OTTAWA – Count the Green Party firmly on the slow and steady side of telecom regulation reform.
“A few monopolistic telecommunications firms will make out like bandits, while consumers will lose with worsening service and higher prices,” said party president Elizabeth May in a release sent Thursday – after Industry Minister Maxime Bernier’s policy directive to the CRTC overruling its local forbearance decision went into force.
Bernier "has disregarded the wishes of both the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission and a Parliamentary committee," notes the Green Party release.
“Analysts are already predicting that a market with only a few major…
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GATINEAU – Rogers Cable has asked the CRTC to consider adding College Sports Television to the list of eligible satellite services for digital distribution.
Owned by CBS, CSTV is a 24-hour network devoted exclusively to broadcasting college sports programming. It televises 35 men’s and women’s college sports, including football, basketball, baseball, hockey, lacrosse, soccer, wrestling and volleyball, from every major conference in the United States.
www.cstv.com www.crtc.gc.ca
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THAT SOUND YOU HEARD from Ottawa late Wednesday afternoon was that of Industry Minister Maxime Bernier jangling his keys to the shackles Canada’s incumbent telephone companies have said repeatedly they are burdened with.
The regulations holding back Bell Canada, Telus, Bell Aliant, MTS, SaskTel and the other smaller ILECs are on their way out far sooner than the CRTC perhaps envisioned when it made public its local forbearance decision a year ago tomorrow.
In that decision, the Commission set out a number of conditions that had to be met before any traditional incumbent telco could be granted deregulation. Until…
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TORONTO – Having cut substantial costs, overhauled formats, replaced management and now in the midst of several frequency flips, Corus Entertainment expects its Quebec radio division to lead the growth parade, soon.
Margins languish in the 5% range among the company’s stations in the province, company executives said Tuesday in a conference call with financial analysts upon the release of its second quarter results. In the rest of the country, average margins are in the 33% range and the company, with changes in store, wants to see Quebec radio’s margins approach that figure.
"In Quebec we have considerable opportunity for…
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TORONTO – Corus Television is determined to bring Cosmo TV to Canada.
Earlier this year the company was denied a license for the service named after the popular women’s magazine as the Commission decided it infringed on the genre protection of other protected Canadian specialty channels.
The channel will be a partnership between Corus and Hearst Corp., which owns the title.
"We were disappointed by the decision the Commission made but are not bowed," said Corus CEO John Cassaday in a Tuesday conference call to discuss the company’s second quarter results. "We have re-filed and refined all our programming commitments…
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OTTAWA – With less than a month before the CRTC hearing into the purchase of CHUM Ltd. by CTV and rumours swirling as to who might emerge as the winning bidder for CHUM’s A-Channels (see below), the NDP says the CRTC has to set up some tough content conditions governing the combined company.
NDP Heritage Critic Charlie Angus said Friday "that if the CRTC is going to give the green light to this unprecedented merging of television media, clear and binding conditions must be laid down."
Angus is calling for enforceable targets for new prime time drama, for example. “Where…
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OTTAWA – After thousands of words of testimony from various telecom industry players and consumer groups, the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology has recommended the Minister of Industry withdraw his order varying the local forbearance decision of 2006.
In December, Industry Minister Maxime Bernier issued a policy directive ordering the CRTC to change its April 6, 2006 decision and rely on market forces to let competition flourish. The CRTC set out a number of tests that had to be met prior to deregulation in its decision, but the Minister proposed a simpler…
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TORONTO – Through their taxes as well as their cable and satellite bills, Canadians will contribute over $242 million to Canadian TV production via the broadcast performance envelope system of the Canadian Television Fund.
More than $242 million will be injected into the Canadian television industry over the next 12 months to support programming including drama, children’s and youth, variety and performing arts and documentaries, in English and French.
The CTF allocates production funding to eligible Canadian productions through its broadcaster performance envelopes (BPEs) and its special initiatives streams. Of the CTF’s total program budget of $265 million, English-language…
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TORONTO – The 2007 Canadian Telecom Summit, June 11-13, includes 18 keynote addresses by some of the most senior folks in the sector and has become a must-attend event.
Delegates will hear from the leaders of Canada’s major telecom service providers, equipment and software suppliers. Panel discussions will take more in-depth looks at wireless networks, consumer and business services, wireless content, VOIP/unified communications and illegal content on the Internet.
With the continued growth of wireless and the strong emergence of IP that will power next-generation voice and broadband offerings, Canada is embarking on an exciting and fast-paced telecom journey…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – A 12.2% increase in spending on the likes of CSI, House, Lost, Prison Break, Ugly Betty, and other U.S. shows helped decimate broadcast TV profits in the 2006 broadcast year, said the CRTC on Wednesday.
While overall Canadian television station revenues were flat at close to $2.2 billion, expenditures rose by 7.8%, which reduced profits before interest and taxes (PBIT) from $242.2 million in 2005 to $91 million in 2006. The PBIT margin also decreased from 11.02% in 2005 to 4.14% in 2006.
From 2005 to 2006, revenues from the sale of local advertising grew by 3.4%…
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