By Ahmad Hathout
YELLOWKNIFE – The CRTC’s decision to decline an application by Cabin Radio, an online station, to operate a commercial FM station in Yellowknife was “shocking” and “flies in the face” of supporting northern businesses, a member of legislative assembly of the Northwest Territories said during debate Thursday.
The regulator’s decision on Wednesday said the addition of another FM station would financially harm the incumbent and only commercial station in Yellowknife, Vista Radio’s CJCD-FM, which has experienced declining revenues in the five years before the pandemic and after in an environment with declining profitability. Two commissioners dissented in…
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OTTAWA – In light of new information, the CRTC said Monday it is opening another round of comments for a proceeding initiated by some broadcast distributors seeking to increase the price of the skinny basic packages with the rate of inflation.
When the regulator first ordered the broadcasters in 2015 to have a basic television package at no more than $25 per month, it declined to consider at the time but left open the possibility for a future review for a price adjustment to scale with inflation.
In September, the commission sought comment on a January 2022 application by Bell, Cogeco,…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The CRTC is asking Rogers if it would like to withdraw or amend an application related to a years-long dispute involving its access to New Brunswick poles, following the commission’s decision establishing concrete timelines for access to those support structures.
In the summer of 2020, the cable company filed a Part 1 application asking the CRTC to intervene in a dispute in which it alleged that Bell was delaying providing access to parts of the pole it co-owns with the utility, NB Power. Rogers alleged Bell was playing a “gatekeeper role” over access, which it…
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By Connie Thiessen
Quebecor Media has announced it’s cutting 240 jobs, including 140 positions across TVA Group’s broadcasting, publishing and film production divisions.
The restructuring was announced Thursday as Montreal-headquartered TVA Group reported its fiscal 2022 year-end results showing a drop in revenue across all of its business segments. The corporation’s consolidated adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) was $19,385,000, compared to $80,283,000 the previous year. Consolidated revenues were down 4.6% overall with the corporation recording a net loss of $0.21 per share, compared to earnings per share of $0.71 for 2021. Q4 revenues of $171.9 million marked a slight year-over-year increase…
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OTTAWA — The Canada Media Fund is later this month launching its national survey to get perspectives from the audiovisual sector on how the current definition of Canadian content should evolve in light of bill C-11, the legislation that will empower the CRTC to force foreign streamers to contribute to domestic content.
The 10-minute survey, which will be open on February 27, was designed in collaboration with firms La Societe des demains and Humain Humain and was “informed by input from the CMF’s annual industry consultations and preliminary in-depth interviews with dozens of individuals from diverse backgrounds and perspectives,” the…
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OTTAWA – CRTC chair Vicky Eatrides announced Wednesday the appointment of lawyer Leila Wright as the commission’s executive director of telecommunications.
Wright, like Eatrides, has done work at the Competition Bureau and will replace Fiona Gilfillan, who was appointed to the position in November 2021 but is now retiring.
“I’m pleased that Leila has accepted this senior leadership position at the CRTC,” said Eatrides in a press release. “Her deep experience in competition and telecommunications will be a tremendous asset as we work to deliver tangible results for Canadians.
Wright, who has a law degree from the University of Toronto, is currently…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – A thorn in the side of third party cable companies told to bear the full cost of a pole replacement to attach their telecom equipment on wood structures has been addressed Wednesday by the CRTC, which ruled that attachers should not bear more than 50 percent of the cost of a replacement in most instances.
Pole owners – mainly legacy telephone companies Bell and Telus – have historically charged full price for the pole replacement if a third party wanted to put their equipment on the wood structures (the regulator said this is “often” the case)….
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By Konrad von Finckenstein, pictured above, former CRTC chairman from 2007 to 2012
Bill C-18 was passed by the House of Commons and is now in the Senate. Except for a few minor changes, it was passed as originally presented.
In the interim a new chair of the CRTC was appointed. The congratulatory appointment letter of Ministers Pablo Rodriguez and Francois-Philippe Champagne (in fact, a thinly disguised mandate letter) states, inter alia:
“Unfortunately, our sense is that public confidence and trust in the CRTC has waned in recent years. Over the course of our mandates, we have spoken and…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said Monday during a House industry committee hearing that he is “no near” a decision on the spectrum transfer from Shaw to Videotron that would trigger Rogers’s acquisition of Shaw.
The comments were made in a back-and-forth between Champagne and Conservative member of Parliament Ryan Williams, who was asserting that the conditions that the minister said were required on Videotron’s ownership of the Freedom assets – including spectrum ownership of at least 10 years and lower prices applied to other provinces – are not enforceable.
“That’s what you say, but trust me…you’ll be…
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Government “disagreed” with incumbent arguments about direction usefulness and legality
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Innovation Canada has kept its proposed policy direction to the CRTC largely intact, as the final version released Monday shores up language to reinforce the government’s perspective on the importance of competition and affordability in the wireline and wireless sectors of the telecommunications industry, while maintaining that the direction will encourage innovation and network investments.
The department clarified language in the final version that made clearer the importance in CRTC decisions of network reliability, fair roaming rates, and “just and reasonable” rates at which smaller internet service…
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