GATINEAU – Of all the interveners appearing so far at the CRTC’s TV Policy Review, the CBC’s might be the most contentious – and its executives endured a good grilling by the commissioners Friday morning on the fifth day of the Commission’s TV Policy Review.
The Crown Corp, which has had a rough past 24 months as most know, has come to the CRTC asking for a number of new things, but three aspects are drawing the most attention. It wants: to be able to shut off its transmitters and charge subscription TV providers a wholesale fee; for the Commission…
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GATINEAU – The non-vertically integrated cablecos, Cogeco and members of the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (CCSA) entered the Let’s Talk TV policy hearing discussion fray on Thursday with both arguing the Commission must ensure they can acquire programming rights at reasonable costs without onerous terms.
Keith Stevens, chair of the board at CCSA member Execulink Telecom, noted during the CCSA’s opening remarks that the recent affiliation agreement with Bell Media is a prime example of the harm small cable TV providers face when dealing with VI providers. Under this deal, Execulink was required to maintain packaging requirements as they were…
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GATINEAU – The funding of big budget Canadian programming as well as the role of the U.S. TV channels in the broadcasting system were put under the microscope during the fourth day of the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV policy hearing.
Rogers Communications, Shaw Communications and Cogeco Cable warned of significant negative consequences to the Canadian system if the commission removed US 4+1s (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX + PBS) from basic cable packages. The CRTC’s proposal was certainly a bone of contention for Rogers with the company saying it would face the wrath of subscribers if these channels were removed from…
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GATINEAU – The biggest stir on the third day of the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV policy hearing centered on the possible inclusion of revenue earned from broadcasters’ online activities when calculating Canadian programming expenditures (CPE) Bell Canada arguing that it’s illogical, odd and added insult to injury.
“Working document item 10 concerns us greatly,” said Mirko Bibic, Bell’s executive VP and chief legal and regulatory officer, adding that the proposal on the table “would treat Canadian licensees in that space differently than the Netflixes of the world.”
That bit of the CRTC’s discussion document says: “The definition…
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TORONTO – The CEOs of BCE and Rogers say they are more than happy to offer access to their upcoming online subscription video-on-demand services to other TV providers, and at least one of those other providers is eager to sign up.
At the annual BMO Media and Telecom investors’ conference in Toronto on Tuesday, Rogers CEO Guy Laurence said Shomi, a joint project with Shaw that is set to launch in November, was to have other partners (as Cartt.ca first reported earlier this year). But they decided to launch without them because they “couldn’t get their…
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TORONTO – Corus Entertainment opened the Toronto Stock Exchange Friday morning in celebration of its 15th anniversary as a Toronto Stock Exchange listed company.
President and CEO John Cassaday, and executive chair Heather Shaw joined Loui Anastasopoulos, vice president, TSX Company Services, Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange.
Founded in September 1999, Corus is a Canadian-based media and entertainment company that creates, broadcasts and licenses content across a variety of platforms for audiences around the world through brands including YTV, Teletoon, ABC Spark, W Network, OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network (Canada), HBO Canada, Historia and Séries+, as well as Nelvana, Kids…
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TORONTO – Bell Media and Corus Entertainment have inked a multi-year, multi-platform deal with HBO for the exclusive Canadian rights to the entire past-season library of every HBO scripted series currently on air. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The deal includes the rights to more than 700 episodes from past seasons of current programs, in addition to the 300+ episodes of HBO series that are already available (Ed note: so take that, shomi and Netflix). Starting this fall, past seasons of hits like Game Of Thrones, Girls, Boardwalk Empire, and True Detective will also made available to…
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SOMETHING’S NOT RIGHT. Especially if I’m quoting Macbeth.
We have analyzed the hell out of the CRTC’s TV Policy Review which is set to begin Monday in Gatineau, but there’s something ungraspable about the whole thing. Is there too much on the table? Probably. Is the Regulator looking to solve problems it has no chance of fixing – or trying to solve some where none exist? Yes, and yes, certainly.
This is a hearing about all things English Television, or English language video. Yes I know it’s supposed to be about all things television in Canada, but let’s be honest here;…
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SAN FRANCISCO – Digital music service Rdio has updated its app to include a free Internet radio service as well as new features designed to make it easier for users to listen to music any way they want.
Rdio said Thursday that its free stations-first offers more music and a wide variety of station types, including algorithmic artist and genre-based stations, human curated stations programmed to fit any mood or activity, personalized stations tuned to each individual listener, and stations based on tastemakers. Users may also upgrade to a full on-demand subscription service that offers access to any song, album…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The federal government said that it will force the communication industry to abandon paper bill charges after the country’s biggest companies failed to commit to doing so at Thursday’s CRTC review into the practice.
Industry Minister James Moore said Friday that charging extra fees to customers who receive paper copies of their bills, a practice known as pay-to-pay billing, was “unfair”, and promised that the government would introduce legislation to end it in the telecommunications sector. He did not say when such legislation would be tabled.
"More and more Canadians are finding a new charge appearing on their monthly…
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