By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – On Aug. 4, the CRTC sent a letter to Pelmorex regarding the impact of Rogers’ Canada-wide service outage on its role as the operator of the National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination (NAAD) system.
“As an initial step, comprehensive information is required in order for the Commission and Canadians to understand what happened, and, just as importantly, what can be done to improve the system including how to mitigate impacts on the National Public Alerting System,” the letter reads.
The CRTC mentions that while it is considering a public inquiry on this telecommunications failure, it wishes to…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC today announced on Twitter that its Quebec Commissioner Alicia Barin (above) was appointed by the Governor in Council as interim vice-chair, broadcasting on Monday for a six-month period.
Barin takes over the role from Caroline J. Simard, who is set to begin her new role as Commissioner of Elections Canada starting Aug. 15.
Simard was previously scheduled to leave the Commission in September. She was a dissenting voice on two recent CRTC decisions regarding the CBC – the decision to renew its licences with significant changes to its conditions of licence, and the decision…
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OTTAWA – When the federal government announced it was proposing a new telecommunications policy direction to the CRTC back in May, it emphasized how it would improve competition.
This is supposed to help ensure telecommunications services are affordable and encourage innovation in the industry.
The proposed policy direction compels the CRTC to consider, among other things, how its decisions “encourage all forms of competition and investment”. But while several telecommunications service providers (TSPs) that submitted comments to the government on the proposed policy direction seem to agree competition is important, there is disagreement on what kind of competition the CRTC…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – The CRTC’s renewal of the CBC/SRC’s licences on June 22, was met with dissenting voices within the Commission where the decision was approved by three commissioners over two dissents, as well as outside voices who have issues with some segments of the decision.
Several groups have now filed petitions to Cabinet to have the decision set aside or referred back to the CRTC, including Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the National Pensioners Federation (NPF), the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB), FRIENDS, l’Association québécoise de la production médiatique (AQPM) and the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA),…
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MONTRÉAL – Bell is mourning the loss of former Bell Canada CEO and Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) founder Jean de Grandpré (above) who passed away last weekend. He was 100 years old.
“Mr. de Grandpré was instrumental in transforming the telecommunications industry in Canada, and an important leader in the business community,” a Bell press release issued today says.
de Grandpré joined Bell in 1966 as general counsel, became CEO and chair of the board in 1976, and played a key role in creating BCE in 1983. de Grandpré “guided Bell through a transformative period in its history that included the…
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GLOBAL ANIMATION COMPANY Cinesite, which has studios in London, Montreal and Vancouver, announced last week it has acquired a majority stake in animation studio Squeeze, located in Quebec City and Montreal.
The investment in Squeeze will allow Cinesite “to further increase its animation content and service offerings for international markets while bringing mocap (motion capture) and Unreal capabilities into the group to service video game and film productions,” explains a press release.
Squeeze was co-founded in 2011 by Denis Doré and Patrick Beaulieu, who were joined in 2014 by François Houde, the studio’s current chief financial officer. The animation studio…
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OTTAWA — The Community Radio Fund of Canada (CRFC) announced today it will award funding through its 2022-2023 Radiometres program to 42 community and campus radio stations.
“Radiometres has supported community projects for over ten years and is guided by three pillars including content creation, skills development and digital initiatives,” explains a press release.
The projects selected in this round of funding “build community in their local area while driving the production of Canadian content and innovating the entire broadcasting industry,” the release says, noting the funding “provides an opportunity for community radio stations to explore their community’s identity and bring…
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By Connie Thiessen
NIAGARA – A new streaming platform will broadcast more than 1,000 hours of live coverage from the Niagara 2022 Canada Summer Games, Aug. 6-21, thanks to digital production partner, Niagara College.
Taking place at venues across Niagara, the 28th edition of the Canada Games will see close to 5,000 athletes, representing Canada’s future Olympians and Paralympians, compete. Niagara 2022 will include an inaugural rugby sevens competition, the return of men’s lacrosse after a 37-year absence, and the first-ever women’s lacrosse competition in the history of the Canada Games.
Over 90% of scheduled competitions, across 18 different sports, will be available…
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TORONTO — Blue Ant Media announced today the promotions of Craig Junner (above, left) to senior vice-president of programming and content strategy for its global media arm and Andrea Harrick (right) to vice-president of content acquisitions for global media.
“Both promotions arrive on the heels of a year filled with significant growth in the free streaming arena for Blue Ant Media, which saw both Craig and Andrea playing integral leadership roles in the creation and launch of four new free-streaming channels in the U.S and Canada, including the recently announced HistoryTime now available in the U.S. and Canada,” reads…
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TORONTO and MONTREAL – The Canada Media Fund (CMF) announced last week Trent Locke (above) has been appointed as the organization’s new executive vice-president of finance and analytics, starting July 25.
Locke is overseeing the CMF’s analytics and strategic insights, finance and administration, and human resource teams. He is also to “guide the CMF’s day-to-day business and financial operations and provide a strategic vision for our wide-ranging research and data gathering, in partnership and consultation with the industry and our Advisory Committees,” a press release says.
Locke has over three decades of industry and financial experience, most recently as vice-president of…
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