GATINEAU – They compete aggressively for U.S. programs, audience share, and advertisers, but in an exceptional show of unity, executives from CTVglobemedia Inc and CanWest Global Communications sat shoulder-to-shoulder Thursday to persuade the CRTC to open up new sources of funding.
Together, the two networks argued the economic viability of conventional television is “under threat”, because of lack of fair access and fair compensation. They attacked cable and satellite distributors, saying that if their vision were adopted, they and not consumers would control television programming.
“The outcome of this review will decide who will program the remote controls of…
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By Glenn Wanamaker GATINEAU – After two weeks of hearing about the structural intricacies of the Canadian television system, about fees for carriage, preponderance, genre protection, VOD, NPVR, and the sins of various competitors, CRTC commissioners heard from the performers Friday, the ones who put the Canadian into can-con.
Robb Wells, star and writer of the hit TV series “Trailer Park Boys”, and Julie Stewart, star of the Canadian drama “Cold Squad”, made a passionate plea to commissioners to maintain protective regulations while urging them to go further in providing incentives for more Canadian dramatic production.
Appearing with ACTRA…
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CALGARY and OTTAWA – Shaw Communications CEO Jim Shaw told Prime Minister Stephen Harper in a letter yesterday that the CRTC is bent on derailing the conservative government’s goals.
The five-page letter date April 16th, which was also sent to Industry Minister Jim Prentice, Heritage Minister Josee Verner and CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein, first outlines Shaw’s broad support for the government’s deregulation thrust on the telecom front and then decries the actions, or lack of action, Mr. Shaw feels is happening on the broadcasting and cable file.
“(W)e were the only broadcast distributor to support your Government’s move…
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TORONTO – The Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) appeared today at the Canadian CRTC hearing to review the regulatory frameworks for BDU’s and the specialty and pay TV services urging the commission to keep the current regulations as they are.
“Clearly, the current regulatory regime is working well with BDUs and specialty services reporting profit margins of over 20 per cent,” said DGC president, Alan Goluboff. “Dismantling any of the key components of the regime would threaten the integrity and diversity of the broadcast system,” cautioned Goluboff in his last appearance before the commission as DGC president.
The DGC…
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OTTAWA – It sure would have been weird last Friday to have seen an empty seat among the cast of five commissioners fronting the hearing into BDU and specialty service policies.
But, according to a couple of good sources, that’s almost what happened.
Commissioner Rita Cugini’s original three-year term as a CRTC commissioner came to an end on Thursday, April 10th, or day three of one of the most important hearings in the TV industry’s history.
If she wasn’t renewed that day – and she began the morning with it potentially being her final day of work at the…
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AS THE LONE MEDIA outlet providing daily reports from both the BDU/specialty hearings in Gatineau and the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas, we’ve noticed a crossover issue or two.
Take Tuesday, for example. In Gatineau, Quebecor Media CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau made his company’s case for dramatically decreased regulation in broadcasting and cable, presenting a great big book of some 400 regulations governing the sector.
He told the Commission what many other distributors have said – that the Internet is changing everything and it’s time to dump most of the existing rules.
“Within a few years,…
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GATINEAU – Telus has been ordered by the CRTC to provide rebates to customers who paid a $2.95 per month access fee but didn’t make any long-distance calls during the month. Telus however is not required to rebate customers who made long-distance telephone calls during the same month.
Local service rates are regulated by the CRTC and have to be either pre-approved by the commission or, in larger areas where it has stopped regulating rates are subject to a price ceiling. Long distance service, however, is not regulated. Telus had contended it did not need pre-approval or to abide by…
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GATINEAU – Bragg Communications, the east coast cable and telecom company that claims to be “small in a big way,” wants the CRTC to take on a similar persona, by making big steps towards a smaller regulatory burden.
In its presentation Wednesday to the CRTC’s broadcast hearings, Bragg co-CEO Dan McKeen gave his support to the Commission’s stated overall approach in its review that would see a reduction in regulations and increased reliance on market forces. However, he also sought CRTC help on behalf of small BDU’s which he suggested are occasionally bullied when they try to negotiate access to programming…
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TORONTO – The interests of small and independent Canadian broadcasters are at risk of being trampled by the industry’s giants in the current regulatory proceeding on the future of the broadcast system, warns Bill Roberts, president and CEO of S-VOX, which operates the multi-faith and multicultural specialty television service VisionTV.
"This hearing has so far been a war of the giants, with conventional broadcasters and broadcast distribution undertakings to make certain that smaller players do not get caught in the crossfire."
S-VOX…
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Dear Editor,
IN YOUR NEWS REPORT today you suggested Telus supported some form of fee for carriage in Quebec.
To be clear, we are categorically opposed to FFC under any circumstance and in any jurisdiction. We obviously agreed with vice-chair Arpin that the CRTC can develop different rules in Quebec to reflect regional differences, that is something which is provided for in the Broadcasting Act, but we still oppose FFC as a solution, regardless of any regional differences.
We recognize TQS is in serious difficulty. But FFC won’t fix its difficulties. The roots of its problems are deeper. As…
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