Brief
CBC/Radio-Canada president and CEO Hubert Lacroix proposed an amendment to the Conservative government's budget bill that he said would help ensure the broadcaster's independence from cabinet.
CBC employees are not public servants, Lacroix said in the letter, and it's “vital” to the Crown corporation that it operate as an independent public broadcaster.
A Waterloo-region CBC/Radio-Canada radio program that was pulled this week due to a regulatory hurdle will be back on the air Friday after the CRTC approved an FM radio application for Paris, Ont., CBC said.
CBC said Tuesday that it had pulled its local, Waterloo region radio show, The Morning Edition, after discovering that it did not have a CRTC licence to operate the new Waterloo station it launched last month.
CBC/Radio-Canada continued to be the largest recipient of assistance from the CRTC's local TV fund in 2012, receiving $47 million, followed by BCE Inc. stations with $23.7 million, according to a financial statement for the fund released Friday.
CBC/Radio-Canada said its proposal for advertising on CBC Radio 2 and Espace Musique would draw national advertising only and refuse local ad buys.
In final reply comments to the CRTC for its licence renewal proceeding, CBC said it would sell national level advertising on the two national radio music networks at national rates.
The CRTC approved an application by Blue Ant Media Inc. to acquire CBC/Radio-Canada’s digital specialty channel Bold.
In its decision Friday, the commission said Blue Ant will be required to pay $1 million in tangible benefits relating to the deal over a seven-year period. It said 95 per cent of that money will be directed to the Blue Ant Multiscreen Fund to “finance content that reflects Canada’s rural and non-urban regions.”
The CRTC approved CBC/Radio-Canada’s request to convert an existing AM radio station in Yellowknife to the FM band, the commission said Wednesday.
In its decision, the CRTC said the converted station would operate at 98.9 MHz on the FM band. It will “broadcast programming from the CBC Radio One network as well as a minimum of 56 hour of local programming during each broadcast week,” the CRTC said.
Non-Canadian feature films and other foreign programming is an important source of revenue and part of the public broadcaster’s mandate, CBC/Radio-Canada said.
In advance of its CRTC licence renewal hearing scheduled to start Nov. 19, CBC filed reply comments with the commission to respond to about 8,000 interventions.
In the 55-page reply, CBC said one aspect of its mandate is to bring “the best of foreign programming” to Canadian viewers.
CBC/Radio-Canada's annual revenues would fall by up to $200 million if the public broadcaster does not secure the rights to Hockey Night in Canada in 2014, watchdog group the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting said.
In a submission to the CRTC dated Oct. 5, Friends said Hockey Night in Canada accounts for 10 per cent of CBC TV's English-language schedule, one-third of its audience share and more than 50 per cent of its advertising revenues.
The CRTC has re-opened its consultation on CBC/Radio-Canada’s licence renewal applications in advance of a twice-rescheduled hearing now expected to begin on Nov. 19, the commission said Wednesday.
In the updated notice of consultation, the commission said the late-November, Gatineau-area hearing will consider the public broadcaster’s applications to renew the licences of its French- and English-language television networks, as well as its specialty TV channels and radio stations.
Public broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada did not grant itself an unfair advantage by using both public funding and advertising revenues to support its new CBC Music service, the CRTC said in a decision Tuesday.
In its decision, the CRTC said it rejected an “undue preference” complaint filed against the CBC this April by Stingray Digital Group Inc.
CBC/Radio-Canada corrected the number of analog transmitters to be shut down on July 31, 2012, revising that number from 620 to 607.
The CRTC approved CBC/Radio-Canada’s plan to shut down all of its analog transmitters that support 23 English and French-language television stations across Canada.
In broadcasting decision 2012-384, released Tuesday, the CRTC said it approved the CBC’s request to amend the licences of 23 TV stations to remove their analog retransmitters.
More than 2,200 Canadians have written to the CRTC in opposition to CBC/Radio-Canada's plan to shut down 623 analog TV transmitters, the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) said in a release Friday.
CACTUS is campaigning for CBC to allow communities to take control of the local analog TV transmitters the public broadcaster plans to decommission this year.
The CRTC approved a new CBC/Radio-Canada specialty channel licence and added China’s state-run broadcaster's French and English-language services to the lists of foreign channels eligible for distribution in Canada, the commission said Tuesday.
In one decision, the commission approved the CBC’s application to launch a national, French-language, Category B specialty program called Trésor.