OTTAWA – Industry Minister James Moore said Friday that he has approved changes to the country’s radiocommunication regulations in order to reduce red tape and fees for using Canada's radio airwaves.
The amendments, among other changes, remove ownership and control requirements that carriers already need to meet under the Telecommunications Act. A news release issued by Industry Canada said that removing this “unnecessary and repetitive rule” will reduce paperwork and the administrative burden for small businesses across Canada. Approximately 98% of wireless service providers are considered small businesses.
The changes will also eliminate obsolete issuance and reinstatement fees, a move expected to save approximately…
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VANCOUVER – Government support of Canada’s film and television industry is expensive and fails to provide a substantial benefit to the country, according to a new study from public policy think tank The Fraser Institute.
The study, The Entertainment Industries, Government Policies and Canada's National Identity, examines how the federal government uses regulations and funding to support the production of Canadian films, television, music, books and periodicals and the distribution of entertainment. It concludes that government policies designed to support the country’s entertainment industry are, in fact, both “costly and inefficient”.
Taking issue with Canadian content regulations in broadcasting and…
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MOST AGREE THE PRIMARY reasons why Netflix – and for that matter all web-based media – has a growing advantage over traditional media are the streams of data they gather and use to make real-time decisions. It’s the so-called Big Data that web-based companies gather to make magic and produce profits.
At Thursday’s Content Industry Connect event hosted by the Banff Media Festival organizers, one attendee (we’re told it was a fellow named Ahmad Iqbal from a company called Atendy) asked what is the best question I’ve heard put to a panel of broadcasters in a very long time, saying:…
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TORONTO – Many folks love to tell Canadian TV executives what they should – or should not – be doing. Really, anyone with a TV set does that regularly.
But when it comes to those with a keyboard and a national platform, or with a famous name or job, their gripes often offend and are taken to heart. At Thursday’s Content Industry Connect day put on by the Banff Media Festival, broadcast executive, investor and producer Peter Sussman kicked off the industry leaders panel by quoting noted thorn-in-the-Canadian-TV-industry’s-side, Globe and Mail TV critic John Doyle. In a fall 2013 column…
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TORONTO – Astral Media co-founder Ian Greenberg is being inducted into the Canadian Broadcast Industry Hall of Fame.
The induction ceremony will take place during Canadian Music Week at the Canadian Music & Broadcast Industry Awards gala scheduled for May 8, 2014 at the Kool Haus in Toronto.
One of four brothers who founded Astral, Greenberg played an integral part in the company’s 50-year history by gradually transforming it from a photographic specialty business into one of Canada's leaders in pay and specialty TV, radio, out-of-home advertising, and digital media. As president and CEO of Astral from 1995 until BCE's acquisition…
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OTTAWA – Canada’s public broadcaster is not immune to the impacts of new viewing habits and Internet-based platforms, but rather than trying to turn back the clock, CBC/Radio-Canada is embracing new devices and technologies to remain relevant to Canadians, according to the CRTC.
Scott Hutton, executive director of broadcasting at the Regulator, noted during an appearance before the Senate Standing Committee on Transportation and Communications that one only needs to look at CBC’s coverage of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics (and its multi-platform efforts), its content licensing agreements with Netflix and its Tou.tv French-language online video on-demand…
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TORONTO – Wind Mobile’s future appears cloudy after its Amsterdam-based financial backer wrote off its investment in the five-year old Canadian wireless company.
VimpelCom announced the write down with its Q4/13 results early Thursday morning. The global telco reported a 2013 net loss of USD $1.4 billion that it attributed to non-cash impairments of USD $3.0 billion mainly related to its assets in Canada and Ukraine.
“The company fully impaired its assets in Canada, mainly relating to the challenges the company is facing in the country, which resulted in the strategic decision to withdraw from the 700 MHz spectrum auction and…
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TORONTO – Rogers Media’s new specialty channel FXX is gearing up for its April 1st launch with a programming slate that will include original FX scripted series, acquired movies and series, and original Canadian programs.
Billed as “the younger-skewing funnier extension of FX Canada”, the channel will mirror its U.S. counterpart with a roster of established hit comedies, such as It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Eastbound & Down, The League, Legit, and Wilfred, as well as new series Ali G: Rezurection, new animated comedy Chozen, and the Canadian-filmed black comedy Fargo, (pictured) based on the Coen brothers' Oscar-winning film.
FXX will…
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TORONTO – Calling 2013 “a pretty good year”, SaskTel president and CEO Ron Styles said this week that the provincial Crown corporation will come close to its financial targets ($1.2 billion in revenue, $93 million in net income) when it announces its annual results in April.
Styles was in Toronto on Monday and sat down with Cartt.ca to discuss the year past, the year ahead and some of the challenges posed by current regulatory uncertainty in Canada’s telecom industry.
The past year saw SaskTel continually add capacity to its wired and wireless network, continue to grow its fibre to the premises…
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – According to Kathleen Ham, vice-president of federal regulatory affairs for number four U.S. wireless provider T-Mobile, the Federal Communications Commission should look to the results of Canada’s 700 MHz wireless auction for instruction.
In a blog-post on February 28, Ham noted that “adopting reasonable spectrum aggregation limits is the best possible approach to maintaining a healthy, competitive wireless industry.” As readers and other industry watchers here will recall, Industry Canada placed limits on the amount of spectrum our established big three, Rogers, Telus and Bell could acquire in the auction which just wrapped…
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