OTTAWA – In tersely worded letters, the CRTC has made it loud and clear it’s losing patience with Telus and three local TV providers for failing to comply with new rules that limit the loudness of TV commercials they broadcast. The companies have all failed to meet new distribution regulations that ensure commercial messages and regular programming are broadcast at an even volume. The amendments came into force September 1, 2012 and the Commission has now set new deadlines for the companies to prove they are in fact moving towards compliance.
The letters, from Andrea Rosen, Chief Compliance…
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IT SEEMS OBVIOUS NOW that the federal government’s attempt at building more competition into the Canadian wireless market has been a failure.
With the benefit of hindsight, looking back at how the Canadian wireless market has evolved since the 2008 advanced wireless spectrum auction, I keep wondering: “what did the federal government think was going to happen?” Back then, in an ill-advised attempt to foster more competition to the burgeoning wireless market in Canada, the federal government offered any Canadian-led wireless newcomer a leg-up in that auction, setting aside spectrum that was just for newbies willing to gamble on becoming…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has agreed to extend the submission deadline for the hearing into the must-carry of cable and satellite channels as outlined in section 9(1)(h) of the Broadcasting Act after receiving requests for an extension from Shaw, Rogers, Cogeco and the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (jointly), Telus and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre.
The deadline for the submission of interventions, comments and answers has been extended to February 27, 2013 and the deadline for the submission of replies has been extended to March 11 2013.
In addition, the preamble and the following item…
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TORONTO – Seven outstanding women in the communications, broadcasting and information technology sectors are being honoured by Canadian Women in Communications for their contribution to their companies and as role models of leadership with its prestigious Annual Awards.
The presentations will be made at CWC’s 2013 Annual Awards Gala at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier in Ottawa on April 16th. The event, which is known for attracting hundreds of top business and government leaders, will be hosted by Juno-award-winning R&B singer/songwriter Jully Black.
“This year’s award recipients are singular contributors to the industry,” said Judith Campbell,…
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WATERLOO, NEW YORK – RIM, newly renamed as BlackBerry, today unveiled their long-awaited BB10 smartphones and demonstrated the completely overhauled user interface with one-finger gesture controls and new business-friendly features at launch events across the world.
BlackBerry will offer two new smartphones running on its BB10 platform, the touch-screen BlackBerry Z10, and the Q10 with a physical keyboard. CEO Thorsten Heins also announced numerous high-profile app partners and was later joined on stage by U.S. musician Alicia Keys, the company’s newly named global creative director.
In Canada the Z10 will be available on February…
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GATINEAU – Wind Mobile has some pretty harsh words for the CRTC’s attempt at creating a wireless code of conduct for mobile service providers. The upstart carrier says the Commission completely missed the boat in not addressing three-year contracts and the de-linking of handset subsidies and service terms.
Simon Lockie, chief regulatory officer at Wind, lauds the CRTC for taking this necessary step to listen to consumers concerns and try to implement a wireless code of conduct, but by not dealing with three-year term contracts or exploring ways to separate handset subsidization from service pricing, the Commission is missing a…
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SOME BEHIND-THE-SCENES moves that look a lot like estate planning for Shaw Communications founder and controlling shareholder JR Shaw – along with the recent deal his company put together to sell the former Mountain Cable system and the rights to wireless spectrum out west to Rogers Communications – make it seem like the outright sale of Shaw is not to far over the horizon, says at least one Bay Street analyst.
"We believe the RCI-SJR (Rogers-Shaw) merger is inevitable but this is not likely to take place within the next 20 months and will likely take…
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OTTAWA – Cable and satellite TV have joined the likes of dial-up home Internet as media technologies that are now declining in popularity with Canadians. On the flip side, technologies that are now rapidly expanding include streaming audio on mobile, video-on-demand, satellite radio, viewing TV online and Netflix. These are the findings of the Media Technology Adoption Fall 2012 English-language market report from Media Technology Monitor.
MTM surveyed 4,000 English-speaking Canadians and found the move towards smartphones and tablets continues unabated. More than half of Anglophones now own smartphones and over a quarter have tablets….
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NEW YORK – India-based satellite television channel Zee TV, in partnership with Ethnic Channels Group Limited (ECG), is launching Zee TV Canada on February 1 on Rogers, Bell and Telus.
Asian Television Network International (ATN), which serves Canada's Asian community, recently decided not to renew its licensing agreement for it rights to Zee TV's Hindi programming when it expires on January 31, 2013.
Zee TV will now be available to Canadian viewers as a 24/7 service for the first time. Canadian viewers who enjoyed Zee’s top programming such as Pavitra Rishta, Punarvivaah and…
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AFTER SIX YEARS, SATELLITE radio produced its first-ever profit in Canada when earlier this month SiriusXM Canada reported it was $3.3 million in the black for the first quarter of fiscal 2013.
For executive chairman John Bitove, that Q1 result is vindication after plugging away just as XM Canada to begin with – in competition with Sirius Canada – and then finally merging with it in 2011 two years after the American satellite radio companies combined themselves. Satellite radio faced numerous launch obstacles, chiefly convincing people to want to pay for radio in the first place,…
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