CRTC is calling for comments on a proposed change to the distribution of small market independent TV stations by Canada’s direct-to-home (DTH) providers.
The Commission announced last year that DTH licensees will be required to distribute at least one independently-owned local television station from each province where such stations have been licensed.
Once finalized, this requirement will be set out in the new broadcasting distribution regulations which come into force on August 31, 2011, replacing the current obligation to distribute 13 small-market independently-owned stations.
The CRTC had originally planned to address this issue…
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OTTAWA – Shaw Direct must either reinstate CBC Regina to its channel lineup, or drop a CTV station in order to comply with its conditions of licence, the CRTC ruled Friday.
The Commission denied a request by Star Choice Television Network Inc., made on behalf its DTH service now called Shaw Direct, to amend its licence relating to the distribution of CBC English-language conventional TV stations.
Its application followed a complaint from the CBC where it accused Shaw Direct (then Star Choice) of breaching its condition of licence number six after its removal of five conventional television stations, including CBC Regina.
In…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has denied a request by Rogers Broadcasting to amend the broadcasting licence for the Outdoor Life Network (OLN).
Rogers had proposed to add categories to the list of program categories that may be broadcast by the service. Specifically, it asked to increase the percentage of programming that may be broadcast from category 7 drama and comedy from 5% to 25%, to remove requirements that programming drawn from that category be Canadian, and that programming drawn from category 6(a) professional sports not include stick and/or ball sports.
In its decision, the Commission expressed concern that the proposed amendments…
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OTTAWA – Men TV has received CRTC approval to amend its broadcasting licence so as to draw programming from the categories of sports and music videos.
The Cat 1 specialty service, a joint-venture between Quebecor’s TVA Group and Canwest Media, had also asked to expand its options in the drama and comedy category, but that request was denied by the Commission.
Click here to read the full decision.
www.crtc.gc.cawww.mentv.ca
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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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GATINEAU – While a CRTC hearing into the levels of foreign ownership in new wireless entrant Globalive is set to begin on the 23rd of this month, Rogers Communications this week sent a letter to the Regulator asking for the same treatment of two other newcomers, Public Mobile and Dave Wireless.
“Since the 2008 AWS auction, many questions have arisen regarding the ownership and control of several of the successful bidders,” reads the Rogers letter to CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein. “Many of the auction’s participants included foreign partners in order to raise the necessary capital. These concerns were directed…
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OTTAWA – An Internet based initiative launched today called ‘Campaign for Competitive Broadband’ is hoping to overturn a CRTC decision that campaign organizers say will stifle competition in broadband Internet, Ethernet and other next generation communications services in Canada.
Spearheaded by MTS Allstream, the campaign’s goal is “to ensure that network facilities built with the benefit of a historic monopoly and guaranteed rate of return, are accessible to a wide range of competitors who want to offer choice in services to businesses and consumers,” the press release reads.
Bell and Telus, which control these networks in most parts of the…
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