OTTAWA — Former CRTC commissioner and columnist Andrew Cardozo has been appointed senator today by the Governor General, one of three independents to fill vacancies in the upper house from Ontario.
A CRTC commissioner from 1997 to 2003 and an adjunct professor of journalism and communications at Carleton University, Cardozo has written columns on the CRTC, including one this summer in The Hill Times about the regulator taking on increasing important role. He wrote regularly for The Hill Times and was previously a columnist for the Toronto Star and Broadcast Dialogue, Cartt’s sister publication.
Cardozo has also been the president…
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Company believes they will capture those customers with their own offering
OTTAWA — The Competition Tribunal heard evidence today that while Quebecor subsidiary Videotron had the opportunity to purchase Shaw Mobile along with Freedom Mobile, they turned it down because they believe they will be able to capture those customers on their own.
Jean-François Lescadres, Videotron’s vice-president of finances answered questions today before the tribunal, which is currently hearing evidence on an application made by the Commissioner of Competition to block the proposed merger of Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications.
Because of concerns about the impact of the deal…
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GATINEAU — The CRTC today released a new report on its enforcement of Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation, which shows it received 159,101 complaints to the Spam Reporting Centre from April 1, 2022 to Sept. 30, 2022.
The report indicated around 5,066 of the complaints were submitted through the online form, while the remainder were submitted by email.
The sources of spam reported through the online form include email (57%), text message (32%) and instant message (2%). The rest (9%) were unspecified. (Please see chart above).
Among the reasons for complaint are lack of consent (47%), identification of sender (21%), deceptive…
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OTTAWA — The Telecommunications Alliance announced today the southwestern Ontario region currently served by the area codes 226, 519 and 548 will get a new area code (382) starting gradually on June 17, 2023.
“The introduction of the new area code 382 is the result of a decision by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) and is intended to meet the continuously growing demand for new telephone numbers,” a press release says.
“The introduction of a new area code creates millions of additional telephone numbers without affecting the existing numbers,” said Kelly T. Walsh, program manager of the…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA — This evening, the Transport and Communications Committee of the Senate (TRCM) heard from CRTC chairman Ian Scott (above) who took the opportunity to clarify some concepts and asked to remove amendments passed by the House of Commons Heritage Committee to Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act.
The chair started by stating again that the Commission has no intention of regulating the user-generated content (UGC). “Bill C-11 draws a distinction between the users of social media on one hand, and the platforms themselves on the other. Its intent is to exclude individual users from regulation. I want…
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Or is it?
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – Another meeting of the Transport and Communications Senate Committee brought an Aboriginal perspective on C-11, the Online Streaming Act, from the Indigenous Screen Office (ISO, represented by its co-executive director, Jesse Wente; above), the Aboriginal Multi-Media Society of Alberta, an assistant professor in Indigenous Communication Arts at the First Nations University of Canada and an Aboriginal digital content creator. To complete the picture, we heard from the Music Publishers Canada.
Beyond the expected message on the need for better reflection of Aboriginal languages they spoke about the importance of telling Aboriginal stories in English…
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By Monica Auer
IN JUNE 2022, the House of Commons passed Bill C-11-3, the Online Streaming Act, to amend Canada’s 1991 Broadcasting Act. The bill was then sent to the Senate for study and debate. The Senate’s Transport and Communications Committee (TRCM) began its pre-study of C-11 in early June, and has so far heard nearly 130 separate witnesses. It is unclear precisely when TRCM will submit its report and recommendations about Bill C-11 to the Senate, but the latter is expected to sit from now until Dec. 22, 2022, and to resume sitting in early 2023, perhaps as early as…
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CEO accuses Bell of refusing to negotiate MVNO rates in good faith
MONTREAL – Quebecor announced today its third quarter 2022 financial results, which show the company’s revenues were $1.1 billion – a slight decrease from Q3 2021.
Adjusted EBITDA was also slightly down at $518 million.
In Quebecor’s telecommunications segment specifically, the company reported $942.2 million in revenue, which is an increase from $939.5 million in the same quarter the previous year. Adjusted EBITDA in the segment was $489.5 million, up from $476.8 million.
In the media segment, the company reported revenue of $170.1 million – down from $190.6 million in the…
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By Howard Law
IF JOURNALISTS IN politics are the friends of news media, perhaps it needs new friends.
At the Commons Heritage Committee, former CTV reporter and Conservative MP Kevin Waugh continues to thunder that major TV networks Bell CTV, Rogers City-TV and CBC should be excluded from the “FaceGoogle” Bill C-18.
This Monday at the Senate committee studying the Online Streaming Act Bill C-11, former Edmonton Journal columnist Paula Simons and former CBC TV correspondent Julie Miville-Dechêne suggested Unifor’s recommendation for better cable and streamer funding of local news was unnecessary because TV companies are set to cash in under…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – It now appears senators on the transport and communications committee (TRCM) are suffering from witness fatigue.
On Wednesday evening, five associations of artists involved in the creation of content in various forms came in front of committee to offer their comments on the Online Streaming Act, but they generally repeated the same arguments the committee had heard before.
This prompted Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne (above) to quip that they all had heard these arguments, which were presented, in writing, by the Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (CDCE) and supported by them and others before. So,…
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