MONTREAL and GATINEAU – BCE Inc. and the investor group led by Teachers’ Private Capital, the private investment arm of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Providence Equity Partners Inc., Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity, today announced that the CRTC has agreed to extend the deadline for the filing of documents relating to the proposed acquisition of BCE to May 12, 2008.
"We continue to work with BCE to meet all the requirements for closing by the end of the second quarter," said Jim Leech, President and CEO of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
The…
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GATINEAU – Canada’s largest media union had some harsh words for broadcasters and the CRTC itself at today’s hearing into BDU and specialty services policies.
Broadcasters must be held to their commitments to stronger local news if the CRTC decides to make subscribers pay more for local TV stations, said Peter Murdoch, vice-president, media, for the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP).
“Lack of oversight, transparency and accountability in the current system has let broadcasters across Canada downgrade or eliminate their local news operations whenever they want,” Murdoch said. “So if the CRTC intends to ask cable…
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GATINEAU, Que. – The very existence of small and independent broadcasters depends on the CRTC maintaining the rules and regulations that enable specialty channels to provide niche programming for underserved audiences at affordable prices. That was the concern voiced today by S-VOX President and CEO Bill Roberts at the CRTC’s public hearing on the future of the broadcasting system.
S-VOX, which operates the multi-faith and multicultural specialty television service VisionTV, was invited to make a presentation to the CRTC’s ongoing review of the regulatory frameworks for BDUs and specialty television services.
Speaking to the Commission, Roberts warned against allowing…
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GATINEAU – Cable and satellite distributors took it on the chin again Friday at the CRTC’s hearings on broadcasting, this time from Astral Media, the country’s biggest French and English specialty and pay television network.
However this time, it wasn’t over the question of carriage fees to conventional networks but over access for new entrants.
Astral pressed the Commission to consider a new model that would ensure that any new specialty service, which had already won CRTC license approval, would have guaranteed access to a distributor’s lineup of channels.
“Access is fundamental,” said…
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GATINEAU – They compete aggressively for U.S. programs, audience share, and advertisers, but in an exceptional show of unity, executives from CTVglobemedia Inc and CanWest Global Communications sat shoulder-to-shoulder Thursday to persuade the CRTC to open up new sources of funding.
Together, the two networks argued the economic viability of conventional television is “under threat”, because of lack of fair access and fair compensation. They attacked cable and satellite distributors, saying that if their vision were adopted, they and not consumers would control television programming.
“The outcome of this review will decide who will program the remote controls of…
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By Glenn Wanamaker GATINEAU – After two weeks of hearing about the structural intricacies of the Canadian television system, about fees for carriage, preponderance, genre protection, VOD, NPVR, and the sins of various competitors, CRTC commissioners heard from the performers Friday, the ones who put the Canadian into can-con.
Robb Wells, star and writer of the hit TV series “Trailer Park Boys”, and Julie Stewart, star of the Canadian drama “Cold Squad”, made a passionate plea to commissioners to maintain protective regulations while urging them to go further in providing incentives for more Canadian dramatic production.
Appearing with ACTRA…
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TORONTO – The Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) appeared today at the Canadian CRTC hearing to review the regulatory frameworks for BDU’s and the specialty and pay TV services urging the commission to keep the current regulations as they are.
“Clearly, the current regulatory regime is working well with BDUs and specialty services reporting profit margins of over 20 per cent,” said DGC president, Alan Goluboff. “Dismantling any of the key components of the regime would threaten the integrity and diversity of the broadcast system,” cautioned Goluboff in his last appearance before the commission as DGC president.
The DGC…
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GATINEAU – Bragg Communications, the east coast cable and telecom company that claims to be “small in a big way,” wants the CRTC to take on a similar persona, by making big steps towards a smaller regulatory burden.
In its presentation Wednesday to the CRTC’s broadcast hearings, Bragg co-CEO Dan McKeen gave his support to the Commission’s stated overall approach in its review that would see a reduction in regulations and increased reliance on market forces. However, he also sought CRTC help on behalf of small BDU’s which he suggested are occasionally bullied when they try to negotiate access to programming…
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TORONTO – The interests of small and independent Canadian broadcasters are at risk of being trampled by the industry’s giants in the current regulatory proceeding on the future of the broadcast system, warns Bill Roberts, president and CEO of S-VOX, which operates the multi-faith and multicultural specialty television service VisionTV.
"This hearing has so far been a war of the giants, with conventional broadcasters and broadcast distribution undertakings to make certain that smaller players do not get caught in the crossfire."
S-VOX…
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GATINEAU – Telus Corp., a relatively new entrant into the broadcast distribution field with the IPTV service it launched in 2006, says it would prefer the regulatory status quo than a descent into a “rabbit hole of new regulations for problems which simply don’t exist”.
In a presentation before the CRTC’s hearings on broadcast distribution and specialty services Wednesday, Telus’ vice-president for wireless, broadband and content policy Michael Hennessy said he was concerned that “false assumptions” could persuade the Commission to add regulations when what the industry needs is space to flourish.
“The future has to be based on…
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