OTTAWA – There will be no new fee for the carriage of broadcast signals in Canada. But a new levy is being imposed to help boost local programming.
No fee, but a new fee * One of the first items in the press release announcing the new policies governing broadcast distribution undertakings and specialty services (and the over-the-air fee-for-carriage issue) was the Commission’s desire to boost local programming. “The desire for better local programming in Canada’s smaller markets was clearly made evident during this proceeding,” CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein said in the Commission release today. “We have taken…
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SO WILL WE SEE fee-for-carriage, or not?
A blizzard of issues were discussed, argued and dissected in the over half-a-million words spoken (seriously, we counted…) six months ago in Gatineau during the CRTC’s hearing into the policies governing broadcast distribution undertakings and specialty & pay TV channels.
But the most buzz-worthy question during the 12 hearing days was one that wasn’t fully related to either. It was the question of whether subscription fees will have to be paid to conventional over-the-air broadcasters by those BDUs (cable, satellite and telco TV).
Of course, we’ll have to wait until 4 p.m….
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GATINEAU – The CRTC has re-opened – and gone to the Federal Court of Appeal for a ruling about – a decision it made back in November 2006 on levies paid to it by Canadian telecom companies.
Back in 2006, telcos Bell Canada and Aliant applied to the CRTC to have the fees they pay to the CRTC reduced or reconsidered, given changes in the overall telecom marketplace and rules they feel should apply to Commission levies.
In a public notice issued October 15th, the Commission said “that it appears that: (a) it failed to consider a basic principle…
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TORONTO – A mini new media hearing took place yesterday at the St. Andrew’s Club and Conference Centre as delegates at Insight Information’s Entertainment Industries Summit practiced advocating their positions in preparation for the real thing when the CRTC’s new media hearing begins in February 2009.
Stakeholders from the arts community predictably called for cultural protections and funding mechanisms in any new media broadcasting legislation, while broadcasters – equally predictably – advocated an industrial strategy for new media that is separate from any arts strategy discussion.
What all delegates seemed to agree on is that a review of new…
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TORONTO – The advantage of Bill C-61 dying on the floor of the House of Commons last month for the election is it provides another opportunity for the federal government to get Canadian copyright reform right this time. That was the opinion expressed during a panel discussion at Insight Information’s third annual Entertainment Industries Summit, held in Toronto on Wednesday.
Casey Chisick, partner at Cassels Brock in Toronto, said the “never-ending story” of Canadian copyright reform has seen two major attempts at bringing forward new legislation since 2001. In both cases, the bill in question (Bill C-60 introduced by…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC said Tuesday it will publicly disclose the aggregate financial data of large broadcast distribution undertakings (cable and satellite companies) and large conventional television and radio broadcasters.
“Although it was set out in Broadcasting Public Notice 2008-6 as its preliminary view, the Commission is now convinced, based on the comments received at the proceedings on the Diversity of Voices and the BDU regulatory frameworks, that the public disclosure of the aggregate financial data of both large BDUs and/or MSOs and large OTA television and radio broadcasters by ownership group would serve the public interest and would…
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AS LONG AS BROADCASTERS continue to get 98% of their revenue from the tried-and-true way of doing things – selling ads on TV in and around popular TV shows – it’s very hard for them to think about brand new trends and inserting them into the business model.
But getting them to think that way and move down that road will be Jeremy Gutsche’s job when he gives his keynote address during the Canadian Association of Broadcasters annual convention in Ottawa on November 4.
An “innovation expert” Gutsche launched Trendhunter Magazine in 2005 and it has rapidly emerged…
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MONTREAL – With a CRTC decision on Bell Canada’s network management practices due out soon, and a new public proceeding on new media under way at the Commission, Montreal telecom and technology consultancy Seaboard Group wants the romance and rhetoric to cool.
In a new paper dubbed, “It’s Just a Tool. Reason, Not Romance: A Better Internet in the Balance”, Seaboard Group says net neutrality advocates (who believe all data should be treated equally, no matter what) “romanticize the Internet, bringing in emotional and even sensationalist rhetoric to their portrayal of its history and future. Treating the Internet as…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC today denied a request by Shaw Communications to add American cable specialty The Sportsman Channel to the eligible satellite list.
Shaw made the request back in January and the Commission denied it today, siding with those who intervened (WildTV, World Fishing Network, CTVglobemedia, CFTPA, the CAB) saying The Sportsman Channel’s programming overlapped far too much with Wild and WFN. Canadian channels are generally protected from the entry of foreign channels in their genres thanks to CRTC policy promoting Canadian broadcasting.
(Ed note: With 10 days to the delivery of the new BDU and specialty regulations…
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THUNDER BAY, Ont. – Municipally-owned telco Thunder Bay Telecom was granted cable TV and video on demand licenses by the CRTC today.
The small telco becomes the latest in a line of traditional Canadian telephone companies, large or small, to be granted such a license.
While it’s not known when the new service will launch, TBayTel will go up against incumbent MSO Shaw Communications in its northwestern Ontario properties, which include Thunder Bay and the surrounding area, as well as some other smaller communities.
www.crtc.gc.ca www.tbaytel.net
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