Growing in small market Quebec
MONTREAL – It only started in 2012, but Quebec’s Attraction Radio has already grown, entirely through acquisitions, to become one of the top radio broadcast owners in Quebec, based on a business model of small-market stations each maintaining their own identity and local management.
On Tuesday, the CRTC published the latest acquisition by this group, of CIPC-FM Port-Cartier (Radioactive 99.1) and CKCN-FM (PUR FM 94.1) in nearby Sept-Îles, on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, 500 kilometres northeast of Quebec City.
Both stations were owned by four shareholders, Yvan Beaulieu, Jean Laverdière, Luc Hovington and…
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TORONTO – Bell Media’s The Comedy Network is readying new series and epsiodes as it preps for a free preview from June 30 – August 4.
The new content includes the linear TV premiere of the CraveTV original hit Letterkenny and the new series Wrecked (pictured), a half-hour single camera comedy that follows a group of plane crash survivors trying to make a new life for themselves on a deserted island. It also includes a marathon of The Detour, the return of Angie Tribeca, and new episodes of Just For Laughs: All Access.
The Comedy Freeview is available on TV service…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC has extended the deadline for submission of interventions into its highly anticipated review into differential pricing practices related to Internet and wireless data plans.
The Commission said Friday that initial interventions are now due by June 28, rather than the original deadline of June 17, 2016.
The revision comes at the behest of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) which noted in a letter to the CRTC that parties had less than a month to prepare their interventions, while a significant number of other Commission proceedings that they need to prepare for are also ongoing. …
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TORONTO – TV service providers offering cost and channel choices through skinny basic TV programming packages receive higher marks in customer satisfaction, according to new data from J.D. Power.
The Canadian Television Provider Customer Satisfaction Study measures overall satisfaction with television service providers based on six factors (in order of importance): performance and reliability; cost of service; programming; communication; billing; and customer service. The Canadian Internet Service Provider Customer Satisfaction Study is based on five factors (in order of importance): performance and reliability; cost of service; communication; billing; and customer service. Both studies were released Thursday.
Videotron ranked highest in…
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GATINEAU – The basic service objective (BSO) hearing changed mid-stream when CRTC chair Jean-Pierre Blais made the unprecedented move of delivering a statement declaring broadband “vital” to Canadians. After that, a National Broadband Strategy (NBS) – what should it look like, how do we get there and the role for the Commission – became a huge part of the discussions.
In his April 18 address to the hearing, he asked parties to think about these and other issues related to an NBS and present potential policies.
When Rogers Communications appeared before the commission in April, it raised the concept of a…
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GATNIEAU – Many broadband Internet providers say the CRTC must refrain from adopting new funding mechanisms for the deployment of high-speed networks to under-served and unserved areas of the country and let the market play it out.
In final submissions to the basic service objective (BSO) proceeding, providers are nearly unanimous in arguing that the current approach of market forces and targeted government funding is working. They say 96% of Canadians already have access to a minimum 5/1 Mbps (downstream/upstream) service and that figure will jump to 98% once the final round of Connecting Canadians funding is spent.
For Bell Canada,…
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Newspaper ad targets Heritage Minister
MONTREAL – Avis de recherche, the Quebec TV channel devoted to public safety, is off the air. Its studios are empty, and its staff that reached 20 people at its peak were all laid off after the three major providers in the province, Vidéotron, Cogeco and Bell, dropped it at the end of April.
That hasn't stopped owner Vincent Géracitano from continuing his crusade to find some deus ex machina to bring it back. With appeals to the CRTC and federal court exhausted, he's gone to publicly appealing to Heritage…
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TORONTO – Cogeco has added Telelatino’s seven TV channels to its Ontario lineup.
The channels include Spanish-language services Univision Canada, TeleNiños, and Cinelatino, plus Italian-language channels Mediaset Italia, Sky TG24 Canada, and TeleBimbi. Cogeco has also launched the HD version of TLN’s flagship channel.
All channels are available on a three month free preview.
www.tln.ca
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QUEBEC – A new law requiring Quebec-based Internet service providers to block certain gambling websites has passed the province’s National Assembly and been signed into law, despite strong concerns expressed by opposition parties, ISPs and Internet policy experts.
Bill 74, an omnibus bill that implements legislative changes announced in the governing Liberal Party’s 2015 budget, includes a section giving provincial lottery board Loto-Québec the power to require ISPs to block a list of websites it determines to be allowing illegal online gambling.
“We have concerns,” Parti Québécois finance critic Nicolas Marceau told the legislature before the bill was adopted on May…
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TORONTO – Bell Media’s Bravo has unveiled a slate of new and returning dramas as it preps for a month-long free preview starting June 1st.
The new shows include crime drama Animal Kingdom which debuts June 14 with a two-hour premier, mystery series Guilt on June 21, as well as the return of its original series 19-2 (pictured) on June 20. Cult favourite Pretty Little Liars also debuts on Bravo starting June 21.
The Bravo Freeview will run June 1 – 30 on over 30 TV service providers across Canada, including Bell, Rogers, Eastlink, Shaw, Shaw Direct, Cogeco, Telus, Sasktel, Tbaytel, Videotron,…
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