OTTAWA – The Canadian Association of Broadcasters on Friday filed an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada its payment of Part II licence fees.
The CAB disputes the Federal Court of Appeal decision that overturned a Federal Court Trial Division ruling on the fees.
In December 2006, the Federal Court Trial Division ruled that the CRTC Part II fees collected by the federal government from broadcasters and broadcast distributors were an illegal tax. The government appealed that decision to the Federal Court of Appeal, which found the fees to be a valid regulatory charge and…
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MONTREAL – Other conventional TV networks such as Canwest Global or TVA could cry poor in the future to garner regulatory flexibility around their newscasts, according to media and communications analyst Carl Bayard at Genuity Capital Markets
“You can bet they are sharpening their pencils right now as a result of this decision,” Bayard stated in a Morning Insight briefing from Genuity Capital to clients.
He added, “The Commission seems to want to avoid, at any price, the bankruptcy of an over-the-air broadcaster in Quebec. But the price to pay in order to save a chronic loss-making station comes…
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OTTAWA – Suzanne Lamarre, Steve Simpson and Louise Poirier have been appointed to five-year terms as new full-time CRTC commissioners.
Lamarre will represent the Quebec region, Simpson will represent the British Columbia and Yukon region, and Poirier is the new National Capital Region Commissioner.
Poirier begins her five-year term on August 11, while Lamarre starts at the CRTC on June 30.
Since 2006, Lamarre has been senior advisor to CBC/Radio-Canada in Montreal in the sector of national and international strategy, planning, and regulation. She has represented the CBC in front of national and international regulatory bodies.
Previously, she was…
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WATCHED THE SOPRANOS on your cell phone lately? Streamed last week’s Coronation Street on your home computer? Or bought an episode of Corner Gas from iTunes? For a growing number of Canadians, the answer is yes.
The line between traditional television and new media is getting blurrier every day. Broadcasters, TV producers and Internet providers are all trying to figure out how to navigate this changing landscape. And now the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is pondering whether to get into the act.
As well it should.
Until now, new media broadcasting has been a bit like the…
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PHILADELPHIA – The talking about reclaiming analog and shifting channels to digital is about to end – and the heavy-lifting is about to begin.
Comcast COO Steve Burke says cable desperately needs more room for digital channels like more high definition and additional ethnic channels, as well as DOCSIS 3.0. In the States DirecTV claims over 100 HD channels and is the clear leader here. “(Second), is not a place we want to stay forever,” said Burke during the opening general session.
“You can’t stop consumer trends,” added Charter CEO Neil Smit, about the growing numbers of high definition…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC on Thursday approved with strict conditions the acquisition of TQS Network by Remstar Diffusion inc. The commission renewed the broadcast licences of TQS’ television stations in Montreal, Quebec, Trois-Rivières, Sherbrooke and Saguenay until 2015, but will re-examine the programming commitments after three years.
“Holding a licence to operate a conventional television station comes with certain responsibilities and obligations, one of which is to provide viewers with a significant amount of local news,” said CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein in a statement. “Remstar’s proposal fell well short of this requirement. In this case, we have taken…
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OTTAWA – There is no inherent conflict of interest when politicians serve as regular radio hosts, the Ontario Regional Panel of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) ruled this week after considering two separate cases.
The first involved the Bob Bratina Morning Show broadcast on CHML-AM (AM900, Hamilton) and the second involved Jack Miller’s participation on the CIGL-FM (Mix 97, Belleville) morning show.
Both Bob Bratina and Jack Miller had worked as on-air radio personalities for many years, and were elected to city council in their respective cities within the preceding four years.
Two complainants contended that the politicians…
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CAMBRIDGE, ON – CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein has taken a shot at Canadian broadcasters’ slow progress in converting to digital, urging them to invest in digital infrastructure, including for over-the-air transmission, high-definition Canadian programming and public awareness campaigns.
“I am raising this issue with you today because I do not want to get any nasty surprises in 2011. With the few possible exceptions I mentioned , nobody will be getting a licence to broadcast in analog after the cut-off date,” he said during a speech at the 2008 Broadcasting Invitational Summit on June 19. “My great concern is…
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OAKVILLE – The Weather Network/MétéoMédia said today it will make available to broadcasting and telecom companies a data feed of emergency and public safety messages received from Environment Canada and provincial authorities.
The service is free of charge and available immediately, said Pelmorex, TWN/MM’s parent company, in a press release.
With the launch of Pelmorex’s data feed, radio and TV broadcasters, cable and satellite companies will be able to begin developing systems that will allow them to automatically access emergency and public safety messages for broadcast over their networks.
This expanded service gives Environment Canada and provincial authorities the…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has ordered Bell Canada to publicly disclose information about the level of congestion on its network in conjunction with a dispute with ISPs over the company’s traffic throttling practices.
The commission is giving Bell until June 23 to release the data, which it provided to the regulator in a May 29 filing but wanted to keep confidential for competitive reasons.
“…Commission staff has determined, based on all the material before it, that no specific direct harm would likely result from disclosure, or that the public interest in disclosure outweighs any specific direct harm that might…
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