GATINEAU – Shrinking the authorized contour of an FM station so that buying the station won’t violate the CRTC’s common ownership policies, is no way for a station to be acquired, the Commission ruled on Friday when it denied Jim Pattison Broadcasting’s second request to purchase CIGV FM in Penticton from Great Valleys Radio.
This is the second time Pattison has been turned down in its request to buy this country station with repeaters in Keremeos and Princeton.
The first time, back in February, the Commission said that letting Pattison buy the station (Giant FM) would violate its policies…
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TORONTO – Along with Canwest and CTV, count the CBC as another Canadian broadcaster telling staff that it must cut back on discretionary spending and that new hires will be closely scrutinized.
Of course, it’s nowhere near as bad as at Canwest, which cut 210 positions from its TV division less than two weeks ago, or at CTV, which said last week layoffs are likely coming, but with a $45 million dollar revenue shortfall on the English side of the CBC coupled with the downturn in the economy and a soft ad market, the national public broadcaster has…
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DARTMOUTH, NS – Newcap and Rogers Broadcasting have received CRTC approval to exchange a couple of radio stations, as well as their respective applications to convert the AM radio licences to the FM frequency.
The two companies announced their intended swap earlier this year.
Newcap will exchange its CFDR AM 780 (country) broadcast licence in Halifax, and in turn receive Rogers’ CIGM AM 790 licence (news/sports/country music) in Sudbury plus a cash consideration of $5 million.
Formal closing is expected in the next 60 days while launch of the two FM stations is expected within the next twelve months, according…
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OTTAWA – New Canadian Heritage and Official Languages Minister James Moore didn’t wait long to get his hands dirty.
On the job for less than a month, his ministry today announced the federal government has referred back for reconsideration and re-hearing, the August 26th decisions by the CRTC to award new radio station licenses in the Ottawa-Gatineau region.
The decision, as reported by Cartt.ca, licensed two new English-language commercial FM radio stations to serve the area and some complained that both licenses were going to English-language broadcasters. Under orders from the Minister today, the Commission now has to squeeze…
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TWO OF CANADA’S BIGGEST media conglomerates have announced cuts as fallout from the bursting financial bubble spreads. Last week, Canwest announced it was cutting 560 jobs in its TV and newspaper operations; this week, CTVglobemedia warned of looming layoffs.
The economic crisis makes the announcements seem reasonable and prudent, but the cuts are unfortunately part of a longer trend. Why invest in local programming and reporting when the real money is in newspaper monopolies, cable specialty channels and prime-time simulcasting of American hit shows?
In the midst of the debacle, the CRTC – which approved media mergers as the…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC will make public its decision on whether or not Bell Canada was unfairly capping the bandwidth of third party ISPs.
The Canadian Association of Internet Providers made a formal complaint to the Commission earlier this year saying that Bell’s traffic shaping practices were hindering the speeds being delivered by its members who lease Bell’s network to provide Internet service. CAIP said the big telco was choking – or throttling – the Internet bandwidth its members could offer to customers and that new oversight was required.
Bell says that what it does is simply necessary network traffic management, that no…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – It’ll be hot in Gatineau this July as network neutrality advocates will finally get to face off against the big Canadian ISPs over the corporations’ network traffic management practices.
While the CRTC today announced that it has denied the Canadian Association of Internet Providers’ (CAIP) request that Bell Canada cease the traffic-shaping it has adopted for its wholesale Gateway Access Service (In the future, however, Bell Canada will be required to notify its wholesale customers at least 30 days in advance of making changes that impact on the performance of its Gateway Access Service), the Commission has…
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OTTAWA – Shaw Communications’ DTH company Star Choice must distribute French news channel Le Réseau de l’information (RDI) to all digital subscribers living in Anglophone markets as part of its digital basic service, the CRTC has ruled.
The CBC filed a complaint with the Commission in May, alleging that Star Choice refused to offer RDI as part of its ‘English Essentials’ basic service package in Anglophone markets, despite “repeated efforts” on its part to secure carriage. The CBC argued that this is contrary to objectives in the Commission’s Distribution Order 2007-3, set out as appendix 4 to Broadcasting Decision…
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TORONTO – Saying the global financial situation is “causing sharp decreases in advertising spending and even the potential bankruptcy of some of our single biggest customers,” CTV told employees yesterday that the company is tightening its belt.
A memo from CEO Ivan Fecan announced a country-wide hiring freeze as well as a halt to travel and entertainment spending. “New projects, unspent capital plans will be revised, delayed or halted,” said the memo.
The company hosted a town hall meeting this afternoon to address employee concerns. Layoffs are coming, said Fecan’s memo, but it has yet to be decided where….
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OTTAWA – Bluewater TV Cable must stop providing telephone service to customers in neighbouring Tuckersmith Co-operative’s operating territory, the CRTC has ruled.
After receiving a complaint from independent telco Tuckersmith in September, the Commission investigated allegations that Bluewater was providing local exchange service in Tuckersmith’s Bayfield 565 exchange, using numbers assigned to the neighbouring Bell Canada Clinton 482 exchange, and was not registered as a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) for the area.
Bluewater argued it had not actively marketed its telephone service outside of its authorized CLEC area, but agreed to supply telephone service using its cable television…
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