IF THERE HAS BEEN a Canadian television channel that has struggled more with its programming, carriage, ownership and identity than OUTtv, which began its life in September 2001 as Pridevision, we don’t know of it.
The original category one digital specialty service license went to a surprising place to begin with. The CRTC, preoccupied at the time with trying to uplift smaller broadcasters, gave the must-carry digital license to what then was Headline Media, the owners of what has become The Score, a straight-male all-sports station where no one had experience in the gay community.
Granted, Headline did partner…
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KELOWNA – The CommTech Show will return for its third year to the beautiful Okanagan Valley next spring on May 14 and 15 providing two days of back-to-back seminars hosted by Industry experts as well as an expected sold-out exhibitor forum with over 50 exhibitors representing thousands of products.
An earlier version of this story had the wrong dates. Cartt.ca regrets the error.
Over 50 companies attended the 2007 trade show and seminars and attendees included buyers, corporate safety experts, operations management, sub-contractors, inside & outside plant technicians, planning engineers and educators from the cable, telco, wireless, college, municipal and…
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OTTAWA – Canada’s telecommunications companies have launched an agency to hear complaints from consumers that can’t be resolved by the telcos or the CRTC.
The office of the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) opened its doors in Ottawa on Monday. It was created in response to a request from Industry Minister Maxime Bernier that telephone service providers work together to create an independent, industry-funded agency to handle complaints that fall outside the CRTC’s jurisdiction and that consumers and small businesses have been unable to resolve directly with their service provider. The request was tied with the federal…
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TORONTO – Business continues to boom for private radio in terms of national ad sales, which rose 6.1% in the third quarter of this fiscal compared with the same time last year, according to figures from Canadian Broadcast Sales.
CBS says that bookings for the fourth quarter of the broadcast year are on track to climb 9.9% from Q4 last year, with even bigger gains predicted for the first quarter next year. “In the near term, radio will continue to enjoy the positive momentum of the past several years. The early revenue pacing for the first quarter of 2008…
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By Greg O’Brien
IF THERE WERE NO big bogeymen around to scare the federal government into re-jigging an open wireless spectrum auction to favour such things as spectrum caps, or spectrum set-asides – and then mandated roaming – there is now, with the announcement that Telus is an active participant in the expected sale of Bell Canada Enterprises.
The press release arrived just after 8 p.m. last night and even though it means little right now, you’ve got to believe that the folks in Ottawa at Industry Canada who are deciding on the rules for the advanced wireless spectrum auction…
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LAST WEEK THE Cable Public Affairs Channel celebrated its 15th anniversary of bringing Canadians the nitty gritty of politics.
As the only place where you find federal Parliamentary debates, committee meetings, inquiry hearings, political talk shows, some international flavour and of course, Question Period, it’s also just about the only Paris Hilton-free media outlet in the world, which perhaps explains why it’s often on in our house…
But, just because Canadian cable companies created it, own it, and politicians on the Hill love it, CPAC still, like any other traditional media outlet, has its challenges. While it was a…
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BANFF – The Canadian Television Fund, saying it was responding to “a concern” but declining to name whose concern, said it would put off any changes to its bylaws until the CRTC is finished its review of the fund.
Two weeks ago, Shaw Communications CEO Jim Shaw sent a blistering letter to the CTF saying the fact the organization was planning to alter its bylaws at the same time the CRTC is examining the fund and its operations “flies in the face of common sense.”
Today, buried in a press release of the CTF’s report to stakeholders, the…
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OTTAWA – Quebecor and MTS Allstream are not alone among telecom and cable firms in their desire for a wireless spectrum auction that would shackle the "big three" mobile phone companies in Canada.
Among those aligned with the Quebec and Manitoba companies that have been leading the charge to have spectrum in the auction set aside for new entrants – and who have also proposed other rules like mandated roaming and tower sharing – include: Cogeco Cable, the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance, Shaw Communications, EastLink, the Assembly of First Nations and Toronto Hydro Telecom, among others.
The list…
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MONTREAL – Like every other conventional television broadcaster in English Canada, Quebec’s Télévision Quatre-Saisons (TQS) had argued for the CRTC’s acceptance of carriage fees to help OTAs compete with fee-supported speciality channels.
“We’re very disappointed,” said TQS President & CEO René Guimond, after the CRTC rejected the idea Thursday. “For us, it’s the continuation of the old model, a model in need of adjustments.”
“I thought we had made the clear demonstration that there is inequity between conventional broadcasters and the speciality channels. And the reason number one for the inequity is the issue of fees,” Guimond told…
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KELOWNA – Register today to attend the Canadian CommTech Trade Show and Training Seminars May 30th and 31st at the Coast Capri Hotel in beautiful Kelowna.
“Our exhibitors show is sold out with a waiting list," said show host Janice Lee of JLL & Associates. "We are so pleased. This show will provide 35% more exhibitors than last year and 25% more technical seminars. Our 2007 show is drawing attendees from Atlantic Canada through to Vancouver Island. Last year’s attendance was 52% cable, 41% telco and 7% from other industries.”
Buyers, technicians and operations management personnel can obtain diverse…
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