YELLOWKNIFE – Ice Wireless and Iristel are joining forces to offer telecommunications and Internet services in the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut this summer.
Privately-held VoIP provider Iristel, which is a major shareholder in Ice, has been licensed by the CRTC as a carrier since 2000. It will go head-to-head with Bell-owned incumbent Northwestel on a range of telephone services including VoIP and wholesale long distance.
Iristel and Ice Wireless president Samer Bishay said that the competition will go a long way toward ending the "digital divide" between Canada's northern communities and populated areas in the south.
"Northwestel's monopoly is officially at…
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OTTAWA – After considering 11 different radio station applications for Calgary, the CRTC handed out licences to Jim Pattison Broadcast Group and Multicultural Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) this week.
The decision, which shut out radio bigwigs such as Bell Media and Corus, granted Jim Pattison Broadcast Group an English-language commercial FM licence for the 95.3 MHz slot. The station’s format will be Adult Album Alternative (AAA) music, with a primary focus on new and emerging artists, and a secondary focus on alternative music from the last decade.
Targeting women from 25-49 years of age, the station plans to air 40% of Canadian…
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OTTAWA – If you ask the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS), the CBC could learn a few things from Ontario’s educational broadcaster TVO.
CACTUS wants the national broadcaster to follow TVO’s lead by offering its analog TV transmitters that are scheduled to be shuttered this summer to their local communities. TVO, which is pulling the plug on its over-the-air signals on July 31st, has already contacted over 100 affected communities to offer them the towers and satellite equipment for free.
"This transmission infrastructure is worth millions and has already been paid for by Canadian taxpayers," said CACTUS…
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BOSTON – A large contingent of Canadian cable delegates who journeyed to Boston rose to lead a standing ovation for Rogers Communications vice-chairman Phil Lind as he was inducted into the Cable Hall of Fame Monday night.
Lind and five others, Ann Rallis Carlsen, CEO of Carlsen Resources; legendary CNN broadcaster Larry King; BET Networks chair and CEO Debra Lee; Lenfest Group president and CEO Gerry Lenfest; and Leo Hindery Jr., managing partner of InterMedia Partners (but best known as the CEO who turned around TCI and the fortunes of U.S. cable in the late 1990s leading the so-called “Summer…
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I DARE ANYONE TO disagree with this statement: “A child without access to the Internet will find life increasingly difficult in the information age.”
National Cable and Telecommunications Association president and CEO Michael Powell said it Monday morning during his keynote speech to delegates in the standing-room-only opening general session at the 2012 Cable Show here in Boston. He was singing the praises of the U.S. industry’s Connect to Compete initiative where all of the major American cable companies have teamed up with the Federal Communications Commission and a large number of other corporations to push…
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DARTMOUTH – Newcap Inc. has received CRTC approval to launch a new English-language commercial FM radio station in Miramichi, NB.
The proposed new station will be a country music format targeted to listeners between the ages of 24 and 54 years, with a core audience skewed slightly to women aged 35 to 45 years. The station would broadcast 126 hours of local programming each broadcast week, including 13 hours and 7 minutes of spoken word programming, of which 3 hours would be dedicated to pure news, according to the Commission’s decision.
"We are extremely pleased that our application to…
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OTTAWA – The CBC’s oft-postponed licence renewal hearing will begin November 19, the CRTC confirmed Friday.
In a letter to CBC president and CEO Hubert Lacroix, the Commission directed the Corp. to file updates to its renewal applications by July 16, 2012.
“In recognition of your desire for a timely ruling on the amendments the Commission is scheduling the public hearing to consider the renewals as soon as its agenda permits”, reads the letter, signed by secretary general John Traversy. “The hearing will commence on November 19, 2012.”
CBC/Radio-Canada’s licences were last renewed 12 years ago. Since then, the licence hearing has…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC renewed a number of national and regional video-on-demand licences Thursday.
Bell ExpressVu, Cogeco Cable, Rogers Communications, Telus Communications, and Videon Cablesystems had their licences extended through August 31, 2016, while MTS and SaskTel had theirs renewed through August 31, 2015.
Videotron received a short term renewal to August 31, 2014. In addition, it must provide the Commission with proof that it is in compliance with its requirements relating to its English-language feature film inventory by July 16, 2012, and file quarterly compliance reports going forward.
SaskTel and MTS were directed to inform the Commission that they are…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is calling for comments on Rogers and BCE's plan to take control of sports channels Leafs TV, NBA TV Canada and Gol TV Canada from Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment.
The application, made public on Thursday, proposes a two-step transaction that would see control of the channels switched to a corporation jointly controlled by Rogers and BCE. The move comes as part of the two communications giants planned purchase of a majority stake in MLSE for $1.32 billion, as announced last December.
An independent report dated December 31, 2011 values Leafs TV, NBA TV Canada and 80.1%…
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TORONTO – The Bell Fund invested $12.8 million in 148 cross-platform television, web and mobile projects last year, according to its annual report released this week.
The 2011 Annual Report detailed that $9.7 million went towards 62 digital media productions, nearly $1 million was invested in 17 low budget digital media projects (under $100K), and $1.2 million funded concept development of 35 digital media projects.
The Bell Fund is a not-for-profit organization certified by the CRTC as an independent production fund eligible to receive and administer contributions from broadcast distribution undertakings.
www.bellfund.ca
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