FIRST, THE GENRE PROTECTION rules established by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission consist of two distinct components, with two distinct goals. The first rule is directed at limiting the distribution in Canada of foreign services which are partly or fully competitive with licensed Canadian services.
The second is intended to limit the licensing of a number of Canadian services in one genre of programming, so that the onerous requirements of services licensed to Canadians with regard to the exhibition of, and the expenditures on, Canadian programming can be met, maintained and increased.
Secondly, nowhere do the BDUs mention…
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LEAVE IT TO SHAW to not only demand genre protection go away, but to use a lovely incendiary word that broadcasters have long used against cable: monopoly.
When Shaw Communications’ submission to the CRTC on its upcoming policy review on broadcast distribution undertakings and specialty services addressed the Commission’s policy on genre protection (which means there’s only supposed to be one comedy specialty, one short film channel, one preschool channel, and so on), it refers to the protection as a genre monopoly.
“I’m not going to be lectured to by Jim Shaw about being in the monopoly business,” said…
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WITHOUT A DOUBT, THE highest profile issue CRTC commissioners will tackle beginning next week’s policy hearings on broadcast distribution undertakings and specialty services is fee-for-carriage. That is, paying a new subscription fee for over-the-air broadcast stations.
As the rules now stand the regulatory bargain is such that cable and satellite and telco TV must carry conventional local TV stations low in their channel lineups and must substitute Canadian signals over top of American ones when the programming is the same. We’ve come to know that part as simultaneous substitution. In return, distributors have not ever had to pay the…
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It has been argued in the media that “Cable companies have built profitable businesses based on the exploitation of free programming supplied by local broadcasters without giving any of the proceeds back to the stations.”
Nothing could be further from the truth. Over-the-air television stations receive advertising revenue and they need cable to get to more eyeballs with better pictures. Cable’s capital investment to provide the bandwidth that carries local stations costs literally billions of dollars and the broadcasters do not pay a cent for the use of this network. In addition, cable gives the broadcasters a low…
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PORTLAND, OR – Rogers Cable has inked a deal with Rentrak Corp., which will measure the performance of the cableco’s on-demand services.
“Rogers Cable is a pioneer in the communications business and Rentrak is pleased to include the company among our esteemed existing partners as we expand our measurement reach throughout North America,” said Carol Hinnant, VP of business development for Rentrak’s OnDemand Essentials Suite of Services. “Our commitment to precise, timely and customizable census-level data is what keeps our business growing as the on-demand platform continues to evolve.”
Rentrak provides census level viewership performance information for the on-demand…
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TORONTO – Telus Corp. has launched a new low-cost, no-frills mobile service, called Koodo Mobile, that offers talk and text options.
Koodo Mobile’s cheapest plan costs $15 a month for 50 minutes at any time of the day, and 50 text messages. Voicemail, call display, and an unlimited text messaging cost $5 a month or $10 a month for all three.
A media release refers to the service as “fat-free mobility” because it doesn’t feature more bandwidth intensive features such as television, video calling and satellite radio. There is no activation fee and no fixed-term contract. Billing is per…
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INVIDI TECHNOLOGIES CEO DAVID DOWNEY has been long been dining out on John Wanamaker’s now ancient and clichéd quote: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”
It’s been a key portion of Downey’s presentations to investors and industry folks for years. Now Wanamaker, the innovative American department store pioneer (he’s said to have invented the price tag and the “sale”) died in the 1920s, so one would think that we have progressed beyond the late retailer’s ad spend calculations over the century or so since he spoke those words….
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TORONTO – Rogers Broadcasting has finally gotten the over-the-air ethnic channel in Vancouver it coveted back in the 1990s as the CRTC on Monday approved its purchase of channel m (CHNM-TV) from Multivan Broadcast Ltd. (Broadcasting Decision 2008-72).
The transaction initially announced last July, but without the financial terms of the deal being disclosed, is expected to close on April 30.
“We are delighted with the approval by the CRTC of our acquisition of channel m. The Rogers OMNI Television group will continue to illustrate Canada’s ongoing commitment to a media landscape that reflects our multicultural and multilingual history,”…
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OTTAWA – Niagara Networks isn’t on the list of 27 companies that qualified to participate in the auction for Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum that Industry Canada released Monday.
Niagara Networks, which acquired wireless spectrum in a May auction, had the highest deposit of $881.4 million when Industry Canada issued on March 14 its list of participants intending to participate in the auction.
But added to the list was Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, a financial backer of a planned bid by entrepreneur John Bitove to acquire wireless spectrum. The group is bidding under the name Data &…
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TORONTO – It’s true the Toronto Maple Leafs are out of the NHL play-offs once again. And it’s true the team hasn’t won the Stanley Cup since deep into the last century.
But for the loyal, some might say delusional, fans of the blue-and-white, there is always hope. So to reward these poor, long-suffering supporters, THE FAN 590 radio station in Toronto is putting up a million dollars.
The Rogers Broadcasting-owned station announced today, the morning after the Leafs’ mathematical elimination from this year’s play-offs, that it’s launching a “Million Dollar Cup Contest”.
Crazy?
“Even I’d pay a million…
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