IT MIGHT SURPRISE SOME to learn that one of the fastest growing Canadian media companies is not some sexy, new media, web based disruptor, but in fact built on the oldest electronic media we have: radio.
In about nine years, Vista Radio has grown from a single station in Duncan, B.C. to a national power with over 60 stations spread from the west coast to Ontario. It really jumped in size in 2012 when it agreed to purchase Haliburton Radio and its 24 Ontario stations for $32 million (backed by Westerkirk Capital, an investment arm of the powerful Thomson Family)….
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OTTAWA – CBC Radio pulled its new Waterloo Region local morning show it launched just over five weeks ago off the air yesterday because the CRTC has not yet approved the service.
The public broadcaster says it anticipates the shutdown of The Morning Edition show will be temporary as it awaits for final approval from the Commission of its broadcast application. Listeners in the Waterloo Region will continue to be able to tune in to the 89.1 FM frequency or online at www.cbc.ca/kitchener-waterloo for their favourite CBC Radio programs.
CBC filed its application for…
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GATINEAU – Applicants in the CRTC’s 9(1)(h) process this week have been on the hot seat during the first two days of the hearing trying to demonstrate that their respective services meet the “exceptional” test required to be a mandatory TV service.
“Given its exceptional nature, the CRTC has set the bar very high for obtaining a mandatory distribution order on digital basic pursuant to section 9(1)(h). The CRTC’s policy requires that a service seeking such an order must clearly demonstrate its exceptional nature and that it achieves important public policy objectives under the Act,” Commission chair Jean-Pierre Blais said…
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TORONTO – TheScore, Inc. today announced an influx of $16 million in private placement financing from a small group of new and existing investors that includes Rogers Media.
The company said it has entered into subscription agreements for $16 million non-brokered private placement of 100,000,000 Class A Subordinate Voting Shares at a price of $0.16. Relay Ventures, a venture capital fund based in Toronto and Silicon Valley focused on the mobile space, is leading the private placement, along with existing shareholders Levfam Holdings Ltd. and Rogers Media.
This follows a 2012 deal by Rogers, which…
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GATINEAU – Quebecor Media’s Sun News compared itself to a wireless new entrant Tuesday saying it needs to benefit from a regulatory mechanism in order for it to compete against the established news players, company executives argued before the CRTC on the first day of the Commission’s 9(1)(h) hearing.
Kory Teneycke, vice-president of Sun News, told the commissioners under questioning that the news service is suffering from a market he believes isn’t functioning properly and is open to abuse by some of its competitors. He referred to the 2008 advanced wireless spectrum auction as an instance where the government recognized…
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IF CRTC CHAIR Jean-Pierre Blais is putting the Canadian consumer back into the CRTC driver's seat, as he has stated repeatedly, then surely the Commission must say no to most of the broadcasters and postulant broadcasters arriving cap-in-hand this week to ask that they be given mandatory spots (and the mandatory dollars that would come with it) in the TV channel lineups of Canadian subscription TV customers.
While there’s a long history of forcing Canadian cable subscribers to pay for channels they may or may not have wanted, back in the day, we just accepted it. Sometimes, begrudgingly. Sometimes we…
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WHEN ASKED ABOUT how the reports that Wind, Mobilicity and Public Mobile are all looking for a way out of the wireless business in Canada, Industry Minister Christian Paradis told reporters in a conference call on Monday: “I still remain confident we can achieve our goal,” of having four wireless players in each region of Canada.
Mr. Minister, you are the only one with that confidence.
As we have noted before, the Canadian wireless market right now, has as many players as it will ever have and in all…
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MONTREAL – In a joint announcement about their response to interventions filed with the CRTC about the proposed Bell-Astral merger, BCE and Astral Media dismissed the complaints of their competitors.
Bell and Astral downplayed the concerns of its competitors, describing them as “large vertically integrated corporations” that compete directly with Bell, who contend that the merged company, if approved, would control too much of the market. In its release, Bell Media says that the two companies are merely “eager to inject fresh ideas, significant new investment, and more competition into Canadian media, especially in Québec.”
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YELLOWKNIFE and GATINEAU – If the CRTC doesn’t change its mind on the wholesale rates Northwestel can charge its clients providing competing telecom services on its network, the company won’t be building out any more fibre, according to its CEO.
In an interview with Cartt.ca on Friday, Northwestel CEO Paul Flaherty said that the CRTC’s February 25th decision on the telco’s wholesale connect service set rates far too low, making it uneconomical to continue any of its fibre deployment program. The company has filed a Review and Vary with the Commission, asking the CRTC to rethink…
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GATINEAU – Amanda Cliff will be joining the CRTC as executive director, communications and external relations, the Commission announced Friday
In a memo to staff, CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais told staff that Cliff will be responsible for CRTC communications (including the web and client relations) and relations with external stakeholders such as Parliament, other government departments and agencies, other levels of government, non-governmental organizations and academia. She will also provide support to the Regional Commissioners, acting as the liaison between them and the head office in Gatineau.
Since 2006, Cliff has been director general of broadcasting and digital communications within the…
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