OKAY, WE’LL ADMIT IT. Sometimes it does get a little difficult in maintaining one’s attention on the fifth day into a CRTC hearing.
The questions, and quite often the answers, grow more similar as minutes turn into hours, turn into days. Those repeated questions and answers, though, do tend to allow followers of the hearing to divine just what the commissioners and the industry are aiming for. If you read between enough lines, maybe you can even predict, a little, what’s coming.
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WE’VE ALREADY EXPLAINED what the primary topics are during our extensive coverage of the CRTC’s…
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GATINEAU – Do consumers really want the ability to pick the Jenny Craig of TV packages, a.k.a. the oft-debated, ultra-lean, skinny basic package?
It has been one of the primary questions coming from CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein and his colleagues over the first three days of the Commission’s hearing into vertical integration.
The idea has been bounced around for a couple of years (especially during the fee-for-carriage battles), however it has really taken hold of the imagination of the panel of commissioners this week.
In a nutshell, a mandated skinny basic package would force cable, satellite and telco TV distributors…
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PARIS – We can likely watch for a renewed wave of stories and blogs about how far behind Canada is when it comes to wireless and broadband as compared to the rest of the world when the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development releases its latest Communications Outlook report, expected some time today.
The wave of negativity has washed over the country several times already due to various such reports, so just make sure you dig deeper than the easy, salacious, headline.
According to a source who has already seen the report, it will make headlines that will make…
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PARIS – Canadians haven’t bought into the mobile Internet phenomenon like other countries’ citizens have according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) latest Communications Outlook report released Thursday.
Crediting the popularity of smart phones and tablet PCs for driving the growth of mobile broadband services, the report said that wireless broadband subscriptions in OECD countries exceeded half a billion by the end of 2010, noting an increase of more than 10% between June and December. The report is based on data from December, 2010.
The average penetration rate stood at 41.6%, meaning four in ten “inhabitants” in each country on…
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TECHNOLOGY HAS CREATED THIS vast crevasse. On one side is what consumers want. On the other is what the traditional TV industry says they can give them. Nestled in the void, like a big broadcast boogeyman waiting to pounce (for some, anyway), is OTT.
At the Banff World Festival last week, over-the-top video was top of mind and a prominent feature in CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein’s breakfast speech to delegates, although he refused to speculate on its impact, given the fact-finding proceeding that is under way.
But it’s clear that there’s no way to zipline across the divide…
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GATINEAU – With the deregulation of the mainstream sports and national news taking effect as of September 1st, the entire industry knew to brace itself for what TSN was about to ask for.
Having owned genre protection for two decades, TSN also owned a CRTC regulated rate of $1.07 per subscriber per month as long as a distributor kept the channel in its basic package.
But with genre protection going away (thanks to 2008-100), so is that rate. While the country’s most popular specialty channel won’t, of course, say what rate they are asking for from Canadian distributors (we’ve heard…
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GATINEAU – We don’t only pay attention to the big companies and their primary talking points. Of course, we do end up telling their stories first, but there are always few other noteworthy hits during hearings such as this week’s CRTC proceeding on Vertical Integration.
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CRTC CHAIRMAN KONRAD von Finckenstein on Monday apologized for overstepping his bounds a little when he put the brakes on a line of questioning from new Commission vice-chair Tom Pentefountas. Rogers Communications EVP regulatory, Phil Lind had mentioned in the company’s opening statement how the CRTC should use this hearing to…
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THE ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC Co-operation and Development (OECD) biennial study on comparing wireless markets should be viewed for what it is: a limited analysis comparing four wireless plans in Canada with other OECD nations, says a new report from Nordicity.
The report, International Wireless Market Comparison, prepared for Telus, argues that OECD analyses are suspect because they only compare advertised prices. Instead, it says, a full understanding requires a look not only at price but other important factors.
“Cost should only be considered as part of an international wireless comparison – rather than the definitive factor,” states Nordicity,…
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GATINEAU – If the Canadian TV industry is to fend off the growing power of unregulated sources of video (yes, especially Netflix), exclusive deals on content must be allowed, Quebecor president and CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau told the CRTC Monday afternoon.
He was appearing in front of the Commission on day one of its hearing into the regulatory framework on vertically integrated corporations (those big four companies which own big broadcast assets and big distribution companies: Bell, Rogers, Shaw and Quebecor).
While noting “vertical integration is the only viable tool to allow us to protect the Canadian broadcast system,” Péladeau also…
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IN OUR EVER-MORE connected world, there are fewer secrets. People talk, they e-mail, they SMS, Facebook, tweet and YouTube.
They often use those outlets to speculate, pontificate, fustigate, postulate and guesstimate. Which means those “secrets” are sometimes true. Sometimes not. Sometimes educated guesses. Sometimes hopeful. Sometimes fuelled by less than good intentions.
So, it’s a good idea once in a while to take a few of those secrets and rumours floating around and ask someone in charge about them – and also to put the issues of the day facing our industry in front of someone at the top.
For this Cartt.ca…
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