GATINEAU – The CRTC will make public its recommendations for the future of the Canadian Television Fund at 2 p.m. today.
It’s a story Cartt.ca has been following closely for about 18 months and the release should be a sensation at the Banff World TV Fest beginning this weekend in the Alberta town (Cartt.ca will be there, of course, covering that gathering).
In December of 2006, cable companies Shaw Communications and Quebecor Media decided to withhold their contributions to the fund, citing numerous issues the companies had with the fund, from its corporate governance to the types of programming being…
Continue Reading
QUEBEC CITY – Just in case their scepticism towards Remstar’s plan to save Quebec’s sinking TQS network wasn’t clear enough after a third day of public hearings, the CRTC has spelled it out and given the company a final chance to make its case for a broadcast licence.
After wrapping up its hearings Wednesday, the Commission sent a list of issues it wants addressed in the next week, and asked Remstar to submit a “new programming proposition” that includes Category 1 regional or local news programming, “in a format of its own choosing,” said the CRTC.
But it added…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – One of Aesop’s centuries-old fables is a good way to summarize Canadian broadcasters and their desire for a new fee-for-carriage, according to the vice-president and general manager of television services at Rogers Communications.
David Purdy was responding to a Cartt.ca story earlier this week quoting CTVglobemedia executive vice-president Paul Sparkes, who, in response to a recent speech made by RCI vice-chairman Phil Lind, said Canadian cable companies are desperate fear-mongers when it comes to the possibility the CRTC might adopt a fee-for-carriage model for local conventional broadcasters.
The issue was front and centre during April’s hearing into the policies governing…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC said today that while many things should change about the Canadian Television Fund, Shaw Communications and Quebecor Media should not be able to opt out of paying into it.
As reported today by Cartt.ca, The Commission today submitted its report on the CTF to the Minister of Canadian Heritage. It contains 11 recommendations relating to the CTF’s mandate and governance structure. (Click here to follow the links to the full background of this story.)
“It is our hope that the recommendations we have put forward will assist in resolving the issues surrounding the CTF,” said…
Continue Reading
QUEBEC CITY – Since Friday night, when Quebec’s floundering broadcast station TQS began stripping its news operations, the TV network has been ignoring its obligation to produce a certain number of hours of news programming, as set out in its CRTC licence.
That doesn’t sit well with CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein.
“We have a lot of problems with your application,” von Finckenstein said Monday at the opening of hearings in Montreal into TQS’s pitch for a new licence containing no news programming obligation at all. “You’re asking us to make an exception, one that would be in violation…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Another recent attack on the fee-for-carriage issue by Rogers Communications shows carriers are desperate and have resorted to fear-mongering, said CTVglobemedia executive vice-president Paul Sparkes.
Last week, Rogers vice-chairman Phil Lind used an appearance at a Toronto conference to again urge the CRTC to dismiss broadcasters’ requests for a new fee for carriage of their over-the-air TV stations, calling any such new fee, if the Commission goes that way, to be dismissed as a new tax.
“Rogers is fear mongering,” said Sparkes. “We are seeing the politics of desperation here, and rather obvious and transparent attempts to…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – On Friday, the CRTC announced it had reviewed and varied its December 2007 decision granting conditional approval to the consumer agency known as the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services.
Some industry members filed, in February 2008, applications requesting modifications to the decision and after reviewing the applications and related submissions, the Commission has decided to maintain the agency’s membership requirements for a period of only three years.
At that time, the Commission will review the need for these mandatory requirements. No extension of the mandatory requirements can take place without a new Commission decision. Membership is…
Continue Reading
DARTMOUTH, NS – Newcap said today it has received approval from the CRTC for the purchase of CTVglobemedia’s 50% interest in Metro Radio Group Inc. for $8.5 million.
Metro Radio Group Inc. operates CKUL-FM (Kool 96.5) in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This transaction is expected to close within 60 days and will give Newcap 100% of the company.
www.ncc.ca
Continue Reading
TORONTO – At a media conference today in Toronto, Rogers Communications vice-chairman Phil Lind will go on the attack once again against the conventional broadcasters’ goal of gaining a fee for carriage – and against his fear the CRTC might create such a fee and tie it to the production of local news.
Rogers, the recent buyers of the Citytv network and owners of the OMNI group of conventional stations, has asked for no such fee and fears the Commission may be thinking about poking its nose too deeply into the inner workings of the industry.
“Canada’s broadcast regulator,…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Rogers Media Television announced Wednesday that effective immediately Rogers TV Sales will be managing and selling national advertising for Channel m in Vancouver.
Rogers’ Television received CRTC approval to acquire the Vancouver-based over-the-air ethnic channel at the end of March.
“We are pleased to bring forward more opportunities for advertisers to reach multilingual audiences in western Canada,” said Mitch Dent, executive vice-president of Sales at Rogers Media Television.
It was also announced that Rogers TV Sales would no longer be managing advertising sales for OMNI Vancouver (CHNU) and OMNI Manitoba (CIIT) following the purchase of these…
Continue Reading
