QUEBEC CITY – The Supreme Court of Canada has rejected efforts by Genex Communications, owners of this city’s troublesome CHOI-FM, to appeal the non-renewal of its licence ordered by the CRTC in July 2004.
However, while some believed that would mean the silencing of CHOI once and for all, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
CHOI remains on the air, despite the Supreme Court’s ruling Thursday, because of a behind-the-scenes deal between Genex, the would-be new station owner and licence-holder, Radio Nord Communications Inc., and MBL Communication Média.
MBL, which had expressed interest in competing for CHOI’s frequency…
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TORONTO – Citytv Toronto will leave its long-time home inside the CHUMCity building within three years as part of Rogers Media’s deal to buy the Toronto station and four others across the country.
Announced yesterday, Rogers has signed a deal to acquire Citytvs in Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver for $375 million from CTVglobemedia. The new deal nullifies the Rogers purchase of the A Channels from CTV, which will now hold on to those assets.
The agreement came together rather quickly, since the CRTC only announced its decision on Friday. The two companies were able to move…
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TORONTO – Recommendations by the Telecommunications Policy Review (TPR) panel, published in its March 2006 report, may have taken a step closer to implementation today with the release of a “Model Telecommunications Act”, co-authored by a former TPR panel member, Hank Intven, partner of the law firm McCarthy Tétrault LLP.
Attendees of the Canadian Telecom Summit received copies of the 456-page “Model Act” this afternoon during a special presentation by Intven and his co-author, Mary Dawson, a former associate deputy minister of justice and independent advisor to McCarthy Tétrault.
The TPR report released last year called for a more…
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BANFF – The issue of media concentration made another appearance at the 2007 Banff TV festival when Jean Prewitt, CEO of the Independent Film & Television Alliance, spoke at the Canadian Film and Television Production Association lunch Wednesday.
Her remarks come on the heels of the CRTC’s decision to require CTVglobemedia to divest five Citytv stations acquired as part of its takeover of Chum Ltd. With Rogers Communications as the new owner, program distributors merely substitute Rogers for Chum in seeking content buyers.
Prewitt, whose organization represents independent producers – 40% located outside America – says a key IFTA…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Rogers Cable has asked the CRTC to change the rules for airing commercials and affiliated programming on its VOD service to grab back revenues from advertisers moving online.
Since October 2005, Rogers has been allowed to show commercials on Rogers on Demand (ROD) where an ad was already included in a program previously shown by a Canadian broadcaster, there is a written agreement with the original broadcaster to air the spot, and the program is offered to subscribers on demand but for free.
Rogers wants its condition of licence amended so that it doesn’t have to offer…
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OTTAWA – Rogers should spend as much money proportionately on Canadian programming on Citytv as it does on baseball players, says the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada.
CEP says Rogers’ deal to buy the City stations from CTV, as required by the CRTC, “could work out” if it gives them as much attention as it does its interests in the Toronto Blue Jays.
When examining the deal, the CRTC should hold Rogers to high commitments of spending on Canadian programming, the union says. “Rogers has the money to excite competition but the question is: will…
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BANFF – The Canadian Television Fund, saying it was responding to “a concern” but declining to name whose concern, said it would put off any changes to its bylaws until the CRTC is finished its review of the fund.
Two weeks ago, Shaw Communications CEO Jim Shaw sent a blistering letter to the CTF saying the fact the organization was planning to alter its bylaws at the same time the CRTC is examining the fund and its operations “flies in the face of common sense.”
Today, buried in a press release of the CTF’s report to stakeholders, the…
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TORONTO – Recognizing that there was probably no way out of last week’s CRTC decision that disallowed the purchase of the Citytv franchise by CTV (a story first broken by Cartt.ca), CTVglobemedia agreed today to sell the five stations to Rogers Media for $375 million.
Today’s deal scraps an earlier agreement that had Rogers acquiring the secondary market A Channels (Barrie, London, Wingham, Windsor and Ottawa Ont., as well as Victoria B.C.), which CTV will now hang onto. Rogers new stations will be Citytv Toronto (CITY-TV), Citytv Winnipeg (CHMI-TV), Citytv Edmonton (CKEM-TV), Citytv Calgary (CKAL-TV) and Citytv…
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BANFF – Heritage Minister Bev Oda told delegates Sunday afternoon that the government is renewing its contribution to the New Media Fund, earmarking $29 million over two years.
While the $500,000 a year increase over the previous level of funding was less than some were hoping for, Oda’s commitment was well-received.
She noted that last fall’s report from the CRTC on broadcast technology and new media said Canada was beginning to lag behind other countries when it came to new applications and platform development and one of her ministry’s main goals for the media industry is to ensure there…
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BANFF – In a wide-ranging speech this morning at the Banff International Television Festival that covered all the touchstones and hot buttons, from the CTF to the OTA regs to Friday’s CTV/CHUM decision, to the diversity/media concentration study to impending reports and hearings, CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein told delegates that getting all this done will take more resources than the CRTC currently has.
For example, CRTC broadcast vice-chair Michel Arpin is in the midst of a task force report on the Canadian Television Fund. Getting the Commission to issue a decision on the CTV purchase of…
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