"REGULATORY APPROVAL" are the two stock words every media sale announcement made in Canada has attached to it. As in: "Agreement XYZ will close after the required regulatory approval."
Wednesday’s big buy is no different as it will have to pass under the Competition Bureau’s and CRTC’s magnifying glasses, smudged and cracked as they appear to be sometimes. In the official release, Bell Globemedia and CTV CEO Ivan Fecan said: "With regulatory approval, we intend to serve Canadian audiences with both CTV and Citytv stations."
This time, though, that particular sentence means regulatory approval will only be able to come…
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TORONTO – Employees inside the companies have not yet been officially informed, sources have told Cartt.ca, but the globeandmail.com is reporting that Bell Globemedia is set to purchase CHUM Limited.
CHUM shares have ceased trading on the TSX, pending a potential announcement.
CHUM owns 33 radio stations, 21, specialty channels and 12 local TV stations (Citytvs and A-Channels). The move would be a complicated one, to be sure as several assets overlap and may need to be sold off due to CRTC and Competition Bureau concerns, but it would also make CTV the largest electronic media force in Canada….
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OTTAWA – Saying it needs to enhance its prospects among potential viewers and BDUs, Catholic TV channel Salt and Light wants to change to an English specialty service.
The category 2 digital channel targets Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Filipino, English and French-speaking audiences. Its conditions of license say that no more than 20% of its programming can be English or French.
The application requests Salt and Light be able to air 60% English with the rest dedicated to French and third language programming, which will also include Cantonese shows.
"The licensee indicates that reducing the amount of third-language…
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OTTAWA – The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union wants the CRTC to stop the layoffs at CHUM Television announced today – despite the fact the Commission has no such power.
"We think there is a direct link between this sale and the shut down yesterday (sic) of significant parts of CHUM’s news gathering capacity across the country," said Peter Murdoch, media vice-president of CEP Canada.
CHUM announced that 281 positions would be eliminated due to several show cancellations and reallocation of resources. Much of the savings will be applied to technology upgrades, says the company.
"Regulators need…
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OTTAWA – After delaying the deadline earlier this year due to the uncertainty surrounding the timing of the CRTC’s television policy review, the Commission has announced that license applications for a new TV station in Calgary are now due in by August 18th.
As reported by Cartt.ca, it had received an application for a new Calgary station and called for further applicants in January, with an initial deadline of April 12.
Click here for the full details on the CRTC’s site.
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TORONTO – Rogers Cable is now offering Baby TV in Canada on demand.
Baby TV On Demand is an assortment of educational programs (usually eight minutes or so in length, befitting short attention spans) dedicated to babies and their parents. Rogers customers with a digital box can access Baby TV On Demand, under the "Kids" folder, on channel 100 in Ontario and New Brunswick.
"Baby TV offers parents programming for their babies and toddlers up to age three. Created in collaboration with child psychologists and development experts, Baby TV is designed to inspire, excite and promote learning," says the…
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OTTAWA – Registration is now open for the 2006 Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ annual convention, the 80th anniversary of the broadcasters’ yearly gathering.
With the theme of "New Realities. New Rules." this year’s conference will take place November 5 to 7 in Vancouver at the Westin Bayshore Hotel.
Speakers have yet to be finalized but topics already on the agenda include: copyright; Internet radio; the latest in local TV sales and marketing and local radio sales and marketing; broadband opportunities; the connected consumer; gearing up for the 2007 specialty and pay CRTC policy review; personalized programming; mobile television; digital…
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OTTAWA – The CBC program Radio Active did not breach the CRTC’s radio regulations, the Commission announced today.
Between May 2003 and November 2005, the Commission received six letters of complaint from one individual, James Darwish, alleging that a radio interview broadcast on 23 October 2002 by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), as a segment of the afternoon daily public affairs radio program Radio Active on CBX Edmonton, contained abusive comment and false and misleading information, contrary to the prohibitions contained in section 3 of the Radio Regulations, 1986 (the Regulations)," says Monday’s CRTC release.
The subject of the…
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ONE UNINTENDED HAZARD of deregulation is that all other news outlets will be under-reporting the size of the Canadian cable industry this morning.
On Wednesday, the CRTC released the Canadian broadcast distribution industry’s statistical and financial summaries. But the report doesn’t include all distributors.
From 2004 to 2005, revenues, as well as number of subscribers, remained more or less constant for Class 1 cable carriers. However, with growing investments in voice over IP, for example – as evidenced in Shaw Communications’ third quarter report that said capex will rise at a good clip for the next 24 months…
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OTTAWA – For the first time ever, the amount of revenue earned by Canadian pay and specialty services has pulled even that earned by conventional broadcasters in fiscal 2005.
According to the CRTC’s annual Broadcasting Monitoring Report, total revenues for English-language private conventional services in 2005 were $1.764 billion, nearly the same as the $1.761 billion brought in by Canadian specialty and pay channels. In 2004, their revenues were $1.693 and $1.637 billion respectively.
Where specialty really has convention beat is in the margins. Conventional stations saw their profit before interest and taxes margins in 2005 hit 11% where…
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