The industry is giving the CRTC a thumbs up for announcing a public process to study ways to boost Canadian TV drama, even as it warns the commission against dragging its feet on the matter. "We’re pleased that the CRTC notice looks both at regulatory requirements and incentives as a means toward increasing dramatic production," Maureen Parker, executive director and CEO of the Writers Guild of Canada, tells Canadian Communications Reports. "We just hope that the commission can come to a speedy resolution. Because with no jobs, our writers are either leaving or taking positions in other areas."

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CRTC chair Charles Dalfen is open to approving the distribution of further U.S. and other foreign channels in Canada as enticement for turning TV subscribers to digital.

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The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) is asking the CRTC to renew Star Choice’s licence for fewer than the normal seven years, and to provide "explicit direction" to the distributor with regard to its obligations to distribute local signals within its market area. The demands come during the direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV’s distributor’s current licence renewal process in response to what the CAB is calling Star Choice’s propensity to "avoid regulatory and contractual obligations." In separate submissions to the CRTC, broadcasters also independently complain about Star Choice’s reluctance to distribute more channels.

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Technologies have evolved sufficiently for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to represent a cost effective way for small- and medium-sized cablecos to offer telephony services to their customers, members of the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (CCSA) were told last week. At the CCSA annual meeting in Toronto, Peter Makowchik of BIAC Broadband revealed his company’s plans to supply small cablecos with the infrastructure necessary to deliver telephony services using their high-speed Internet networks. VoIP would allow smaller cablecos to introduce telephony without the expensive circuit switching used in larger markets.

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Whistler Cable in British Columbia is using its cable network to bring wireless Internet access to the resort town, and ward off threats to its TV distribution business from competitors, according to the cableco. Whistler Cable found itself having to defend its territory against competitors wanting to bring Internet access to hotels in exchange for giving them the in-room cable entertainment business, which is the incumbent’s bread and butter, says Whistler Cable president Ron Saperstein. So the cableco established its own wireless Internet access system.

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