TORONTO – Except for the five Citytv stations going to Rogers Communications, CTVglobemedia said Friday afternoon that it has closed the transaction for CHUM Limited, having satisfied all of the conditions for approval as set out in the June 8th CRTC decision.
CTVgm CEO Ivan Fecan held a town hall-style meeting today to address employee concerns and allay fears, telling employees that changes will be minimal but that the A Channels will likely be rebranded.
Also this week, CHUM CEO Jay Switzer announced he is stepping down.
All of the assets of CHUM Limited have now been released…
Continue Reading
CALGARY – In the face of a chipper AGM report from the Canadian Television Fund, Shaw Communications CEO Jim Shaw remains displeased over how the CTF is run.
Thanks to a serious amount of pressure put on the Minister for Canadian Heritage, Bev Oda, and the CRTC by Shaw – and then Videotron – when the two companies pulled their funding from the CTF early this year, the Commission created a special panel headed by broadcasting vice-chairman Michel Arpin.
The panel is examining everything about the CTF, top to bottom, front to back and will file its…
Continue Reading
OTTWA – Rogers Broadcasting Ltd. has applied for a licence for another sports channel, called Sportsnet 2, which would primarily cover soccer, cricket and rugby. The application for the national Category 2 digital licence was gazetted Thursday by the CRTC (Broadcasting Notice 2007-7).
The new channel would seek “a limited ability to cover other sports,” but is prepared to accept a condition of licence prohibiting coverage of North American professional sports leagues (National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, Canadian Football League and National Football League).
Rogers tells the CRTC in its application that Sportsnet 2 would…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Canadian Heritage minister Bev Oda said it would be “inappropriate to prejudge its review” of the Canadian Television Fund (CTF) currently underway by the CRTC, in her response earlier this week to a Parliamentary committee’s report on the private-public fund.
The government’s response to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage’s “The Funding Crisis of the Canadian Television Fund,” offered no opinions on the report’s conclusions.
Oda’s response consisted of a summary of events surrounding the funding crisis resulting when Shaw and Quebecor decided to withdraw their monthly contributions to the CTF. Those payments have since been resumed….
Continue Reading
BANFF – Although the combination of two major regulated TV assets was the talk of the 2007 Banff World Television Festival (Hello, Rogers/Citytv), the focus of the event’s final panel was on the potential impact of unregulated new media vs. the fortunes of old media.
In fact, the first question posed by moderator (and festival CEO) Robert Montgomery during his closing session on the BWTVF green Paper to the diverse collection of opinion leaders was: Will the TV industry collapse in the face of broadband Internet and other unregulated platforms?
The question may sound like a Chicken Little approach…
Continue Reading
by Myron Love
WINNIPEG – Having secured the approval of the CRTC, MTS Allstream has begun the process of doubling its pay phone rate from 25 cents to 50 cents a call – despite complaints from advocates of the poor who argue that the increase should have phased in over a period of time.
"We haven’t increased our rates since 1983," says MTS spokesman Michael Bouliane. "Ontario and Quebec already charge 50 cents to use pay phones, Saskatchewan is awaiting CRTC approval and Telus has charged pay phone users 35 cents a call for some time now."
Bouliane…
Continue Reading
WINNIPEG – MTS Allstream has filed evidence with the CRTC saying that it has met the requisite Quality of Service ("QoS") criteria for deregulation of the residential local telephone market in Winnipeg.
The QoS evidence is the last benchmark incumbent telcos are required to meet in order to obtain forbearance or deregulation in local markets.
The ILECs must provide adequate service to their new competition when the newcomers require interconnection to the PSTN, for example.
"We think the current requirements for QoS are fair and achievable," said Chris Peirce, chief regulatory officer, MTS Allstream, in the company’s press release….
Continue Reading
TORONTO –Corus Entertainment Inc. announced Monday it has inked a $1.1 million agreement to buy Sherbrooke radio station CIGR-FM (Génération Rock) from Groupe Génération Rock Inc.
The sale is subject to the approval of the CRTC.
“Corus Entertainment is committed to strengthening our radio presence in Québec,” said Corus Entertainment president and CEO John Cassaday. “The addition of Génération Rock is consistent with our growth strategy and will now offer a companion to our heritage news-talk station.”
Corus also owns the Sherbrooke-based CHLT-AM, which switches to FM at the end of June.
Groupe Génération Rock Inc. is majority owned…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – New CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein joined attendees on the last day of the Canadian Telecom Summit on Wednesday to recap a year of “considerable drama” in the telecom industry and to offer some perspective on what needs to happen next in terms of regulatory review and change.
Highlights for the past year included the Ministry of Industry’s policy direction regarding greater reliance on market forces in the telecom industry, the government’s variances of the CRTC’s previous decisions on regulation of local services using Voice over IP and on local service forbearance, and the mandating of an…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Ten-digit telephone dialing will hit Alberta starting in June 2008.
The CRTC has added Alberta’s two area codes, 403 and 780, to the growing list of regions requiring people to dial the area codes even when calling local numbers. The commission says the Canadian Numbering Administrator predicts that area code 403, serving Calgary and southern Alberta, will run out of telephone numbers by March 2009, while Edmonton and northern Alberta’s 780 code will exhaust its supply by October 2009.
The booming province has exceeded previous forecasts for telephone demand—as recently as 2004, the numbers were expected to…
Continue Reading
