BANFF – While it has certainly morphed, like the media it celebrates, The Banff World Media Fest remains the only gathering of its kind dedicated to the global business of television – particularly in the broadband era – and this 36th chapter opened with a touch of déjà vu all over again.
The Canadian Association of Film Distributors and Exporters lamented that the six major U.S. studios controlled 72% of the Canadian market, leaving only mince for Canadian independent distributors – and there was the expected echo of Canadian Media Production Association, and others, bemoaning that change had inflicted unkind…
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TORONTO – Despite relentless digital disruption and CRTC deregulation causing stormy seas for Canadian broadcasters, top Shaw Media programmer Christine Shipton on Wednesday said she isn't ready to build an ark.
The network's chief creative officer instead told Cartt.ca she remains committed to – and after the recent Los Angeles Screenings – heavily invested in, that traditional advertising stalwart – conventional TV.
"It's not like we are going to suddenly readjust our schedule because there are over-the-top competitors. It's not suddenly in our minds to make a left-turn to what we are offering," Shipton said as her network got its 2015-16…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Led by the country’s sports services, Canadian specialty, pay, PPV and VoD television services generated revenues of $4.2 billion in 2014, up 3.1% over the $4.1 billion earned the previous year, according to the CRTC’s statistical and financial report for this sector released Thursday.
Pay, Pay-per-view, Video-on-demand and Specialty Services 2010-2014 said that the increase is largely attributable to a jump in subscription revenues of $160.3 million (or 5.9%) compared to 2013, which more than compensated for the drop of $53.6 million (or -4.2%) in national advertising revenues.
A major driving force for growth in specialty service revenues was…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC has kicked off a public consultation on whether the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) should expand its role to add the duties of television service ombudsman.
The review will also include an examination of the CCTS’s structure and mandate, including its administration of the Wireless Code, and the mandatory participation of telecommunications service providers. It will also address whether the CCTS needs to step up its efforts to promote itself to Canadians.
Comments are due by August 4, and a public hearing in the Ottawa area will begin on November 3, 2015.
“The communication marketplace is…
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TORONTO – The CEO of rural broadband provider Xplornet issued an industry-wide challenge to his fellow carriers Wednesday, asking them to commit to developing their networks so they can offer broadband speeds of 100 Mbps to 100% of Canadians by 2020.
The company, which serves over 600,000 Canadians who live and work outside or on the fringes of urban centres, has already made strides in boosting speeds beyond the 5 Mbps which CRTC and the federal government currently consider as the minimum threshold for broadband. All of Xplornet’s footprint (meaning, all of Canada, since its fixed wireless and satellites cover…
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TORONTO – Broadband and IPTV provider VMedia will launch its new basic TV package, TheSkinny on Thursday, June 4, becoming the first broadcasting distribution undertaking (BDU) to offer Canadians the skinny basic package which the CRTC has demanded, as part of the Let’s Talk TV policy hearing, that carriers launch by March, 2016.
TheSkinny costs $17.95, and has all the Canadian and U.S. over-the-air networks, such as CBC, CTV, Global, CBS, ABC, FOX, NBC and PBS, and other channels required to be included in basic packages.
"From our launch VMedia has been all about providing more choice and flexibility…
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TORONTO – In a bit of a departure from the messages we’ve heard from Bell Media in recent years and months, its new president said Wednesday that she is confident in the future of local TV stations and local content.
While Bell Media went into the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV process last year saying drastic action is needed to save local TV, its new president, Mary Ann Turcke had a more positive message. In a luncheon speech to the Canadian Telecom Summit (on day 56 into her job) she said local content “is fun, it’s relevant,…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC is sponsoring a new prize for excellence in public policy research to encourage research in the communication field.
In joining together with the Canadian Communication Association (CCA) to create this prize, the CRTC said that it is continuing to build bridges with the university community as a way to encourage a new generation of researchers with the potential to contribute to Canadian information and communications policy.
The prize will be administered by the CCA and presented each year in the Master’s, Doctorate and Post-doctorate categories. Graduate-level students who are members of the CCA have until January…
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TORONTO — This year’s regulatory blockbuster panel at the Canadian Telecom Summit on Tuesday turned into a bit of a public hearing on wholesale telecom rates as the Big Three carriers’ pricing structures came under fire from TekSavvy and Wind Mobile.
Calling wholesale network access rates “crazy”, Bram Abramson, TekSavvy’s chief legal and regulatory officer, said wholesale prices can vary among telecom providers by as much as 700%. With the current pricing schemes of the large, vertically integrated incumbents, TekSavvy is unable to offer higher-speed services to its customers because it couldn’t be price competitive, Abramson said.
“TekSavvy is not the…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Calling it “critical” that Canadians receive emergency alert messages on their mobile devices, the CRTC said Tuesday that an industry working group is ready to begin testing new standards that will assist in making mobile public alerting a reality.
Developed by the Network Working Group under the CRTC’s Interconnection Steering Committee, the new specifications will apply to mobile devices, as well as the interface between the national public alerting system and LTE wireless networks. Mobile devices that support the specification will be able to receive and display emergency alert messages in both English and French.
The Commission added that…
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