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Search Results for: industry canada

Radio / Television News February 3, 2023 3 years ago

COUNTERPOINT: Is the points system really the right way for Cancon evaluation?

By Richard Stursberg, pictured above, ex-head of Telefilm, English services at the CBC, and Chair of the Canadian Television Fund. The debate about how to define Canadian content in the future has begun. The Canada Media Fund (CMF) has launched a consultation on the subject. The passage of bill C-11 will require the CRTC to do the same thing. In a recent article for Cartt.ca, the distinguished communications lawyer, Doug Barrett, argued for the maintenance of the existing definition of Canadian content based on the citizenship of the key members of the creative team. The points system, as… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News February 1, 2023 3 years ago

Industry association calls for regulated last mile fibre access in TekSavvy wholesale rate complaint

By Ahmad Hathout OTTAWA – An association representing independent internet service providers filed a submission to the CRTC yesterday requesting the regulator impose, at least temporarily, discounted wholesale access to incumbent fibre to the building. The submission by the Competitive Network Operators of Canada is in support of a complaint filed by internet service provider TekSavvy, which alleges that some incumbents are giving to some providers wholesale access to their networks at favourable and unregulated (“off-tariff”) rates over other competitors. TekSavvy brought the undue preference application in light of Rogers’s proposal to provide Videotron with access to its network… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News January 30, 2023 3 years ago

Industry coalition urges bill C-11 changes for equal Canadian and foreign obligations

By Denis Carmel OTTAWA – As the Senate gears up for a third reading of Bill C-11 tomorrow, the Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural (CDCE) is calling for last-minute changes to the Online Streaming Act to ensure an equal playing field between foreign and Canadian streamers. The coalition is specifically referencing an amendment that was rejected by a Senate committee that would have required an equal contribution in terms of labour from the foreign streaming giants to Canadian productions. The current iteration requires a lesser level of Canadian creative and other human resources from the foreigners, which was… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News January 30, 2023 3 years ago

Bram Abramson named Ontario commissioner for CRTC

OTTAWA — Bram Abramson is the CRTC’s next commissioner representing Ontario, Canadian Heritage announced today. The lawyer with over 20 years of experience in the communications and technology industries will complete the nine-person commission when he takes his position on February 15 for a five-year term. The vacancy was created by the exit of Monique Lafontaine. “Bram Abramson’s extensive experience in law and telecommunications will be a great asset in his role as CRTC Ontario Regional Commissioner,” Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said in a press release. “The CRTC’s regional commissioners ensure that the tribunal’s scope encompasses the entire country, thereby enabling… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News January 30, 2023 3 years ago

COMMENTARY: In modernizing the Cancon points test, be careful what you wish for

By Douglas Barrett, featured above, adjunct professor in the arts, media and entertainment MBA program at the Schulich School of Business at York University.  This is the fifth piece I have written for Cartt.ca on the definition of a Canadian Program (the previous pieces are listed below) and I want to focus this one on the 10-point content scale used by both CAVCO and the CRTC in determining whether to certify a program.  As this measurement metric is now decades old, and as the world of production has completely changed multiple times in that period, it is almost universally assumed… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News January 27, 2023 3 years ago

MPs urge minister to suspend Rogers-Shaw decision until ‘free and open’ process held for Freedom

MPs will discuss the deal on Monday, letter says By Ahmad Hathout OTTAWA — Five members of Parliament sent a letter dated today to Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne urging him not to approve the transfer of Freedom’s spectrum assets to Videotron until a “free and open” process, approved by the Competition Bureau, is held to determine the suitor of the assets. During a House industry committee hearing Wednesday, some MPs were concerned as to how Rogers ended up getting to pick Videotron as the buyer of Freedom to complete its acquisition of Shaw (the bureau has remained steadfast in… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News January 27, 2023 3 years ago

OPINION: Lessons for Canada from Australian spectrum policy

By Bronwyn Howell, a fellow at think tank American Enterprise Institute with a PhD in economics and public policy, an MBA, and a BA in operations research, all from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. She has undertaken contract work for Telus.  Canada and Australia are similar in many ways, but one area of significant difference is mobile telecommunications. While both countries share similar geographic and demographic features – vast territories very sparsely populated on average, yet highly-urbanised first-world economies, so likely face similar telecommunications costs and demands, Canada has fared less well in comparison to… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News January 25, 2023 3 years ago

House committee members take issue with Rogers being allowed to pick competitor

By Ahmad Hathout OTTAWA – Members of the House industry committee took issue today with Rogers being allowed to choose Videotron as its competitor to complete its acquisition of Shaw, with one member of Parliament saying it “boggles the mind” to think Rogers would sell Freedom for less if it meant more competition. Today’s hearing was the committee’s second round at the Rogers-Shaw merger, this time with the new development that Videotron agreed to purchase Freedom from Shaw for nearly $3 billion. It also comes a day after the Federal Court of Appeal upheld a… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News January 25, 2023 3 years ago

A brief overview of arguments in today’s House hearing on Rogers’s pursuit of Shaw

OTTAWA – Rogers’s proposed purchase of Shaw faces just one more hurdle: the innovation minister’s approval of the transfer of Freedom spectrum assets to Videotron, which agreed to purchase the company for nearly $3 billion. The deal’s prospects improved dramatically when it survived a Competition Bureau challenge at the Federal Court of Appeal, which denied yesterday a request to find in error the Competition Tribunal’s approval of the deal. Even more so when the bureau announced late last evening that it will not appeal the court’s decision. But now scrutiny will be leveled against it… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News January 25, 2023 3 years ago

Many Canadians still watching linear TV, CMF report finds

By Connie Thiessen The Canada Media Fund (CMF) has released its 11th annual Key Trends Report, exploring how the screen-based industries might evolve in the coming years, including where advertising, viewer habits, and media technology are headed.
Among the study’s key data points are that screen content consumption remained stable between the third quarter of 2021 and Q3 2022, even as Canadians were emerging from pandemic routines and returning to more normal life and travel. 84% of anglophones and 81% of francophones watched live TV via a linear channel in the last month (Q3 2022) with TV sets remaining the primary device… Continue Reading
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