Ahmad Hathout

Wireless prices in Canada decreased an average of 18.2 per cent for data plans in 2023 when compared to 2022 prices, according to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada's 2023 Price Comparison Study of Telecom Services, published Tuesday. The annual report — which provides a comparative price analysis of wireless and home internet services in Canada, both regionally and relative to G7 peer countries and Australia — also found home internet prices in Canada declined across all service plans in 2023. There were significant decreases on plans up to 100 Mbps, including decreases of 8.6 per cent for plans offering the...

By Ahmad Hathout Not-for-profit media company Accessible Media Inc. (AMI) has lodged a complaint with the CRTC alleging Videotron is not treating institutional subscribers in a way that conforms with industry standard when it comes to carrying AMI's programs. Since 2016, AMI and Videotron have been deadlocked on the terms of a distribution agreement in which Videotron must carry AMI-TV and AMI-tele as part of the 9.1(1)(h) rule. Central to AMI's undue disadvantage complaint, as outlined in a Part 1 application made public this week, is that Videotron allegedly will not budge on how to treat institutional customers, such as...

The Municipalité régionale de comté (MRC) de D'Autray, located in the Lanaudière region northeast of Montreal, has submitted a Part 1 application asking the CRTC to clarify the rules regarding costs related to preparatory work on Bell poles to which the regional county municipality wants to attach.

The Canadian Communication Systems Alliance, which represents 100 independent communications companies, announced Wednesday that consultant John Roman is the organization’s new director of legal and regulatory affairs. “With more than 14 years of dedicated experience in policy, regulation, and consulting within the broadcasting and telecommunications sectors, Roman’s extensive track record of crafting regulatory submissions, supporting Governor in... Read more »

Bell CEO Mirko Bibic said Thursday that the higher rate of customers switching to other carriers is “concerning,” but that the telco is mitigating that with bundled offers.

By Doug Barrett, adjunct professor in the Arts, Media & Entertainment MBA program at the Schulich School of Business This is the third piece examining the current debate on the definition of Canadian content. In the first I examined the different legal foundations of the Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office (CAVCO) system and the CRTC system... Read more »

By Connie Thiessen Numeris has announced the release of its Hybrid Linear TV measurement service for its video clients, developed in partnership with Kantar Media. Enhanced Television Audience Measurement (TAM) incorporates Return Path Data (Big Data) from Set-Top-Boxes (STBs) to TAM data (Panel data). Numeris says the approach addresses the fragmented TV landscape while reinforcing audience behaviours already reported under TAM. The audience measurement agency says the hybrid method will provide more granularity and better accuracy, offering audience stability, program-level audience estimates for niche or spill stations, and a better understanding of the complete broadcast TV landscape by reporting data...

The CRTC said Friday it will not immediately decide whether the three largest telecommunications companies should be banned from accessing the large telcos' bundled middle- and last-mile fibre facilities, effectively greenlighting Bell, Rogers, and Telus to ride on those networks in the interim.

Rogers said last week it contributed a “record” $14 billion to Canada’s gross domestic product in 2023, citing data in the company’s first economic impact assessment since its merger with Shaw in April of last year. The cable giant’s assessment includes Rogers’s economic impact for the full 2023 calendar year, but does not include Shaw’s economic impact... Read more »

Pluto TV, the free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) service owned by Paramount, announced Monday six new streaming channels featuring popular series from A+E Networks’ library are now available to Canadian viewers. The new additions include channels dedicated to Dance Moms (seasons 1-8), Ax Men (seasons 1-10), Dog the Bounty Hunter (seasons 1-9), Duck Dynasty (seasons 1-11), Modern Marvels (seasons 2-20) and Tiny House Nation (seasons 1-5). “We are thrilled... Read more »