Search Results for: crtc

Cable / Telecom News

UPDATE: Telus exec to pursue politics

OTTAWA – Janet Yale said that it just “seemed like a good time” to make the transition to politics from her 20 plus year career in the cable and telecom industries in Canada. Yale, now on leave as the executive vice-president of corporate affairs for Telus, announced earlier this week that she is seeking the federal Liberal nomination for her home riding of Ottawa-Centre. Well know to Cartt.ca readers through her roles at Telus, the now defunct Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association (CCTA), AT&T Canada and the CRTC, Yale said that her background and experience should prove invaluable as she… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Telus exec to pursue politics

OTTAWA – Telus executive Janet Yale has announced that she is seeking the federal Liberal nomination for the riding of Ottawa-Centre, where she has lived for the last 28 years. Yale, currently the executive vice-president of corporate affairs for Telus, once headed up the now defunct Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association (CCTA).  She has more than 20 years of government and regulatory experience through senior leadership positions at AT&T Canada, the CRTC and the Consumer’s Association of Canada. Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Montreal to get another area code next year

OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The greater Montreal region will have another new area code starting next year. The CRTC announced that new telephone numbers assigned in the 450 region may be given the area code 579 starting in August 2010 in order to help manage the telephone number shortage in the area. 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 Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

CBC applies to amend bold’s licence

OTTAWA – The CBC has formerly applied to amend the broadcast licence of its specialty channel ‘bold’, formerly known as ‘Country Canada’. The pubcaster re-launched its category 1 specialty Country Canada as bold on March 27 2008, after telling the CRTC that the change could be done without amending the nature of service of Country Canada.  But the Commission disagreed, and scheduled a hearing to determine whether the way that CBC re-branded the channel had negatively impacted “the integrity of the licensing process”. The CRTC suspended the hearing after CBC agreed to make a formal application. In Broadcasting Notice… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

UPDATE: Canwest’s Victoria, Red Deer, stations to close; Kelowna to become a Global outlet

WINNIPEG – While CHBC TV Kelowna will live on – rebranded from E! to part of the Global TV network – CHEK-TV Victoria and CHCA-TV Red Deer will be shuttered at the end of business on August 31, 2009, said the stations’ owner Canwest Global Communications. As reported by Cartt.ca, the other two stations in the E! chain CHCH-TV in Hamilton and CJNT-TV in Montreal have been conditionally sold to independent broadcaster Channel Zero. “When we began this process about six months ago to determine if there was any way to keep these local stations on the air in the… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Telephone pole rates to be reviewed

OTTAWA – The CRTC will review the structure service rates charged by some of Canada’s biggest telephone companies. Telus sent an application to the Commission last October asking for it review the rates, terms, and conditions of the support structure service tariffs of the large incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs). The ILECs would like to increase the rates they can charge, currently $9.60 per year, to rent their poles to other customers such as cable companies. Telus’ application noted that the Ontario Energy Board had approved a hydro pole rate of $22.35 per year. Parties other than those identified in Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

UPDATE: Shaw buys Mountain for $300 million

CALGARY – The rumour mill had been spinning wildly over the past couple of days in Hamilton about the impending sale of Mountain Cablevision, but the buyer, announced this morning to be Shaw Communications, is a bit of a surprise. Based in Hamilton, Ontario Mountain has approximately 41,000 cable customers and has been very successful adding services, too, with 28,000 Internet subscribers and 27,000 telephone customers. The purchase price was not announced, but a cable company in the lucrative southern Ontario market with this many revenue generating units, expect the price to be north of about $300 million, sources have told… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Shaw drops four channels

CALGARY – This week, Shaw Communications removed four channels, BBC Kids, Court TV Canada, Discovery Kids and TV Land Canada from the channel lineups on Shaw Digital Cable and satellite service Shaw Direct (formerly Star Choice). CTVglobemedia owns TV Land Canada and Court TV and while TV Land was carried only by Shaw Direct, Court TV was carried on cable and satellite. Canwest-owned BBC Kids was carried by cable and satellite, too, and Corus Entertainment’s Discovery Kids was just available on Shaw Direct. All three programmers confirmed that the channels have either already been removed, or are about to be. Each are… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

CTV sells CKX-TV Brandon station to Bluepoint Investments for $1

TORONTO – CTV has sold CKX-TV Brandon to Canadian investment firm Bluepoint Investment Corporation for one dollar. Bluepoint assumes all of CKX-TV’s broadcast assets, liabilities and commitments with the purchase, including the station’s 39 employees, the announcement read. "This is good news for the employees that work at CKX-TV Brandon and the surrounding communities who depend everyday on the local programming that the station provides," said Paul Sparkes, CTVglobemedia’s EVP of corporate affairs, in the announcement. "Being an independent operator, Bluepoint will be able to access the Small Market Local Programming Fund. This is something that neither CTV nor Canwest have… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

The Cartt.ca Interview: CCSA wants wireless but no FFC, says president and CEO Alyson Townsend

ABOUT A WEEK before the next Commission’s September 29th inquiry into the state of the broadcast industry, whomever the regulator dares send to the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance annual gathering will be sure to get an earful. The members of the CCSA are Canada’s smaller, but fiercely independent, cable operators and when they meet on September 20-22 for Connect 2009 at the White Oaks Resort in Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ont., you can bet any thought of paying a fee for carriage to conventional broadcasters won’t be warmly received, to say the least. The group has worked hard to earn a small systems exemption… Continue Reading