OTTAWA – A review of broadcasting in new media is utterly unnecessary, says an unprecedented joint submission to the CRTC by Canada’s largest Internet service providers.
Friday was the deadline for submissions on PN 2008-44, which only asked for comments on what the scope of any future proceeding on Canadian broadcasting in new media might be. The Commission wants advice on what questions it might ask when it decides to undertake a review of what new media is doing to broadcasting and what Canadian regulations might have to say about it. At this point, it doesn’t want to…
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MONTREAL – Bell Aliant CEO Stephen Wetmore and Bell Canada chief corporate officer and EVP Lawson Hunter are the next two executives leaving the company.
Long-time Bell executive Wetmore was the first CEO of Bell Aliant, having led the company from its formation in July 2006. "Stephen has made a tremendous contribution to Bell Aliant. As a result of his work, the company has strong foundations for the future," said Michael Sabia, chair of the Bell Aliant boards and outgoing CEO of Bell Canada.
"With Bell Aliant now on the firm footing we had anticipated at its formation, and…
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CAMPBELL RIVER, B.C. – A few locals banded together with some employees worried about losing their jobs in an attempt to have a vote on the proposed $46 million sale of independent cable co-operative Campbell River TV to Shaw Communications quashed.
The company announced today it will reconvene a meeting on July 29th to attempt to complete the voting process and count the ballots.
As a co-operative, CRTV is required to attain 75% approval for any sale – as well as to change the bylaws of the entity in order to allow for such an ownership change.
However, on…
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OTTAWA – Anybody in the industry who’s been paying attention to what’s going on around them — or who had even a passing interest in April’s CRTC hearing into specialty services and broadcast distribution undertaking policies, read no further.
For those of you who like to re-hash mature statistics, here goes. Statistics Canada released its compiled revenue figures for the Canadian TV industry, saying: “While conventional television revenues declined for the first time in a decade in 2007, revenues for pay and specialty television continued to climb.”
“Private conventional television experienced a slight recovery after stagnating in 2006,” continued…
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OTTAWA – The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) is calling on the Canadian Heritage minister to force the CRTC to re-examine its decision to allow TQS to cut its local news.
The decision illustrates the regulator is not serving the public interest and something must be done, the media union said in a statement.
The CEP is asking the Canadian Heritage minister to send the decision back to the CRTC for reconsideration.
“Having laid off more than half the staff of the TQS network in April, the network’s new owners have told the CRTC they…
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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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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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