TORONTO – Length matters.
That's one of the findings of a poll of Canadian TV viewers and the video content they consume which was conducted by Charlton Strategic Research, and unveiled Tuesday at the CTAM Broadcaster’s Forum in Toronto on Tuesday.
Charlton's Gord Hendren told conference attendees that an online survey of 3,168 Canadians over 18 years of age revealed the total time spent watching long-form video content, or over five minutes in length, is up among total Canadian TV viewers.
Millennials, though, are bucking the trend.
Hendren said his poll revealed younger Canadian TV viewers from 18-34 years of age spend less…
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TORONTO – The CRTC’s 2015 decision to move from an aggregated to disaggregated wholesale high-speed access service (HSA) model has ended up placing enormous cost increases on independent ISPs and will further limit competitiveness with a coming cap on Internet speeds, said Matt Stein, president of the Canadian Network Operators Consortium.
“Without changes to the disaggregated regime, our industry will be prevented from keeping prices sane, innovating, and delivering the improved customer relationship we’re known for,” Stein said in a keynote on Tuesday at the 2018 Canadian ISP Summit in Toronto. (He's pictured in a snap borrowed from Distributel's Twitter…
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MONTREAL – While Cogeco Inc. has a financially solid year, the company noted in its 2018 fourth quarter and year end results released Wednesday continued to be impacted by ongoing issues with its customer care management software upgrades.
In the fourth quarter, ended August 31, 2018, revenue for the Canadian and U.S. cable and broadband operator increased by 14.1% over the fourth quarter of 2017 to reach $660.0 million while adjusted earnings before interest taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased by 14.8% to hit $288.6 million;
Free cash flow hit $55.3 million, an increase of 6.7%. The increases were driven…
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The TV tax battle
By Phil Lind with Robert Brehl
FEW THINGS GET ME SEETHING like the Canadian television networks’ attempted fee-for-carriage cash grab, the so-called “TV tax.” After everything cable did to increase their TV licences’ value over the years, in 2006 the broadcasters ignited a six-year battle to get us to pay them for carrying their signals. It went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, and they came very close to winning.
Just writing this raises my hackles. Ken Engelhart and Jan Innes would joke that fee-for-carriage was my “Wullerton.” I had no idea what they meant…
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GATINEAU – Back in August, when the CRTC and researcher Ipsos launched a survey on what Canadians think of the sales practices of Canadian telecom companies, much private (and some public) hue and cry arose from the carriers across the country.
The tight timeline for Ipsos to finish the survey and the weak overall structure and wording of the questions could only lead to negative answers, they said. They were right. The results came back substantially negative, but does that mean they have a point? Does the survey’s supposedly skewed queries mean the results should be tossed out?
Consumers and consumer…
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GATINEAU – If we may paraphrase some of the reaction by TekSavvy, Tbaytel and Eastlink representatives Wednesday morning in front of the CRTC it would be: "It seems strange to mandate us to continue being nice to our customers."
These three smaller independents (respectively, a wholesaler, a municipally owned telco and a regional wired and wireless carrier) also all had the same story to tell when it came to the dubious sales practices which have been so far outlined by consumers during the CRTC’s Telecom Sales Practices hearing this week in Gatineau:…
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BURLINGTON, ON – Hamilton-area community television channel Cable 14 has completed its upgrade to the DreamCatcher (DC-ONE) replay system and live production suite offered by Evertz Technologies.
DC-ONE provides the advanced production tools needed for any demanding live production, including zooming, splitscreens, ganged inputs and transcoding in a streamlined, easy to use platform that is fully upgradable, reads the news release.
Noting that its replay system operators come from a variety of backgrounds, including college and high-school interns, Cable 14 said that the DC-ONE platform’s intuitive interface enabled operators to rapidly adapt to live production workflows. In addition, DC-ONE’s feature…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has given its blessing to Cogeco’s plan to buy 10 French-language regional radio stations in Quebec and Ontario from RNC Media.
The new stations are located in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean (Planète 104.5 in Alma, Planète 93.5 in Chibougamau, Planète 99.5 in Roberval, Planète 100.3 in Dolbeau-Mistassini, and Radio X 95.7 in Saguenay), in Abitibi-Témiscamingue (Capitale Rock 104.3 in Val-d’Or, Capitale Rock 102.1 in La Sarre, and WOW 96.5, in Val-d’Or), in Lachute (Pop 104.9) and in Hawkesbury (Pop 102.1).
The Commission said Thursday that it "considers that the RNC stations integrated into Cogeco could benefit from economies…
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BURLINGTON, ON – Cogeco Connexion is expanding its fibre optic network to the southwestern Ontario town of Merlin, located in the Municipality of Chatham-Kent, offering residents and businesses access to its full range of services.
The company said that it has invested over $500 million and has already started work leading to the implementation of the network, which is slated to be in service this month.
“The Municipality of Chatham-Kent is an important market for Cogeco Connexion and we are proud to be expanding our network into the City of Merlin,” said programming and community relations VP Johanne Hinse, in the…
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ON MONDAY, WE described a Federal Court of Appeal decision as one that strikes down the CRTC’s TV Wholesale Code.
Bell Canada had appealed the Code to the Court, saying the way it was implemented fell outside the CRTC’s jurisdiction – and in its decision released Monday the Court agreed with Bell, saying the Commission had no authority under section 9(1)(h) of the Broadcasting Act to meddle in private carriage contracts the way the Wholesale Code mandates.
The decision seemed to us to be the end of that Code – and we were bolstered in that…
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