OTTAWA – At the Women in Communications and Technology Awards held in Ottawa Monday night, CRTC vice-chair broadcasting Caroline Simard announced that the Commission is organizing a Women in Production event this fall.
CRTC chair Ian Scott introduced Simard, saying: “The industry’s potential will only be fully realized when women – half the country’s population – are in key creative and decision-making positions. And yet, women continue to face systemic barriers to career advancement in this industry. The problem has been well defined by studies over the years but unfortunately, the metrics are not changing. It is long past…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Seeking to address a “noticeable gap” in affordable, occasional-use pay-as-you-go wireless plans, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and National Pensioners Federation (NPF) have asked the CRTC to order the national wireless carriers to offer them.
In an application filed Friday, PIAC-NPF asked the Commission to apply a condition of service directing Rogers, Bell and Telus to make occasional-use retail wireless plans broadly available to consumers in the same manner as the Commission proposed to do with lower-cost data-only plans in its ‘skinny wireless’ decision last month. The application also asks to combine the two proceedings “to…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC said Friday that the current competitor quality of service (Q of S) regime must be updated to keep pace with Canadians’ increasing reliance on broadband and mobile wireless services.
In TRP CRTC 2018-123, the Commission determined that additional regulatory oversight is necessary for all providers of both aggregated and disaggregated wholesale high-speed access (HSA) services, and that these services should be included in a competitor Q of S regime. It added that the large incumbent local exchange carriers’ (ILECs) wholesale services and processes that are subject to the current competitor Q of S regime should no longer be included…
Continue Reading
MANY YEARS AGO, AFTER a particularly chaotic day in a newsroom, a couple of colleagues and I shared a deep breath, a relieved laugh and shook our heads in dismay.
“If only they knew,” one of us said of the readers we sought to serve, “… if only they knew.”
I decided then that If Only They Knew would be the title of my first book, a sort of Tales from the Crypt regarding the inner workings of those, at the time, large and chaotic newsrooms. The aim was not so much to debunk the romantic mythology of journalism as depicted…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The news that consumer complaints to the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) increased by 73% compared to the same period last year should be investigated and fixed by the CRTC, said the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC).
“Canadian consumers are sending a clear message they are being poorly treated by, and are suffering from misleading sales practices of, Internet, wireless, home phone and subscription TV services,” said John Lawford, PIAC executive director and general counsel in a press release.
PIAC also noted the CCTS report released Tuesday revealed that the leading complaint…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC has dismissed a complaint against OMNI Regional’s parent Rogers Media that alleged non-compliance with the service’s third-language news requirement.
The complaint, filed last October by Unifor on behalf of media workers at OMNI, claimed that Rogers’ decision to hire Fairchild TV to create its Cantonese and Mandarin newscasts rather than produce them in-house violated its condition of licence. The Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic and the Urban Alliance on Race Relations (CSALC/UARR) filed a similar application.
The applicants also raised concerns about the loss of editorial diversity and local news coverage for Chinese-speaking Canadians due to…
Continue Reading
Nearly 10,000 submissions, most by people who didn’t read the proposal
GATINEAU – The FairPlay Coalition has a fight on its hands.
Last week saw the passing of the deadline to respond to the CRTC’s call for comments on the public proceeding opened to consider the FairPlay Coalition’s call for a new agency to help fight online piracy of content.
In January, the coalition of Canadian artists, content creators, unions, guilds, producers, performers, broadcasters, distributors, and exhibitors proposed the CRTC establish something called the Independent Piracy Review Agency (IPRA), which would assist it in identifying websites blatantly engaged in content theft –…
Continue Reading
DARTMOUTH – Newcap Radio is asking the CRTC to approve its purchase of FM radio stations CKEC-FM and CKEZ-FM New Glasgow, NS from Hector Broadcasting for $2.7 million.
The proposed acquisition was made public last November when Newcap released its third quarter results. Newcap is also requesting new broadcasting licences to continue the operation of the undertakings under the same terms and conditions as those in effect under the current licences.
According to Commission records, the current licensee (Hector) appears to be in non-compliance with certain regulatory obligations for both stations which will be examined in the context of this…
Continue Reading
VANCOUVER – Wow Unlimited Networks has asked the CRTC to grant its proposed acquisition of specialty channel Comedy Gold from Bell Media for $6.87 million.
Wow, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wow Unlimited Media, is also requesting a new broadcasting licence to continue the operation of the service.
It also pledged that in the first broadcast year following the acquisition and in each subsequent broadcast year, it would devote at least 10% of the previous year’s gross annual revenues of the undertaking to the acquisition of or investment in Canadian programming, by condition of licence.
The CRTC will consider the…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Rogers Media is seeking CRTC approval to acquire Medicine Hat station 102.1 CJCY from Clear Sky Radio for $4 million.
The acquisition was made public in January, and Rogers is also requesting a new broadcasting licence to continue the operation of the station under the same terms and conditions as those in effect under the current licence.
The CRTC will consider the application at a hearing scheduled for May 31 and interventions/comments/answers are due by April 26, 2018.
Continue Reading
