SHERBROOKE – Liberal Heritage Critic Denis Coderre called on the ruling Conservative Party to review the CRTC’s decision allowing the new TQS owner to lower the amount of local news it produces.
“The Conservative government has remained virtually silent on this issue since TQS first announced plans to reduce its local news content,” said Coderre in a statement. “The government must send a clear signal that conventional television networks must produce a certain amount of traditional news coverage.”
The news requirements for TQS’s competitors remain unaltered.
Coderre stressed the government has to review the decision, particularly given the…
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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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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 – 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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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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TORONTO – Will we have smart Internet networks, or big fat dumb pipes? If net neutrality proponents win the debate, we’ll wind up with big fat dumb pipes that’ll be far more congested than they are now. That’s the message three of the four panelists drove home at Wednesday’s net neutrality panel at the 2008 Canadian Telecom Summit.
Net neutrality, although it has different meanings, is essentially about equal access to the Internet. Proponents fear that broadband carriers will use their market power to control activity online and determine what content gets to the consumer first and fastest.
The…
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OTTAWA – The Supreme Court of Canada on Tuesday reserved judgement on an appeal of the $53-million takeover of BCE Inc. by a consortium, including the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
BCE took the case to the Supreme Court after some investors in Bell Canada successfully convinced a Quebec Court of Appeal that the acquisition did not adequately consider the impact on Bell bondholders. The Quebec Court of Appeal rendered its decision in favour of the bondholders on May 21.
BCE subsidiary Bell Canada is guaranteeing the $34 billion needed to finance the deal, but the bondholders contend that Bell…
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TORONTO – Industries have converged. Companies have converged. It’s about time the laws and regulations covering the telecom and broadcast worlds converged, too.
That’s the message CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein brought to delegates today at the 2008 Canadian Telecom Summit. (Ed note: This story is a compendium of von Finckenstein’s written text and his verbal comments during the speech.)
After outlining a number of changes implemented and challenges overcome in the past 12 months on the telecom file, the chairman noted that with all that is changing in the industries the CRTC oversees, the Commission is bound by two…
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