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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TORONTO – Fresh off its recent regulatory win allowing longer-form programming instead of a straight wheel of news, CTV Newsnet has announced its first full hour show.
Countdown: With Mike Duffy is back. CTV Newsnet announced Friday it has added the popular and timely series to its prime-time schedule. Unlike its previous incarnation in which the series aired as a prelude to last year’s Federal Election, CTV Newsnet confirmed that Countdown: With Mike Duffy will be a permanent addition to the line-up.
Each live, one-hour program will air weeknights at 8 p.m. ET, repeating at 11 p.m. ET, beginning…
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OTTAWA – The everyday consumer probably doesn’t understand – or care to understand – what the VOIP decision was all about. They just want better stuff cheaper.
In the end, the decision was more than a little anti-climactic. Each side had it figured out already because the CRTC had left more than enough clues about the way it was leaning.
The decision was made official at 4 p.m., www.cartt.ca posted its story at about 4:01 (as soon as the CRTC web-heads turned back on the WiFi) and the wave of pre-written press releases soon began to wash into the…
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OTTAWA – Having received new applications for radio stations in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and Calgary, Alberta, the CRTC – in accordance with policy – has issued a broad call for new radio license applications in the two communities.
The deadline is July 27. Click here for Calgary and here for Moose Jaw.
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MONTREAL – Canadian VOIP provider Babytel sharply criticized the CRTC for leaving Canadian cable companies unregulated in Thursday’s decision.
“This is asymmetrical regulation," said Stephen Dorsey, babyTEL president and CEO.
“This is regulating Bell, Telus and other incumbent phone companies on price while ignoring the cable incumbents with their sizable territories and customer base of high-speed Internet users. Competition – and consumers – would be better off with no regulation than this asymmetrical regulation," he added.
“Bell and Telus will be partially self-regulated in that they will be restrained in VOIP offerings to avoid cannibalizing legacy telephone business; whereas…
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