NOW THAT MY TWO-AND-a-half year old daughter has outgrown her predilection towards throwing things at our living room television (think keys and golf balls, not stuffed animals), I decided my Christmas gift to the family (okay, to me) would be a new television.
I want my HDTV.
Last month though, CTAM Canada published a piece of research which said, in essence, that Canadian consumers are not getting enough information on how to get the best high definition experience and too often are leaving the stores without a digital cable or satellite receiver, which is the best way (and…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Radio-television said Tuesday it will not exercise its right to purchase the 40% interest in Quebec broadcaster TQS that it doesn’t already own and that the parties have agreed to extend its partnership agreement until at least January 1, 2009.
The change of control of Bell Globemedia on August 31, 2006 triggered the right for Cogeco to acquire all of CTV’s shares in TQS. Cogeco owns 60% of the network.
"We mutually agreed to postpone the put call option window that would have opened February 15, 2007… to January 1st 2009," said Cogeco CEO Louis Audet.
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TORONTO – Never one for lengthy media sessions, Cogeco CEO Louis Audet practically demanded that reporters ask him about its newest purchase, Portuguese cable and telecom outfit Cabovisao, prior to the cable company’s annual general meeting in Toronto on Tuesday.
So, how is it going there? Audet was typically reserved in his remarks, saying "integration is going well," but his body language conveyed some excitement towards what he sees as a key strategic growth opportunity.
Admitting "not all of our shareholders were enthusiastic about the acquisition," Audet sings the praises of Cabovisao, it’s growth opportunities and employees, noting he…
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TORONTO – Despite the hue and cry over the supposed nasty effects of new media, radio, a so-called old media, continues to post gains here in Canada.
According to Canadian Broadcast Sales, national radio sales for the first quarter of the 2007 broadcast year (September to November ’07) represent the medium’s highest-ever total revenue quarter as sales rose by 8.2% compared to the same period last year. The Toronto market took 42% of the growth.
CBS is a national sales firm representing approximately 60% of all private Canadian radio stations, a total of 128 markets, with clients including Corus,…
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GATINEAU – If the CCTA was still around, it wouldn’t have been able to find consensus among its members for the CRTC’s TV Policy Review either.
While the schisms among the Canadian Association of Broadcasters members meant that association was unable to come up with a submission containing any consensus among its members, some of whom want large carriage fees for broadcasters, some who want small ones and some who oppose them altogether, fractures of opinion exist in the distributor world, too.
Two of the former Canadian Cable Television Association‘s largest members faced the Commission yesterday with diametrically…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The idea that Canada’s signal distributors should pay conventional broadcasters fees to carry their signals is “trash” according to Rogers Communications CEO Ted Rogers.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday following his company’s appearance before the CRTC on day three of its over-the-air TV review hearings, Rogers countered the many broadcaster arguments in favour of such charges, known as fee-for-carriage (FFC), made over the hearing’s first two days. He said broadcasters should look to new technologies – not new regulations – for new revenues. “These guys should get back to high def and keep up with the new stuff.”…
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OTTAWA – Satellite radio has another distribution platform, if they want it.
A Commission decision today that will surely be copied by other broadcast distribution undertakings said that Rogers Cable can add satellite radio stations to their cable channel lineups.
Bell ExpressVu recently asked the Commission for permission to add the satellite radio signals to its service offering but were refused, as the CRTC told the DTH company it needed a license amendment, which is what was granted to Rogers today. Cogeco Cable has also submitted a similar request for a license amendment.
There are conditions to the rule,…
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FEE-FOR-CARRIAGE will happen.
There. I said it. I don’t like it and sure don’t want to pay it, but I’ve come to believe – thanks to my talks and travels this year with folks from all sides of the issue – that in some form, the CRTC is going to grant the conventional broadcasters’ demand for more money from Canadians as additional compensation for the content they deliver.
"On the face of it, it’s a bizarre idea," Rogers vice-chairman Phil Lind told me recently. "(Consumers) get nothing extra, they just have to pay five dollars more."
True enough, but…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable has told its customers that HDNet is coming December 13th, and that as of December 1st, it is changing how it prices high definition channels.
The company will no longer offer the HD Theme Pack as a stand-alone package for $6.99 a month or as a theme pack option for its Digital Select customers and will instead charge a new HD system access fee of $5.99 per month.
Customers who pay the monthly HD access fee will be able to see all of the HD versions of every standard definition channel available to them. And…
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RIMOUSKI – Télévision Quatre-Saisons (TQS) viewers in eastern Quebec will get their own regional news bulletin, if licence proposals submitted by TQS and Télévision MBS are accepted by the CRTC.
Under the proposals, a two-person bureau based in Rimouski would produce a three-and-a-half minute news segment, five days a week. Another three minutes daily would offer community notices and public service announcements.
The new service would supplement existing TQS news bulletins produced in Rivière-du-Loup and Montreal, and would serve Rimouski, Mont-Joli, Matane, and the Matapedia Valley, a population basin of about 100,000 people.
Cogeco Inc.-controlled TQS has asked the…
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