Commission is told small TV stations are living on borrowed time
GATINEAU – The local TV environment is so bad for some small independent over the air broadcasters that they risk shutting their doors in the coming months if they don’t get financial assistance from the CRTC. A case in point is Dougall Media’s Thunder Bay Electronics, the owner of two stations in the northwestern Ontario city.
VP and GM Don Caron explained during a closing statement to the Small Market Independent Television Stations Coalition (SMITs) appearance that his two stations (a CTV and Global affiliate) have remained open…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – The second day of the CRTC hearing into local and community TV delved more into the details of how alternative financing and community TV could be help fix the local TV problem. Some argued that more money is needed to fund local TV and others said that community TV has the wherewithal to take the financial reins from their broadcast distributor masters and control much more of their own content creation.
The Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) noted in its opening remarks that its $150-million Community Media Access Fund (CAMF) proposal could team community…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – New Rogers channel Viceland will debut in more than 7.5 million Canadian households when it launches on February 29, the company said Friday.
The millennial-focused linear channel, which replaces Rogers’ Bio specialty channel, will be available through more than 20 TV service providers out of the gate, including Shaw and Shaw Direct, Telus, Videotron, Cogeco Connexion and Eastlink, in addition to Rogers Cable.
Kicking off with a three-month free preview, content includes Gaycation with Ellen Page and friend/co-host Ian Daniel, and original music documentary series Noisey, hosted by Vice correspondent Zach Goldbaum. Viceland will also air original series produced…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – With just days to go before Bell Let's Talk Day on January 27, Bell issued a public thank you to the Canadian organizations supporting the initiative and promoting its messages around mental health.
"A huge thank you to all the individuals and organizations joining the Bell Let's Talk team to help get everyone talking about mental health. What better way to fight the stigma than having Canada's finest brands actively promoting the cause?" said Clara Hughes, national spokesperson for Bell Let's Talk, in the news release. "When you send your own messages on Bell Let's Talk Day, you not only let…
Continue Reading
BRAMPTON, ON – The SCTE Ontario Chapter has named Cogeco’s Arni Lundale to its Board of Directors for 2016.
Lundale will serve a one year term as director of membership meetings and presentations/certification following the resignation of Clearcable’s Joe Caruso who is leaving his position as director of social media.
The Ontario Chapter of SCTE has grown to over 900 members since its inception in mid-2003 and is the largest chapter membership in North America.
www.scte-ontario.com
Continue Reading
LAS VEGAS – “Cable companies find it hard to accept that people don’t just want to watch TV in the living room anymore,” said Jay Mehr, EVP and COO of Shaw Communications as it announced the launch of its FreeRange app Wednesday at the Consumer Electronics Show.
The app makes content instantly available to subscribers no matter where they are and Mehr (pictured) told a gathering of industry partners and press that the cable company had partnered with Comcast and Cisco to leverage Comcast's X1 platform to provide a truly disruptive mobile experience by providing live…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Independent ISPs and consumer groups are telling the federal government not to buy Bell Canada’s assertions that investments in next-generation fibre networks will come to a standstill if the CRTC’s wholesale fibre access decision is allowed to stand.
A day after the Justin Trudeau Liberals swept into power in Ottawa on October 19, Bell filed appeal with the Governor-in-Council seeking a Cabinet order overturning Telecom Regulatory Policy 2015-326. The company claims the decision favours “resale over investment” which will lead to less capital for fibre to the home…
Continue Reading
BRAMPTON – Cogeco Cable’s Ron Huinink has been elected president of SCTE Ontario Chapter board for 2015.
He joins Rogers Cable’s John Triassi and Andrew Laframboise and Telonix’s Scott McPhail who were also elected to the SCTE Ontario Board for a period of two years (2016 and 2017). They join current board members Mario Massi, Ivan Novello, Chris Skarica and Joe Caruso.
The organization said that nine candidates put their names forward and that voter turnout was strong.
The Ontario Chapter of SCTE has grown to over 900 members since its inception in mid-2003 and is the largest chapter membership in North America.
www.scte-ontario.com
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Telus will join the increasing number of data centre providers in Canada offering hybrid cloud services that connect applications in corporate-owned or hosted private clouds or infrastructure, to public clouds.
The Vancouver-based telecommunications company said last week the new hybrid cloud service – to launch early next year – will allow organizations to shift workloads including virtual machines, operating systems, data, and applications between their private clouds (usually applications that need high security) and public clouds (applications that are under development or are less mission-critical).
"It's going to provide the ability to move workloads between these environments…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Content producers and distributors must figure out how best to be constantly innovative if Canadian content is to thrive in the new on-demand world.
That was the message Thursday as the CRTC and National Film Board’s 'En Route to the Discoverability Summit' workshop series came to Montreal. Like Tuesday’s session in Vancouver, there was a lot of discussion about how the media world has changed, and some interesting, if vague, suggestions on what to do about it.
The event started much like the previous one did, with speeches from men in suits (in French this time…)…
Continue Reading
