Marilyn Denis is the 2017 inductee to the Allan Waters Lifetime Achievement Award according to Canadian Music Week (CMW). Denis is the first female broadcaster to receive the award and will be honoured on April 20 at CMW’s Canadian Music and Broadcast Industry Awards in Toronto. Denis recently celebrated 30 years co-hosting mornings with Roger Ashby on 104.5 CHUM-FM Toronto. She also hosts The Marilyn Denis Show on CTV, which is in its seventh season.
The CRTC received more than 1,180 comments last week after opening consultation to ban differential pricing to Reddit users for the first time. The online discussion forum was open for five days to gauge public opinion. The CRTC wanted to hear from people who normally would not participate in a government process. Differential pricing is a practice where internet and mobile providers charge different prices for different types of data traffic. Opponents say it hurts competition and net neutrality.
The CRTC has hearings booked for Dec. 7 to deal with a number of broadcasting applications including an application by Channel Zero for a licence to operate a business channel to be known as Bloomberg TV Canada, an application for a 100,000 watt Christian radio station with several repeat transmitters in Newfoundland and Labrador and a request for a broadcasting licence to operate a classic hits format FM radio station in Simcoe, ON. A complete list of the applications to be heard can be found here.
Bell Media has threatened legal action against VMedia, a small Canadian internet and IPTV provider, if it does not remove Bell’s signals from a VMedia service that streams live TV over the internet. At issue is VMedia’s new service which offers a so-called Skinny Basic cable package through a Roku app. Through the app, viewers can access 20 live television channels, including CTV, CBC, Global, as well as U.S. networks ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and PBS. Bell said the company will seek a court injunction to stop VMedia.
An independent study on broadband performance in Canada suggests Internet service providers largely meet or exceed their advertised download and upload speeds. All the main wireline service providers in Canada took part in the study, with the exception of Sasktel, which declined to participate. The study was issued by the CRTC and a second phase is planned for later this fall, expanding to more ISPs.
