OTTAWA – Rules that go too far in preventing telcos from contacting customers in order to win them back is contrary to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, say Canada’s incumbent telcos.
A submission to the CRTC last month from Eastern telco Aliant (since supported by Bell Canada, Telus and Sasktel) says, in part, “that the Commission’s order extending the ‘no-contact’ rule beyond local residential service is inconsistent with the principle of freedom of expression, encompassed in s. 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”
As a way to foster competition, telco regs have prevented the…
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TORONTO – More than 150 broadcast news executives and journalists will converge on Toronto in two weeks for the National Conference of the Radio-Television News Directors Association of Canada (RTNDA).
The three-day conference, June 9 to 11, 2005 will explore a wide variety of topics that impact markets of all sizes. Session highlights include:
* One-on-One with CRTC Chair Charles Dalfen * Diversity: The Power, Profitability and Potential featuring Statistics Canada * CNN’s Soledad O’Brien and others on "Tales of the Tsunami" * A panel session with Canada’s top reporters on Enterprise Reporting * Motivational speaker Bob Nelson on…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The Canadian cable industry wants to add six more channels to the eligible satellite list.
The Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association has asked that the Commission add Radio Television Portugal International (RTPi), New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV), Phoenix North American Chinese Channel (Phoenix), TV Globo and PTV-Prime USA to the eligible satellite list for digital distribution.
The CRTC put out a call for comments on the request to add those channels today.
RTPi is the international television network of Radiotelevisao Portuguesa, SA, Portugal’s public broadcasting company. The RTPi service consists of diverse, general interest, Portuguese-language programming, including news and…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC this morning approved the $13 million acquisition of religious broadcaster NOWTV by Rogers Broadcasting.
According to the terms of the deal released last year, Rogers will pay $12.25 million for CHNU-TV Fraser Valley (which serves the Vancouver region as NOWTV BC) and $750,000 for CIIT-TV Winnipeg, or NOW TV Manitoba, which has not yet launched. Rogers also proposed a benefits package of $1.3 million.
When contacted by www.cartt.ca, Rael Merson, president of Rogers Broadcasting, said that the Winnipeg station will launch by September 2006, “at the latest.”
The Commission also approved Rogers’ request to add…
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OTTAWA – Bell ExpressVu should have to carry all of a broadcasters’ signal, not just cherry-pick their local content, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters told the CRTC this week.
In a submission to the Commission, the CAB said it opposes a recent Bell ExpressVu application which asks for permission to distribute the unique local programming of some Canadian conventional broadcast TV channels only on partial/omnibus channels.
For most broadcast affiliates, much of the schedule is exactly the same across the country, except for local news and a few hours of additional weekly programming, depending on the market. To the…
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OTTAWA – Striking telecom workers at Bell Subco, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bell Canada, are raising the stakes in their seven-week-old strike, their union said today.
"We know that the public is being inconvenienced and now we want them to know that they can claim a rebate on their phone bill for poor service," said Bob Huget Ontario Region vice-president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, which represents the 1,400 strikers, primarily working under the Entourage banner.
The Union is taking the rebate campaign directly to the public across Ontario, providing the toll free number…
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MONTREAL – Saying it needs a new team of leaders to help it meet the challenges posed by the acquisition and integration of the Radiomédia network Corus Radio Quebec has made three key management additions.
While the Astral transaction is expected to be finalized in late May (it received CRTC approval earlier this year) Corus Québec president Pierre Arcand today announced the following appointments:
Jacques Papin is the new vice president of Montreal francophone stations. He has a wealth of experience in radio and has been a member of the Corus Québec team for nearly five years. He has…
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TORONTO – One hundred and fifty delegates will converge on Toronto for the RTNDA Canada 2005 National Conference.
According to the RTNDA Update this week, conference chair Melanie Kurzuk says the three-day event, June 9-11, offers a solid line-up of professional development sessions, including "Enterprise Reporting."
“Original enterprise reporting is a newsroom challenge 365 days of the year. Political enterprise reporting is twice as tough. Getting behind the story, giving the audience a check of the facts, revealing campaign truths locally and nationally can be a challenge. Get advice from the experts,” says the release.
The panelists will be:…
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THE WORD DIGITAL IS A conundrum to Canadian broadcasters of any stripe.
It means digital specialty channels, or digital migration of analog channels, or digital over-the-air TV (better known as high definition), or even digital audio.
Investing in digital is an expensive proposition. For an over-the-air broadcaster there is no immediate return on investment in upgrading to HD, so many here haven’t done it. Consumers are forcing that change, meaning HD Cancon should be in the offing this fall..
On the radio side, any transition to digital audio broadcasting (DAB) was halted last year once the CRTC decided to…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC today approved the purchase of CHSH-TV-2 Chase from Shuswap Lakes Television Society by Jim Pattison Broadcast Group Ltd.
The purchase price was $10. Pattison’s CFJC-TV out of Kamloops already owns the equipment at the transmitter site and has been maintaining it for a decade.
The Shuswap Lakes Television Society had run out of members as well as money and needed to sell the asset while keeping the transmitter turned on for the people in the Chase and Shuswap Lakes region of British Columbia.
The Commission also approved Pattison’s request to change the programming source from…
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