FEE-FOR-CARRIAGE will happen.
There. I said it. I don’t like it and sure don’t want to pay it, but I’ve come to believe – thanks to my talks and travels this year with folks from all sides of the issue – that in some form, the CRTC is going to grant the conventional broadcasters’ demand for more money from Canadians as additional compensation for the content they deliver.
"On the face of it, it’s a bizarre idea," Rogers vice-chairman Phil Lind told me recently. "(Consumers) get nothing extra, they just have to pay five dollars more."
True enough, but…
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THE CRTC’s TELEVISION POLICY Review hearing, which gets under way this morning with the CBC facing the commissioners, will have everyone involved in the Canadian TV industry on tenterhooks for months (like it hasn’t already!).
The Ceeb will be followed today by TQS, then CanWest Global and CTV.
While fee-for-carriage will overshadow much of the discussion over the next week-and-a-half or so, of course we at Cartt.ca know there’s far more to this hearing than that. The overall effects of new media will be a dominant topic, as will important issues like advertising flexibility, high definition transition solutions, what…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Jim Pattison Broadcast Group’s $15.75 million purchase of O.K. Radio’s Vancouver Island stations was approved by the CRTC today.
As first reported in May by Cartt.ca, O.K.’s owners, Rogers Charest and Stu Morton, are looking to retire – and are also awaiting CRTC approval for the sale of the company’s Alberta stations to Rogers Media.
Pattison has purchased from O.K. 100.3 The Q! The Island’s Rock (CKKQ-FM, playing classic and new rock) and The Zone @ 91.3 (CJZN-FM, with a modern rock format) as well as their retransmitters and transitional digital radio licenses.
The purchase is…
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FORMER CABLE ATLANTIC OWNER, and current Newfoundland & Labrador premier Danny Williams is ticked off these days.
His government is getting strafed by daily opposition fire over the recently announced deal to bring another undersea fibre link from the mainland to The Rock. The $52-million project is backed with $15 million in provincial government money and will be built by a consortium of Persona Communications, Rogers Communications and MTS Allstream.
From what’s been published in the press out east, the opposition Liberals don’t seem to care about the project’s potential benefits – which are likely many –…
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WINNIPEG – Canada’s largest ISPs have joined forces with Cybertip.ca, Canada’s child sexual exploitation tip line, to launch a new voluntary initiative to help in the battle against online child sexual abuse.
The new initiative, named "Project Cleanfeed Canada", is the latest contribution from the multi-stakeholder Canadian Coalition Against Internet Child Exploitation (C-CAICE). It’s intended to make the Internet safer for Canadians and their families by reducing their chances of coming across images of child sexual exploitation on the Internet.
The participating ISPs – which so far include Bell Aliant, Bell Canada, MTS Allstream, Rogers, SaskTel, Shaw Communications Inc.,…
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TORONTO – If Rogers and Bell are on the same side of an issue – working together even – you know they see a threat.
Today, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telus, Sask Tel, MTS Allstream, and the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance released a research report saying 81% of Canadians do not want to pay a new fee for conventional broadcast stations.
As has been reported repeatedly by Cartt.ca the concept of fee for carriage has been pushed by Canadian broadcasters and will be front and centre at the upcoming CRTC Television Policy Review beginning Monday, November 27th in Hull….
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has added six new foreign ethnic channels have been added to the eligible satellite list.
All were sponsored by Rogers Cable and they are:
* Aaj Tak Channel is a 24/7 Hindi-language programming service providing news and information on world events, current affairs and financial developments. None of the programming offered on the service is accompanied by English- or French-language subtitles or secondary audio programming
* De Pelicula Channel is a niche service featuring Spanish-language films of different genres and epochs. Its programming includes contemporary and classic Spanish-language movies from all eras, including films from…
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LEONARD ASPER HAS been front-and-centre on the fight for regulatory change in broadcast television.
Of all the broadcast CEOs in Canada, he has stuck his neck out the farthest in demanding things as fee-for-carriage and increased advertising flexibility. As you’ll read, much is riding on his company’s submission and the eventual new policy emanating from the CRTC decision which will be announced in 2007.
During the hearing days, expect much hay to be made on CanWest’s request for an extra 50-cents per TV subscriber per month for each conventional broadcaster.
At the Canadian Association of Broadcasters annual conference in…
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IF CANADA’S INCUMBENT TELEPHONE companies want total deregulation quickly, they’re going to have to do it for (and to) themselves, in the marketplace.
Yesterday Industry Minister Maxime Bernier told the Economic Club of Toronto, with numerous telecom executives in the audience, that the federal government will force the CRTC to deregulate "access independent" VOIP services, no matter which company offers them or where.
The voice services offered by Primus and Vonage are prime examples. The consumer buys a special box, perhaps downloads some software and "poof", they have VOIP service in their homes –and perhaps portably, too.
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TORONTO – Avik Lee, a veteran media industry professional, will join S-VOX as client relations co-ordinator on November 20th.
In this role, he will work closely with clients and partners in the areas of paid programming and advertising sales, and will be responsible for planning and executing effective promotions and grassroots community events.
"Avik has an impressive record of accomplishments in the print and broadcast sectors, both here in Canada and abroad. His recent background in television coupled with his language skills makes him the ideal person to work with our diverse client base," said S-VOX chief operating officer…
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