GATINEAU – The funding of big budget Canadian programming as well as the role of the U.S. TV channels in the broadcasting system were put under the microscope during the fourth day of the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV policy hearing.
Rogers Communications, Shaw Communications and Cogeco Cable warned of significant negative consequences to the Canadian system if the commission removed US 4+1s (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX + PBS) from basic cable packages. The CRTC’s proposal was certainly a bone of contention for Rogers with the company saying it would face the wrath of subscribers if these channels were removed from…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – The biggest stir on the third day of the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV policy hearing centered on the possible inclusion of revenue earned from broadcasters’ online activities when calculating Canadian programming expenditures (CPE) Bell Canada arguing that it’s illogical, odd and added insult to injury.
“Working document item 10 concerns us greatly,” said Mirko Bibic, Bell’s executive VP and chief legal and regulatory officer, adding that the proposal on the table “would treat Canadian licensees in that space differently than the Netflixes of the world.”
That bit of the CRTC’s discussion document says: “The definition…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – The CEOs of BCE and Rogers say they are more than happy to offer access to their upcoming online subscription video-on-demand services to other TV providers, and at least one of those other providers is eager to sign up.
At the annual BMO Media and Telecom investors’ conference in Toronto on Tuesday, Rogers CEO Guy Laurence said Shomi, a joint project with Shaw that is set to launch in November, was to have other partners (as Cartt.ca first reported earlier this year). But they decided to launch without them because they “couldn’t get their…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable is continuing its roll out of new high speed Internet packages within its territory.
In a flurry of press releases over the last week, the company said that it has launched its Ultimate 120 and Ultimate 120 Unlimited high speed Internet residential packages plus the enhancement of its Turbo 20, Ultimate 55 and Ultimate 55 Unlimited high speed Internet packages in Magog, QC, as well as in Belleville and Trenton, ON.
Cogeco also brought its Ultimate 120 Unlimited high speed Internet residential package plus enhanced its Turbo 20 and Ultimate 55 Unlimited High Speed Internet packages in…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The federal government said that it will force the communication industry to abandon paper bill charges after the country’s biggest companies failed to commit to doing so at Thursday’s CRTC review into the practice.
Industry Minister James Moore said Friday that charging extra fees to customers who receive paper copies of their bills, a practice known as pay-to-pay billing, was “unfair”, and promised that the government would introduce legislation to end it in the telecommunications sector. He did not say when such legislation would be tabled.
"More and more Canadians are finding a new charge appearing on their monthly…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable has launched its Ultimate 120 High Speed Internet (HSI) residential package and the enhancement of its Turbo 20 and Ultimate 55 High Speed Internet packages in Brockville and Chatham, ON.
The company says that current subscribers will be able to benefit from this improvement immediately. The Turbo 20 and Ultimate 55 high speed package upgrade includes an upload speed increase from up to 2 Mbps to up to 10 Mbps, at no additional cost.
The newly launched Ultimate 120 High Speed Internet package offers download speeds of up to 120 Mbps and upload speeds of up to…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – TSN will flip the switch on its three new national feeds on August 25, opening day of the U.S. Open, and take the opportunity to deliver expanded live coverage of the final tennis Grand Slam of the season.
TSN said Monday that its feeds, branded TSN1, TSN2, TSN3, TSN4, and TSN5, will initially be available to customers of Bell Fibe TV and Bell Satellite, Cogeco Cable, Eastlink, FibreOp TV (Bell Aliant), MTS, Rogers, SaskTel, Shaw Cable and Shaw Direct, Source Cable, and Telus Optik TV.
The additional feeds will allow the sports network to show more live game coverage,…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – MDL Communications announced Tuesday it has added Boris Eventov to its list of expert consultants.
Widely regarded as an authority within Canada’s cable industry, Eventov (pictured) was responsible for designing, and overseeing the suite of digital video services (SDV, VOD, digital simulcast, headend consolidation, targeted ad insertion, fibre interconnections among other implementations) at Cogeco Cable Ontario, reads the MDL release.
He was also responsible for strategic planning for future network capacity and reliability requirements, as well as signal acquisition negotiation and interconnect agreements between different MSOs. He also published multiple articles in industry journals, as well as presenting at…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable has launched its Ultimate 120 High Speed Internet (HSI) residential package and the enhancement of its Turbo 20 and Ultimate 55 High Speed Internet packages in Cornwall, ON.
The company says that current subscribers will be able to benefit from this improvement immediately. The Turbo 20 and Ultimate 55 high speed package upgrade includes an upload speed increase from up to 2 Mbps to up to 10 Mbps, at no additional cost.
The newly launched Ultimate 120 High Speed Internet package offers download speeds of up to 120 Mbps and upload speeds of…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – It will surprise no one that the cost of sports television are front and centre for so many of the submissions to the CRTC’s TV Policy Review
Telus, for example, called the amount of cash being sent to various leagues and teams for the rights to live games “irrational” and has requested the CRTC address the soaring price of sports services and eliminate penetration-based rate cards in sports packaging.
Lined up on the side of Telus, are Shaw Communications, Cogeco and Canadian Cable Systems Alliance members, distributors who own no sports channels. While vertically integrated companies like Rogers and…
Continue Reading
