OTTAWA – The CRTC put out a call for comments today on an application from Quebecor Media on behalf of its subsidiary TVA Group to remove the limit on advertising currently imposed on TVA’s discretionary services.
The Commission is also considering the possibility of removing the limit for other discretionary services as well.
Right now, TVA’s AddikTV, CASA, Évasion, MOI ET CIE, PRISE2, Yoopa and Zeste, as well as LCN (is national news service) and TVA Sports and TVA Sports 2 (its mainstream sports services) are restricted to airing no more than 12 minutes of advertising per clock hour, the CRTC…
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By Leonard St-Aubin
MORE THAN A YEAR ago I wrote in Cartt.ca that it would be no easy feat, under Bill C-10 (now C-11), to integrate global streamers into Canada’s protected domestic broadcasting system, laden with complex regulation and cross-subsidies for Canadian content (Cancon).
And I predicted that high-profile Cancon would be outsourced to global streamers as Canadian broadcasters struggle to compete.
Three recent developments validate those observations.
First is a chorus of calls for flexibility in what qualifies as Cancon, from Disney, Netflix, Spotify, and North American screen workers union IATSE. The issue is that Cancon’s outdated definitions are likely…
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CBC/RADIO-CANADA HAS responded to an open letter penned by Quebecor president and CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau, published here on Cartt.ca earlier today.
In his open letter, Péladeau expressed discontent with the direction of the national public broadcaster and the fact the government did not include any direction to the CRTC to consider “the advertising dollars the CBC/Radio-Canada is gobbling up” when it told the Commission to reconsider its decision on the renewal of CBC/Radio-Canada’s licences.
“Mr. Péladeau’s preoccupation with CBC/Radio-Canada is well known,” a CBC/Radio-Canada spokesperson said in an email to Cartt.ca. “He has, for years, repeated the claim…
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IN JUNE, THE CRTC renewed CBC/Radio-Canada’s broadcasting licences on terms that caused widespread indignation. Dozens of organizations protested that the new conditions of licence constitute a major departure from the mission of a public broadcaster. Last Thursday, the Governor General in Council ordered the CRTC to reconsider its decision, bearing in mind that the national public broadcaster must continue to make “a significant contribution to the creation, presentation and dissemination of local news, children’s programming, original French-language programming and programming produced by independent producers.”
That order is good news for Canada’s production industry and we welcome it. However, there’s nothing…
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Documents filed with Competition Tribunal make full hearing seem likely
By Amanda OYE
OTTAWA and TORONTO – Rogers Communications is still hoping for an expedited resolution to the Competition Bureau’s challenge to its proposed merger with Shaw Communications at the Competition Tribunal but is prepared in the event the deal is not approved by the end of the year.
“Our expectation is that there is a possibility to get a decision from the tribunal this year, following that we would then look to the minister and ISED to provide their approval, which we would expect in due course,” Rogers’ president and…
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TORONTO – Consolidation on the wholesale front in Canada’s telecom industry is not reducing competition, Bell’s executive vice-president and chief financial officer Glen LeBlanc (above, right) told BMO Capital Markets media and telecom analyst Tim Casey (above, left) at BMO’s 23rd annual Media and Telecom conference yesterday.
“There’s a very large reseller market… I think there’s 950 competitors in Canada,” LeBlanc said. “The barriers to entry are minimal, the largest is still in business – TekSavvy – and appears to have zero intention of selling.”
LeBlanc’s appearance at BMO’s conference comes not long after Bell announced it reached an agreement to…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – In the latest development in the list of never-ending disputes between Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) and Québecor concerning their respective sports channels, the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) denied BCE a judicial review of a CRTC decision that found Bell was giving RDS, its French-language sports channel, undue preference.
Both Bell and Québecor own programming services as well as distribution ones, which has them competing on many fronts.
In a 2018 decision, the Commission sided in final offer arbitration (FOA) with BCE’s rates for the distribution of Québecor’s sports service TVA Sports on BCE distribution services.
Approximately a…
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Says it’s an opportunity for government to support competition and consumer choice
OTTAWA – The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) is supporting City Wide’s petition to the Governor in Council, which asks it to vary the CRTC’s decision to deny City Wide’s 2020 application regarding Eastlink’s third-party Internet access (TPIA) point of interconnection (POI) in Nova Scotia.
City Wide wants the CRTC to order Eastlink to move its TPIA POI from the rural community of Pennant Point to a location in the core of Halifax, or alternatively, for the CRTC to regulate the rate the company charges for its…
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OTTAWA – Rogers Communications has filed with the Competition Tribunal a request for more information about how, according to the competition commissioner, Videotron will be negatively impacted by its acquisition of Shaw Communications — despite the sale of wireless assets to the Montreal-based company.
The cable giant filed a request for more detail Tuesday as to allegations that Videotron, which agreed to acquire Shaw’s Freedom wireless business, would face difficulties in the market and its competitiveness would be reduced if the deal is allowed to happen.
The allegations were made in a submission to the Tribunal earlier this month by…
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MONTREAL and TORONTO — Independent internet service provider Distributel has agreed to be acquired by Bell for an undisclosed amount, the companies said in an announcement today.
Distributel will continue to operate independently after close of the deal — which is subject to standard regulatory approval — and Matt Stein, the CEO of the company, will remain at the helm, a press release said.
“With this announcement, Distributel is better positioned to compete and deliver on our decades-long commitment to bringing choice and affordability to Canadians from coast to coast to coast,” Stein said in the release. “We hope Canadians are…
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