GATINEAU – Telus Corp., a relatively new entrant into the broadcast distribution field with the IPTV service it launched in 2006, says it would prefer the regulatory status quo than a descent into a “rabbit hole of new regulations for problems which simply don’t exist”.
In a presentation before the CRTC’s hearings on broadcast distribution and specialty services Wednesday, Telus’ vice-president for wireless, broadband and content policy Michael Hennessy said he was concerned that “false assumptions” could persuade the Commission to add regulations when what the industry needs is space to flourish.
“The future has to be based on…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC will rule on Telus’ controversial network access fee tomorrow and Cartt.ca will have complete coverage of the decision.
The CRTC is reviewing the new fee Telus added to local phone bills after competitor Yak Communications filed a formal complaint last year. The commission has also received complaints from over 400 B.C. residents since the $2.95 charge was added to phone bills last November.
The monthly fee to access Telus’s long-distance network is charged to customers who haven’t signed up for long-distance calling plans with Telus or any of its competitors.
Customers are charged whether or…
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GATINEAU – Imagine – a video presentation at the CRTC’s hearings on broadcasting! Who would ever think of doing that?
“3-2-1. Blastoff!”
The Shaw Rocket Fund cleverly grabbed the attention of CRTC commissioners yesterday with a short animated video to make their point that children, as the ones who are already immersed in multi-media culture, should have a voice in this three-week gabfest about a future Canadian broadcasting model.
But it also took a former Radio-Canada journalist and now CRTC commissioner, Michel Morin, to ask the most probing question of the day: how come no one else at these…
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GATINEAU – Quebecor Inc. president and CEO Pierre-Karl Péladeau challenged the CRTC today to re-write its “little red book” of more than 400 broadcasting rules and regulations or risk seeing the Canadian broadcast industry bypassed by the global digital environment.
In a presentation before the CRTC’s hearings on broadcast distribution and specialty services, the head of the powerful Quebec media conglomerate which owns, among other assets, #3 cable company Videotron and top Quebec broadcaster TVA, said that it would be a mistake to go through these “crucial” hearings and make only minor adjustments.
“An accumulation of regulations won’t solve…
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BELOW ARE SOME QUICK QUIPS, a few lines – and their explanations, that we found interesting over the first four days of the CRTC’s hearing in broadcast distribution undertaking and specialty service policy.
Broadcasters as babies (1) “There is an opportunity for the over the air broadcasters to help themselves. If they were embracing the on demand platform, if they had a CTV on demand or a Global on demand, then we could have a very serious discussion about incremental value for the customer and compensation for that. But we are not having those discussions because we seem to…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC has ruled that ARTV did not comply with the “watershed hour clause” when it broadcast an NFB documentary about rape at 7:30 p.m. (Broadcasting Decision 2008-81).
The regulator stated it expected ARTV to ensure that in the future all programs it broadcast containing scenes of explicit violence or dealing with other subjects intended for an adult audience were scheduled after 9 p.m., as called for by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ Voluntary code regarding violence in television programming. ARTV is required to meet that standard as a condition of its licence.
The CRTC said it…
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GATINEAU – What would have been fun, was a debate.
Day three of the CRTC hearings into BDU and specialty service regulations featured the Canadian Association of Broadcasters and Canadian Cable Systems Alliance, two groups with decidedly different constituents, and points of view, on the future policy direction of the TV industry.
The CAB represents most broadcasters in Canada who together serve basically 100% of the Canadian population. The CCSA, on the other hand, has a far smaller group of members whose companies deliver cable and broadband service to under a million rural Canadians.
While each had their turn…
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GATINEAU – “Overall, television itself as an advertising medium, remains very strong,” the Association of Canadian Advertisers vice-president of policy and research, Bob Reaume, told the CRTC this morning.
The annual Canadian ad spend on television is now at about $3.2 billion, and it’s growing, said Reaume, adding that TV’s share of the ad spend has been, and is remaining, stable, with small levels of revenue growth every year. “Year in and year out, TV has attracted about a quarter of all of the advertising spend in Canada,” he explained.
One of the primary concerns of the ACA and…
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GATINEAU – Bell Canada offered a potential solution to the cost problems facing the build-out of high definition by local Canadian broadcasters.
All conventional broadcasters have complained that replacing their broadcast facilities and transmission equipment with digital is cost-prohibitive and have openly mused about using BDUs as a proxy to deliver those signals.
Some BDUs have, in turn, openly wondered why broadcasters would wish to give up spectrum – even in less populous areas – in favour of BDU distribution.
Today, however, in its presentation to the CRTC at the hearing to review the policies affecting broadcast distribution undertakings…
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GATINEAU – Allarco Entertainment Inc.’s pay-per-view Super Channel will finally be launching on Shaw Communications’ cable systems and on its direct-to-home satellite distributor Star Choice in late April and early May respectively, according to the broadcaster.
The news was revealed following Allarco’s appearance Wednesday at the CRTC’s three-week-long hearing into pay and specialty services and broadcast distribution undertakings – at which executives complained it was proving impossible to get carriage, even though Super Channel had been granted must-carry status by the regulator.
“It’s easy to get a licence, but very difficult to execute it,” said Allarco chair Chuck Allard….
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