OTTAWA—Responding to a Conservative government news conference Tuesday, Liberal MP and industry critic Marc Garneau said they party does not support extending the private copying levy to digital devices and that the government’s claims are a “total fabrication.” “That is a total fabrication,” Garneau said. “We do not favour the iPod levy.” At a news conference outside an HMV store in a downtown Ottawa mall Tuesday, Heritage Minister James Moore and Industry Minister Tony Clement reiterated their staunch opposition to the levy proposal. “We are entirely opposed to this idea of imposing a $75 tax on iPods, Blackberrys,...
If the Federal Court of Appeal quashes the CRTC’s proposed value-for-signal regime, broadcasters may have something of a backup. Canada is now negotiating a trade agreement with the European Union, and an October version of the agreement, leaked last month, shows that the EU is proposing a new signal right for broadcasters. In the draft, the EU proposes a new intellectual property right giving “broadcast organizations the exclusive right to authorize or prohibit the re-transmission of their broadcasts by any means.” The provision would give broadcasters the right to pull their signals from distributors and demand payment for signal carriage. Erica Redler, an...
BCE Inc. is telling the CRTC that its purchase of CTVglobemedia Inc. is a simple “reversal” of its 2006 divestment of ownership from CTV and that the company should not be required to pay any new benefits into the broadcasting system as a result of the transaction. Bell now holds 15 per cent of the voting shares in CTV, but has reached an...
OTTAWA—The CRTC must take an evidence-based approach to the impacts of cross-media ownership as it looks into vertical integration, the Communications, Energy and Paperworks Union of Canada (CEP) says. “We have learned that the CRTC has spent $2.7 million on consultants and research since 2007,” Peter...
Cogeco Cable Inc.’s new trial for targeted ads will make television advertising more attractive and affordable for local businesses, Tom McCutcheon, the company’s vice-president of product development and project planning, said in an interview. “How many small businesses in your footprint don’t...
OTTAWA—Former industry minister John Manley, who served under prime minister Jean Chrétien when the former Liberal government passed omnibus copyright reform legislation in 1997, offered some advice to members of the House legislative committee on Bill C-32 Wednesday. “I bear the...
OTTAWA—The CBC is “fuelling the attacks” against it by continuing a court dispute over access to information requests, Dean Del Mastro, Conservative MP and parliamentary secretary to the heritage minister, said Tuesday at the House heritage committee. “I think it looks very badly on the CBC that when it releases [access to information] requests [and] they’re largely blanked out. They don’t actually respond to the answers that the [requester] is looking for,” Del Mastro said following a presentation from the CBC as part of the committee’s study of vertical integration in the private television sector. The public broadcaster has said it will...
OTTAWA—Defining hyperlinks as publications would set a dangerous precedent that could impact competition in the digital media sector, interveners told the Supreme Court at a hearing Tuesday. “If hyperlinking is publication, it will have a serious impact on the ability of [digital news]...
OTTAWA—The Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) is prepared to support a limited private copying amendment to Bill C-32, the Conservative government’s copyright reform bill, that would remain limited to digital audio players like the iPod Nano or Shuffle, Annie Morin, chair of the board at the CPCC, said...
OTTAWA—An American broadcast network is refusing to sell Shaw Communications Inc. the online rights to its content for 2011, the company told the House heritage committee Thursday. “We were told last week by a broadcaster in the U.S. that they would not sell us broadband rights. Somebody with deeper pockets is...
Cable companies need to offer more time-shifting and place-shifting options to consumers to remain competitive against disintermediation and the trend of cord-cutting, experts say. “I think we as an industry have to really ramp up our efforts to meet customer expectations around time shifting...
OTTAWA—At the current rate of study, the Conservative government’s copyright reform legislation is in danger of not passing Parliament and MPs could see the bill remaining at committee stage by summer 2011, Mike Lake, the parliamentary secretary to the industry minister, said Wednesday. “There’s...
TORONTO—The delivery of video over broadband and wireless is growing exponentially in Canada but is being hampered by technical issues, a complex rights system and a lack of funding, a panel of broadcast and technology experts said at the nextMedia conference in Toronto Tuesday. The...
TORONTO—The fragmentation of consumer audiences across a variety of platforms is the top problem facing today's media companies, Michael Wolff, author and editorial director of Adweek, said Monday at the first day of the nextMedia conference in Toronto. In a talk entitled “The...
OTTAWA—Bell Canada told the House of Commons heritage committee Thursday it cannot clarify its position on fee for carriage in light of its acquisition of CTVglobemedia Inc. “We don’t have the answer today,” Mirko Bibic, Bell’s senior vice-president of regulatory and government affairs, said. The Federal Court of Appeal...
OTTAWA—Vertical integration may help Canadian producers and distributors compete against unregulated online providers like Netflix Inc. and Apple Inc., Ken Engelhart, senior vice-president of regulatory affairs at Rogers Communications Inc., said Tuesday. “The competition between the regulated and the unregulated system is getting to be quite important,” he said, speaking before the House of Commons heritage committee. “You’ve got companies like Hulu, Apple and Netflix who are [distributing content] perfectly legally. They are paying for that content. This is a big problem for cable TV companies, and it’s one reason why we have to give our customers...
OTTAWA—The Liberal party is planning to propose amendments to Bill C-32, the Conservative government’s copyright reform bill, to permit the breaking of digital locks for consumer uses and to better define the ways in which fair dealing uses can be challenged in court, Marc Garneau, the Liberal party’s industry critic and a member of...
OTTAWA—The federal government should amend the Income Tax Act to encourage Canadian advertising dollars to flow to Canadian-owned digital media properties, Gary Maavara, executive vice-president and corporate general counsel at Corus Entertainment Inc., told the House of Commons heritage committee Tuesday. “One...
A U.S. analyst is warning the Canadian broadcasting industry not to follow in the footsteps of the U.S. retransmission consent regime following a carriage dispute and signal blackout between News Corp. and Cablevision Systems Corp. “If Canada is following the broken U.S. model, they should...
MPs on the new legislative committee on Bill C-32 are already disagreeing about how much the committee can accomplish before the Christmas break. The Conservatives say it’s possible to conduct an intensive study of the bill, make any necessary amendments and report it back to the House before Christmas. The House...
The CRTC issued a broadcasting decision Friday that maintained regulatory protection for the only French-language pay TV service in Canada but at the same time called for new applications in the French-language market “with special conditions.” In January, the commission received an application from TVA Group Inc. to open up the French-language pay television market to competition. TVA planned to launch a new service called Ciné-TVA, devoted to dramas and theatrical feature films. Right now, Astral Media Inc.’s Super Écran is the only pay TV specialty channel operating in the French-language market. The service devotes about 90 per cent of its programming schedule to recent feature films. On Friday, following a consultation on opening up the...
OTTAWA—The CRTC is considering the deregulation of the AM radio market, industry insiders say. The news comes after CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein, in an appearance before the House of Commons heritage committee Thursday, questioned whether the declining AM market should be exempted from regulation. “AM is losing market share and...
Server-based, online gaming piracy is emerging as a new trend that could cost the video game industry billions of dollars in revenues, according to the Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC). “It is a new and emerging form of piracy that has particularly emerged in Asia, but is actually now migrating to...
GATINEAU—Offering local programming on partial or “omnibus” satellite channels could serve as an interim solution to capacity shortages, Bell Canada and Shaw Communications Inc. told the CRTC Thursday. “We certainly recognize it’s imperfect. Unfortunately it’s...
GATINEAU—The CRTC’s proposed guidelines for satellite television distribution come up short in the French-language, Quebec market, CBC/Radio-Canada told the commission Wednesday. The CBC told the commission that its satellite television policy does not require the distribution of enough...
GATINEAU—Shaw Communications Inc. said Tuesday it plans to move to a new, more efficient compression technology for its satellite distribution services, but Bell Canada said high costs are holding it back from making its own transition. On Tuesday the CRTC opened a hearing to review its...
Industry insiders expect Canadian content expenditure requirements to be one of the top issues at the CRTC’s upcoming group-licence renewal hearing. “The entire conversation is about how much broadcasters will be spending on overall Canadian content as a group licence condition,”...
When Quebec City Mayor Régis Labeaume announced plans to build a $400-million hockey stadium in the city in September, Pierre Karl Péladeau looked on, the NHL on his mind. It’s hard to know precisely what competitive strategies Péladeau has been thinking about lately. But to take an educated...
Corus Entertainment Inc.'s children’s programming is available in more than 150 countries worldwide, leading some experts to say it's setting the standard for exporting Canadian content. Corus, which is best known domestically for its 48 radio stations and 19 television services, also produces and...
OTTAWA—Telus Corp. plans to propose amendments at the legislative committee on Bill C-32 so that the bill’s new “making available right” for the digital communication of works does not add to the “layering of rights” on digital music. Copyright reform Bill C-32 includes a making available right so that rights owners will have the exclusive right to distribute works on digital networks. Telus sells digital music tracks through an online music shop, and the company says it is concerned the new making available right will contribute to the “layers” of royalties already on music. “It was intended as a shield and not as a sword,”...
OTTAWA—Vertically integrated distribution companies act with undue preference when they use exclusive viewing data collected from set-top boxes to inform their own broadcasting services, Pelmorex Communications Inc. says. And the company intends to raise the issue at the CRTC’s hearing on industry consolidation...
The CRTC issued a new regulatory policy Tuesday that gives independent production funds the option to put up to 10 per cent of their dollars toward stand-alone new media projects—a move that observers are calling an important recognition of new media content. “This is the first step in...
The CRTC’s decision Friday to grant Shaw Communications Inc. a shorter-term distribution licence is furthering a debate about whether the commission should have the power to administer monetary penalties for non-compliance with regulations. Mark Goldberg, head of telecom consultancy...
OTTAWA—CRTC officials appeared before the House Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage Tuesday where they called for the power to impose administrative monetary penalties across all of its regulated sectors. “This would allow the commission to adopt a less restrictive approach to regulation and ensure a level...
Apple Inc. might not shine as brightly in the video-content world as it does in mobile, industry observers say. They say the company’s latest version of Apple TV is facing significant challenges in the Canadian market. About the size of a stack of five drink coasters, the Apple TV device connects to a television set and wirelessly streams videos and photos from a computer or from web content, including Netflix Inc.’s online video service. Launched in Canada in September, the product’s second version dropped in price from $250 to $120. The new version is also smaller, with a memory system designed for content streaming instead of storage. Some users say Apple TV is a simple and effective way to access online content on the television, but industry...
OTTAWA—The House of Commons heritage committee got a lesson Thursday in how Canada can be a better “laboratory for the world” in the digital music and YouTube spaces. At a committee meeting Thursday about the music business in the digital age, Gavin McGarry, president of Jumpwire Media, told MPs the...
Canada’s incumbent television distributors are telling the CRTC they need more regulatory flexibility for their video-on-demand (VOD) services to better compete with over-the-top video providers such as Netflix and Apple TV. “Our goal is to ensure that the rules that govern our video-on-demand service are...
OTTAWA—Canada’s slow granting processes for digital media are slowing down the country’s ability to compete internationally and encouraging Canadians to look abroad, Ken Coates, dean of the faculty of arts at the University of Waterloo, told the House heritage committee at a hearing Tuesday. Coates said...
Michael Geist isn’t shy about engaging in a “copyfight.” The very title of his new book alludes to his last public fight—waged on Twitter, blogs, and in the news media—with Heritage Minister James Moore. Last June, Moore made comments about “radical extremists” in the copyright...
The CRTC’s capacity to quickly and transparently deal with broadcasting disputes will be at the forefront in a new proceeding to review the commission’s powers to regulate vertically integrated companies, industry observers tell The Wire Report. “It’s not helpful if you have to fight over access to...
The CRTC approved on Friday Shaw Communications Inc.'s acquisition of the broadcasting assets of Canwest Global Communications Corp.—but at the same time announced a new proceeding to study vertical integration in the Canadian communications industry. “As a regulator, it is only prudent...
Calling itself ‘the Wal-Mart’ of communications services, Colba.Net Telecom Inc. plans to battle Videotron Ltd. and Bell Canada Enterprises Inc. on pricing with its new IPTV service in Montreal. On Oct. 13, the CRTC approved Colba.Net’s application to operate a Class 1 wireline television...
The single most popular question put to CBC/Radio-Canada president and CEO Hubert T. Lacroix is whether he has plans to obtain the broadcasting rights to Montreal Canadiens games, he says. Lacroix noted the public’s concern about CBC rights to Canadiens’ games during the public broadcaster’s annual public...
OTTAWA—Regulators must ensure Canadians can access all of the CBC’s services on satellite now that it is poised to be the only major broadcaster not controlled by a broadcasting distributor, CBC president and CEO Hubert T. Lacroix said Wednesday. “It is clear to me that the current phenomenon of concentration in this industry makes the existence of strong and independent public broadcasting services more necessary than ever,” Lacroix said, speaking at the CBC’s second annual public meeting in Ottawa. “This concentration also requires the establishment in Canada of a regulatory framework that will guarantee an open system where Canadians will have...
Google Inc. launched its latest product, Google TV, in the U.S. this month in a bid to integrate keyword search, aggregation and Internet access into television viewing—a move that is expected to set new precedents for the television user experience. But the new service is also expected to set up a fight over...
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) and the Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) are preparing for an upcoming World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) meeting in Geneva next month to discuss an audiovisual treaty. In 1996, WIPO began work on a possible treaty for the...
Vertically integrated communications companies like Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc. and Quebecor Inc. are not under pressure to modify their online content offerings as they face competition from new service Netflix, Duncan Stewart, director of research for technology, media and telecom at...
The CRTC is expected to issue a decision in the next few of weeks on whether Astral Media Inc.’s Super Écran pay television channel should face competition in the French-language market. Quebecor Media Inc. has wanted to launch a pay TV movie channel for a number of years, but Astral’s Super...
Radio industry hopefuls aren’t jumping at AM radio these days. CRTC statistics may paint a picture of a dwindling sector, but it’s far too soon to say whether business on the AM dial is for naught. Experts say that the declining AM radio industry, if it can hold on another 10 to 15 years, may be saved by the arrival of digital radio. According to the commission’s 2010 Communications Monitoring Report, there were 150 AM radio stations operating in 2009, eight less than the previous year. In 2005, the CRTC counted 180 private AM stations. In January this year, Corus Entertainment shut down two unprofitable AM stations in Montreal, and on Tuesday the CRTC approved another application by the company to return its broadcasting licence for now-defunct AM station CJUL...
Corus Entertainment Inc.’s proposed all-news network Local1 will produce 48 hosted segments each day, including 10 separate local newscasts updated three times daily, the company said last week in new information filed with the CRTC. Corus filed the information as part of its appearance at a public hearing in...
The CRTC denied applications Thursday from CTVglobemedia Inc. and Rogers Broadcasting Ltd. for early regulatory relief from their Canadian content requirements, but industry observers say the matter will re-emerge when the broadcasters’ group licence renewals begin next year. “I think the broadcasters...
Parties to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) released a new draft Wednesday that shows the negotiating partners have moved away from intellectual copyright provisions describing what signatories shall do to what they “may” do. The new consolidated text, dated Oct. 2, is considered a watered down...
OTTAWA—Quebecor Media Inc. plans to drop a three-year, mandatory carriage condition for its Sun TV News channel and instead apply for a regular Category 2 licence, Serge Sasseville, Quebecor’s vice-president of corporate and institutional affairs, told The Wire Report. Sasseville confirmed the decision...
CRTC officials are scrambling to sort through tens of thousands of submissions in response to Quebecor Media’s application to operate Sun TV News. Last week, international advocacy group Avaaz delivered more than 21,000 hard copy letters to the CRTC’s offices in Gatineau, Que., opposing the licence application...
In response to the CRTC’s concerns that re-branded specialty channels are broadcasting shows that don’t fit their licence descriptions, Canadian broadcasters are arguing that their nature of service definitions are open to interpretation. Broadcasting expert Martha Fusca, president and CEO of Stornoway...
Heritage Minister James Moore would like to see copyright reform Bill C-32 debated, voted at second reading and referred to committee before November, he told The Wire Report Wednesday at a Canada Media Fund (CMF) event in Ottawa. But he added: “I would like to have seen it at committee yesterday.” The real...
The Canada Media Fund (CMF) can count on the Conservative government’s support as the funding organization seeks a commitment in the 2011 federal budget for multi-year funding, Heritage Minister James Moore says. CMF officials were in Ottawa this week to hold meetings with officials and parliamentarians about the fund’s priorities and...
MONTREAL—The CRTC should review its common ownership policy for radio to better reflect the declining importance of AM radio, Bloc Québécois MP and party heritage critic Carole Lavallée told the commission Wednesday. “When you created your common ownership policy, why did you separate it into AM and FM stations? It’s not because one is scratchier than the other. It’s probably because AM was more talk and FM was more music,” Lavallée said. “Now, radio has changed, FM has changed, and some of its stations are becoming talk. I think we should retain the law’s spirit, but I wouldn’t keep it as is. I’d...
American satellite provider DirecTV is seeking damages and a permanent injunction against a Canadian “grey market” reseller in a case that could send a strong message to grey market operators. “We have an interlocutory injunction and the action is for a permanent injunction and for damages,”...
MONTREAL—Cogeco Inc. will abandon its acquisition of Corus Entertainment Inc.’s 11 Quebec radio stations if Montreal’s popular French-language music station CKOI-FM isn’t part of the deal, Yves Mayrand, Cogeco’s vice-president of corporate affairs, told the commission Tuesday. “You...
The CBC says it intends to appeal a Federal Court decision Friday that gives the Office of the Information Commissioner the authority to order the broadcaster to produce records. The CBC argues that Section 68.1 of the Access to Information Act permits the broadcaster to exclude some records from release. But on Friday...
TORONTO—Companies’ online advertising budgets do not reflect the increasing online activity of Canadians, suggesting there is plenty of room to grow, Google Canada country director Chris O'Neill told The Wire Report. "The thing to look at is the percentage of time that Canadians spend online versus the...
As the CRTC’s hearings on Shaw Communications Inc.’s $2-billion acquisition of Canwest Global Communications Corp.’s broadcasting assets drew to an end Thursday, Shaw responded to critics with significant revisions to its tangible benefits package, adding $72 million to its previous submission. The CRTC requires major broadcasting transactions to include a tangible benefits package, or public benefits for the broadcasting system, which typically represent 10 per cent of the value of the deal. Shaw had originally submitted to the CRTC a benefits package worth $203 million that included $95 million in tangible benefits funds that Canwest had yet to pay as a result of its...
Production groups lined up before the CRTC Wednesday in opposition to Shaw Communications Inc.’s plan to include $95 million in past benefits in its $203 million benefits package arising from the purchase of CanWest Global Communications Corp.’s broadcasting assets. The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television...
Shaw Communications Inc. says intends to make its Canwest Global television content available to competitors because it’s “a benefit to offer the rights to everyone.” Shaw vice-chairman and CEO Jim Shaw told the commission Tuesday that denying competitors access to content—which it will acquire...
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner’s summer consultation on emerging technologies will help the office take pre-emptive measures to deal with technology firms, industry observers told The Wire Report. “I think [Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart] saw many issues coming down the pipe [involving]...
The process of making legislation is often compared to the manufacture of sausage. It is probably better not to see how it gets made. Copyright law is no exception. The committee process is the point where the final ingredients are added, and the recipe can change very quickly and unpredictably, for better or worse. In...
Debate heated up at a CRTC hearing in Calgary Monday as parties disagreed over whether the commission should renew Shaw Communications Inc.’s broadcasting licences for two or seven year periods. Michael Hennessy, Telus Corp.’s senior vice-president of regulatory affairs, told commissioners Monday that Shaw...
Changes coming soon to Canada’s distribution rules for cable and satellite specialty television packages are expected to result in more a-la-carte offerings for consumers. “We’re certainly going to see more a-la-carte options,” Gregory Taylor, a broadcasting expert based in Montreal, said in an...
Value for signal probably isn’t dead. That’s what experts and industry insiders say following Shaw Communications Inc.’s purchase of Canwest Global Communications Corp. and BCE Inc.’s recently announced agreement to buy CTV Inc. But the purchase of the major broadcasting groups makes value...
Following Videotron Ltd.’s wireless launch and BCE Inc.’s plans to acquire CTV Inc., industry observers say it’s clear convergence is back in vogue—but Bell’s version of convergence may be “a poor facsimile” of Videotron’s, Iain Grant, a communications industry analyst with...
Faced with industry opposition to its proposed “tangible benefits” package arising from its acquisition of Canwest Global Communications’ broadcasting assets, Shaw Communications Inc. is arguing that there “is no codified or statutory requirement” to pay 10 per cent of the transaction in benefits. Responding to interventions through a reply on the CRTC website, the company said its critics wrongly assign a monetary figure to the benefits arising from the deal, and reiterated that preventing the dismantling of Canwest is a significant “intangible” benefit to the public. “It is wrong to assert that an acquisition does not serve the public...
TORONTO—Oral arguments over the CRTC’s power to implement a value for signal regime wrapped up at the Federal Court of Appeal Tuesday as broadcasters and cable and satellite distributors argued about the “will of Parliament” on the issue. Kent Thomsom, counsel with Davies...
A broadcasting application affiliated with Shaw Communications could eat into its own advertising dollars. Shaw’s soon-to-be-acquired television broadcaster, Canwest Global, says it is concerned about the impact on local television stations if the CRTC approves an application for a recently proposed local...
TORONTO—The CRTC’s proposed value for signal regime appears to be hanging in the balance at the Federal Court of Appeal as distributors launched into oral arguments Monday saying the proposed system overreaches the commission’s jurisdiction and creates “a new entitlement to...
Telus Corp. should not follow Bell Canada Enterprises’ lead in acquiring media content, National Bank Financial analyst Greg MacDonald told The Wire Report. “When I read it in the newspaper this weekend, a lot of people saying, ‘Telus is really at a disadvantage,’ but I could not disagree more. Telus is fine. It does not need to...
Speculation is mounting among industry and cultural group insiders about the kind of candidate the Conservative government will select as Michel Arpin’s replacement. Arpin left a vacancy at the 13-member commission (now 12 members) when his term expired on Aug. 30 without reappointment. Ian Morisson, spokesman for the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, said in an interview that to his knowledge eight candidates have been interviewed, but neither he nor other sources could offer names. Morrison cited “competence” as a central qualification, adding that the challenge is finding a candidate “with the appropriate skills and background who is, at the same time, not...
Bell Canada Enterprises announced an agreement Friday to acquire full ownership of CTV Inc., putting the telco in a better position to use media assets to compete against vertically integrated players Rogers Communications Inc., Shaw Communications Inc. and Quebecor Media. BCE president and CEO George Cope told news media...
New satellite entrant FreeHD Canada Inc. says spot beam technology could solve arguments surrounding the carriage of local, over-the-air channels that broadcasters and satellite television providers are fighting out before the CRTC. In submissions made in advance of the CRTC’s hearing to review its direct-to-home...
CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein appears to have done himself and the Prime Minister’s Office a favour by clearing the air on suggestions of political interference in the commission’s business. In a letter to the editor published in The Globe and Mail on Wednesday, von Finckenstein sought to set the record...
TORONTO—News outlets have to better learn to interact with their audiences and “build the community around them” as they adjust to new media platforms, Anjali Kapoor, managing editor of digital at The Globe and Mail, said at a panel discussion in Toronto Wednesday. “News...
Cultural groups and broadcasters are lining up to be part of the CRTC’s new media working group following the Aug. 31 deadline to apply to participate. The Wire Report has confirmed that the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC), the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC), the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio...
Two days after leaving his position as vice-chair of broadcasting at the CRTC, Michel Arpin sat down with me for an exclusive interview in his new office at Université de Montréal, where this week he officially took on a position as visiting professor in the communications studies department. For more...
The politically sensitive topic of the CBC’s public funding is again coming into question. In a pre-budget consultation submission to the House Standing Committee on Finance, broadcasting watchdog Friends of Canadian Broadcasting says the federal government should increase the CBC’s per-capita public funding to...
Experts expect Google Inc. to make local search central to a Canadian expansion plan focused on business-to-business online advertising. The search giant and online advertising broker has announced an expansion into Canada to garner a bigger share of the business-to-business market. The shift includes moving its...
The CRTC has opened a consultation on a new Quebecor Media Inc. application for a broadcasting licence for an all-news channel called Sun TV News—but the application still contains a request for must-carry status. On Wednesday the CRTC issued a notice of consultation to consider Quebecor’s application, which includes a request for a three-year must-carry guarantee with cable and satellite providers. In correspondence with CRTC staff last month, Quebecor had asked for limited-term, three-year Category 1 status (or Category A)—which guarantees that all cable and satellite distribution systems carry the channel—for a right-leaning news service informally dubbed “Fox News North.” The CRTC never published that original application. But in reply to...
The Weather Network owner Pelmorex Communications Inc. is calling on the CRTC to implement a series of new industry-wide policies to “safeguard” against excessive market power from vertically integrated communications companies that have more than a 25 per cent audience share. “Concentration in the...
The CRTC upheld a “paternalistic” stance toward the community television sector in its new regulatory policy released Thursday, Catherine Edwards, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS), said in an interview. “They [the commission] completely ignored...
OTTAWA—A so-called “enabler provision” in the Conservative government’s copyright reform bill is drawing concern from major companies Google and Yahoo, industry sources say. Sources close to the legislation say the companies are having internal discussions about the provision, which is intended to...
The Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) is calling on the CRTC to consider diversity of voices policy as it evaluates Shaw Communications Inc.’s application to purchase the broadcasting assets of Canwest Global Communications. The CMPA (formerly the Canadian Film and Television Production Association) wrote...
Canwest Global Communications and Quebecor Media Inc. are arguing that the CRTC should make the same exception for all private broadcasters if it chooses to grant an immediate reduction of the Canadian content requirements for CTVGlobemedia’s conventional stations. Canwest and Quebecor say the commission should grant them the same regulatory flexibility for their conventional television channels—or reject CTV’s application for early regulatory relief. The commission is preparing to implement a new broadcasting framework by the end of August of next year, and broadcasters are expected to submit applications for licence renewals in November or December. A hearing is...
The communications industry was buzzing this week following a report that the Conservative government offered CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein positions as an ambassador or judge to encourage him to leave his post early. Lawrence Martin, a columnist for The Globe and Mail, wrote this week that although von...
CTV Inc. is not a “TV company” but a media and content company where “digital has a seat at the table,” Alon Marcovici, the company’s new executive vice-president of digital media, said in an interview. Marcovici told The Wire Report that CTV’s hand in the distribution of digital...
Independent over-the-air television stations in Victoria, Hamilton and Montreal say they will meet next year’s deadline to convert their transmitters from analogue to digital broadcasting. John Pollard, station manager at independent station CHEK TV in Victoria, B.C., told The Wire Report that the station will...
Rogers Communications Inc. emerged the winner Wednesday in a CRTC decision that attempted to settle a dispute over the carriage of Torstar Corp.’s ShopTV channel, experts say. “In think Rogers comes out as a winner,” David Elder, an Ottawa-based communications lawyer, said in an...
OTTAWA—A coalition of three cultural groups has missed its chance to participate in the Federal Court of Appeal’s proceeding on a new value for signal regime between broadcasters and distributors. And the court isn’t making any exceptions. The cultural groups say they are disappointed with a court...
The CRTC should wait to see CTVglobemedia Inc.’s 2010 financial information before it considers the company’s proposal to reduce its Cancon requirements and amend the licences for 25 of its conventional over-the-air television stations, Maureen Parker, the executive director of the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC),...
Média de Novo Inc. says there is still hope to move forward with plans to collaborate with distributors on a strategy to sell commercial advertising during local availability times despite the CRTC’s rejection of the company’s application to do so. “We are obviously disappointed that our...
OTTAWA--Competitor Astral Media Inc. says it expects the CRTC to deny Cogeco Inc.’s request for a regulatory exception to operate more than two FM radio stations in Montreal. “The policy is clear. A company cannot control more than two same-language radio [stations] on the same band, AM or FM, in the same...
OTTAWA—The recently announced Balanced Copyright for Canada online advocacy group formed because rights holder groups felt they needed to counter the user lobby’s “louder voice” online, Stephen Ellis, a board member of the group, told The Wire Report in an interview. “The pro-copyright forces needed, for the lack of a better term, a soap box,” Ellis said. Ellis, president and CEO of Ellis Entertainment Corp. in Toronto and a member of the coalition’s 14-member advisory board, said members of the group hope to facilitate discussion among creators and rights holders and build consensus on key copyright reform policies. “Maybe Balanced...
