By Ahmad Hathout
Quebecor’s Videotron is asking the CRTC to get involved in adjusting the wholesale roaming access prices charged by SaskTel, which would reverse over a decade of regulatory forbearance.
In a Part 1 application with redactions made public Monday, Videotron is claiming it is being forced to pay unfairly high wholesale roaming prices to the dominant wireless service provider in Saskatchewan with no regulatory avenue because the CRTC in 2015 excluded the Crown corporation from the policy that regulated those rates for market power players Rogers, Bell, and Telus. However the regulator “retained the power to…
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The Quebecor Fund board of directors last week announced financial support totalling more than $1.5 million will be disbursed among eight Canadian production companies in the latest round of the fund’s Television Production Assistance Program.
Under the program’s Support for the Creation of Intellectual Property component, $390,000 will go to two projects from Productions Untamed 5 Inc. and Happy Camper Média Inc., according to a Quebecor Fund press release last Thursday. The broadcasters supporting the development of these projects are TVA Group and Télé-Québec.
Under the Support for the Production of Intellectual Property for…
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By Howard Law, author of MediaPolicy.ca and Canada vs. California: How Ottawa took on Netflix and the streaming giants (Lorimer, 2024)
The other shoe dropped last week when the CRTC delivered two rulings that nearly complete its new regulatory framework for Netflix and the rest of the Hollywood streamers, as well as Canadian television broadcasters.
The reaction to the rulings from the Hollywood streamers and their Canadian enablers offered more heat than light. Media reports played them as a trade story and some breathlessly speculated on Culture & Identity Minister Marc…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC has turned down a 2023 application that asked it to align the rates competitors pay Bell for disaggregated and aggregated fibre access.
Quebecor’s application, which hoped for an update to rates established in 2017, was opposed by Bell and Rogers for a reason that the CRTC would adopt Tuesday: the regulator is already reviewing how to update the disaggregated regime, which forces competitors to get their own transport/traffic facilities to obtain access to the fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) portion of the legacy telcos’ network.
“The proceeding initiated by Telecom Notice of Consultation Continue Reading
President says organization will submit a comprehensive application “promptly”
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC has denied Vues & Voix a three-cent increase in the rate broadcasters must pay to carry its 24-hour French-language radio station Canal M, saying there is insufficient evidence to justify it.
The discretionary service, which provides news and current affairs programming for the accessibility community and for people with disabilities, requested a three-cent rate increase – from four cents to seven cents per subscriber, per month – due to financial pressure. The not-for-profit said it has had to implement significant budget cuts, which resulted in…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The head of Quebecor said Thursday that the company will consider adopting satellite-to-mobile technology, but is in no rush to do so.
“This is an important and interesting matter,” Pierre Karl Peladeau said on a first-quarter earnings conference call. “Obviously, as you can imagine, we’re considering it, we’re looking at it, we’re analyzing it, we’re looking at what’s happening in the marketplace.
“We’re not considering it in urgen,” he added, noting it’s a small market. “But that doesn’t mean that we should not look at it. In fact, we’re considering this is complementary or down the road, probably also…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC confirmed Monday that carrier access agreements must be signed before mandated wireless service can be provided to competitors.
With that, the regulator rejected Quebecor’s request to vary that same finding in the summer of 2024 on the basis that signing a separate access agreement with Bell was unnecessary because the terms of that access were already established when the CRTC picked Bell’s rate at final offer arbitration (FOA) on October 10, 2023, and that Quebecor’s subsidiaries had already been roaming on the telco’s network as MVNOs. Quebecor, which alleged Bell was forcing it…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC on Friday set the final wholesale access rates to the bundled fibre networks of the incumbent telcos, keeping them “similar” to the existing rates set in 2024 because of their success in inducing new offerings in the market.
“The final rates set in this order are similar to those interim rates, which dozens of competitors have successfully been using to bring new offers to market and attract tens of thousands of new customers,” the CRTC said Friday.
Indeed, the final rates are mostly only slightly changed. For access to Bell’s FTTP facilities, between 3 Mbps and 1.5…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC) has been approved Monday for a three-cent increase in the price broadcasters must pay to carry the service, despite the CRTC suspending that application months earlier until after it implemented changes to the regulatory system.
Broadcasters will now pay 16 cents per subscriber, per month to carry the channel, which is required of them under the Broadcasting Act’s 9.1(1)(h) rule. The new rate, which is what the not-for-profit asked for, will take effect on September 1, which is the start of the new broadcasting year.
“The Commission is of the…
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Videotron last week announced the launch of its new 2 GIGA home internet service, offering download speeds up to 2 Gbps and upload speeds up to 200 Mbps, now available in select markets across Quebec.
Initially available in parts of Montreal, Laval and Quebec City, Videotron’s 2 GIGA internet service will expand across more of the telecom provider’s network in the coming months, according to a Videotron press release.
“At Videotron, our ambition has always been to equip Quebecers with the best tools to fully embrace the digital age,” Pierre Karl Péladeau, president…
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