WINNIPEG – With its new license granted by the CRTC this week, APTN will offer approximately 17 hours per week of distinctive HD programs on a version of APTN’s programming service to be known as APTN HD.
Although there were some initial concerns about this service impacting the overall amount of Aboriginal language programming available, “APTN’s decision to provide HD services not only demonstrates our willingness to adapt to an increasingly digital environment in the Canadian broadcasting industry, but also serves as an impetus for Aboriginal producers to begin creating programming in this new format,” said Jean LaRose, APTN…
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OTTAWA – Candice Molnar has been hired as the CRTC commissioner representing the Manitoba and Saskatchewan regions.
"I’m delighted to welcome Ms. Molnar to the CRTC," said Josée Verner, Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages, in the official press release. "She possesses extensive experience in policy and regulatory matters, including provincial and federal telecommunications regulation. Her experience and expertise will greatly benefit the CRTC in carrying out its mandate."
Molnar worked for SaskTel for more than 20 years in a variety of capacities. As general manager of customer services, she led a province-wide team of…
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DESPITE THE CLOSING OF Canadian Digital Television (CDTV) at the end of August 2006, both the Canadian television industry and government still saw a need for further collaboration on technical and operational issues surrounding the roll-out of digital television in Canada.
To that end, a new group called the Digital Television Technology Group (DTV-TG) was formed about one year ago.
The Technology Group (whose web site can be found here) carries out collaborative investigative projects and research “to provide decision makers in industry and government with the technical information they need to plan for, and advance, the roll-out…
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TORONTO – 10-10 long distance company Yak Communications said today announced it has filed applications with the CRTC demanding that it force Telus to stop charging a long distance “access fee” of $2.95 a month.
Among the remedies Yak is seeking, reads its press release, Yak has applied for an order that consumers who have already paid this new fee be reimbursed by Telus.
Yak’s applications request that the CRTC return basic toll service to the regulated sphere and declare the new fee illegal, and that Telus reimburse customers that have already paid it, reads the release. In addition,…
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Dear Editor,
Well, I’m gobsmacked!
The Globe and Mail recently (29 November/07) reported that BitTorrent users were facing an engineered traffic jam by intervening ISPs. Geez, I thought that the Internet couldn’t be regulated?
But apparently it can be.
And by ISP technicians "in Canada and the United States (that) restrict the flow of certain traffic on their networks".
Oh, and I guess by rogue regimes, political cabals and thug dictators in Burma, Syria, Pakistan – and yup, China.
Moreover, ask Canadians to keyboard in "google.com" just to see what happens. Looks like somebody there is also "traffic shaping"…
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OTTAWA – Shaw Communications has taken aim again at the Canadian Television Fund. In a full-page advertisement on the back of the sports section of Saturday’s edition of the Ottawa Citizen, Shaw asks: “What do you call a $250 million boondoggle?” The answer, also in all capital letters, reads the ad: “The Canadian Television Fund.”
The advertisement notes the CTF has lost is way, and has “little to show” for the $2.5 billion it has spent on promoting and developing quality TV programming in Canada.
“Who made the decisions to spend billions of your dollars only to achieve so…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC has told Shaw Communications that it must appear at a public hearing on January 15th over the company’s apparent refusal to simultaneously substitute certain over-the-air digital television signals.
After a complaint filed by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters in June that said neither Shaw Cablesystems nor its sister satellite company Star Choice were performing their simultaneous substitution duties as required under the broadcast distribution undertaking regulations, the Commission issued decisions on the matter in August.
The Regulator directed Shaw Cablesystems and Star Choice, to do the sim-subbing (substituting a Canadian TV signal over an American…
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GATINEAU – With Len Katz now vice-chair telecom, his old post of executive director of broadcasting and telecommunications was open.
Instead of filling the post with another, CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein announced this week that Katz and vice-chair broadcasting Michel Arpin will together carry out the co-ordination activities Katz used to do.
As well, Ian Scott, von Finckenstein’s chief policy advisor, has assumed a similar co-ordinating role “with respect to issues relating to policy development and research, as well as issues that impact our business such as legislative proposals, acquisitions, dispute settlement, international affairs, new media and revised…
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GATINEAU – “No amount of tinkering” can save this deal in the minds who run ACTRA, the actors union, whose president, Richard Hardacre addressed the CRTC this morning during day 2 of the hearing into CanWest Global and Goldman Sachs’ purchase of Alliance Atlantis’ broadcast assets.
Despite assurances yesterday by CanWest and GS leaders that CanWest will run the broadcast company, make all the operational decisions and that the U.S. investment banking firm which will inject 65% of the equity into the purchase won’t interfere with the day-to-day decision making by the new combined company, many members of…
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GATINEAU – In its final appearance back in front of the CRTC this afternoon, CanWest Global responded to requests and demands raised by the Commission panel and interveners over the past couple of days – and presented several alterations to its shareholders agreement covering the purchase of Alliance Atlantis with the help of Goldman Sachs.
As previously reported on several occasions by Cartt.ca, investment banker Goldman Sachs is providing the bulk of the equity financing ($650 million-plus) for this $1.4 billion acquisition while CanWest is kicking in some money ($260 million) and its own broadcasting assets. The deal also…
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