Canada wasting an opportunity to move more quickly to mobile digital TV

Media | 09/06/2011 9:41 pm EDT

Following the shut down of analog over-the-air signals and a move to digital broadcasting around the world, the U.S. and other countries are now embracing the potential of mobile digital television—or picking up free, over-the-air digital broadcasts on cellphones. But as Canada also converts to digital...

Require Telefilm to get more Canadians in co-productions, ACTRA, WGC say

Media | 09/02/2011 2:07 pm EDT

ACTRA and the WGC are calling on the Heritage Department to require Telefilm Canada to monitor and encourage more Canadian involvement in international co-productions for film and television. The organizations say new requirements enforcing more Canadian participation in TV shows and films could double the amount of...

CRTC gets tough with radio stations for non-compliance

Media | 08/31/2011 8:58 pm EDT

The CRTC took a get-tough approach to radio licence compliance Wednesday, imposing several short-term license renewals and mandatory orders on radio stations. The orders and short-term renewals resulted from various non-compliance infractions of the radio regulations and license requirements. The commission issued a...

CBSC says broadcasters can air Dire Straits song, overturns earlier ruling

Media | 08/31/2011 6:37 pm EDT

The Canadian Broadcasts Standards Council (CBSC) on Wednesday overturned an earlier ruling that required broadcasters to edit out the word “faggot” when they aired the Dire Straits song “Money for Nothing.” A national panel decision from the CBSC on Wednesday said the offensive word “is not...

CBC can’t meet new 2012 digital deadline, intends to ask for another extension

Media | 08/29/2011 8:34 pm EDT

CBC/Radio-Canada says it does not expect to meet its new August 2012 digital transition deadline and that it hopes to receive another extension from the CRTC so that about 20 of its analog transmitters in mandatory markets are not required to convert to digital. Steve Guiton, vice-president and chief regulatory officer at CBC, said the broadcaster will ask the CRTC for another extension. “What it means is at the end of August 2012, we’re going to ask the commission to keep going,” Guiton said. “We’re going to ask for another year or another two years, and we’re going to try to keep the analogs going for as long as we can.” On Aug. 16—15...

Key 2004 decision on ‘caching’ raised in Supreme Court’s music downloading case

Media | 08/26/2011 4:09 pm EDT

A historic 2004 Supreme Court decision that dealt with the copyright liability of online caching is being raised in a key court battle on whether online music services should have to pay an additional royalty for the download of songs. The argument is found in documents filed with the Supreme Court...

Von Finckenstein would like to stay on in 2012, sources say

Media | 08/25/2011 8:54 pm EDT

CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein would like to remain on the job for the time being but a term renewal beyond January 2012 appears unlikely, industry sources say. The Conservative government's public skirmishes with the regulator over the past few years—on issues such as wholesale usage-based billing and whether...

Deregulation of sports could impact consumers, small distributors: Cable Cable

Media | 08/24/2011 9:14 pm EDT

The CRTC's deregulation of sports channels will have impacts for small television distributors and television subscribers, Michael Fiorini, general manager at independent broadcast distributor Cable Cable Inc., said in an interview. “I think it has the potential to increase costs to the end user,...

Shaw Communications, the ‘rebellious teenager’ among Canadian media companies

Media | 08/23/2011 8:53 pm EDT

In the winter of 2006-2007, Shaw Communications Inc. stopped its payments to the Canadian Television Fund for a few months. The company held them back until it was forcibly ordered to contribute by the CRTC. At the time, Jim Shaw, then CEO of Shaw, said he was dissatisfied by the fund’s...

Communications companies well-positioned to weather possible economic storm

Media | 08/22/2011 6:10 pm EDT

Canadian telco and media companies are well-positioned to weather a potential double dip in the American economy thanks to firm consumer attitudes about telecom services and interest in new technologies, industry insiders say. Their assurances come amidst significant volatility on stock markets around the globe as...

Google plays down imminent expansion of Google TV to Canada

Media | 08/19/2011 7:16 pm EDT

Nearly one year after Google TV’s initial U.S. release, market analysts say speculation of any imminent expansion of the over-the-top service into Canada has disappeared amid slumping sales and limited access to content rights. And Google Inc. is not saying that Canada should expect to see the service here soon....

Rogers abandons French sports channel, partners with TVA

Media | 08/18/2011 8:40 pm EDT

Rogers Communications Inc. says it will not pursue a French-language sports channel, calling the market “sufficiently serviced” with the upcoming launch of Quebecor Media Inc.’s TVA Sports. “Since we applied, the business environment has changed in Quebec with Quebecor and TVA launching TVA...

CRTC questions need for mandated wholesale access as mobile broadband rises

Media | 08/18/2011 8:32 pm EDT

Next-generation wireless networks could make mandated wholesale access to the incumbents' Internet and telephone services unnecessary, the CRTC said in a new report released Thursday. The commission report, entitled Navigating Convergence II: Charting Canadian Communications Change and Regulatory Implications, says...

CRTC exception for CBC transition unfair to private broadcasters, CTV says

Media | 08/16/2011 9:50 pm EDT

Following a CRTC decision Friday that gives the CBC an extension on its deadline for the digital television transition, the commission is being accused of enforcing different rules for public and private broadcasters. The commission announced Tuesday that it will give the CBC permission to continue broadcasting analog over-the-air television signals in 22 markets until Aug. 31, 2012—a full year after the official transition deadline. The commission said in a release that, as a national public broadcaster, the CBC has a unique mandate to serve the entire Canadian population. A one-year extension is necessary to guarantee that over-the-air TV viewers do not lose access to CBC...

U.S. pay TV decline not really cord-cutting but a symptom of the economy, analysts say

Media | 08/16/2011 8:51 pm EDT

Significant customer losses reported by U.S. cable and satellite distributors in the second quarter of 2011 are more a reflection of the state of the economy than “disruptive” cord-cutting, analysts say. News sources reported last week that the six largest publicly traded satellite...

CACTUS promoting rebroadcasting strategies with local communities

Media | 08/15/2011 8:58 pm EDT

Hundreds of Canadian communities could lose access to free television signals in non-mandatory markets if broadcasters don’t replace ageing, analog transmitters, the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) says. But the organization says it has a fix and is trying to empower people...

Copyright Board says it is aware of ‘problematic’ delays

Media | 08/15/2011 7:29 pm EDT

The Copyright Board of Canada says it is aware of problematic delays in its proceedings and that reducing its decision-making process to a timeline of nine months is a realistic target. “The delays, not only in our decisions but with the entire process, are problematic, for sure,” Gilles Mcdougall, secretary...

Copyright Board procedural delays prompt efforts to speed things up

Media | 08/12/2011 6:52 pm EDT

The Copyright Board of Canada is feeling pressure from industry and user groups to speed up its decision-making process. The Wire Report spoke to six sources—some on the record and some on a background basis—who said the delays are frustrating and that it often takes more than a year for the board to issue a...

Boxee’s biggest challenge in Canada? Consumer profile

Media | 08/10/2011 8:43 pm EDT

Boxee needs to boost its consumer profile if it wants to make a stronger impression in Canada among other over-the-top television services, the company acknowledges. Boxee is free software that aggregates web content into a single portal for users who connect their computers or Boxee hardware to the television set. Boxee offers a “Boxee Box,” a stand-alone unit that mimics the Boxee software but doesn’t require a computer and is built on hardware from network-technology provider D-Link Corp. The Boxee Box is priced at $200 at Best Buy and Future Shop. Boxee, which is based in New York, acknowledges that its most pressing issue has to do with its profile. “In general as a small company, our biggest challenge is awareness and simply educating the market...

FCC standstill order leaves Canadian independents hopeful

Media | 08/05/2011 1:23 pm EDT

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued new rules governing carriage disputes between broadcasters and cable and satellite distributors Monday, leaving Canadian independent broadcasters with the hope that the CRTC follows suit with a similar “standstill” policy. The FCC decision established...

Telcos take to Supreme Court to fight performance royalty on music downloads

Media | 08/04/2011 9:27 pm EDT

Several major communications companies are now gearing up for a major legal battle before the Supreme Court that will determine a multi-million dollar question surrounding whether the download of a musical work online can give way to the charging of performance rights under the Copyright Act. In two separate but related...

Blue Jays games not ‘exclusive to Rogers in perpetuity’: Purdy

Media | 08/03/2011 10:12 pm EDT

Toronto Blue Jays baseball games will be available for online and mobile streaming to customers of Rogers Communications Inc. for the rest of the season, but the cable and wireless provider says it does not intend to “hoard content.” David Purdy, Rogers’ vice-president of video product management, said...

CRTC releases annual data, says mobile broadband subscriptions on the rise

Media | 07/28/2011 9:31 pm EDT

The number of Canadians subscribing to mobile wireless services grew by 8.5 per cent during 2010, reaching a total of 25.8 million subscribers, the CRTC said in a new statistical report released Thursday. The data, released in the commission's annual Communications Monitoring Report, also showed mobile TV viewers grew...

Music Canada calls on top court to review interpretations of 2004 fair dealing precedent

Media | 07/28/2011 5:46 pm EDT

Music Canada is challenging the legal interpretations of a seminal 2004 Supreme Court decision on copyright, leading critics to say it could impact research and innovation across the country. The controversy surrounds a factum submitted to the Supreme Court as commentary for a case that is...

Rogers gets shorter term, lower Cancon requirements in CRTC group licensing renewals

Media | 07/27/2011 11:38 pm EDT

Rogers Media Inc. will get a shorter licence term and lower spending requirements for Canadian content than the other major broadcasting groups, the CRTC announced Wednesday in its decision on the licence renewals for large, English-language broadcast groups. Bell Media Inc., which owns several specialty channels and the...

CRTC to review genre exclusivity within five years, monitor nature of service

Media | 07/27/2011 9:22 pm EDT

The CRTC announced Wednesday that it will review its genre exclusivity policy within five years—before its next batch of TV broadcasting licence renewals—saying the policy has become “increasingly challenging.” In a decision Wednesday that renews the licences for large television broadcast...

Polar Mobile capitalizing on ‘the app revolution’

Media | 07/27/2011 9:13 pm EDT

Ontario company Polar Mobile appears to be a prime example of a startup that is capitalizing on “the app revolution.” Founded in 2007 in Waterloo, Ont., the company says it now has 300 customers across 10 countries and more than a thousand apps available that count over nine million subscribers. In four...

‘No magic answer’ when it comes to value-for-signal, lawyer says

Media | 07/26/2011 8:57 pm EDT

The CRTC’s apparent reticence to allow broadcasters to pull their signals during carriage negotiations under its proposed value-for-signal regime is a sure sign the debate over the controversial policy is far from over, experts say. “The commission has long been of the view that they don’t want consumers to lose access to a signal,” David Elder, who practices communications, competition and privacy law as counsel with Stikeman Elliott LLP, said in an interview. “The difficulty is that’s really the ultimate bargaining chip that both sides have.” In March 2010, the CRTC issued a decision that would allow broadcasters to ask distributors for...

Netflix nears one million Canadian subscribers, with an eye to new markets

Media | 07/26/2011 3:30 pm EDT

Netflix Inc. estimates operating losses of $80 million in the second half of this year as it expands into Latin America and plans another launch in at least one more country early in 2012, the company announced Monday. “Depending on content licensing discussions underway, we may launch one or more new countries in...

As Netflix and other OTT services expand, Canada proving something of a test bed

Media | 07/25/2011 8:57 pm EDT

In less than a year of operations in its Canadian expansion test bed, Netflix Inc. has won itself nearly one million subscribers but also earned the wary gazes of traditional broadcasters, producers and the CRTC. This spring, the company found itself at the epicentre of a consultation on the potential regulation of...

Time to review 2006 policy directive to the CRTC, consumer advocates say

Media | 07/22/2011 7:53 pm EDT

The past two years or so have been turbulent for the CRTC. Many regulatory developments emerged—such as court decisions on Globalive Communications Corp. and value-for-signal, a politically charged review of wholesale usage-based billing, and large-scale broadcasting acquisitions—that directly affect the way...

Independents oppose vertically integrated companies’ request for SRDU exemption

Media | 07/21/2011 9:48 pm EDT

A request by Bell Canada and Shaw Communications Inc. to be exempt from satellite relay distribution undertakings’ (SRDUs) licensing requirements has been met with strong opposition from independent broadcasting distributors. In comments submitted to the CRTC’s consultation filed July...

Shaw Movie Club service to compete with Netflix with more current content: Shaw

Media | 07/19/2011 8:15 pm EDT

Shaw Communications Inc.’s new Movie Club service will offer enough titles and a more current catalogue to effectively compete with Netflix, the company says. Shaw launched its Shaw Movie Club on Friday, which will offer subscribers access to 250 of Hollywood’s latest movies for the low cost of $12 per month. Shaw president Peter Bissonnette said in an interview that an extra $5 fee for access to high-definition movies will also be made available later this summer. Although at $12 per month the service is more expensive than Netflix, it will be able to compete by offering something that Netflix doesn't offer, the company says. “The price point wasn’t able to...

Copyright Board rolls simulcasting into CBC radio royalty

Media | 07/18/2011 11:49 pm EDT

The CBC says it is pleased with a Copyright Board decision issued this month that included simulcasting online in the broadcaster's main tariff for the airing of music on the radio.  “We were pleased to see the Commission agree with us that the simulcasting of our radio services should be addressed in the main...

Shaw calls for further deregulation of video-on-demand to compete with OTT

Media | 07/14/2011 5:58 pm EDT

Shaw Communications Inc. is calling on the CRTC to deregulate video-on-demand services to help establish regulatory “symmetry” with over-the-top streaming. In the company's final reply comments for the commission's proceeding on a regulatory framework to address vertical integration, Shaw said...

AM radio continues decline in 2010

Media | 07/13/2011 9:45 pm EDT

Private radio stations increased by 20 in the 2010 broadcast year, creating a total of 654 commercial radio stations across the country, the CRTC said Wednesday in new statistical information for AM and FM private radio. According to the CRTC, English-language AM stations faired well and remained steady with total revenues of $272 million.  But...

New broadcasting participation fund expected to be running next spring

Media | 07/08/2011 9:24 pm EDT

Consumer groups say they are underrepresented in the CRTC’s broadcasting consultations but that they hope a new fund will soon help level the playing field and allow them to keep up with the big industry players. “I’ve spoken to quite a number of groups over the years and asked them why they...

CRTC postpones CBC licence renewal hearing

Media | 07/08/2011 9:04 pm EDT

The CRTC is postponing the CBC's group licence renewal hearing until June 2012, citing requests for new data and uncertainty surrounding the broadcaster’s budget. The commission said it delayed the hearing in part because the Quebec English-language Production Committee (QEPC)—with support from the Canadian Media Production Association...

CRTC, courts, can enforce Cancon rules on foreign OTT services: legal expert

Media | 07/07/2011 10:03 pm EDT

Legal experts say the CRTC and Canadian courts have jurisdiction to regulate foreign over-the-top providers, but the National Film Board of Canada says Canadians should respond to online broadcasting competitors with the creation of a “national screening room" website. As part of a joint submission to the...

OTT competition a signal that CRTC should scrap Cancon distribution regs: Shaw

Media | 07/06/2011 10:38 pm EDT

Competition from over-the-top services has made the CRTC's Canadian content regulations “ineffectual” and distributors should no longer be obligated to subsidize Canadian programming, Shaw Communications Inc. says. In a submission for the CRTC’s fact-finding consultation on over-the-top services,...

‘No great rush’ to liberalize foreign ownership limits internationally

Media | 07/05/2011 5:54 pm EDT

If the world is moving toward liberalizing its foreign ownership restrictions, it's not happening fast. That's one of the points made in the introduction to the newly released edition of Telecoms and Media 2011, a collection by British publisher Getting the Deal Through, that looks at the telecom and media regulatory...

U.S. broadcasters’ influence showing in FCC review of retransmission regime, analysts say

Media | 07/04/2011 3:55 pm EDT

As the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reevaluates its broadcasting retransmission regime, one American analyst says the commission, in retrospect, would have liked to prevent carriage negotiations from degenerating into blackouts. But analysts add that, due to the political influence of U.S. broadcasters, the FCC is more likely to tweak its retransmission policy than overhaul it. Monday of last week marked the FCC’s deadline for reply comments for a review to clarify and streamline its existing retransmission consent regime, which since 1992 has allowed broadcasters to charge a fee for the carriage of their over-the-air signals. The review’s primary...

Insiders expecting ‘busy as hell’ summer on the regulatory front

Media | 06/30/2011 9:01 pm EDT

Industry insiders say they’re busier than ever as they face something of a hectic summer on the regulatory front. “There's no down time in the regulatory agenda anymore. It never stops,” Michael Hennessy, senior vice-president of regulatory and government affairs at Telus Corp., said in an interview....

WIPO copyright committee to continue work on broadcasting treaty

Media | 06/29/2011 7:14 pm EDT

The copyright committee of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) last week agreed to continue to work on a “signal based approach” for the development of a new international broadcasting treaty. The conclusions of meetings of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, released...

New distribution policy is already outdated under vertical integration, independents say

Media | 06/29/2011 3:41 pm EDT

GATINEAU, QUE.—The rules set to come into force Sept. 1 under CRTC broadcasting policy 2008-100 should be reconsidered because they don't address the pitfalls of vertical integration, independent broadcasters told commissioners Tuesday. After a first week of hearings and...

Social media experts skeptical of Facebook decline

Media | 06/28/2011 8:55 pm EDT

Following a statistical report this month that Facebook is on the decline in North America, social media experts say the news is over-blown. In a June report, Facebook tracking site Inside Facebook said the social network lost 1.52 million subscribers in Canada in May, dropping from 18.1 million to 16.6 million. The information was derived from...

Scrap the linkage rules for broadcasting distribution, Corus says

Media | 06/27/2011 9:15 pm EDT

GATINEAU, QUE.—The CRTC’s linkage rules that require distributors to offer other companies' pay and specialty services when they carry one of their own are “a fatal model for Canadian broadcasting” that could open the door to unregulated over-the-top services, Corus Entertainment Inc. said Monday. Corus told commissioners during its second week of vertical integration hearings that preventing it from launching new channels will not help Canadian broadcasting. “We think that there are enough provisions in the current regulations to protect independents, but that the linkage rules in fact prohibit those that are best funded and most capable of making a...

Remove foreign ownership limits in telecom, broadcasting distribution: Report

Media | 06/24/2011 8:48 pm EDT

The C.D. Howe Institute is calling for an end to Canada's foreign ownership restrictions in telecom and broadcasting distribution, the Toronto-based think tank announced in a report Thursday. The institute’s competition policy council, which held an inaugural meeting June 17, called for a blanket removal of foreign...

CRTC reports climbing specialty channel revenues for news, sports

Media | 06/24/2011 8:10 pm EDT

The CRTC released updated financial summaries Thursday for pay TV, pay-per-view, video-on-demand and specialty channel services. The new figures show that specialty sports services are faring well. Rogers Sportsnet saw increases of 16.62 per cent in its total revenue, from $186 million in 2009 to $216.9 in 2010....

Cogeco concerned about losing CTV programming under vertical integration

Media | 06/24/2011 2:14 pm EDT

GATINEAU, QUE.—Independent cable companies laid out some of the “broken windows” they say they've suffered under vertical integration Thursday. Examples of the impacts of vertical integration started to arise at the commission's hearings in Gatineau after the top vertically integrated players said earlier...

Copyright, digital privacy rights, expected to be top issues at house committees

Media | 06/23/2011 9:19 pm EDT

Copyright reform legislation and digital privacy rights are expected to be major topics for the newly struck House of Commons industry and heritage committees, committee members say.  The House of Commons established parliamentary committees last week, but the June start of the 41st Parliament offered too little time...

Cogeco, Eastlink, warn ex post vertical integration rules would cause ‘irreparable harm’

Media | 06/23/2011 9:09 pm EDT

GATINEAU, QUE.—An ex post system to redress regulatory wrongs after the fact can lead to cases of “irreparable harm,” Cogeco Cable Inc., Eastlink and the CBC told CRTC commissioners Thursday as they pushed for a new code or set of rules to govern the conduct of vertically...

Vertically integrated companies not keen on ‘skinny basic’ plans

Media | 06/22/2011 11:23 pm EDT

GATINEAU, QUE.—Shaw Communications Inc.’s plan personalizer provides a so-called “chubby basic” television service, but the company isn’t keen on adopting a mandatory “skinny basic” service containing fewer channels. Nor are other vertically integrated players.  As part of...

CRTC pushes vertical integration principles to avoid ‘avalanche of litigation’

Media | 06/22/2011 11:07 pm EDT

GATINEAU, QUE.—The CRTC pushed for compromise Wednesday on a set of principles or a code of conduct that would find common ground between vertically integrated companies’ freedom to operate and independents’ concerns of being squeezed out.  On day three of the...

Shaw argues for no ‘blanket’ rule on exclusivity

Media | 06/22/2011 11:06 pm EDT

GATINEAU, QUE.—Shaw Communications Inc. says there should not be a “blanket rule” prohibiting content exclusivity on all platforms, but the rule should continue to apply to linear content.  Shaw CEO Brad Shaw said at the commission’s vertical integration hearings Wednesday that not all content...

ACTRA, Conference of the Arts call for early review of new media exemption

Media | 06/22/2011 10:54 pm EDT

GATINEAU, QUE.—The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) and the Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA) are calling on the CRTC for an early review of its new media exemption order and the development a regulatory framework that covers the new media on the Internet. Ferne Downey, ACTRA’s national president, told CRTC commissioners during hearings on vertical integration Wednesday that, while she welcomes the commission's consultation on over-the-top services, the organization cannot wait for the commission’s scheduled review of the exemption in 2014. “It is imperative that the commission consider the impact of all these developments...

CBC calls for ‘streamlined’ regulation to compete new, in multi-platform market

Media | 06/22/2011 8:20 pm EDT

The CBC/Radio-Canada is asking the CRTC to streamline its broadcasting regulations to provide it with more freedom to shift content from one platform to another and better access to private distribution platforms. “In the new multi-platform environment the Corporation needs to have the...

Vertically integrated companies sacrifice content ‘for the sake of their carriage’: Telus

Media | 06/21/2011 9:36 pm EDT

GATINEAU, QUE.--Vertically integrated carriers generate up to seven times more revenue from distribution and carriage services than from advertising and the sale of content, Telus Corp. told CRTC commissioners Tuesday—which creates an incentive to focus on distribution and guard...

Mandate all content available on all ancillary platforms: Rogers

Media | 06/20/2011 10:13 pm EDT

GATINEAU, QUE.--All television content should be made available to competitors on ancillary platforms, Rogers Communications Inc. told the CRTC commissioners Monday at its vertical integration hearing. But companies appearing before the commission were far from agreement. Vertically integrated competitor Quebecor...

PIAC pulls out of CRTC’s OTT consult, says fact-finding report will be biased

Media | 06/20/2011 7:02 pm EDT

The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) says it's not participating in the CRTC's “fact-finding exercise” on over-the-top programming services because the consultation is not a regulatory proceeding and does not cover its costs. “By excluding the application of the intervenor costs rule to the present...

Telus ‘attracting new customers rapidly and effectively’ in retention dispute, Shaw says

Media | 06/20/2011 12:26 am EDT

Shaw Communications Inc. is rejecting Telus Corp.’s undue preference complaint about customer transfers, noting an “intensely competitive” broadcasting distribution market in Western Canada where Telus is “attracting new customers more rapidly and effectively” than any other distributor. In response to a Telus’ complaint filed with the CRTC last month, Shaw’s senior vice-president of regulatory affairs, Jean Brazeau, wrote that his company’s transfer process is “more rigorous and comprehensive” than industry practice and that no preference or disadvantage has occurred. In a May 6 letter to the commission, Michael Hennessy,...

Online CinemaNow service eyeing ‘sigificant’ amount of Cancon: Best Buy

Media | 06/16/2011 9:40 pm EDT

Best Buy Co. Ltd. says it plans to offer “a significant amount of Canadian content” on its new over-the-top video service, CinemaNow. “The objective is to ensure that whatever the breakdown of Canadian versus international content is, the idea is to be competitive with Netflix and iTunes, and certainly to...

Swift, critical reaction hits at SOCAN’s interim tariff application for webcasting

Media | 06/15/2011 9:15 pm EDT

Copyright collective the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) announced a controversial application with the Copyright Board Tuesday asking for an “interim” tariff for the collection of royalties from online streaming services like YouTube and Netflix....

CBC contributes $3.7 billion to Canadian economy: Report

Media | 06/15/2011 9:14 pm EDT

The CBC/Radio-Canada spends more on Canadian content, original news, journalism and the promotion of Canadian artists than a private broadcaster and adds $1.3 billion more to the Canadian economy than it would if it was privatized, a new study from Deloitte and Touche says. The report, released Wednesday, said the public...

Fee for carriage rises again; distributors tell highest court that Copyright Act ‘misread’

Media | 06/14/2011 9:07 pm EDT

Federal Court of Appeal’s decision to approve of the CRTC’s “fee-for-carriage” regime was a “blatant misreading of the Copyright Act,” cable distributors say in a legal memorandum filed with the Supreme Court. In February, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled...

Canadian broadcasters can take lessons from FCC report on local news, critics say

Media | 06/14/2011 7:05 pm EDT

A shortage of local reporting could lead to government waste and corruption and U.S. news media regulations are “out of sync with the information needs of communities,” a new Federal Communications Commission (FCC) report says. And Canadian critics say the situation isn’t so different here. The June 9...

Videotron applies to Supreme Court to challenge CRTC exclusivity ruling

Media | 06/13/2011 3:11 pm EDT

Quebecor Media Inc. has applied to the Supreme Court of Canada to appeal a CRTC decision that forces the company to share its exclusive video-on-demand content with Bell Canada and Telus Corp. The Federal Court of Appeal denied QMI's motion for leave on April 5. Serge Sasseville, vice-president of corporate and...

UN report confirms online copyright infringement should be for courts to decide: Geist

Media | 06/09/2011 9:23 pm EDT

Canadian experts are divided on the recommendations and significance of a United Nations report that linked Internet use to freedom of expression and criticized some countries’ approaches to copyright infringement. The report from Frank La Rue, UN special rapporteur on freedom of...

Industry Minister Paradis keeping chief of staff, policy adviser

Media | 06/09/2011 8:45 pm EDT

Companies, lobbyists and advocacy groups are now setting up to track policy development and meet with key members of the new majority Conservative government. Part of that job involves identifying the top players, and The Wire Report hears that Christian Paradis, MP for Mégantic-L’Érable, Que., is...

65% French music quota has become ‘a symbol, a magic number, even a dogma,’ Astral says

Media | 06/07/2011 7:02 pm EDT

Astral Radio and Cogeco Diffusion are calling on the CRTC to review its French-language music quotas rather than impose them as a condition of licence for radio stations.  But the Association québécoise de l’industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la vidéo (ADISQ) says the broadcasters aren’t meeting the existing requirements.  “It's past time to leave the irrational, the symbolic and the sacred and return both feet to Earth and confront harsh reality. This reality is that the gap is becoming deeper between the obligations of French-language music stations and the expectations of its francophone listeners,” Astral wrote in reply...

Content providers should better compete with media piracy: Expert

Media | 06/06/2011 9:56 pm EDT

The global media economy has failed to provide affordable media goods to the majority of the world’s population, making piracy the only means of access for many people, Joe Karaganis, a leading expert in the field, said Friday. Karaganis, a member of Columbia University public affairs forum the American Assembly...

New Parliament, new opposition critics

Media | 06/06/2011 9:33 pm EDT

The NDP and Liberals have appointed a new stable of critics to advocate on broadcasting, telecom, and digital policy issues in Parliament.  Canada's 41st Parliament returned last Thursday with the NDP, for the first time in history, taking up 103 seats in the opposition benches as Her Majesty's loyal opposition. Charlie Angus, formerly the...

ACTRA, broadcasters, dispute fall Canadian TV schedules following U.S. shopping spree

Media | 06/06/2011 5:49 pm EDT

Shaw Media Inc. and Bell Media Inc. are challenging comments from the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) that Canada's big broadcasters aren't featuring enough Canadian programming this fall. ACTRA said in a release last week that, for all the money the...

Canadian digital media growth fueled by popularity of mobile, social media

Media | 06/03/2011 4:08 pm EDT

Canada’s rapidly growing digital media sector is being fueled by companies seeking to jump on the mobile and social media bandwagon—even if they don't fully understand how it can help their businesses, insiders say. According to a report released May 25 by the Pixel to Product research project, 73.4 per cent of...

Conventional television sector out of the red: CRTC

Media | 06/02/2011 8:08 pm EDT

The health of conventional television stations appears to be improving as the CRTC reported Thursday that revenues for the sector grew by nine per cent from $1.97 billion in 2009 to approximately $2.15 billion in 2010. The CRTC said conventional television profits before interest and taxes (PBIT) improved collectively from a deficit of $116.6 million in 2009 to a profit of $11.5 million in 2010, resulting in an overall profit margin of 0.5 per cent. The commission released the numbers Thursday in a package of financial results for Canadian television services including conventional over-the-air and specialty channels. The news is significant for conventional television stations that have reported losses in previous years. The news could also be another sign of economic recovery...

‘Everybody knows, nobody can regulate the Internet,’ von Finckenstein says

Media | 06/02/2011 3:05 am EDT

TORONTO--CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein said Wednesday that he doesn’t know whether over-the-top services represent “the globalization of broadcasting” but acknowledged that nobody can regulate the Internet. Following a keynote discussion at the Canadian Telecom Summit, von...

Bell, Rogers, Telus, Globalive, Videotron, and PIAC butt heads on telecom

Media | 06/02/2011 3:00 am EDT

TORONTO--The new minister of industry may have had his telecom industry coming-out party Tuesday when he spoke at the Canadian Telecom Summit, but Wednesday’s regulatory panel would have provided a rousing introduction to the issues Christian Paradis has inherited in his new role. At the conference Wednesday,...

Canadians watching U.S. Protect IP Act, now stalled in Senate

Media | 06/01/2011 4:40 pm EDT

Canadian copyright players are keeping their eyes on the United States Congress for developments related to new “rogue website” legislation that advocacy groups say would hinder innovation and effectively give the U.S. government the power to “block” websites. Three U.S. Senators, Democrat Patrick...

OTT pushes American broadcasters to consider ‘bypassing’ Canadian system: Report

Media | 05/30/2011 9:03 pm EDT

Over-the-top programming services like Netflix could mean dire consequences for the Canadian broadcasting system, raising foreign programming costs for Canadian broadcasters and limiting their access to online rights, a CRTC-commissioned report released Monday said.  The report said that...

Facebook pursuing ‘strategy of targeting television advertising budgets’: Expert

Media | 05/30/2011 7:39 pm EDT

Facebook Inc. and Twitter are emerging as power brokers for advertising dollars as they pursue a strategy targeting TV advertising budgets, industry experts say. Colin Donald, director at U.S. television research firm Futurescape Ltd., wrote in an email interview that the company has uncovered a...

Industry insiders cautiously optimistic about Postmedia’s online subscription plan

Media | 05/27/2011 9:27 pm EDT

Media industry insiders are expressing cautious optimism about Postmedia Network Canada Corp.’s decision to charge readers a fee to access online news content in two trial markets.  But the publisher of the Montreal Gazette and the Victoria Times Colonist has to be careful that the...

Post wireless-deployment, Quebecor refocuses on content distribution

Media | 05/26/2011 10:17 pm EDT

MONTREAL—Now that its new wireless network is mostly in place, Quebecor Media Inc. will focus its energy on content distribution, company president and CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau said Thursday at the company’s annual shareholder meeting. “As much as we concentrated these past months on building...

E-G8 meeting considers role of Internet regulation, ability to move quickly

Media | 05/26/2011 8:04 pm EDT

The question of Internet regulation took centre stage at the first-ever e-G8 forum in Paris this week, where French President Nicholas Sarkozy and European policy makers contrasted their vision of the Internet’s future with executives from Google Inc., Facebook Inc., News Corp. and dozens of other companies. The...

CRTC responds to Netflix critics, opens consultation on over-the-top services

Media | 05/25/2011 9:40 pm EDT

Following requests from broadcasters and a parliamentary committee, the CRTC announced Wednesday that it will hold a public consultation on online programming services like Netflix and Apple TV. The commission called the consultation a “fact-finding exercise” and said it is seeking data and comments on over-the-top programming services as it investigates their impact on Canadian broadcasting. The public consultation comes following a recommendation from the House of Commons heritage committee and pressure from a secret broadcasting industry working group of 35 executives. The group's full membership has not been released but the commission said it includes “35 private...

Community TV sector says it’s on life support, and latest CRTC policy isn’t going to save it

Media | 05/25/2011 9:33 pm EDT

They may be a dying breed, but those who are dedicated to keeping independent over-the-air community television signals alive are hoping the sector will make a comeback thanks to new revenue models, including digital broadcasting and rebroadcasting. Even so, there remains a consensus that the...

Retail Council calls on majority Tory government to scrap private copying levy

Media | 05/24/2011 9:26 pm EDT

Following the Canadian Private Copying Collective’s (CPCC) announcement of a second crack at a levy on digital memory cards, the Retail Council of Canada is urging the majority Conservative government to scrap the entire private copying mechanism in the Copyright Act. “We think the entire levy system should be...

‘Little guy from Thetford Mines’ expected to keep low profile, follow ‘the Centre’

Media | 05/20/2011 9:24 pm EDT

Canada’s new Industry Minister Christian Paradis hasn’t issued a single tweet since May 6. Since Wednesday’s cabinet shuffle, his predecessor, Tony Clement, has held forth on cranberry lemon muffins, a trip to the dentist, Rush bobbleheads, and, of course, his new position as...

OTT working group still looking to CRTC for answer on Netflix consultation

Media | 05/20/2011 8:40 pm EDT

The over-the-top working group of broadcasting industry insiders says it is waiting to “let the process unfold” and has no immediate plans to lobby the Conservative government for a CRTC consultation on the role of Netflix Inc. in the Canadian broadcasting system. In early April, an industry working group...

Rogers says radio licence breaches technical, accidental

Media | 05/18/2011 8:25 pm EDT

Rogers Communications Inc. appeared before the CRTC commissioners Wednesday to explain actions the company has taken after its radio station CFUN was found in non-compliance of its broadcasting licence. Paul Ski, CEO of Rogers Radio, told commissioners Wednesday that that CFUN’s non-compliance “resulted from a combination of technical and/or human error and our understanding of our conditions of licence.” Rogers appeared before the commission as part of hearings that began Tuesday to examine 12 radio stations that failed to conform with regulations and conditions of licence. The commission will hear from the broadcasters before determining what actions to take. The CRTC is also considering licence renewals for 11 of the stations. Rogers station CFUN, which...

Telus says Shaw ‘creating confusion with customers,’ files CRTC complaint

Media | 05/18/2011 5:59 pm EDT

Telus Corp. has filed an undue preference complaint with the CRTC, accusing competitor Shaw Communications Inc. of delaying the cancellation of service for customers switching from Shaw cable to Telus’ Optik TV. Telus wrote in a complaint to the commission, dated May 6, that it is...

Netflix now accounts for 13.5 per cent of downstream traffic: Sandvine

Media | 05/17/2011 9:59 pm EDT

Following Netflix Inc.'s launch in Canada last fall, the service's 800,000 Canadian users now amount to 10 per cent of broadband households nationally and 13.5 per cent of peak downstream traffic in Canada, Sandvine Inc. reported in a new study Tuesday.  “The quick and widespread adoption is due in part to the...

Sun News receives some advice, tough love, from competitors

Media | 05/17/2011 9:33 pm EDT

OTTAWA—Quebecor Media Inc.'s new Sun News Network received some tough love on the weekend from a few of its competitors. At a panel discussion Saturday about network news, held at the Canadian Association of Journalists' (CAJ) national conference in Ottawa, news managers from competitors CTV, CBC and Global said...

Fuel TV decision illustrates need to rethink genre protection, industry insiders say

Media | 05/17/2011 1:19 am EDT

The CRTC’s decision to bar a U.S. channel from Canada has not only received criticism from two commissioners—it’s drawn attention from broadcasting industry insiders who say it’s time that the regulator reconsider the way it assesses genre protection.  Earlier this month the CRTC denied a...

Carriage value of Sun News Network has been reduced to ‘zero’: Bell

Media | 05/12/2011 1:46 pm EDT

Quebecor Media Inc. has reduced the carriage price of its new Sun News Network to “zero” by broadcasting it free over-the-air and streaming online, Mirko Bibic, senior vice-president of regulatory affairs at Bell Canada, says. The Sun News Network was removed from Bell’s satellite distribution service...

Rogers disappointed with CRTC satellite distribution policy

Media | 05/09/2011 8:32 pm EDT

Rogers Communications Inc. says the CRTC’s new policy for direct-to-home (DTH) satellite television distribution fails to meet its concerns over simultaneous substitution and the carriage of third-language channels. “We’re disappointed the CRTC not only failed to require DTH providers to carry third...

Opinion: A report from Fordham on Google Books and the rule of law

Media | 05/06/2011 7:14 pm EDT

NEW YORK—On April 28, 2011, I spoke at the 19th annual Fordham Intellectual Property Conference in New York on a panel about the Google Books settlement and its recent historic rejection on March 22, 2011 by Judge Denny Chin of the Southern District Court of New York. Judge Chin, himself a Fordham law grad, was at...

Rogers’ David Purdy lays out strategy to compete with Bell’s IPTV

Media | 05/05/2011 10:37 pm EDT

It may not be long before Bell Canada’s Internet protocol television (IPTV) services take a significant bite out of Rogers Communications Inc.’s hold on the television distribution market in Central Canada. Bell is rolling out bundled fibre Internet and IPTV services to compete with Rogers, and the battle is...

Von Finckenstein tells broadcasting industry to lobby Tories for regulatory change

Media | 05/05/2011 8:57 pm EDT

CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein laid out new details in his call for an overhaul of Canada’s communications regulatory framework Thursday and called on the broadcasting industry to form a new organization to lobby the Conservative government for change. “In order to make your case, you must organize yourselves and speak with one voice,” von Finckenstein said in a speech to the Broadcasting Invitational Summit in Cambridge, Ont.  “The Canadian Cable Television Association, the Specialty and Premium Television Association and the Canadian Association of Broadcasters are either gone or playing a diminished role. There is no body that can speak with authority...