QUEBEC CITY – Since Friday night, when Quebec’s floundering broadcast station TQS began stripping its news operations, the TV network has been ignoring its obligation to produce a certain number of hours of news programming, as set out in its CRTC licence.
That doesn’t sit well with CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein.
“We have a lot of problems with your application,” von Finckenstein said Monday at the opening of hearings in Montreal into TQS’s pitch for a new licence containing no news programming obligation at all. “You’re asking us to make an exception, one that would be in violation…
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TORONTO – The charity event "Together for China – Earthquake Relief Telethon" brought to Chinese Canadians nationally on Friday by TV channels Fairchild and Talentvision, raised a phenomenal $2,286,300 across Canada.
The event was a national earthquake relief effort by Fairchild Television in partnership with the Canadian Red Cross featuring renowned performing artistes from Asia, Eric Tsang, Jackie Cheung, Alan Tam, Aaron Kwok, Hacken Lee and more popular singers from Hong Kong and representatives from Canadian organizations appealing and presenting pledges to help the earthquake victims.
The program was simulcast on Shaw TV Cable 4 and Shaw Multicultural Channel,…
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TORONTO – Fairchild Television, Talentvision and the Canadian Red Cross are joining forces with local Chinese communities in a cross-Canada earthquake relief effort “Together for China” telethon that will feature Asian artists such as EricTsang, Jackie Cheung, Alan Tam, Aaron Kwok and Hacken Lee.
The initiative will take place on May 23 at 8 p.m.
A special fund-raising program will be aired 8:30 p.m. PST the same day on Talentvision that will highlight the rescue efforts.
Cable carriers such as Rogers, Shaw, Bell ExpressVu, Cogeco and Telus are assisting by unscrambling the signal and making Fairchild TV and Talentvision…
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KELOWNA – “This show has grown by leaps and bounds,” Capella’s Wayne Rabey raved this morning on a crowded floor at the 2008 Canadian CommTech Show and Seminars.
Between 250 and 300 people went through the Coast Capri Hotel on Wednesday, a day after the event’s successful golf tournament on Tuesday.
While the seminars went on (we’ll have a story or two from those, too) we perused the show floor for products and this is what some of the 60-plus companies were highlighting. ************ TVC CANADA was featuring a couple of fibre-to-the-home solutions, including air-blown fibre solutions and Corning’s…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) is charging that Bell Canada has contravened the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) by using deep-packet inspection technology (DPI) to control traffic over its Internet lines.
DPI reveals what subscribers are using their connections for, to find and limit peer-to-peer applications such as BitTorrent. Bell has said it needs to ensure traffic over its infrastructure doesn’t slow down, and DPI is aimed at optimizing its network.
CIPPIC, a University of Ottawa-based legal clinic specializing in Internet law, though noted in a May 9 letter to the Privacy…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable launched its Quebec Wi-Fi Internet access service today in Trois Rivieres.
As in Ontario, the company is offering this new service at no additional charge to its Québec High Speed Internet (HSI) subscribers.
“We’re delighted to be able to bring this new service to our HSI customers,” said Ron Perrotta, vice-president, marketing, in the press release. “Wi-Fi continues to grow in popularity as more and more people need an Internet connection for work or school or to surf the web wherever they are. This is real value added for our current subscribers and an easy…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable has added two high definition (HD) channels to its Quebec channel lineups: RDI HD and ARTV HD.
“With 19 HD channels, including 13 French-language channels, Cogeco offers more French HD channels than any other provider in its Québec territory," said Ron Perrotta, vice-president, marketing.
RDI HD is Radio-Canada’s French-language 24/7 news channel while ARTV HD is a French-language culture and lifestyle channel featuring live shows, movies, documentaries, series and journals and is co-owned by Radio Canada (44%), Télé-Quebec (25%), CTVglobemedia (16%) and ARTE France (15%).
The two new channels will be provided at no additional…
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BURLINGTON – Cogeco Cable has reached a definitive agreement to acquire all the assets of FibreWired Burlington Hydro Communications, Burlington Hydro Electric Inc.’s telecommunications division.
The purchase price was not disclosed.
FibreWired Burlington Hydro Communications, which operates a broadband network equipped with next generation ATM and Ethernet technology, provides Burlington organizations with broadband capacity for data networking, high-speed Internet access, hosting services, ebusiness applications, video conferencing and other advanced communications.
This is the second municipally owned telecom net Cogeco has bought this past month, having recently agreed to acquire MaXess in Windsor.
Cogeco Cable will use the Burlington network to…
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GATINEAU – Of all the submissions we’ve heard over the past three weeks, Channel Zero’s boiled the issues down very well, kicking of its oral remarks on Wednesday.
Cal Millar, vice-president and general manager of the company which owns Silver Screen Classics and Movieola said he believes the hearing is about Canadian programming and the fact that the consumer doesn’t really care about all the machinations going on within the CRTC or any of the broadcast and distribution companies.
“Canadians don’t say to themselves: ‘I want to spend money on cable or satellite’,” explained Millar. “They say ‘I want…
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QUEBEC CITY – Remstar Corp., the future owner of the troubled Quebec TV network, TQS, caught its news staff by surprise Wednesday, announcing it intention to eliminate its entire news programming by September.
The move would eliminate 271 jobs, but put the network back on the road to financial health, officials of Remstar and the interim management committee said. The cuts would leave TQS with 210 permanent employees.
Remstar, owned by brothers Maxime and Julien Rémillard, will be applying to the CRTC in the coming days for a transfer of license, and will at the same time ask that…
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