TORONTO – It’s a far smaller media company Leonard Asper is running this time around.
The former CEO of Canwest Global Communications has emerged from the dismantling and sale of that giant media company as an investor and CEO of category two digital specialty channel The Fight Network. Existing shareholders Loudon Owen and Ed Nordholm, who have been searching for investors for some time, are staying in as co-owners.
When interviewed by Cartt.ca on Wednesday, Asper didn’t want to give away his strategies for the channel – and it’s something he no longer has to divulge publicly anyway. “It’s a private…
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TORONTO – Former CanWest Global CEO Leonard Asper has bought a piece of The Fight Network and has assumed the title of CEO of the category two specialty channel.
In a memo to staff on Wednesday afternoon, GM Anthony Cicione said that in addition to a “significant ownership stake”, Asper becomes the channel’s CEO effective immediately.
“Leonard brings experience and his valuable relationships to the table and has solidified our management team in his new role as CEO effective immediately”, Cicione’s note reads. “He is very enthusiastic about the future of TFN and plans to re-energize our overall business plan, which includes investment in capital, programming, marketing,…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC is preparing to resume its hearing into the operation of community-based campus radio station CKLN-FM this Wednesday in Toronto.
As Cartt.ca has reported, the Commission originally adjourned the hearing on May 12 due to on-going litigation and judicial mediation before the Ontario Superior Court concerning the governance of CKLN Radio and the legitimacy of the current board of directors.
The hearing will examine the station’s operation including its programming, governance structure, and day-to-day management, as well look into other complaints, the Commission said in a statement. It will take place Wednesday beginning at 9 a.m. at the…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has issued a call for comments on a proposed amendment which would decrease by 5% the amount of Canadian content that TV broadcasters are required to air each year.
Friday’s broadcasting notice of consultation said the Commission is considering changing the regulations requiring a television licensee to devote not less than 55% of the broadcast year to airing Canadian programs, replacing the existing requirement to devote not less than 60% of the broadcast year to Canadian content.
The regulations would come into force on September 1, 2011, which coincides with the beginning of the next…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has completed its review of the large incumbent local exchange carriers’ support structure service rates.
The ILECs’ support structure services are tariffed wholesale services that make poles, strands, and conduits available to third parties for use as an input to provide competitive retail services. In a decision on Thursday, the Commission approved revised rates for the wholesale support structure services of Bell Aliant, Bell Canada, MTS Allstream, Telus and Télébec, effective 21 July 2009.
It also initiated a follow-up proceeding regarding service pole rates and a possible markup on Phase II support structure costs.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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OTTAWA – Eleven companies that provide basic international telecommunications services (BITS) to Canadians have had their licences revoked by the CRTC.
The Commission said Friday that the companies failed to comply with annual reporting requirements despite receiving a notice last month to either file the required information with the Commission, or to make representations as to why they should not be required to comply with the conditions of licence.
Any person or company providing BITS in Canada without a licence from the Commission is subject to fines ranging from $50,000 to $1 million. The companies are as follows:– AstraQom Corp. Continue Reading
OTTAWA – All Canadian telecom service providers must join the CRTC’s Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) for a period of five years, the Regulator ruled on Wednesday.
After a hearing this week to review the independence and effectiveness of the CCTS, whose existing membership decision is set to expire later this month, the CRTC issued a rare bench ruling immediately after the hearing ended which dictated that “all residential and small business consumers that obtain forborne telecom services in Canada, including those that receive services from TSPs that do not have more than $10 million in revenues, should…
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MONTREAL – Most telecom customers don’t know that if their service provider fails to address a complaint to their satisfaction, they may ask the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) for help.
To coincide with the CRTC hearing on CCTS, the consumer group Option Consommateurs has released a research report called Do I have the right number? Customer Service at Telecommunications which recommends that the CCTS be given more power and greater publicity.
“Presently, consumers have no idea where to complain once they are convinced that they cannot get any satisfaction from their providers’ customer services”, said the report’s…
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OTTAWA – Sports network The Score has asked the CRTC if it can spend more money on Canadian content, but show less of it.
In an application made public on Monday, The Score proposed that its Canadian programming expenditure requirement be upped from 45% to 47.8% of its gross revenues, but that its overall Canadian programming exhibition requirement be lowered to 75% of the broadcast day, down from 80%. The national English-language analog channel also asked to draw programming from additional program categories, and that its wholesale rate be de-regulated.
Interventions and comments are due by January 4, 2011.
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OTTAWA – Christianne Laizner has joined the CRTC as General Counsel, Telecommunications, the Regulator announced Monday.
Laizner comes to the Commission from the Department of Justice where she most recently held the role of executive director and general counsel of the Department’s legal service unit at the Canadian International Development Agency. Prior to that assignment, she co-managed Justice’s litigation and procurement review practice group at Public Works and Government Services Canada, and worked in the Trade Law Division and the Civil Litigation Section.
With extensive experience in administrative law, procurement law and trade law, Laizner has appeared before both courts and…
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