OTTAWA – While it is still unclear how the interventions to the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review (BTLR) Panel will be made public and when, the CRTC published its comments one day before the deadline!
Not much news in the CRTC proposal to the BTLRP for those who have been following the publication of its Harnessing Change: The Future of Programming Distribution in Canada, the Chairman’s speeches in front of the Senate Committee on Transport and Communications and at the IIC. Then again, the Chairman is not known for his showmanship.
So, it is no surprise that the Regulator’s suggestions are…
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OTTAWA – Minister of Canadian Heritage and Multiculturalism Pablo Rodriguez has been confirmed as a keynote speaker at Prime Time in Ottawa (PTiO) later this month.
Scheduled for January 30 – February 1, 2019 at the Westin Ottawa, PTiO is a national conference for some 600 of Canada’s most prominent business leaders from the feature film, television, interactive media, broadcasting and telecommunications industries.
Including a series of keynote speakers, plenary panels, breakout sessions and roundtables, the 2019 conference will grapple with the important issues currently facing the screen-based content industry.
www.primetimeinottawa.ca
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TWO YEARS AGO, on December 21, 2016, the CRTC acknowledged the increasing importance of Internet services to Canadians in Telecom Regulatory Policy 2016-496, in which the Commission defined fixed and mobile wireless broadband Internet access services as basic telecommunications services.
The Commission also established several new expectations for ISPs to address consumer complaints related to bill shock and contract clarity.
As a result, all ISPs that provide retail fixed broadband Internet services to individual and small business customers now must ensure their contracts and related documents clearly explain, in plain language (i) the services included in the contract (ii) any limits…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) is crediting government policies that promote facilities-based competition for Canada’s status as a “global 4G superpower with the fastest wireless networks in the G7.”
The lobby group, which represents companies that provide wireless services and products, referenced reports such as November’s Ookla Speedtest Global Index that found that Canadian wireless networks have download speeds that are 144.3% faster than the global average, making Canada's networks the fourth fastest in the world and tops amongst G7 nations.
CWTA president and CEO Robert Ghiz also highlighted CRTC data from its 2018 Communications Monitoring…
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By Denis Carmel
The First Law of Economists: For every economist, there exists an equal and opposite economist; The Second Law of Economists: They’re both wrong…
An economist is someone who doesn’t know what he’s talking about — and make you feel it’s your fault…
AS WE NOTED EARLIER, ’tis the season of the Price Comparison Reports. We had mentioned the CRTC Telecommunications Monitoring Report (which was released Thursday), the OECD Digital Economy Outlook Data (not quite yet) and the price comparison report commissioned by Innovation, Science and Economic Development – which is now produced by…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC has given Canada's telcos exactly 12 months to implement a universal network-level call blocking system to help cut down on the number of unsolicited and illegitimate calls that Canadians receive.
The Commission said Wednesday that such a system will automatically block calls with caller ID information that either exceeds 15 digits or does not conform to a number that can be dialled, such as 000-000-0000. Telecom service providers who are already offering advanced call-filtering services to their subscribers are not obligated to implement the system.
Noting that no single solution can help Canadians block all unwanted calls, the…
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SSIMWAVE assumes starring role in video quality
A SMALL BUT SWIFTLY growing University of Waterloo tech startup is shaking up the TV and movie industries with a ground-breaking way of tracking video quality on any screen.
Founded just five years ago, SSIMWAVE Inc. has already made waves in the broadcasting and pay-TV industries by pioneering analytic metrics and methods for measuring and monitoring video signals. These metrics and methods, designed to replicate the human visual system, enable the company's software probes to track a viewer's actual quality-of-experience (QoE), rather than just the quality of the video signals themselves.
Known as SSIM (for…
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TORONTO – An overwhelming number of Canadian performers have voted in favour of ratifying their new Independent Production Agreement (IPA) governing English-language production in Canada.
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) said that 85.8% of its members voted to accept the new agreement that was reached last month with the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) and the Association québécoise de la production médiatique (AQPM).
The IPA, which covers the engagement of performers in all film, television and digital media production in Canada (except in British Columbia, which operates under a separate collective agreement negotiated by ACTRA’s…
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MONTREAL – Québec Cinéma is teaming up with Netflix to help mentor and coach the next generation of Quebec filmmakers.
The three-year partnership will include the creation of a Talent Lab that will see a group of emerging artists develop and refine their skills through mentoring sessions, conferences, discussions and master classes given by Quebec and internationally renowned film industry professionals, reads Thursday's announcement.
A call for entries will be announced shortly and the first of three Talent Labs will take place in February 2020 during the Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma festival. In keeping with its values of equality and diversity, Québec Cinéma said…
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Ted's right hand man reflects on his life and career
PHIL LIND MAY ALWAYS BE remembered as Ted Rogers’ cajoling consigliere.
Sure, Phil had more appearances before the CRTC – over 100 – than anybody; and he’s put in 40 exciting years co-building the Rogers brand and our country’s second-largest telecommunications and media company – Rogers Communications.
But to caricature Phil Lind as merely Ted’s strategic “Abominable No Man” is to sell this man very short.
His new book Right Hand Man: How Phil Lind Guided the Genius of Ted Rogers, Canada’s Foremost Entrepreneur, written with Bob Brehl, may not be headed for the…
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