OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Competition continues to grow for Canadian companies in the telecommunications industry, the CRTC says in its 2007 telecom monitoring report.
Total revenues for the industry as a whole grew in 2006 by 4.5% to $36.1 billion, while EBITDA rose 5.3% to $13.1 billion.
But the big story is the continuing bite that competitors are taking out of the traditional telcos’ business. Competitors grabbed an additional 3% market share, rising to 38% of total revenues in 2006, the report says. Competitors’ revenues rose 12% from the year before to $13.7 billion, mainly because of cablecos recording an impressive…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC has granted a Cat 2 licence to operate a horror genre specialty channel, over the objections of The Movie Network and MPix.
The commission has granted a licence to High Fidelity HDTV Inc. to operate Horror HD, a national English-language service devoted to horror and thriller movies and other programming, such as magazine-style shows, in the genre. High Fidelity indicated it wouldn’t air more than 25% of its programming in the thriller genre.
Astral Television Networks had filed an intervention, arguing that Horror HD’s programming was too broad and would directly compete with Astral’s The…
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by Myron Love
WINNIPEG — CJOB, Winnipeg’s most listened to radio station, is applying to the CRTC to simulcast on FM as well as AM.
“It’s not that we want to abandon the AM dial,” says CJOB general manager Garth Buchko. “AM is important to us. It’s just that with more and more taller buildings going up in downtown Winnipeg, we find that there are pockets throughout the city that our signal can’t reach now. With FM, everybody will be able to hear us.”
Buchko is hopeful that the CRTC will respond to CJOB’s application within the next six…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC is deregulating the first residential telephone markets in Canada, in Fort McMurray, and parts of the Maritimes.
The ILECs, TELUS and Bell Aliant, will no longer need to get the commission’s approval to set local phone rates or introduce new services and packages.
The systems in Fort McMurray, Fredericton, Charlottetown, and Halifax are the first of likely many to get approval in the coming months. The CRTC says it’s received enough applications for deregulation to cover more than 60% of the residential phone lines in Canada.
The commission says it’s considering the other applications and…
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TORONTO – Lawyers for Look Communications and Bell Canada battled in court yesterday over fees for the telco’s services, the latest development in a months-old dispute over billing amounting to millions of dollars.
In April, Bell notified the MDS and Internet service provider that it intended to disconnect its services for overdue accounts, which Bell said amounted to more than $13 million. Bell gave Look 30 days to pay $5 million of its bill and make arrangements to pay off the rest, or else it would terminate services.
Look soon filed a statement of claim with the Ontario Superior…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC has taken away the dual carriage status of five specialties as of Sept. 1 this year.
Currently, eight specialties have dual status on the basic tier: MuchMusic, CBC Newsworld, Le Réseau de l’information (RDI), TV5, VisionTV, VRAK.TV, The Weather Network/MétéoMédia, and YTV. The commission has announced that TV5, Vision TV, VRAK.TV, The Weather Network/MétéoMédia, and YTV will lose their dual status this fall. It has granted mandatory digital basic carriage for Newsworld and RDI. The commission did not receive an application from MuchMusic to be granted mandatory digital basic carriage.
In addition, the CRTC received…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC has approved an application for a new English-language digital channel providing described video programming for the blind and visually impaired.
The commission will grant a licence to the National Reading Service Inc. to operate The Accessible Channel, which will also be subject to mandatory carriage on digital basic by DTH and Class 1 and 2 BDUs (excluding MDS services, given their limited capacity).
The Accessible Channel will offer a 24-hour service providing news, information, drama, entertainment, and other programming to blind and visually impaired Canadians. The Canadian content levels will be a minimum of 60%…
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COMING OFF A SUCCESSFUL free trial that saw 43,000 subscribers sign up for its OneZone WiFi service in downtown Toronto, Toronto Hydro Telecom moved to a subscription-based service in late April. Toronto Hydro Telecom president David Dobbin (pictured below) spoke to Cartt.ca contributor Linda Stuart about OneZone, the upcoming wireless spectrum auction, and the competitiveness of Canada’s mobile communications industry.
Linda Stuart: The OneZone service has been offering subscription-based services for a couple of months now. How has uptake on the subscription service gone so far?
David Dobbin: Better than we expected. We originally projected a 10% month-over-month conversion…
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OTTAWA – Canada’s telecommunications companies have launched an agency to hear complaints from consumers that can’t be resolved by the telcos or the CRTC.
The office of the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) opened its doors in Ottawa on Monday. It was created in response to a request from Industry Minister Maxime Bernier that telephone service providers work together to create an independent, industry-funded agency to handle complaints that fall outside the CRTC’s jurisdiction and that consumers and small businesses have been unable to resolve directly with their service provider. The request was tied with the federal…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Canadian broadcasters have offered at least tepid support for a Rogers Cable application to the CRTC to alter the video on demand regs to allow for greater advertising flexibility in the VOD platform.
Some of those organizations which filed an intervention on the issue added that a decision on what Rogers wants should be deferred and discussed under the upcoming review of broadcast distribution undertaking policy recently announced by the Commission.
As the rules stand right now, ads within video on demand content must have already appeared on a linear Canadian TV channel, there must be a…
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