OTTAWA – There are 19 new applications for radio station licenses in Alberta before the CRTC.
The Commission announced yesterday it will hear those apps beginning February 20th in Calgary.
There are 10 applications for new Calgary stations, three for the Airdrie/Cochrane region and five for Lethbridge. There’s one for High River/Okotoks, too.
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OTTAWA – Eastern telco Aliant has applied to the CRTC to expand its TV territory.
While it holds individual licenses for Halifax, Dartmouth, Bedford and Sackville, Nova Scotia; Saint John and Moncton New Brunswick, it wants the Commission to revoke those and give it one for Region 5, which includes all of the eastern provinces.
The move would allow Aliant to compete with cable using its digital television service in Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland & Labrador, too. Aliant currently offers TV delivered via DSL technology in parts of Halifax
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JUST IN TIME FOR Christmas, www.cartt.ca has given away a 42” HDTV. We did the draw Friday evening and the winner is Nigel Fuller, regional vice-president, CHUM Television Ontario (right).
Second prize, the iPod nano, is going to Rick Fraser v-p marketing at Access Communications.
As for the 50 winners of signed copies of the children’s book M is for Maple. They are:
Brad Phillips, Citytv Vancouver Gordon Lee, CTV Specialty Victor Haddad, Milk River Cable Club, Georgina Schnubb, Masset-Haida TV Society Steve Ward, Grand Bend Cable TV Brett Manlove, CanWest MediaWorks Sam Fiander. Ramea Broadcasting Richard French, CRTC Glenn O’Farrell, CAB…
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OTTAWA – Bell Canada has petitioned the CRTC to act quickly on a file it says threatens competition in the local phone market.
The incumbent telco has accused local voice newcomers, specifically Primus, of “slamming”. Slamming is the term used for switching a customer from one phone provider to another without their permission.
In its December 12th submission to the CRTC, Bell said its front-line customer service reps began to record a spike in the number of calls from customers who say they weren’t aware they were no longer Bell customers and wanted to switch back in September of…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Wireless phone number portability will come to Canada six months sooner than the major wireless carriers said they could make it happen.
In a decision released late this afternoon, the CRTC is requiring Canadian wireless telephone companies to implement wireless number portability (WNP) by March 14, 2007, in most of Canada. Today’s decision follows a public notice issued on September 16, 2005, in which the Commission invited comments on several issues related to the implementation of WNP.
The decision will see Canadians be able to take their phone numbers with them, no matter for which wired or…
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DARTMOUTH – Newcap Inc. announced Friday that it has signed an agreement to purchase multicultural broadcaster CKJS-AM in Winnipeg.
Assuming CRTC approval, this will be the company’s second acquisition in Manitoba “and demonstrates the company’s continued commitment to growing its broadcast network across Canada,” said the company’s release. The purchase price is $1.8 million.
"In a radio environment crowded with music stations, CKJS has a successful 30-year track record in serving Winnipeg’s large, multi-cultural population,” said Newcap president and CEO Rob Steele. “Broadcasting in 19 different languages each week, CKJS reflects the rich cultural heritage and ethnic diversity found…
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TORONTO – CTV Specialty is launching Discovery HD on Monday.
It will be available on a free preview basis through July 2006 (viewers must have an HDTV television and an HD set-top box from their service provider to enjoy the preview). This brand new service is Canada’s first 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week High Definition (HD) specialty channel (However, on the pay side, both The Movie Network and Movie Central have had full HD channels for months).
In October the CRTC approved the new category two specialty service – a joint venture between CTV Specialty Television Inc. (a subsidiary of CTV Inc.)…
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TORONTO – Asian Television Network announced today it will launch NDTV 24/7 (New Delhi Television), India’s top English-language all-news channel, on Monday December 19th, 2005 on Bell ExpressVu.
On April 8th, 2005 the CRTC awarded ATN a broadcast license for a South Asian English News Channel and ATN has partnered with NDTV 24/7 to bring to Canadian viewers NDTV’s view on international news and current affairs.
ATN will add its Canadian perspective on business, health, sports and entertainment.
Following the launch, the total number of channels operated by ATN in Canada will increase to twelve.
www.asiantelevision.com
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Today, the CRTC announced a structural re-organization, aimed at enhancing “our ability to fulfill the objectives of the Broadcasting Act and the Telecommunications Act more effectively, and to discharge our regulatory responsibilities more efficiently,” says the Commission.
“This reorganization will place us in a better position to respond to the realities with which the industries we regulate are grappling, as a result of massive and rapid technological change and the blurring of traditional boundaries and lines of business.”
Effective immediately, broadcasting and telecommunications policy and operations will largely be grouped under a converged structure and leadership. A…
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IN QUEBEC, YOU HAVE TO GO DEEP into a conversation with a private TV network manager before you’ll hear even a hint of excitement about the visual and audio pleasures that await viewers of HDTV.
“Sure, we’re anxious to see all that,” finally confesses Richard Baril, Operations Director for RDS, the all-sports network and sister station of TSN. “For viewers, especially if they’ve ever seen an HD broadcast, they’d like to have it tomorrow.
“But as a manager and administrator,” he quickly adds, hearing the adding machine toting up the bills, “there are enormous costs, and I understand the…
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