MONTREAL – BCE posted third quarter net earnings of $343 million, a sharp 34.9% drop from $527 million in the same period last year, as it absorbed the CRTC tangible benefits obligation of $230 million that it was ordered to pay as part of its acquisition of Astral Media.
The company said Thursday that EBITDA for the quarter increased 2.2% to $2.06 billion.
At the end of Q3, BCE (including Bell and Bell Aliant) served a total of 7,951,182 wireless subscribers, up 3% from Q3 2012; total TV subscribers of 2,438,100 (including 582,393 IPTV customers, reflecting the addition of 87,355 net new IPTV…
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TORONTO – While radio continues to be a success story in Canada as a strong, vibrant, local media source, “there is always a ‘but’,” Ontario regional commissioner Raj Shoan told delegates to the Ontario Association of Broadcasters Connection conference in Toronto on Thursday.
“Radio does not automatically get to hold its position in the audio marketplace. Other contenders are coming to town,” he cautioned. While streaming radio has not made a big impact here yet with only 13% of Canadians saying they do that, according to Shoan, services like Songza and Rdio (and although he didn’t say it, Canada’s own…
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GATINEAU – Interveners continued to insist the CRTC impose strict safeguards on Corus Entertainment to ensure that its acquisition of Teletoon and other services don’t negatively affect independent producers, reduce diversity of voices or open the door to anti-competitive behaviour.
On the second day of the hearing, the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) argued that Commission approval of Corus’ acquisition of Teletoon will eliminate the safeguard as it relates to programming investment decisions being made independently of the Teletoon’s shareholders. “As a result, this transaction will effectively close a door for independent producers of animation programming,” Gerry Barr,…
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OTTAWA – Representatives from the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) are on Parliament Hill this week in support of Canada’s film and television industry.
Referencing the CRTC’s ‘Let’s Talk TV’ consultation, ACTRA said that it is calling on Members of Parliament to support the call for more Canada on all screens – big, small and mobile. Its wish-list for this lobby trip includes:
Nurture Canadian cultural sector jobs – support stories by, for, and about Canadians;
Invest in the infrastructure of our industry and through long-term, stable investments in…
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TORONTO – When most people think of JR Shaw, it’s the cable business that first comes to mind since Shaw Cable and its sister satellite company Shaw Direct provide subscription TV service to over three million Canadians. But the executive chair of the company always been a big broadcast backer, too and he will be inducted into the Ontario Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame Thursday in Toronto.
People nowadays forget that when cable first launched in the 1950s and grew through the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, there were precious few channels available to distribute to people, especially in Edmonton,…
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GATINEAU – Corus Entertainment will face the CRTC today in the last stage of its quest to purchase a number of media assets being sold by Bell Media.
In March, Corus agreed to purchase French specialty channels Historia and Series+, three Ottawa radio stations and the half of Teletoon it didn’t own in a $400 million deal which is part of the divestitures required as conditions of the Bell Media purchase of Astral Media. While Corus already held 50% of Teletoon/Télétoon (as well as Teletoon Retro in English and French, and the Cartoon Network)…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has pulled together a special taskforce to investigate issues and concerns around wireless roaming.
In an internal memo to staff on Tuesday, the Commission said that the new Wireless Taskforce comes as a result of consumer concerns expressed over the last year “with respect to the rates, terms, and conditions associated with wireless roaming”.
“In response to these concerns, Commission staff has conducted some wireless roaming research using publicly available information. Recently, we launched a fact finding exercise on wireless roaming to gather confidential information. The data that has been reviewed to date…
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GATINEAU – Corus Entertainment was on the hot seat today, defending its proposed $400 million purchase of specialty services Teletoon, Historia and Series+ in front of the CRTC. The company is buying the assets from Bell Media as part of the latter’s requirement to divest assets resulting from its purchase of Astral.
“We are here today to convince you that we are not only the best possible home for these assets but that our acquisition of these services is in the public interest. Allowing Corus to continue to grow will translate into more spending on Canadian programming and healthy competition…
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OTTAWA – One of the most critical aspects of developing regulation is to actively engage Canadians in their formulation, CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais told the annual workshop of the Community of Federal Regulators in Ottawa on Monday.
The CRTC’s new approach of “reaching out to Canadians as citizens, creators and consumers” has both taught some valuable lessons and helped the Commission to become “a more responsive regulator”, he said.
Sharing the process around the creation of the new wireless code of conduct, Blais said that the Commission used social media to solicit feedback and draw…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has turned down a request from Rogers Communications to shift its licenses for its cable business, on-demand business and Sportsnet service to Mountain Cablevision as part of a corporate reorganization.
Rogers acquired Hamilton Ontario-based Mountain Cablevision from Shaw earlier this year. In an application to the CRTC, Rogers requested the issuance of broadcasting licences to Mountain under the same terms and conditions as those in effect under the current licences and authorization for Rogers Communications Partnership (RCP) to continue operating its broadcasting distribution, video-on-demand, and pay-per-view undertakings. Rogers explained its request was for…
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