CALGARY – Vista Radio is moving east with a bid to buy Haliburton Broadcasting and its 24-station Ontario radio network, which includes the Northern Ontario Moose FM brand, for $32.34 million.
The deal is pending regulatory approval and is scheduled to be reviewed by the CRTC at its September 10 hearing in Montreal. This marks the first eastern expansion for the private broadcaster which currently holds 38 broadcast licenses serving more than 50 communities across British Columbia, Alberta and the Northwest Territories.
Vista Radio president and CEO Margot Micallef told Cartt.ca on Wednesday that the eight year old company, which she…
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MONTREAL – The Montreal radio market could see the addition of a new talk radio station if an application by RNC Media receives CRTC approval.
The Quebec-based private broadcaster has proposed switching the jazz/blues format of its CKLX-FM Montreal (Planète Jazz 91,9) to 50% spoken-word citing “important financial losses related to the non-viability of the jazz and blues music format in the Montréal region”.
RNC Media currently owns 16 radio stations and 5 TV stations in the province. The CRTC will consider the application at a hearing in Montreal scheduled for September 10, and comments are due by August…
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OTTAWA – Various Canadian broadcasters spent a combined $51 million in so-called tangible public benefits during the 2010-2011 broadcast year ended August 31, 2011 associated with their acquisition of English-language television assets in recent years.
Of the cash spent in the last completed broadcast year (which was about on par with the 2009-10 year), 84%, or $43 million, went to on-screen/programming-related initiatives, primarily the creation of new Canadian programming, and the remaining 16% or $8 million went to social initiatives such as funding for television/film festivals.
The latest research is contained in the second installment (2012 report) of the annual syndicated…
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WHITEHORSE – Bell Canada and Northwestel said last week the companies would upgrade all 96 communities served by Northwestel in northern Canada with high-speed Internet and next-generation wireless over a five-year period. Northwestel, a direct subsidiary of Bell, maintains the plan will not result in increased service prices, and is partially contingent on the CRTC approving the Astral public benefits package that is part of Bell’s $3.38 billion takeover of Astral Media.
According to sources, the CRTC will make public the Bell application to purchase Astral Media this week, along with timelines for comment and a hearing date.
“We have a…
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CHATHAM – Small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) in four provinces will now have more options for high-speed DSL as the result of a recent CRTC decision that frees up independent Internet service providers (IISPs) to compete says TekSavvy Solutions Inc.
Until now, IISPs weren’t able to compete on an equal footing with the large players explains TekSavvy CEO Marc Gaudrault.
“We saw the unfairness of the system and spent a lot of time and effort making our point. The CRTC agreed and now we’re moving at full speed to provide this sector with the value and choice it deserves.”
TekSavvy has announced…
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GATINEAU – An annual report commissioned by the CRTC confirms that pricing for wireline, wireless and Internet Services in Canada are generally competitive when compared to other major markets, the big exceptions being high-speed Internet and entry level mobile wireless. Priced on average at $94 a month, Canada’s highest speed broadband service was the most expensive of all the jurisdictions surveyed except the U.S. While the average cost of entry level mobile wireless in Canada ranks as the highest of the surveyed countries.
The report also found that new entrant pricing for mobile wireless was in some cases 44%…
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GATINEAU – On Wednesday, July 4, Globalive Wireless Management (Wind Mobile) asked the CRTC to add a new piece of evidence to its file which says Telus is currently off-side when it comes to Canada’s telecom regulations on foreign ownership.
As we reported previously, Globalive wants the CRTC to launch a public proceeding to examine whether or not the number of foreign investors in Telus is too great. On June 20th in a submission to the Commission, Globalive said that Telus’s recent aborted attempt to convert to a single share structure exposed…
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WINNIPEG – After nearly 10 years, Red River College’s student radio station 92.9 KICK FM will go silent this afternoon.
Cre-Comm Radio Inc’s board of directors cited “recent changes to CRTC regulations regarding campus and community radio stations, and financial challenges” for returning the current broadcast license to the CRTC, in a statement posted on their website. The change to the regulations was announced this past January, when the CRTC stated it would cease licensing stations that exist purely for educational reasons.
The station, as planned, never became self-sustaining, and Red River College continued to fund KICK FM and provided…
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NEW YORK and VANCOUVER – One of Telus’ biggest shareholders is demanding that the telco disclose its current foreign ownership levels to verify that it is in compliance with the Canadian ownership requirements.
U.S. hedge fund Mason Capital Management LLC made public a letter that it sent Telus on Thursday citing information from the proxies submitted for Telus’ recent annual shareholders meeting which it claims shows that approximately 42% of voting shares voted at the meeting were held by shareholders who declared themselves non-Canadian or refused to answer the required declaration as to their residency. Under the Telecommunications Act and other related statutes,…
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GATINEAU – Unless there is a last minute change of heart from one side or the other, a panel of three CRTC commissioners will soon decide the terms of the next carriage agreements for 29 Bell Media specialty channels on a number of independent BDUs.
The Commission panel will choose one offer over the other in the final stage – known as Final Offer Arbitration (FOA), sometimes referred to as “baseball arbitration” – of this carriage battle. It’s high-risk business brinksmanship. In Major League Baseball, if a player and his team can’t come to a negotiated salary agreement, an arbitrator…
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