OTTAWA – On Friday, the CRTC assigned the number 511 for weather and traveller information services. The decision paves the way for a cross-Canada, 24-hour telephone service providing Canadians and others with vital weather and traveller information. The goal of Canada’s 511 service is to provide up-to-date information about weather and travel conditions so that callers can make informed choices for their travel plans. A similar service is already available in more than half the states in the U.S.
Once Canada’s 511 service is in place, Environment Canada, one of the partners in the Canada 511 Consortium, will…
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QUISPAMSIS, N.B. – Without the CCTA tagging along this year, the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance gathering in Muskoka in September is scheduled and formatted a bit differently.
Set for September 17 to 19 at the Taboo Resort in Gravenhurst, Ont., it begins on a Sunday this year with a president’s reception. This year’s theme is "Small: The New Big."
Monday is the busiest day with a technical vendor tabletop trade show from 8 a.m. to noon, followed by the annual awards lunch. "There’s a lot of demand for the trade show," said the CCSA’s director of member services, Connie…
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MONTREAL – Canadian communication policy has shifted. New media are no longer new. Convergence has come and gone and even come again. Policy makers are chipping away at facet after facet of the emerging networked mediascape.
But what role should Canadian communication researchers play in this policy environment? How can their work inform, influence, and shift the agendas of policymakers in Canadian jurisdictions? Should it at all? And just whose work is at issue, as a new generation of communications researchers, activists, and decision-makers begins to take its place in Canadian institutions?
Questions like these are a growing part…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Canadian cable companies hold a slight lead in the broadband race among consumers.
According to CRTC figures released today, 51% of Canadian homes are wired to a broadband Internet connection and of those homes 54% are served by cable companies (a total of 64% of Canadian homes subscribe to some kind of Internet connection, which shows the continued decline in dialup, not to mention the fact that well over one-third of Canadians still don’t have an Internet connection at all in their homes).
The Commission’s sixth annual Telecom Monitoring Report reveals that the growing impact from the…
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FOR SEVERAL YEARS, CANADA’S TV launch season has followed a logical path, with the odd new bit added here or there to spice up the mix. This year, the industry expected broadcasters to introduce new shows, dangle tasty bits of multi-platform potential, parade the talent, wow the buyers and let the 2006 upfront selling frenzy begin.
Observers could then cue the standard questions: will Global build its list of Top-20 gains at CTV’s expense? Will CBC’s new-look programming represent an alternative or even an addition to hockey as a must-buy? Will specialties and digi-channels continue to grow? And will…
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THE TECHNOLOGY IS the easy part. Everything else is maybe just a bit frustrating.
The regulatory landscape for voice over Internet protocol, Vonage Canada’s raison d’etre, may be changing underfoot and the company has had its share of scrapes with incumbent telcos and cable companies. A particularly bitter one with Shaw Communications is still active in the courts and in front of the Commission, as we’ve reported.
Through it all, Vonage’s chief Canadian executive, president Bill Rainey, seems pretty upbeat. The former Group Telecom and Telus executive and manager is convinced he can beat the bundle being…
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OTTAWA – Given the impending TV Policy Review and broadcast technology report the CRTC must pen for the Heritage Minister, the CRTC made official Monday what it had told the CBC months ago – it would get an administrative license renewal until these things are sorted out.
The CBC’s TV licenses were renewed until August 31, 2008.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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OTTAWA – Videotron has asked the Commission to add five more third language channels to the list of eligible satellite services.
The Quebecor-owned MSO has asked for:
* Caracol Television International, a 24-hour-a-day/7-day-a-week channel from Columbia that broadcasts entirely in Spanish. It is considered a general interest channel, although its programming consists primarily of soap operas, as well as news and public affairs, informal educational, sports and drama programs. None of the programs are subtitled.
* HTV is a 24-hour-a-day/7-day-a-week specialty channel. It offers programming focused on Latin American music, including pop, rock, ballads, salsa, merengue, cumbia and the…
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OTTAWA – After consulting 36 organizations and other professionals, from Women In Film and Television to the Black Business and Professional Association and the Canadian Association of Independent Living Centres, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters submitted its new Equitable Portrayal Code to the CRTC last week.
The code’s intent is that broadcasters shall encourage equitable portrayal of all people on television. "This Code is intended to assist in overcoming unduly negative portrayal and stereotyping in broadcast programming based on matters of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status or physical or mental…
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QUEBEC – Oft-sued former Quebec radio show host André Arthur, now an independent federal MP, has lost his bid for a judicial review of the libel judgement against him and his former employers Cogeco Inc and Métromédia.
In a decision released last week, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected his appeal request, meaning Arthur and his former employers, possibly including Cogeco’s directors at the time, will have to pay $370,000 to former Quebec Premier Daniel Johnson and his wife Suzanne Marcil.
Of that amount, Arthur will have to pay $50,000 himself because he repeated the libellous statements shortly after…
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