The CRTC has informed the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) via a letter that the commission will not rescind and reissue its Broadcasting Notice of Consultation 2025-52 on modernizing its policies for radio and audio streaming in Canada.
Earlier this month, the CAB had asked the CRTC to start over on the consultation, saying the commission’s preliminary views expressed in its call for comments effectively affirmed a regulatory status quo, including maintaining existing music quotas on commercial radio stations, while also increasing their obligations with respect to emerging and indigenous…
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The CRTC has written a letter to SaskTel president and CEO Charlene Gavel asking for help in finding a solution to the problem of the telecom’s set-top boxes allegedly not being accessible to those of its maxTV customers who are blind or partially sighted.
The commission received a complaint from a blind SaskTel customer who said the company’s set-top boxes are not accessible because they are not compatible with screen-reading technology. Based on the information filed with the commission, it appears “that SaskTel has no plans to provide a set-top box that is accessible to those customers…
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Rogers says the complaint is ‘completely without merit’
By Ahmad Hathout
A national news channel is alleging Rogers is unjustly keeping it from distribution to a broader cable audience, but the cable giant is calling the complaint meritless.
The News Forum, which was granted mandatory distribution on cable in 2022, alleges that, unlike its competitors, it has been denied equal access by being excluded from Rogers’s legacy or grandfathered cable packages.
Before it received mandatory distribution under the Broadcasting Act’s 9.1(1)(h) rule, the independent news service negotiated its current distribution agreement with Rogers as an exempt undertaking the year before. But while it…
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A group of 11 organizations supporting community radio and television production in Canada has asked the CRTC to streamline its broadcasting consultation processes to enable participants to devote more time to the issues raised in those proceedings.
Three streamlining measures proposed by the group include: an e-mail subscription list enabling participants and parties interested in CRTC broadcasting proceedings to receive automatic notifications when the public record changes in a given proceeding; zip files collating interventions/comments and replies in proceedings when 10 or more comments or replies are filed; and earlier notification of invitations to appear at CRTC hearings, so that…
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The CRTC on Friday rejected a WildBrain application alleging Bell is disadvantaging its children’s programming to the benefit of Corus in the English-language markets.
Both Bell and Corus rejected the notion that there was any preferential treatment that disadvantaged WildBrain, as it sought to negotiate carriage with the large broadcaster.
That’s despite the commission finding that WildBrain and Corus have similar services, an important component to establish in an undue preference complaint. As a result of this determination, the commission said it found no need to get into whether there was any undue preference or disadvantage.
The commission urged…
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Nearly half of focus group respondents said a program’s country of origin didn’t matter
By Ahmad Hathout
The majority of Canadians can identify Canadian programming when looking for something to watch on cable, satellite or online streaming services, a new survey-based report commissioned by the CRTC found, while a larger majority chooses to watch content based on entertainment value and quality.
The “Perceptions of Canadian Programming and News” study, delivered last month by Ottawa-based Phoenix Strategic Perspectives Inc., found 60 per cent of surveyed Canadians said they could identify Canadian programming, 25 per cent said they could not, and 16 per cent…
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Radio broadcasters outraged at CRTC’s support for airplay quotas
By Howard Law, author of MediaPolicy.ca and Canada vs California: How Ottawa took on Netflix and the streaming giants (2024)
This week, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters let howl a primal scream of protest against the CRTC’s recent notice of consultation on radio broadcasting and audio streaming. In an open letter the CAB says the commission’s notice, full of “preliminary views” on key regulatory points, “absolutely missed the mark” and is so bad it should be rescinded and the CRTC should go back to the…
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Rogers charges OUTtv using regulatory system to stop it from making commercial decisions
By Ahmad Hathout
LGBTQ+ TV broadcaster and streamer OUTtv is alleging Rogers is violating Wholesale Code rules by shuffling the network into a less popular cable TV package.
The subscription-based service is alleging in a Part 1 application dated March 5 that the cable company is violating section 9 of the code by not putting the network in the “best available” package, negatively impacting its wholesale fee revenue. The complaint alleges that Rogers shuffled the service it must carry out of a “Premier” package and “into a different and…
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The CRTC on Tuesday approved an application by Joel Lagacé, on behalf of a not-for-profit corporation to be incorporated, for a broadcasting licence to operate a low-power, English-language developmental community FM radio station in Cochrane, Ont., which has a large francophone official language minority community (OLMC).
The licence for the station — which will operate at 104.7 MHz with an average and maximum effective radiated power of 5 watts — will expire Aug. 31, 2029.
The applicant has proposed that the new station will broadcast 126 hours of local programming per broadcast week,…
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The CRTC has approved Arsenal Media’s acquisition of seven radio stations and one transmitter in Quebec from Bell Media.
The stations involved in the transaction include CFEI-FM Saint-Hyacinthe, CFVM-FM Amqui, CFZZ-FM Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, CHRD-FM and CJDM-FM Drummondville, CJOI-FM Rimouski, and CIKI-FM Rimouski and its transmitter CIKI-FM-2 Sainte-Marguerite-Marie.
As a standard condition of service, Arsenal is expected to broadcast at least 42 hours of local programming on each station during each broadcast week.
The commission’s approval of the transaction, with a proposed value of $8.46 million, requires Arsenal to contribute to the Canadian broadcasting system by paying tangible benefits totalling $507,684,…
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