WINNIPEG – The CRTC yesterday granted MTS Allstream’s request to deregulate the Portage la Prairie local phone market.
New rules came into effect in early April 2007 which allow an incumbent telecommunications carrier to apply to the CRTC for local telephone deregulation in the consumer market for any community in which customers can choose between at least three service providers having their own network infrastructure, one of which can be a wireless provider, and where the carrier meets specific quality of service indicators for six months.
“This decision will help MTS Allstream provide better service to customers, and will…
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OTTAWA – According to the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union, CanWest’s recently announced plans to centralize TV operations will leave it in breach of its broadcast licences.
CanWest said last month that it is consolidating most of its production work in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Toronto over the next 18 months and will be laying off around 200 people.
CEP Canada today filed a complaint with the CRTC outlining what it believes is a series of breaches of both CanWest’s licences and the Broadcasting Act, if CanWest’s centralization plans go forward.
"We are calling on the CRTC to expedite…
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DARTMOUTH – If you want a direct look at how radio in Canada is still defying the naysayers who point to the medium’s imminent demise, take a close look at Newfoundland Capital Corporation, a company which (other than two small TV stations) is a pure radio play. The company has radio licenses in 68 communities.
It’s third quarter revenue growth was 11%, rising to $25.4 million at the end of September, 2007, as compared to last year’s Q3.
The rise in the quarter “was primarily due to organic growth,” says the release, “while year-to-date revenue grew by 8% to…
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By Laurel Hyatt OTTAWA – Rising copyright fees, onerous content regulations, declining youth listenership, and competition from the Internet and other digital media are just some of the things that may be keeping Canadian radio executives up at night. But there are a few positive developments, a group of top leaders said on Tuesday.
At a session of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters convention in Ottawa, radio leaders in a united front lamented the challenges the industry faces, including the “exploding copyright issues,” in the words of Elmer Hildebrand, president and CEO of Manitoba-based Golden West Broadcasting Ltd., who…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC today called for new radio station license applications for Winnipeg.
It received an application for a broadcasting license to provide a commercial radio service to serve the Manitoba capital and it is standard policy to ask for additional applications.
The deadline to apply is January 16, 2008.
Click here for the call.
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OTTAWA – Fee-for-carriage is back and it’s not just on broadcasters’ wish lists in panel discussion here at the CAB Convention: the CRTC has announced it will re-consider the issue in its forthcoming review of policies for BDUs and specialty services, which has been pushed back from Feb. 4 to Apr. 7.
Just an hour before CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein reopened the matter, broadcasters raised it in a panel discussion on the future of television in Canada.
While the chairman did not specify what factors encouraged the Commission to reconsider FFC, given the regulator’s refusal to allow…
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TORONTO – Rogers Media announced today it will sell two multi-faith stations, commonly known as OMNI 10 and 11 to S-VOX, the owner of multi-faith and multicultural broadcaster VisionTV.
The deal provides that S-VOX Trust will purchase all of the assets of the CHNU-TV and CIIT-TV stations, operating in Vancouver and Winnipeg respectively. Rogers had agreed to sell the stations as part of its purchase of five CityTV stations. The transaction is subject to CRTC approval.
“This is a momentous event in our 20-year history as a Canadian independent broadcaster,” said S-VOX President and CEO Bill Roberts. “The addition…
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TORONTO – Emily Bellavy of Tecumseh, Ont. is this year’s recipient of the Alliance Atlantis Diversity in Broadcasting Internship, awarded in partnership with Women in Film and Television – Toronto (WIFT-T).
Bellavy begins her three-month internship this month, and will assist in the co-ordination of CRTC documents and research information on regulatory affairs and Government policy. She’ll also meet government broadcasting regulatory leaders in Ottawa.
The award will be presented to Bellavy at the Crystal Awards Gala Luncheon on Dec. 3, 2007 in Toronto.
The internship program offers an entry-level visible minority or aboriginal woman the opportunity to gain…
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OTTAWA – In his speech to the Canadian Association of Broadcasters convention today at lunch, CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein said he has heard the complaints from the industry (after first making some complaints of his own, see related story) and made a few significant changes to the 2008 calendar.
First, the policy review hearings on broadcast distribution undertakings (cable, satellite, telco TV and others) and specialty services has been pushed back to April 7. They had been scheduled to begin February 4th (after having previously been set for January).
Also new is the broadcasters’ demands that fee for…
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OTTAWA – Canada’s private broadcasters were told Monday to stop “signing over primetime to a different country” and “put more Canada on TV”.
At a demonstration outside the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ convention here Monday, Canadian TV stars and hundreds of ACTRA members and supporters criticized the industry for feeding Hollywood and starving Canada’s home-grown talent.
“Those people call themselves Canadian broadcasters. I say that’s a name you have to earn, and you don’t earn it by producing zero one-hour dramatic shows and signing over Canada’s primetime to a different country,” said Corner Gas star Eric Peterson.
The demonstration…
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