Calls for minister to ban ads on the public broadcaster
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – In a letter obtained by Cartt.ca, Québecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau brings falling advertising revenues to the attention of the Minister of Canadian Heritage while criticizing the recent renewal of the national public broadcaster’s licences by the CRTC.
“In the face of technological globalization of non-Canadian companies that rely on advertising (FAANG, and soon Netflix and Disney+), which is the only source of revenue for traditional television, the CRTC has decided to maintain the CBC’s power to continue to use it,” Péladeau mentions in his letter…
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TULITA and FORT GOOD HOPE, NT — Northwestel, a subsidiary of Bell, announced today the launch of fibre Internet in the Mackenzie Valley communities of Tulita and Fort Good Hope, Northwest Territories.
“Fort Good Hope and Tulita are the first fly-in communities with seasonal winter-road access to be fully connected to fibre in the north,” a press release says.
With the launch, customers in these communities can access Northwestel’s high-speed, unlimited fibre Internet service, offering speeds up to 300 Mbps, as well as live HD TV with Northwestel TV Plus, the release says.
The Northwestel TV Plus service, starting at $25 per…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC today approved $30 million in funding for the Canadian Administrator of VRS (CAV) from the National Contribution Fund (NCF).
The funding, which was approved on an interim basis last November, is to be paid out in 12 equal, monthly payments, starting this past January.
“Access to this funding will enable the CAV to continue to offer video relay service in Canada to the benefit of all Canadians,” the CRTC’s decision explains. “Video relay service (VRS) enables people who use sign language to conduct telephone calls and communicate with voice telephone users using sign language.” It does so…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – On Friday, CBC/Radio-Canada (SRC) filed its motion to appeal the CRTC’s decision on the use of the N-word on air in the Federal Court of Appeal.
As indicated recently, the SRC decided to appeal the CRTC’s decision to force it to apologize for the on-air use of the N-word back in 2020 and show how it will ensure similar incidents do not happen in the future. The public broadcaster also requested the court grant it a stay of the CRTC decision until the court rules on the appeal.
The SRC is arguing the CRTC exceeded…
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MONTREAL – TVA Group, a subsidiary of Quebecor Media, announced yesterday its financial results for the second quarter of 2022, which show revenues decreased by $12 million year-over-year to $147.5 million.
TVA also reported consolidated adjusted EBITDA was $3.2 million, a $10.7 million unfavourable variance compared to Q2 2021.
In its broadcasting segment, TVA reported $149,000 in negative adjusted EBITDA. This is “a $6,433,000 unfavourable variance resulting largely from the decreased profitability of TVA Network, which continued its strategy of increasing investment in content, partially offset by the improved profitability of “TVA Sports,” which had to absorb significant content cost in…
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HALIFAX – Develop Nova Scotia today announced the launch of the Satellite Internet Service Rebate program, through which the Government of Nova Scotia will cover one-time costs to set up satellite Internet service.
“The rebate will be available to about 3,700 homes and businesses for which no other internet service solution has been found,” a press release explains.
Those eligible can access up to $1,000 for costs including hardware, taxes, shipping and installation, according to the release.
The program is being led by Develop Nova Scotia, and will officially open on Tuesday, Aug. 2 at which point eligibility can be checked Continue Reading
OTTAWA – TekSavvy and Bell have both proposed changes to the federal government’s proposed policy direction to the CRTC, which would impact how the government directs the Commission to handle its regulated wholesale Internet regime in very different ways.
TekSavvy argues the government’s proposed policy direction “emphasizes the importance of a healthy wholesale regime” and yet “does nothing concrete to address any of the basic problems that have destabilized the regime over the past 7 years.”
The independent Internet and voice service provider points out the policy direction was issued as the government also rejected petitions to overrule the CRTC’s…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – A large trade group representing Canadian media producers has filed an application asking the Federal Court of Appeal to review a decision by the CRTC last month that extended the licences of the country’s national public broadcaster, using two dissenting commissioner opinions in alleging the decision goes against the objectives of the Broadcasting Act.
At issue is the CRTC’s decision to largely move away from standard hourly requirements the CBC would need to air certain content to an approach that would evaluate how it is promoting Canadian content through its spending. The regulator said in its decision…
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By Steve Faguy
MONTREAL — VMedia, the independent internet and television service provider that pioneered delivering television services over IPTV systems in Canada, was quietly acquired by Quebecor last week – but that does not mean it intends to fade away.
Instead, Quebecor is financing its expansion, giving it the resources it needs to grow its subscriber base across the country and offer a bundling option that Quebecor’s Videotron can combine with its expansion of mobile services outside Quebec.
The purchase price of the deal was not disclosed. According to documents filed with the CRTC, Quebecor acquired all shares of VMedia from…
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TORONTO and CALGARY — Rogers Communications, Shaw Communications and the Shaw Family Living Trust today announced they have extended the outside date of the proposed $26-billion merger of Rogers and Shaw to Dec. 31, 2022.
The outside date for closing the merger has already been extended twice before by the companies from the original date of March 15, 2022. The closing extension comes as the most recently announced outside date of July 31, 2022 was fast approaching.
The new outside date “may be further extended to January 31, 2023 at the option of Rogers or Shaw, provided Rogers has committed financing…
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