The CRTC has ordered telecom companies and broadcasters to improve their accessibility services.
Post Tagged with: "crtc"
CRTC Net Neutrality Hearing Open Door To Regulatory Action
Regulatory hearings on Internet traffic management practices held in windowless rooms in Gatineau, Quebec in the middle of summer are not likely candidates to attract much attention. Yet, as my weekly technology column notes (Toronto Star version, homepage version) for seven days this month, hundreds of Canadians listened to webcasts of Internet service providers defend their previously secret practices while engaging in a robust debate on net neutrality. The interest in the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission hearing may have caught the regulator off-guard (the webcast traffic was, by a wide margin, its most ever for a hearing), but it was the testimony itself that was the greatest source of surprise.
Net Neutrality Hearing Paves The Way for Action
Appeared in the Toronto Star on July 20, 2009 as Web Neutrality Hearings Paving The Way For Action Regulatory hearings on Internet traffic management practices held in windowless rooms in Gatineau, Quebec in the middle of summer are not likely candidates to attract much attention. Yet for seven days this […]
The Era of Free TV Coming to an End
Since the debut of broadcast television in this country more than 50 years ago, millions of Canadians have grown to expect free access to local television signals. While the mechanism for accessing those ad or taxpayer supported broadcasts has evolved from rooftop antennae to cable and satellite distribution, access has consistently been free (cable obviously charges for access but it does not pay for carriage of local signals). My technology law column this week (Toronto Star version, Ottawa Citizen version, homepage version) noted that Canada's broadcast regulator has issued a decision that will bring the era of free local television to an end for many Canadians. Whether through the elimination of local over-the-air broadcasts or via additional cable or satellite charges to cover a new fee-for-carriage system, free is out and new fees are in.
The changes are the result of two policy decisions by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. First, the CRTC set the ground rules for the digital transition of Canadian broadcasting by determining that many Canadian communities are likely to lose their over-the-air signal as part of the change.
The Free TV Era Comes to an End
Appeared in the Toronto Star on July 13, 2009 as Free, over-the-air TV fades to black Appeared in the Ottawa Citizen on July 14, 2009 as The era of free television has gone the way of rabbit-ears Since the debut of broadcast television in this country more than 50 years […]
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