WHERE IS JIM SHAW? is what CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein wanted to know Wednesday morning when he moseyed into the hearing room in Gatineau and spied the Shaw Communications panel, minus its CEO, facing him.
It’s more than a fair question. The Shaw Communications CEO has lobbed several virtual grenades into Ottawa of late, most notably challenging the existence of the Canadian Television Fund throughout 2007, and then declining to appear at the hearing into the CTF earlier this year – telling a newspaper that since von Finckenstein wasn’t leading that hearing, it amounted to a Commission…
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GATINEAU – Canada’s largest media union had some harsh words for broadcasters and the CRTC itself at today’s hearing into BDU and specialty services policies.
Broadcasters must be held to their commitments to stronger local news if the CRTC decides to make subscribers pay more for local TV stations, said Peter Murdoch, vice-president, media, for the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP).
“Lack of oversight, transparency and accountability in the current system has let broadcasters across Canada downgrade or eliminate their local news operations whenever they want,” Murdoch said. “So if the CRTC intends to ask cable…
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Dear Editor,
THE SIMMERING FEUD in correspondence to Prime Minister Harper seems a little juvenile and very disrespectful of due public process.
Messrs. Shaw, Asper and Fecan should know better. And now apparently, Bell has gotten the scribing urge! But at least Bell asks for some integrity re: the public hearing process – which is a very good thing.
Perhaps it is a tit-for-tat balancing act; but it is not consistent with the Broadcasting Act — and the latter trumps offside rhetorical flourish, we should hope.
Indeed, it is regrettable for all Canadians, and I believe ill-advised, for both…
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GATINEAU – The main attraction on Tuesday, day 10 of the hearing into the policies governing specialty channels and their carriers, was a posse of independent broadcasters arguing that the system as it now stands, isn’t quite as broken as some would have everyone believe.
Of course, the system ain’t quite right, but it’s not broken – and surely doesn’t need the massive overhaul proposed by cable and satellite companies, said the group
The panel featured S-Vox (VisionTV, The Christian Channel, One: Body, Mind and Spirit), Stornoway Communications (ichannel, bpm:tv, The Pet Network), TV5, APTN and Ethnic Channels Group…
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OTTAWA – CTVglobemedia has penned its own letter to the Prime Minister asking that Stephen Harper not follow the advice of Shaw Communications CEO Jim Shaw and instead let the CRTC hearing into BDU and specialty policy play out.
Last week, as first reported by Cartt.ca, Shaw sent a five-page letter to Prime Minister Harper, expressing alarm over Shaw’s perception of the direction of the hearing that will conclude this week in Gatineau which is examining the re-setting of policies governing broadcast distribution undertakings and specialty services.
“After reviewing Mr. Shaw’s unprecedented letter, we felt compelled to correct several…
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OF ALL THE CONFLICTING complaints we’ve heard so far about the hearing still ongoing in Gatineau which will decide the future policies to govern specialty channels and BDUs, the question in the headline has been the most often repeated – from all sides of the debates.
The issues are so numerous, so complex, then again so connected to each other, it’s a wonder the five-member CRTC commissioner panel can make sense of everything. And there are just so many unanswered questions.
Last week at the National Association of Broadcasters convention, one couldn’t help but marvel at the utter sense…
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GATINEAU, Que. – The very existence of small and independent broadcasters depends on the CRTC maintaining the rules and regulations that enable specialty channels to provide niche programming for underserved audiences at affordable prices. That was the concern voiced today by S-VOX President and CEO Bill Roberts at the CRTC’s public hearing on the future of the broadcasting system.
S-VOX, which operates the multi-faith and multicultural specialty television service VisionTV, was invited to make a presentation to the CRTC’s ongoing review of the regulatory frameworks for BDUs and specialty television services.
Speaking to the Commission, Roberts warned against allowing…
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TORONTO – Catalyst Asset Management continues to raise objections over the proposed takeover of BCE Inc. by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and its investment partners. Catalyst is the investment banking and advisory firm that proposed an alternative bid last June that would have recapitalized BCE without altering its Canadian ownership.
Catalyst said in a press release on Monday it is concerned that an ongoing post-closing condition imposed by the CRTC on the proposed privatization of BCE may not be met, and Catalyst intends to pursue the matter if and when the privatization is completed.
In its decision CRTC…
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GATINEAU – Canadian stars Robb Wells (Trailer Park Boys) and Julie Stewart (Cold Squad) have taken the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, (ACTRA) fight for more drama on television to the CRTC’s hearings on the regulatory framework for cable and satellite
"We need more Canada on TV. If the CRTC changes the rules, not only will Canadian creators be out of work, our country will lose its capacity to tell our own stories. The rules are working. Please don’t import the drama disaster from the conventional side onto the specialty side. It takes too long to…
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GATINEAU – Cable and satellite distributors took it on the chin again Friday at the CRTC’s hearings on broadcasting, this time from Astral Media, the country’s biggest French and English specialty and pay television network.
However this time, it wasn’t over the question of carriage fees to conventional networks but over access for new entrants.
Astral pressed the Commission to consider a new model that would ensure that any new specialty service, which had already won CRTC license approval, would have guaranteed access to a distributor’s lineup of channels.
“Access is fundamental,” said…
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