TORONTO – Martha Fusca, president and CEO of independent broadcaster Stornoway Communications, has stepped down from the company’s day-to-day operations.
Fusca confirmed to Cartt.ca that she will instead spearhead Stornoway’s latest venture, a new specialty channel entitled Fusion, but declined to elaborate on the nature of that project. It’s also unclear who will replace her, but Fusca suggested that the company’s Board may select an internal candidate.
“Stornoway is synonymous with Martha, and we are delighted that she has agreed to accept this new role with Fusion”, said Jim Macdonald, chairman of the board of directors, in the announcement. “Fusion…
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THESE CRTC HEARINGS INTO big acquisitions have simply become giant public negotiating exercises where a lot of dirty laundry is aired in public by those who feel they’ve been wronged in the past. It becomes payback time, if you will.
The applicant – in this case, Bell Media – puts in an application that is a swing for the fences. It cocks its regulatory bat and takes a mighty swing, looking for that grand slam home run on the first pitch, where all of its proposals are accepted by the Commission – but knowing full well it’s likely to miss…
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MONTREAL – Quebecor's Videotron is making its first step toward eliminating analog cable television service throughout its network.
Last Friday, the company issued a stop-sell order for new analog television subscriptions. The end goal is the transition of its approximately 412,000 remaining analog TV customers (many of which are hotel rooms or other business customers) to the company's illico digital service.
"We need more space in the network," said Videotron vice-president Isabelle Dessureault. In areas like western Montreal, where analog cable is still prevalent, Videotron devotes about 55 of its 135 6-MHz television channels to analog service. Ending analog service completely…
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OTTAWA – The ‘Say No To Bell’ coalition is taking issue with interventions filed by Telefilm Canada and the Terrace, BC detachment of the RCMP in support Bell’s proposed takeover of Astral Media.
In a letter addressed to Heritage Minister James Moore, the heads of Cogeco, Eastlink and Quebecor expressed surprise that the publically funded federal agencies would submit interventions that “go beyond their respective competence and mandate”.
“In our view, these federal public bodies should have known better than to take sides on this public policy debate before the federal regulators in charge of reviewing the proposed merger”, reads the letter…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC has green-lit the sale of sports channels owned by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) to a company co-owned by Rogers and BCE, effectively closing the $1.32 billion transaction that will see the two communication companies take a majority stake in the sports and entertainment giant.
While the transaction involved several sports-related properties including the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Raptors, the CRTC's review was limited to the five television services owned by MLSE – Leafs TV, Gol TV and NBA TV Canada, as well as un-launched services Mainstream Sports and Live Music Channel.
"When deciding…
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SO IT?S NOT JUST Quebecor, Cogeco and EastLink demanding the CRTC say no to Bell Canada'?s $3.38 billion purchase of Astral Media after all. Telus, Rogers, MTS Allstream, the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and others want this latest edition of the ongoing vertical integration story erased.
(An earlier version of this story said Friends of Canadian Broadcasting were also opposed to the merger. That us not the case and Cartt.ca regrets the error.)
Still, other groups such as ACTRA, the Writers Guild, the CMPA and Directors Guild, while not ultimately opposing the…
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TORONTO – With less than two weeks to go until its Canadian debut, Shaw Media has kicked off a national advertising campaign to introduce Lifetime to Canadian women.
Targeting women 25-54, the off-air campaign highlights series Dance Moms and The Client List, plus layers in a third image piece featuring A-list talent including Jennifer Love Hewitt, Queen Latifah, Lindsay Lohan and Heidi Klum. Together, the campaign aims to promote the brand’s breadth of programming including scripted drama, unscripted series and movies.
Out-of-home executions include a “subway domination” at Toronto’s St. George station, plus large-scale billboards in the high-traffic Toronto Eaton Centre…
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VANCOUVER – Add Telus to the list of stakeholders opposing Bell’s planned purchase of Astral Media.
The telco issued a statement Tuesday backing the ‘Say No To Bell’ coalition, and voicing its concern over the “unprecedented concentration of market power in the broadcasting sector would have on Canadian consumers”.
“All Canadians should be able to access the content they want through the provider they choose; we all benefit from competition between a variety of organizations and no one company should be in a position to take away choice or access to content for consumers,” said president and CEO Darren Entwistle,…
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OTTAWA – The ‘Say No To Bell’ coalition is taking issue with Bell’s interpretation of its Canadian TV viewing share should its acquisition of Astral Media be allowed to proceed.
The group, spearheaded by Cogeco, Eastlink, and Quebcor, issued a statement challenging Bell’s calculation that the combined English-language market share of Bell Canada and Astral Media is 33.5%.
“The correct number for the Canada-wide English-language viewing share of the combined companies is in fact 41.4%”, reads the statement. “This goes to the heart of the problems inherent in the proposed transaction: a degree of single company market dominance greatly exceeding that…
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WHILE LISTENING, PERPLEXED, to Tuesday’s “Say No To Bell” press conference led by Quebecor Inc. Cogeco Inc. and Bragg Communications, I tweeted “Horse is out of the barn, is lost in the woods and the barn is on fire.”
Many of us are fond of using the “horse is out of the barn” cliché when it comes to big media mergers, noting it’s far too late now to close the door on any of it. That is undeniable, and the proposed Bell Media purchase of Astral Media is just about the last of them. The Canadian barn…
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