Jesse Betteridge's blog

There is certainly a lot less confusion going around these days over the upcoming transition to digital television on August 31 than there was a few years ago. Unfortunately, a good portion of the public, namely those who have become perfectly content with their expensive cable and satellite packages, seem to be completely unaware of why this is so important. Anyone who thinks that picking up television signals for free with an antenna is a lowly, vestigial practice from the Cold War could certainly learn a lot from the growing number of Canadians embracing it, as well as the countries using it for innovation in mobile phone technology. Read more »

Crosspost from Sitting on an Atomic Bomb

The Federal Court has made uncanny timing with their latest decision relating to the government's ability to reverse CRTC decisions. The Harper government's ruling that allowed Globalive to establish WIND Mobile in the Canadian marketplace despite the CRTC's objection has been struck down on the basis that the government had no justification in overruling the regulator. Given that Industry Minister Tony Clement announced on Wednesday the federal government's intention to overrule the CRTC's decision to impose usage-based billing on independent ISPs, concern over this development may be understandable. Read more »

Several years ago, the federal government intervened and asked the CRTC to accelerate the deregulation of telephone services in Canada for the supposed benefit of consumer interests. Contrarily, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) released a report insisting that this has not been the reality at all. Read more »

Canadian regulation has traditionally been extremely restrictive towards foreign competition. This especially true in the area of telecommunications where it has been all but prohibited for decades. However, a recent decision by the CRTC regarding the wholesale of unused fibre optic lines may create an inroad for non-Canadian companies to operate Internet services in Canada with more control over unused fibre optic cables, also known as "dark fibre." Read more »

While there has been considerable apprehension over Shaw's demand for online streaming services to be regulated by the CRTC, Netflix is already two steps ahead in maintaining their competitive edge. The service has been accused of having an unfair advantage over conventional broadcasters thanks to the CRTC's long-standing policy of not regulating Internet content. Rather than fight these accusations, Netflix has simply opted to do something that our conventional broadcasters would likely never do in an unregulated environment: willingly add a significant amount of Canadian content to their line-up.
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After already having suffered through a six month blackout in 2009, Ryerson campus-community radio station CKLN may be in for more troubled times after its evaluation at a recent CRTC hearing. Although the hearing was intended to highlight and address the station's ability to maintain station logs and annual reports, the Commission did not hesitate to voice the impending threat of their license being suspended entirely.

CKLN is just one example of campus and community radio being framed as an antiquity in the context of modern broadcast regulation. According to Steve Anderson, national coordinator of OpenMedia.ca. regulators and lawmakers have lost sight of the fact that the collaborative process of community broadcasting is more vital than the actual output. Read more »