OTTAWA – The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) said it "welcomed" the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision on Thursday to hear its appeal regarding the Part II licence fee issue.
As reported by Cartt.ca, the Federal Court Trial Division ruled in December 2006 that the CRTC Part II Licence Fees collected by the federal government from broadcasters and broadcast distributors are an illegal tax. The government appealed that decision to the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA), which ruled that the fees are valid regulatory charges and not a tax. On June 27, 2008, the CAB filed an application…
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TORONTO – The Canadian Television Fund (CTF) has released its 2009-2010 funding guidelines, which outline the application process, criteria, and deadlines for all CTF-supported programs.
Some of the revisions are an adjustment to some development financing rules, standard distribution fees have been updated to current market levels, and producer fees and corporate overhead maximum have increased from $1.2 million per project to $1.4 million in production streams.
The CTF provides financial investment and industry research to help foster the growth of television production in Canada. A complete list of guideline changes is available on the CTF’s website at Continue Reading
DARTMOUTH – Radio is not thought of as a sexy media any more. It’s now called "traditional media" or "old media," or worse.
Despite its easy ubiquity, many mouthy know-it-alls have been predicting its dramatic weakening, or even its demise, in the face of new media or satellite radio or some other bugaboo supposedly about to kill it off. It’s not true, though. Radio in Canada has been steadily holding its own in the face of ubiquitous Internet, devices like iPods and new delivery vehicles like satellite radio or broadband.
Small towns have probably never been described as sexy…
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OTTAWA – An association representing 33,000 high-tech executives is calling on the government to create a $60 billion “infrastructure fund” to help stimulate the economy through job-focused spending.
"We have never gone through anything like this," says John Reid, president of the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATA). "The economy has flat-lined, and my members tell me that even the high tech services sector, which is normally resistant to recession, is feeling the freeze.
"Canada needs to keep up with the example of our American neighbours, who are pushing forward an infrastructure stimulus package of $500-billion," he continued in the press…
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TORONTO – Rogers Wireless has rolled out its 3.5 next generation network across the country.
Calling it “the fastest mobile network in Canada”, the Rogers press release says that it’s the first North American wireless carrier to offer customers peak downloads of 7.2Mbps on a national network. The network allows “customers to communicate in innovative ways with mobile multimedia, download large files ultra-fast and utilize Internet speeds on the go that are similar to a standard broadband connection.”
The 7.2 Mbps High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) network is the latest and fastest 3G service available, offering mobile download speeds…
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TORONTO – It was an overflow house of hundreds of family, friends, politicians and Canadian business glitterati who gathered in Toronto’s St. James Cathedral on a grey, rainy Tuesday morning to pay their final respects to Ted Rogers, the founder of Rogers Communications and one of the leading lights of Canadian business.
Rogers died December 2nd of heart disease at the age of 75.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, former PM Brian Mulroney, Shaw Communications founder JR Shaw and his son, CEO Jim Shaw, Telus CEO Darren Entwistle, Bell Canada CEO George Cope, Astral chairman Andre…
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TORONTO – Canadian broadcaster and journalist John Roberts will be inducted into the Canadian Broadcast Industry Hall of Fame as part of Canadian Music Week in March.
Roberts currently anchors ‘American Morning’ on CNN, after a stint as CNN’s senior national correspondent and anchor of the weekly show ‘This Week at War’. Prior to CNN, he worked for CBS News for 14 years in various roles. Roberts spent the first 10 years of his career as an anchor and correspondent for Citytv in Toronto (Ed note – you may recall that he was then known as J.D. Roberts). He…
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OTTAWA – The demand for wireless will help Canada’s telecommunications industry “remain healthy and profitable”, according to the latest Industrial Outlook by the Conference Board of Canada.
"The continued rapid rate of increase in demand for wireless services – 8% increases on a year-over-year basis – is driving growth in the telecommunications industry. However, profit levels will remain flat over the next few years, due to fierce price competition, and a slowdown in demand growth due to the economic slowdown," said Michael Burt, associate director of the Industrial Outlook.
The forecast says that an uncertain economy will help to…
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TORONTO – Nominations close Wednesday, December 10th for the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) brand new Young Canadian Engineering Professional of the Year Award.
The SCTE, along with Aurora Networks as the primary sponsor and Cartt.ca as the publishing partner, last month announced the development and launch of a new award that annually will recognize a young cable telecommunications engineering professional in Canada who is already making his or her mark on the industry.
The Young Canadian Engineering Professional of the Year Award will debut as part of the inaugural SCTE Canadian Summit, which is set for Tuesday…
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OTTAWA – Cable’s foray into the telephone market was the main reason that cable distributors did not lose market share to competitors last year, says Statistics Canada, the first time this has happened since satellite television was introduced in 1997.
Cable’s total number of subscribers to the principal services, (television, Internet access and telephone), reached 14.2 million on August 31, 2007 – 1.6 million more subscribers compared with the same period in 2006 – and more than half of these new customers were telephone service subscribers.
In their official release bulletin called The Daily, StatsCan noted that while there were fewer new…
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