MONTREAL – BCE ended its final fiscal quarter of 2013 with a 6% increase in its annual common share dividend and EBITDA of almost $2 billion, driven in large part by revenue growth in its Bell wireline business.
The company reported its common share dividend will increase by $0.14 per share to $2.47 effective with BCE’s Q1 2014 dividend, adding that today’s dividend announcement is BCE’s tenth successive increase in five years.
BCE reported Q4 2013 net earnings attributable to common shareholders of $495 million, compared to $666 million in Q4 2012. The year-over-year decrease in net earnings was due to…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC is launching an inquiry to examine the impact of satellite services on the quality and cost of providing telecommunications services to the country’s northern and remote communities.
The inquiry, to be led by CRTC Commissioner Candice Molnar, will focus on communities in remote regions that are served solely by satellite.
As part of a decision released last December concerning a four-year modernization plan of Northwestel’s broadband internet and wireless services for certain areas of northern Canada, the CRTC identified a digital divide between communities that receive these services over terrestrial networks, such…
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GATINEAU – A complaint before the CRTC accuses a big Canadian TV broadcaster of behaving poorly by giving itself an undue preference by outright refusing to air advertising from a radio competitor.
The culprit? The CBC.
Leclerc Communication, which bought Quebec City radio stations CJEC-FM (WKND 91.9) and CFEL-FM (CKOI 102.1) from Cogeco when the latter acquired Corus Quebec stations in 2011, says that it has tried and failed to buy local advertising on Radio-Canada's Quebec City television station because of a policy the public broadcaster has to refuse advertising to competitors.
"We believe that it's imperative to promote WKND 91.9 on…
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MONTREAL – While it’s all-hands-on-deck time for the CBC’s 16 days of broadcast and new media coverage of the Sochi Winter Olympics, CEO Hubert Lacroix sent out a note of caution to employees last week, warning hard decisions are coming once the sliding, riding, skiing, skating and sledding comes to an end.
“I couldn’t imagine a better start to the year than the Sochi Games!” Lacroix enthused in the staff memo. “Whenever I walk down the hall, wherever I happen to be, the energy is palpable. And the most exciting thing is, in just a few short days, that energy…
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OTTAWA – Expanding the basic service objective (BSO) to include broadband, making the contribution subsidy portable to non-incumbents and enabling the development of open access networks are just three ways that can help improve broadband connectivity in Canada’s most remote northern communities, a conference in Ottawa heard.
At the Northern Lights 2014 conference and trade show in Ottawa on Saturday, Adam Fiser, senior research associate at the Conference Board of Canada, noted during a panel sessions on communications for the North that the CRTC is hamstrung in its efforts to create regulatory conditions that could lead to greater broadband network…
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GATINEAU – Submissions to the CRTC on its wholesale domestic roaming rates proceeding break down just where most would expect.
In December, the CRTC launched a review of the rates Rogers, Bell and Telus charge smaller wireless service providers when customers of those smaller companies use their phones to roam outside of their own provider’s home network. The primary accusation of the Commission is that the big three are charging the likes of Wind and Eastlink more than they charge American operators whose customers roam on networks here when they travel.
In the summer of 2013, the…
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OTTAWA – With almost nothing left to lose, CBC/Radio-Canada should take some risks on high impact dramatic programming, Michael Hennessy, president of the Canadian Media Production Association, suggested during an appearance before a Senate committee earlier this week.
Last week the Standing Senate Committee on Transportation and Communications kicked off a study of the challenges faced by CBC in relation to the changing broadcast and communications environment. The review came about after the public broadcaster lost the rights to Hockey Night in Canada (Ed note: Because if there’s one place where the world’s media challenges will be solved, it’s the…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC will examine licence renewal applications from Rogers Media, plus consider a second request for a Canadian film channel and a pay-per-view service for Telus at a hearing scheduled for April 8, 2014 in Gatineau.
The Commission made public Wednesday that Rogers has filed applications to renew the broadcasting licences for 17 of its television services and stations, including its City stations, multilingual ethnic television stations and Sportsnet. In addition to licence renewal, the Commission will examine “key issues” relating to these applications including the group-based approach to the licensing of the City television stations and…
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GATINEAU – On Wednesday, the Competition Bureau filed a submission to the CRTC’s consultation on the domestic mobile wireless roaming rates charged by Canada’s largest wireless companies.
In a press release the Bureau said it “believes that Canada’s largest wireless companies have an incentive to use high mobile wireless roaming rates to ensure that new entrants are not, and do not become, fully effective competitors. As a result, new entrants are likely limited in their ability to bring attractive product offerings to market, resulting in reduced product choice, higher prices for consumers and/or less innovation…
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OTTAWA – Canadian television viewers want more content choices and have mixed feelings about the way their television is currently delivered to them, according to the first phase of the CRTC’s Let's Talk TV: A Conversation with Canadians.
The Commission issued the Phase 1 report Wednesday, based on the 1,320 comments it received from October 24 – November 22, 2013. As Cartt.ca readers will recall, the initiative kicked off by asking Canadians the following three questions:
1. Programming: What do you think about what’s on television?2. Technology: What do you think about how you receive television programming?3….
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