GATINEAU – Of all the submissions we’ve heard over the past three weeks, Channel Zero’s boiled the issues down very well, kicking of its oral remarks on Wednesday.
Cal Millar, vice-president and general manager of the company which owns Silver Screen Classics and Movieola said he believes the hearing is about Canadian programming and the fact that the consumer doesn’t really care about all the machinations going on within the CRTC or any of the broadcast and distribution companies.
“Canadians don’t say to themselves: ‘I want to spend money on cable or satellite’,” explained Millar. “They say ‘I want…
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GATINEAU – Shaw Communications is so opposed to any type of fee-for-carriage for conventional broadcasters that it wouldn’t even consider a hypothetical question on the matter yesterday.
During the hearing into the policies governing broadcast distribution undertakings and specialty services, which wrap up today in Gatineau, commissioners have been asking such questions of intervenors for the entire hearing, forcing companies and their executives to ponder “what if” scenarios from genre protection to a shrunken basic cable package.
But clearly, the most contentious issue facing the CRTC policymakers from this hearing is the potential for a fee-for-carriage being paid to…
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Dear Editor,
THE SIMMERING FEUD in correspondence to Prime Minister Harper seems a little juvenile and very disrespectful of due public process.
Messrs. Shaw, Asper and Fecan should know better. And now apparently, Bell has gotten the scribing urge! But at least Bell asks for some integrity re: the public hearing process – which is a very good thing.
Perhaps it is a tit-for-tat balancing act; but it is not consistent with the Broadcasting Act — and the latter trumps offside rhetorical flourish, we should hope.
Indeed, it is regrettable for all Canadians, and I believe ill-advised, for both…
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GATINEAU – The main attraction on Tuesday, day 10 of the hearing into the policies governing specialty channels and their carriers, was a posse of independent broadcasters arguing that the system as it now stands, isn’t quite as broken as some would have everyone believe.
Of course, the system ain’t quite right, but it’s not broken – and surely doesn’t need the massive overhaul proposed by cable and satellite companies, said the group
The panel featured S-Vox (VisionTV, The Christian Channel, One: Body, Mind and Spirit), Stornoway Communications (ichannel, bpm:tv, The Pet Network), TV5, APTN and Ethnic Channels Group…
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OF ALL THE CONFLICTING complaints we’ve heard so far about the hearing still ongoing in Gatineau which will decide the future policies to govern specialty channels and BDUs, the question in the headline has been the most often repeated – from all sides of the debates.
The issues are so numerous, so complex, then again so connected to each other, it’s a wonder the five-member CRTC commissioner panel can make sense of everything. And there are just so many unanswered questions.
Last week at the National Association of Broadcasters convention, one couldn’t help but marvel at the utter sense…
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GATINEAU – Telus has been ordered by the CRTC to provide rebates to customers who paid a $2.95 per month access fee but didn’t make any long-distance calls during the month. Telus however is not required to rebate customers who made long-distance telephone calls during the same month.
Local service rates are regulated by the CRTC and have to be either pre-approved by the commission or, in larger areas where it has stopped regulating rates are subject to a price ceiling. Long distance service, however, is not regulated. Telus had contended it did not need pre-approval or to abide by…
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EDMONTON – The National Telecommunications Workers Union,TWU-STT Canada, has announced today the launching of their YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/twustt). The union’s YouTube channel is part of an overall membership outreach strategy that is intended to utilize new media technology to better communicate with members as the union mobilizes employees for many upcoming initiatives including preparing for Telus bargaining which will commence in 2009.
"It is essential that we, as communications workers, engage our members using all the technology available so that we remain informed, connected and relevant to those we represent. Our YouTube channel is an integral part of…
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GATINEAU – Imagine – a video presentation at the CRTC’s hearings on broadcasting! Who would ever think of doing that?
“3-2-1. Blastoff!”
The Shaw Rocket Fund cleverly grabbed the attention of CRTC commissioners yesterday with a short animated video to make their point that children, as the ones who are already immersed in multi-media culture, should have a voice in this three-week gabfest about a future Canadian broadcasting model.
But it also took a former Radio-Canada journalist and now CRTC commissioner, Michel Morin, to ask the most probing question of the day: how come no one else at these…
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GATINEAU – What would have been fun, was a debate.
Day three of the CRTC hearings into BDU and specialty service regulations featured the Canadian Association of Broadcasters and Canadian Cable Systems Alliance, two groups with decidedly different constituents, and points of view, on the future policy direction of the TV industry.
The CAB represents most broadcasters in Canada who together serve basically 100% of the Canadian population. The CCSA, on the other hand, has a far smaller group of members whose companies deliver cable and broadband service to under a million rural Canadians.
While each had their turn…
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GATINEAU – Allarco Entertainment Inc.’s pay-per-view Super Channel will finally be launching on Shaw Communications’ cable systems and on its direct-to-home satellite distributor Star Choice in late April and early May respectively, according to the broadcaster.
The news was revealed following Allarco’s appearance Wednesday at the CRTC’s three-week-long hearing into pay and specialty services and broadcast distribution undertakings – at which executives complained it was proving impossible to get carriage, even though Super Channel had been granted must-carry status by the regulator.
“It’s easy to get a licence, but very difficult to execute it,” said Allarco chair Chuck Allard….
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