OTTAWA – The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and Chimo Community Services (Chimo) want the CRTC to eliminate charges for Canadians who call helplines and crisis lines from their cell phones, and to protect helpline users’ privacy.
Currently, Canadians who call helplines from their wireless phones are charged for those calls or have those voice minutes deducted if they have a voice plan. Callers’ accounts can also identify the fact that a call was made to a helpline, as well as the number of that helpline.
In an application filed Wednesday, PIAC and Chimo argued that wireless charges and the inadequate…
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TORONTO – Corus Entertainment is banking on its recent acquisitions of Teletoon, Historia, Séries+ and Ottawa-based radio stations CKQB-FM and CJOT-FM to help “provide a solid foundation for growth” for its 2015 fiscal year.
Speaking Wednesday at the company’s annual Investor’s Day, president and CEO John Cassaday added that Corus is targeting consolidated segment profit of $340 million to $360 million and free cash flow in excess of $170 million for fiscal 2015.
Corus' portfolio of multimedia offerings encompasses specialty television and radio with additional assets in pay television, television broadcasting, children's book publishing, children's animation and animation software. It’s…
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OTTAWA – Corus Entertainment’s purchase of Ottawa-based radio stations CKQB-FM (The Bear 106.9) and CJOT-FM (Boom 99.7) from Bell Media will close on January 31st , Corus confirmed Tuesday.
Formerly owned by Astral, Corus agreed to buy the stations last March as part of the divestitures required as conditions of Bell Media’s purchase of Astral Media. The deal received CRTC approval late last week.
Corus has established a Montreal-based management team led by Mario Cecchini, president of Corus Média and head of Eastern Ontario tadio and television. In addition to overseeing Corus' Quebec-based specialty services, Cecchini will now be responsible for Corus' eastern Ontario radio and local television…
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WHISTLER, B.C. – While Rogers, Shaw and Telus say they are supportive of an a-la-carte channel environment, executives from each company offered up some cautionary advice during CIBC’s annual Whistler Institutional Investors conference last week.
Speaking at the event January 23, Steve Wilson, Shaw’s executive vice-president of corporate development and CFO, acknowledged the industry realizes that consumers want more choice, and from his company’s point of view, it’s about giving them the ability to access content in a variety of ways. There also needs to be consideration given to the impact that has on the Canadian broadcasting system and the…
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WHILE THE CANADIAN SUBSCRIPTION television market is at the beginning of a decade-long decay, growth is still in the cards for cable and telecom companies in Canada thanks to the world’s shift to broadband, says a new report from Scotiabank.
The report, entitled “Embrace the Evolution” (whose cover photo is pictured) says thanks to broadband internet “the growth outlook is bright” for telcos and cablecos (1%-1.5% revenue growth and 2.5%-3.5% in EBITDA growth), due partially to more predictability on the capital expenditure front – and the concentration on more profitable broadband products and services.
However, it won’t be pretty on the…
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GATINEAU – The simultaneous substitution of American broadcast signals for Canadian ones, when the programming is identical, has been going on since the 1970s.
Back then, cable operators were often described by broadcasters and others as pirates who brought in American TV channels and charged customers for the privilege of seeing them, even though they paid nothing for the signal and Canadian broadcasters had often purchased the copyrights of much of that U.S. programming for our country. Faced with the threat of a federal government crackdown on its business (yes, the Commission of the day was pondering forcing all American…
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OTTAWA – The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the Consumers’ Association of Canada (CAC) are challenging Bell Canada’s practice of using customer information for behavioural and other marketing.
In an application filed Monday with the CRTC, the consumer organizations argue that Bell’s practice of collecting, using and disclosing customer information for marketing runs contrary to Canadian telecommunications policy, rules they say are intended to protect Canadians’ privacy.
“PIAC/CAC contend that aside from being contrary to the policy objectives, and to specific Commission rules about privacy, an overarching concern is that Bell’s Relevant Ads program does not provide sufficient detail to customers…
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OTTAWA – Canada’s wireless industry is one step closer to implementing the Text with 9-1-1 (T9-1-1) service for the deaf, deafened, hard of hearing or speech impaired (DHHSI) community in Canada.
The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) said Friday that its members across the country have completed all of the required network upgrades to implement T9-1-1, as per the CRTC’s directive last year. The T9-1-1 service, however, is not yet available in any region of the country until 9-1-1 call centres also complete technology upgrades.
T9-1-1 provides 9-1-1 call centres with the ability to converse with a deaf, deafened,…
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OTTAWA – Corus Entertainment’s purchase of Ottawa-based radio stations CKQB-FM (The Bear 106.9) and CJOT-FM (Boom 99.7) from Bell Media will close on January 31st , Corus confirmed Tuesday.
Formerly owned by Astral, Corus agreed to buy the stations last March as part of the divestitures required as conditions of Bell Media’s purchase of Astral Media. The deal received CRTC approval late last week.
Corus has established a Montreal-based management team led by Mario Cecchini, president of Corus Média and head of Eastern Ontario tadio and television. In addition to overseeing Corus' Quebec-based specialty services, Cecchini will now be responsible for Corus' eastern Ontario radio and local television…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC will be at the Sheraton Vancouver Guildford Hotel in Surrey on Monday morning to consider more than a dozen new radio applications vying to serve the Vancouver market.
Among the new radio proposals for consideration include applications from the likes of Newcap, Sky Radio and Channel Zero.
A live audio feed available on the Commission’s website.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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