I’VE HEARD NO END of parallels spun in attempts to explain the complex structure we call the Canadian television industry.
From cars and roads and traffic lights to water bottles and Lake Ontario. A house of cards to yarn and a sweater – and even an airplane ride and airline peanuts. Various parts of the industry are the gears in the car, the pre-and post-processed water, the air pressure inside and outside the plane. The yarn-and-sweater analogy is always “if you pull at one thread, the whole things comes apart.” I can’t repeat without a potential libel suit what…
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TORONTO – Canadians don’t trust deregulated cable and satellite TV companies to promote and deliver Canadian content on TV, and see the CRTC and the federal government as guardians of Canadian culture, states a Pollara survey conducted on behalf of some creative guilds and unions.
The survey results were released Monday, the day before the CRTC is set to start three-week-long public hearings into a new framework for broadcast distributors and specialty TV.
“Canadians have a strong sense of national identity; they want their TV programming to reflect and support that identity and values, and they look to Ottawa…
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IT’S FUN TO PROGNOSTICATE. To try and read the tea leaves and make educated (or not) guesses about certain things. Sports (pro and amateur) is utterly built around such predicting, thanks to the billions of dollars bet on the games every year.
Similarly enormous amounts of money and the fate of our industry are collectively at stake beginning this week when the cable, satellite, telco and specialty broadcasting community take their turn in front of a panel of CRTC commissioners who will largely determine how the broadcast distribution undertaking and specialty services industries will be run for perhaps the…
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TORONTO – There is no current economic rationale for broadcasters and cable networks to abandon traditional TV or attempt to accelerate a transition to a total online model, says a new report released this week by Convergence Consulting Group.
To do so would put $66 billion in traditional TV advertising revenue and $30 billion in cable, satellite, telco TV provider programming fees at risk, says The Battle for the North American Couch Potato report released this week.
“Our forecasts demonstrate that through 2011 broadcaster and cable network online advertising revenues will equal half the gains of their traditional TV…
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OTTAWA – Bell Canada is seeking leave to appeal the CRTC’s March 3 wholesale services decision to the Federal Court of Appeal on the grounds that the regulator “erred in law and/or as to its jurisdiction.”
The court has no deadline to respond “yes” or “no” to the request made last week by Bell and fellow appellants Bell Aliant, Saskatchewan Telecommunications and Telebec, Societe en commandite to take Telecom Decision 2008-17 through the judicial system to try to have it overturned.
The CRTC’s decision is “incorrect and unreasonable” and “didn’t meet legal standards,” Mirko Bibic, Chief of Regulatory Affairs at Bell…
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WINNIPEG – Canwest on Friday spelled out how it will spend the $1.5 million it will be giving to the National Screen Institute (NSI) as part of its benefits package associated with its acquisition of Alliance Atlantis Communications.
As part of the deal for CRTC approval of Canwest’s $2.3 billion takeover of Alliance Atlantis, the Winnipeg-based broadcaster is required to provide a $151.25-million benefits package. Of that $151.25 million, Canwest committed $1.5 million over the next seven years to NSI.
The money allocated to NSI will go toward the following initiatives: NSI Global Marketing (provides training and professional development…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP) has filed a complaint to the CRTC against Bell Canada for allegedly restricting and reducing the bandwidth it provides to third parties.
In its Part VII application filed April 3, the CAIP asks the commission to issue on an expedited basis an interim order directing Bell Canada to “immediately cease and desist from using any technologies to ‘shape,’ ‘throttle,’ and/or ‘choke’ its wholesale ADSL services.” It also wants a final order issued that would prevent Bell from employing the practice.
As well, the CAIP wants the CRTC to declare that…
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FIRST, THE GENRE PROTECTION rules established by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission consist of two distinct components, with two distinct goals. The first rule is directed at limiting the distribution in Canada of foreign services which are partly or fully competitive with licensed Canadian services.
The second is intended to limit the licensing of a number of Canadian services in one genre of programming, so that the onerous requirements of services licensed to Canadians with regard to the exhibition of, and the expenditures on, Canadian programming can be met, maintained and increased.
Secondly, nowhere do the BDUs mention…
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OTTAWA – CPAC will provide live online coverage beginning this coming Tuesday of the CRTC’s public hearing examining the regulatory framework for broadcast distributors, and pay and specialty TV.
The three-week-long hearing will be streamed unedited on www.cpac.ca. All CPAC programming can also be viewed simultaneous to the television broadcast.
Cartt.ca will also be reporting live from the hearings, and providing timely synopses of what unfolds at the hearing on a daily basis.
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC on Thursday turned down HDTV Networks Inc.’s bid for a licence to operate a national, English-language high-definition over-the-air TV service (Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2008-75).
“HDTV Networks sought to launch a television station that would be the Canadian equivalent of a superstation,” said CRTC vice-chair of broadcasting Michel Arpin in a media release. “The programming strategy associated with such a station is inconsistent with the objectives of the Broadcasting Act and the commission’s policies. We have never granted a licence for such a conventional television station in the past and did not find any compelling reason…
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