OTTAWA — On the one-year anniversary of the CRTC’s denial of a request by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the National Pensioners Federation (NPF) to require Telus flanker brand Koodo Mobile and other wireless service providers to provide paper bills upon request, the federal cabinet announced today it will not rescind the Commission’s decision nor refer it to back for reconsideration – because the Regulator is actually studying the matter already.
After the CRTC denied their joint application on March 3, 2020, PIAC and the NPF filed a petition to the Governor in Council on June…
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EDMONTON — Allarco Entertainment, owner of Canadian pay-TV provider Super Channel, announced this morning it has filed an application for an injunction with the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta, asking the court to order four Canadian retailers to stop selling set-top boxes designed to illegally pirate TV programming.
The four retailers named in the injunction application are Best Buy, Staples, London Drugs and Canada Computers. Super Channel has previously filed a lawsuit in 2019 against these retailers, a suit which is still pending. When the company filed its lawsuit, it backed up its claims with videotape evidence of…
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53% of funds went to companies owned by diverse groups
MONTREAL — Telefilm Canada revealed today almost $30 million was disbursed through the Covid-19 Emergency Relief Fund – Telefilm Allocation, with more than half of funding going to companies that are majority-owned by an underrepresented group.
Telefilm’s relief funding for the audiovisual industry was included as part of the federal government’s Covid-19 Emergency Support Fund for Cultural, Heritage and Sport Organizations.
Overall, Telefilm disbursed $29,654,492 in emergency funding to 549 companies in total, with 471 organizations allocated funding in Phase 1 of the program and an additional 81 in Phase 2.
Companies that…
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And is about to make the biggest financial mistake in its history
By Barry Kiefl
THE CRTC, APPOINTED BY THE government to safeguard our broadcasting system, in January completed a three-week long public hearing into how the CBC should be spending its $1.7 billion annual budget over the next decade, where CBC executives told the Commission they want to spend close to $400 million annually on internet services by 2022-23 and effectively reduce budgets of traditional radio/TV to accomplish this.
CBC radio already has a smaller budget than CBC digital.
The Commission’s decision on CBC’s licence renewals will be based mostly on unsourced…
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MONTREAL — Following the Department of Canadian Heritage’s announcement last month that the Short-Term Compensation Fund (STCF) for Canadian audiovisual productions is being extended until March 2022, Telefilm Canada today announced the new opening date for applications is March 4, 2021 for coverage starting on or after April 1, 2021.
“Producers who have already applied to the STCF for a project that begins shooting before March 31, 2021 and extends beyond that date must reapply for the portion that takes place after March 31, 2021,” reads Telefilm’s industry advisory. “This measure has been put in place to allow all…
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TORONTO — Corus Entertainment announced today its creator media studio, Kin Community Canada, has added 14 new content creators to its roster and is expanding in new marketing categories such as home and DIY, and entrepreneurship.
With more than 10 years of expertise, Kin works with new creators to help them grow their brand and presence in the industry, and then leverages the influence of its creators to engage audiences across Canada with custom content that spans a variety of topics, including fashion, health and wellness, travel, entrepreneurship and food, says Corus’ press release.
“Kin has delivered incredible growth and increased…
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Real battles will come in front of the CRTC
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – It was likely not done by design, but the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage could not have lined a more diverse set of individuals and groups as it did on its Friday, February 26 meeting to talk about Bill C-10, the bill to amend the Broadcasting Act.
Author and former CBC English services chief Richard Stursberg, Corus Entertainment, SOCAN, Rogers Communications, Netflix and two community television association groups.
Most, even including Netflix, support Bill C-10 and wish for speedy adoption (the real battles will come in front of the…
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SWIFT outlines its top five lessons
By Greg O’Brien
OTTAWA – The Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology, which continues its study on the accessibility and affordability of telecom services, must now be inured to overheated rhetoric, but Quebecor Inc. CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau took it a bit further on Tuesday.
After, rightly, singing his own company’s praises when it comes to connecting Quebecers, spending billions on home internet and delivering serious wireless competition in the province and then taking his usual swings at Bell Canada’s “obstruction”, he took aim at third party internet service providers, saying they deliver “zero” in…
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Whatever the SCC decides, all still await the CRTC’s Review & Vary call
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – The Supreme Court of Canada will, on Thursday morning at 9:45, release a decision on whether it will hear an appeal of the August 2019 decision which the CRTC set new wholesale internet fees for incumbents, a decision which also forced the likes of Bell, Rogers and others to pay retroactive fees to independent resellers.
Both Bell as well as the large traditional cable carriers sought leave to appeal the Federal Court of Appeal decision which upheld CRTC decision 2019-288—Final rates for aggregated wholesale…
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Working group includes members from Bell, Rogers, Telus, Shaw, Cogeco, Eastlink and CWTA
TORONTO — Investment in the telecommunications sector is key to Canada’s future prosperity and governments must focus on regulatory clarity, timeliness and stability to help drive greater investments in critically needed infrastructure, says a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute.
The think tank today issued the first communiqué from its telecommunications policy working group which includes among its 19 members the chief regulatory experts from Bell, Rogers and Telus, as well as executives from Cogeco, Eastlink and Shaw Communications, and CWTA president and CEO Robert Ghiz. The…
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