GATINEAU – Having stopped its HSPA wireless network build earlier this year, Shaw Communications is nearing a decision on what to do, finally, on the wireless front.
“We’re in certain conversations, strategically, looking at options. We’re certainly looking at LTE 4G as where technology is going but we’re still in that process,” said company CEO Brad Shaw to reporters after his appearance in front of the CRTC’s vertical integration hearing.
“We’ll soon make an announcement, I think, over the next month.” The company put the brakes on its HSPA network build in February in order to reassess its wireless goals…
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By Steven James May
MP CHARLIE ANGUS WAS bang on when he dubbed Canada’s digital television transition a “hodgepodge” during a Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage in March 2011. Trying to figure out if, when and where a particular over-the-air (OTA) television broadcaster will be going digital (or not) requires significant digging.
With just over two months to go before Canada’s digital television transition (70 days according to the Cartt.ca countdown clock), many viewers in cities such as Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto are already enjoying digital over-the-air (OTA) television. (For many, it is a viable, enjoyable, alternative to paying a TV…
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TECHNOLOGY HAS CREATED THIS vast crevasse. On one side is what consumers want. On the other is what the traditional TV industry says they can give them. Nestled in the void, like a big broadcast boogeyman waiting to pounce (for some, anyway), is OTT.
At the Banff World Festival last week, over-the-top video was top of mind and a prominent feature in CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein’s breakfast speech to delegates, although he refused to speculate on its impact, given the fact-finding proceeding that is under way.
But it’s clear that there’s no way to zipline across the divide…
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GATINEAU – When Bell Canada and Telus each spoke to the issue of exclusive content on Tuesday morning during their turns at the CRTC’s hearing into vertical integration of media and distribution companies, we thought to ourselves: “this, we’ve heard before.”
Telus, the biggest carrier in the country without media assets, is worried the likes of Rogers, Bell, Shaw and Quebecor will make acquiring ancillary content for wireless, online, and any other devices that pop up, too difficult or expensive – or give themselves unfair head starts, much to the disadvantage of Telus and other companies like it.
Allowing the Canadian…
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GATINEAU – With the deregulation of the mainstream sports and national news taking effect as of September 1st, the entire industry knew to brace itself for what TSN was about to ask for.
Having owned genre protection for two decades, TSN also owned a CRTC regulated rate of $1.07 per subscriber per month as long as a distributor kept the channel in its basic package.
But with genre protection going away (thanks to 2008-100), so is that rate. While the country’s most popular specialty channel won’t, of course, say what rate they are asking for from Canadian distributors (we’ve heard…
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TORONTO – Canadians need more time to weigh in on the licence renewals of the CBC’s various services, according to Friends of Canadian Broadcasting
The self-proclaimed independent watchdog for Canadian programming wrote an open letter to CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein on Monday asking to extend the deadline of the on-line consultation from July 18 to August 2 to allow ample time for “the first opportunity this century for Canadians to comment on the CBC’s performance under its Broadcasting Act mandate”.
“The Corporation’s statutory independence from political interference means that the Commission is uniquely placed to ensure accountability to…
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GATINEAU – We don’t only pay attention to the big companies and their primary talking points. Of course, we do end up telling their stories first, but there are always few other noteworthy hits during hearings such as this week’s CRTC proceeding on Vertical Integration.
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CRTC CHAIRMAN KONRAD von Finckenstein on Monday apologized for overstepping his bounds a little when he put the brakes on a line of questioning from new Commission vice-chair Tom Pentefountas. Rogers Communications EVP regulatory, Phil Lind had mentioned in the company’s opening statement how the CRTC should use this hearing to…
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GATINEAU – If the Canadian TV industry is to fend off the growing power of unregulated sources of video (yes, especially Netflix), exclusive deals on content must be allowed, Quebecor president and CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau told the CRTC Monday afternoon.
He was appearing in front of the Commission on day one of its hearing into the regulatory framework on vertically integrated corporations (those big four companies which own big broadcast assets and big distribution companies: Bell, Rogers, Shaw and Quebecor).
While noting “vertical integration is the only viable tool to allow us to protect the Canadian broadcast system,” Péladeau also…
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IN OUR EVER-MORE connected world, there are fewer secrets. People talk, they e-mail, they SMS, Facebook, tweet and YouTube.
They often use those outlets to speculate, pontificate, fustigate, postulate and guesstimate. Which means those “secrets” are sometimes true. Sometimes not. Sometimes educated guesses. Sometimes hopeful. Sometimes fuelled by less than good intentions.
So, it’s a good idea once in a while to take a few of those secrets and rumours floating around and ask someone in charge about them – and also to put the issues of the day facing our industry in front of someone at the top.
For this Cartt.ca…
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GATINEAU – There is no undue preference, no undue disadvantage in the fact that Sun TV News is not available to Bell Satellite TV customers.
In fact, it’s all Quebecor Media’s fault, according to a letter to the CRTC from Bell filed last week. Quebecor, Sun TV News’ owner, didn’t play fair, kept what it was doing a secret until the last minute and proposed a first offer that was a “take it or leave it” proposition according to Bell’s response to Quebecor’s complaint to the CRTC over the matter filed last month.
As first reported by Cartt.ca, Quebecor had…
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