Spoken word on FM, removal of tangible benefits among other recommendations
By Ahmad Hathout
Canadian content quotas on radio have contributed to a competitive imbalance in the market and reducing them will help traditional broadcasters be more adaptable to listener habits, the CRTC heard this week.
Rogers pitched Friday a reduction in the Canadian content quota on English-language radio – from 35 per cent to 25 per cent – that the broadcasting giant said will not only allow it to better manage its operations but also increase the consumption of its products. The company’s director of programming said there’s data to back…
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By Connie Thiessen
Canadian radio cannot continue to be used as a tool to prop up the music industry, Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) President Kevin Desjardins told the CRTC’s hearing on Canadian content on audio services Thursday.
“There has never been a more urgent moment than now for the commission to revise and adjust the regulatory regime for commercial radio in Canada. Simply put, the status quo will not do,” Desjardins asserted.
The CAB, presenting its case on behalf of its 26 members representing over 550 commercial radio stations, argued that the current regulatory burden, particularly “artificially high exhibition requirements” for…
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Sale of infrastructure also not out of the cards
By Ahmad Hathout
Bell’s chief financial officer said Thursday that leasing internet from Telus in western Canada is not out of the cards, but that owning the infrastructure is preferred for cash flow.
“It’s an opportunity for sure,” Curtis Millen said during a conference hosted by CIBC when asked about using Telus’s network in areas Bell doesn’t operate in. “We’ve had plenty of time to think about this.”
Bell, unlike Telus, is opposed to the CRTC policy of allowing the three largest telecoms to use the wholesale internet regime because the…
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The CRTC last Friday denied an August 2024 application for relief from Iristel following the disconnection of its telecommunications services by Northwestel.
The commission had previously denied an Iristel review-and-vary application regarding the CRTC’s June 2024 decision that found Iristel did not provide sufficient evidence showing it was wronged in an interconnection dispute with Bell and its subsidiary Northwestel.
In its latest decision on the matter, the CRTC said the record shows Iristel did not enter into a deferred payment agreement with Northwestel within the prescribed deadline….
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Cogeco urges easing of quotas
By Ahmad Hathout
The head of Stingray Radio said Thursday that overexposing Canadians to domestic music on radio is pushing them toward streaming services.
“Whether it’s a Canadian song they don’t like or an international song they don’t like, we risk driving them to international, foreign-owned, unregulated streamers,” Steve Jones told the commission studying the definition of Canadian content on audio services.
Jones noted that, through the company’s research and through the years, Canadian music has only captured roughly 10 per cent of consumption in Canada.
“So there is historical data that suggests that listeners have a certain threshold…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC on Thursday confirmed a preliminary view that regional mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) should have access to shared wireless networks even when an agreement is reached with just one of the carriers.
The commission determined Thursday that the network sharing agreements between Bell and Telus make them one national network “that results in both carriers being national wireless carriers that possess market power,” upholding a view on which it asked for comments in October.
To deny regional players access to parts of that contiguous network would, therefore, confer on the large telcos an undue…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Nearly five months after the Online Streaming Act became law, the CRTC warned about a delay in implementing the new rules after its request for funding was denied by the Department of Finance, according to a letter obtained by Cartt.
“The CRTC began working with Canadian Heritage, the Treasury Board Secretariat, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Finance to have approved financing and a revised fee regime in place for April 1, 2024,” CRTC Chair Vicky Eatrides wrote in the heavily redacted September 19, 2023 letter to then Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge.
“We were counting on…
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Cogeco Communications announced Tuesday it will launch internet services on Oct. 6 in Québec City, Châteauguay, Cap-de-la-Madeleine, Saint-Louis-de-France and Sainte-Marthe-du-Cap using the wholesale internet framework.
“Our expansion into these 5 new markets in Quebec is made possible by using the wholesale access framework as a tool,” a Cogeco spokesperson confirmed to Cartt in an email late Tuesday. “A tool that under the purview of the CRTC is currently being misused by established dominant players. This tool was designed to allow smaller, new competitors like us to enter markets dominated by large national players….
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The CRTC has approved an application by Pembina Acquisition Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Anthem Sports and Entertainment’s GameTV, to acquire Hollywood Suite and its four movie channels.
The transaction, originally announced by Anthem and Hollywood Suite in September 2024, is valued at $49.5 million, according to the CRTC’s decision published last week. As such, the CRTC requires Pembina/Anthem to allocate a total of $4.95 million in tangible benefits to various production funds and discretionary initiatives over seven consecutive broadcast years. In its application to the CRTC, Pembina had proposed a…
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Regulator acknowledges error, but doesn’t change outcome
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC on Friday upheld a three-year-old decision that imposed on Bell a $7.5-million administrative monetary penalty (AMP) for preventing Videotron from accessing the telco’s poles in a timely manner.
The issue stemmed from a 2020 complaint made by Quebecor, on behalf of Videotron, for an order forcing Bell to process permit application to access its support structures. Quebecor alleged Bell was unreasonably delaying the processing of those applications; applying construction standards in an unreasonable and discriminatory way; and making it responsible for the cost of replacing structures.
The next year, the CRTC…
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