CALGARY – Shaw Communications executives told the CRTC today that it has no plans to hoard all of its content when it gains control of Canwest Global – and that when it comes to the digital transition, it would rather upgrade all of its transmitters, not just the ones in mandatory markets.
Commissioners were happily caught off-guard by the some of the commitments the big MSO/ISP/home phone/future wireless provider made this morning in Calgary.
When asked by CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein what the company planned to do in the unregulated spaces of mobile and broadband and how much content it…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has agreed to fast track Bell’s request to reconsider parts of its deferral accounts decision.
Bell asked the Commission last week to review, rescind and vary its determination regarding its DSL technology directive, and its calculation of the recurring amount and interest in Bell’s accumulated deferral account balance. It suggested that the DSL technology application be subject to a 30 day comment and 10 day reply period, while the deferral account balance application be subject to an accelerated process with a 20 day comment and 5 day reply period.
The Commission responded Friday that comments on either…
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PART OF THE RATIONALE behind Bell Canada’s purchase of CTV is that the mobile and broadband spaces are unregulated – and that content exclusives will be part of the game when attracting and retaining subscribers who want to see their video content on their iPads, BlackBerrys or PCs, as well as their TVs.
Bell CEO George Cope told us as much when we asked him about it during the press conference announcing the deal last week.
However, to paraphrase what Telus has been saying for a while now: “Not so fast, consolidators.”
The Bell/CTV deal was excellent timing for the…
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CALGARY – When the CRTC dives into the proposed purchase of Canwest Global’s TV assets by Shaw Communications next week, many industry stakeholders are asking for asking for safeguards and urging the Commission to be prudent.
(Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien will be in Calgary next week covering the hearing. For live updates, follow him on Twitter via @gregobr and surf back to Cartt.ca regularly.)
The $2 billion deal, which would make Shaw the largest vertically integrated media company in Canada, for now, appears to have the cautious support of many, as long as certain conditions – often described as “competitive safeguards” – are attached.
Shaw’s primary…
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“One cannot manage change. One can only be ahead of it.” – Peter Drucker
By Bill Roberts
NOW THAT WE HAVE TWO major mergings of BDUs and large national broadcasters underway, plus an inclination to enhance non-Canadian ownership potential, perhaps there is just cause and fair reason to review the recent 9.1.h. decision by the CRTC.
This is especially critical for the diverse voices and ownership structures of the smaller and independent broadcasters within the Canadian broadcasting system.
In the first instance – and seeing now how fast the landscape morphs – the extent to which the CRTC makes rules to be…
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TORONTO – Citing the CRTC’s genre exclusivity policy and a nearly identical programming schedule, Pelmorex Communications says Corus Entertainment’s application for a category 2 specialty channel providing community news, information and weather in Western Canada should be denied.
The Corus service is “a thinly disguised weather specialty channel which would duplicate completely the programming service that The Weather Network already provides to Western Canadians,” Pelmorex (owner of TWN and Météomédia) tells the Commission in comments filed on September 7. An appendix to its submission shows that about 90% of Local1’s programming would be “similar, if not the same” as…
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TORONTO – Bell Canada’s announcement this morning that it will spend $1.3 billion for all of CTV looks like a bid to protect and power a lot of its asset engines with a lot of superb oil and fuel.
The deal comes with $1.7 billion in debt, and factoring in Bell’s 15% ownership of CTVglobemedia, places a total value of $3.2 billion on CTV. The Globe and Mail newspaper has been carved out, as the Thomson family will take majority ownership of the paper.
If approved (and this doesn’t look to ring any Regulatory warning bells) the new company will…
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MONTREAL – Bell is buying 100% of CTV in a deal worth $3.2 billion, the telecom giant announced Friday morning.
Bell currently owns a 15% equity position in CTV and will acquire the remaining 85% for $1.3 billion in equity value from The Woodbridge Company Limited, the Toronto-based holding company of the Thomson family; Ontario Teachers Pension Plan; and Torstar Corporation. Including the value of Bell’s present stake, the transaction has an equity value of $1.5 billion. Together with $1.7 billion in proportionate debt, the total transaction value is $3.2 billion. In a separate transaction, Woodbridge will acquire ownership of…
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GATINEAU – Canada’s major cable companies and telcos are squaring off against MTS Allstream and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre over the CRTC’s authority to mandate broadband as an essential service.
Comments filed with the CRTC in late August show that Bell Canada, Telus and all of the large cablecos are, not surprisingly, opposed to any Commission intervention on this matter, while PIAC and MTS firmly believe that the CRTC can make broadband essential.
The issue has become a central theme in an ongoing proceeding on a broad variety of telecom matters, generally referred to as the obligation to…
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GATINEAU – Leave it to CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein to set the record straight.
In a letter to the editor of the Globe and Mail on Wednesday, von Finckenstein strongly denied that the Prime Minister’s Office was in any way trying to pressure the CRTC on a decision around Quebecor’s application for its SunTV News channel.
“I would like to categorically state that no one at any level of government has approached me about the Sun TV application, the appointment of the CRTC’s vice-chair of broadcasting, or my own mandate”, he wrote. “Quebecor’s application is being treated according to the CRTC’s…
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