FORMER CABLE ATLANTIC OWNER, and current Newfoundland & Labrador premier Danny Williams is ticked off these days.
His government is getting strafed by daily opposition fire over the recently announced deal to bring another undersea fibre link from the mainland to The Rock. The $52-million project is backed with $15 million in provincial government money and will be built by a consortium of Persona Communications, Rogers Communications and MTS Allstream.
From what’s been published in the press out east, the opposition Liberals don’t seem to care about the project’s potential benefits – which are likely many –…
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TORONTO – If Rogers and Bell are on the same side of an issue – working together even – you know they see a threat.
Today, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telus, Sask Tel, MTS Allstream, and the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance released a research report saying 81% of Canadians do not want to pay a new fee for conventional broadcast stations.
As has been reported repeatedly by Cartt.ca the concept of fee for carriage has been pushed by Canadian broadcasters and will be front and centre at the upcoming CRTC Television Policy Review beginning Monday, November 27th in Hull….
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TORONTO – Sirius Canada said today that after a year in the market, it now has over 200,000 customers.
That’s more than double its rival in the market, XM Canada, whose most recent report said it had 91,200 paying subscribers and 120,000 customers. (The 38,800 difference are those with promotional offers, such as the three to four months of free service when a customer buys an XM-equipped new car.)
Sirius Canada passed 100,000 subscribers May 10, so the one aspect tempering this news is that growth in the second six months has remained stable and not accelerated.
Both…
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TORONTO – Vibika Bianchi has been promoted to director of original productions at W Network, Corus Entertainment’s specialty channel for women.
"Bianchi has been an integral member of the Original Productions team since joining W Network in 2004," said the company’s press release. "Her strong production background, pursuit of creative excellence and innovation, and collaborative team approach have contributed to the ongoing success of W Network shows such as The Smart Woman Survival Guide, Take this House and Sell It, Maxed Out, The Shopping Bags and many others."
In her new position, Bianchi will build on W’s programming by…
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TORONTO – TSN Extra and CBC News Plus, two new interactive TV services have been added to Bell ExpressVu’s service.
Customers can now choose the news and sports they want to see, when they want to see it, in a fully interactive and on-demand environment, says the press release.
"TSN Extra and CBC News Plus iTV programming allows customers to gain more detail on specific news and sports stories from a list of the latest headlines while watching the regular broadcast at the same time," reads the press release.
"For example, users can press SELECT on their ExpressVu remote…
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LEONARD ASPER HAS been front-and-centre on the fight for regulatory change in broadcast television.
Of all the broadcast CEOs in Canada, he has stuck his neck out the farthest in demanding things as fee-for-carriage and increased advertising flexibility. As you’ll read, much is riding on his company’s submission and the eventual new policy emanating from the CRTC decision which will be announced in 2007.
During the hearing days, expect much hay to be made on CanWest’s request for an extra 50-cents per TV subscriber per month for each conventional broadcaster.
At the Canadian Association of Broadcasters annual conference in…
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VANCOUVER – Rae Hull, regional director of CBC Television for B.C., announced last week she is leaving the Corp.
An industry veteran with 25 years of experience, Hull has held a wide range of production and executive positions – from reporter, anchor, producer, writer and director to increasingly senior roles at CBC Television.
Hull has been in her current position for eight years and in 2000 took on the additional job of senior director, TV network programming – the first senior director for the network to be based outside of Toronto, said a company memo from Fred Mattocks, executive…
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TORONTO – Saying she was "among friends", former CRTC commissioner and Canadian Women in Communications chair (and current Minister of Canadian Heritage) Bev Oda spoke openly Thursday night in Toronto about the current state of the broadcast and telecom market.
The Minister was speaking at CWC Toronto’s fall gathering at the Bravo! Rehearsal Hall.
During her informal presentation, Oda acknowledged that there is much uncertainty, many questions and areas where no one knows how broadcasting and telecommunications is going to evolve over the next few years. Instead of fear and trepidation, the industry stakeholders should look at the wonderful…
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Dear Editor,
WITH REGARD TO THE LETTER published November 10 from Phyllis Yaffe of Alliance Atlantis, we certainly seek no quarrel with our friends at Showcase – they do a fine job of broadcasting quality Canadian content and we commend them for it.
But it is worth noting that a key part of the challenge of bringing Canadian programming to Canadians is ensuring it is widely accessible. Showcase reaches approximately 6.5 million households, a considerable number to be sure. But with its availability to virtually every Canadian, CBC is unique in its reach.
The important point, which I’m sure…
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IF YOU PAID ANY attention at all to the coverage of the war in Afghanistan this summer, you surely heard Terry Pedwell’s voice, read his copy, or saw his photographs.
His summer of 2006 was different than his first two times with the Canadian military in the war-torn Asian country. Now that Canada is waging war and not simply there to build schools and the like, it’s far more dangerous for our fighting men and women there, says the Broadcast News/CP reporter.
But what’s life like for a broadcast reporter there? In a place fraught with the type of…
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