VANCOUVER – Telus announced today it can better identify the location of wireless 911 calls with the launch of new Global Positioning System (GPS) and triangulation technologies.
Telus has now implemented phase II enhanced wireless 911 (e911) services across its three wireless networks, which are based on HSPA, CDMA, and iDEN (Mike) technologies. Telus has been working with individual 911 operations centres across the country to test and bring phase II e911 technology online for many months, the company said today.
“Through our partnership with 911 and emergency services operations centres across Canada, this new enhanced 911 service will make…
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OTTAWA – You can’t sell what isn’t yours.
That, in a nutshell, is what some of the interveners into Mediadenovo’s application for a broadcast license have said about the company’s plans to sell the local availability advertising time on American specialty services to national Canadian advertisers. The concept will face the commissioners in a non-appearing hearing on February 22. Comments closed Wednesday. (A prior version of this story suggested this would be a traditional public hearing. At this time, that is not the plan.)
In 2009 Mediadenovo, a re-branded Only Imagine (which had a similar submission shot down by the CRTC in…
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AS A CANADIAN LIVING in California, I still follow developments in Canada, particularly in the broadcasting system. As someone formerly involved in CATV, in specialty services and the public sector, I miss the Canadian system for what was and continues to be a very unexpected reason.
I had assumed, while living in Canada, that the U.S. system would be superior to Canada’s, which had always struck me as over-regulated and over-priced.
Well, it sure turned out to be VERY not so. It is significantly more expensive here for inferior offerings and limited choices. The greatest difference is in pay TV, where…
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ALMOST 60 PEOPLE working for Citytv across Canada lost their jobs last week as two news shows were cancelled.
It’s not something Leslie Sole, president of Rogers Media Television, had envisioned doing when Rogers Communications bought the five Citytv stations in 2007.
He and the company had envisioned taking Citytv back to its “fiercely local” roots, he told Cartt.ca on Monday in an exclusive interview. The company’s leadership was hopeful back then that the CRTC would reduce or eliminate its priority drama obligations so that the broadcaster could concentrate on local news in the cities it operates. Sole launched Citytv’s five…
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TORONTO – Reduced CRTC requirements and the recession are the real reasons behind the program cuts and layoffs at Citytv in Toronto, says the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP).
Canada’s largest media union confirmed that Rogers Television handed out layoff notices to 36 full-time employees and seven part-time employees at the Citytv flagship station in Toronto on Tuesday. Additional program cuts were also made at Citytv stations in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton.
"Citytv viewers will notice a big difference", said Bob Huget, VP of CEP’s Ontario chapter, in a statement. "The CRTC has permitted major market television stations to reduce local programming…
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TORONTO – Hours after Citytv announced that it was cutting news shows and staff, local news channel CP24 trumpeted the arrival of two new early evening news shows for its viewers in the Greater Toronto Area.
“Toronto deserves a 5 p.m. local newscast,” said station VP and GM Bob McLaughlin, in a statement. “CP24 now gives our viewers a chance to watch at home or listen in the car from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. LIVE AT 5 and LIVE AT 5:30 is all part of our ongoing commitment to give Torontonians the news when they want it.”
CP24’s lead…
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WINNIPEG – First quarter profits are up at debt-laden Canwest Global.
For the three months ended November 30, 2009, Canwest reported operating profits increased 29% from $137 million last year to $176 million, excluding the $29 million gain from the reversal of the CRTC Part II fees.
Revenue of $571 million was down 10% from $634 million for the same period in the previous year (revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 included results of the defunct E! Network which it shuttered on August 31, 2009). Excluding these operations, revenue for first fiscal quarter of 2010 decreased by 6%.
The company…
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TORONTO – At least one Canadian broadcaster is opposing Rogers’ request to carry the digital multicast signals of a U.S. broadcaster.
In a letter to the CRTC, the S-VOX Group of Companies recommended that the Commission use a process similar to the one used when it considers adding non-Canadian linear services to the eligible satellite lists. Specifically, applications should be required to include at least as much information, S-VOX said.
“In S-VOX’s opinion, there should be no difference in regulatory treatment between digital multicast services being proposed by Canadian BDUs and non-Canadian services being sponsored for entry into this country”, S-VOX’s letter…
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OTTAWA – CACTUS has some prickly words for the CRTC.
As the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) prepares for the Regulator’s review of community TV in April, it has accused the Commission of denying Canadians access to information about the 139 cable-run community channels in Canada.
"The lack of publicity by the CRTC about this important hearing along with the absence of meaningful and objective data, together deny Canadians the opportunity to understand how $116 million dollars that cable subscribers paid for community TV in 2008 alone, were actually spent”, said spokesperson Cathy Edwards, in…
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TORONTO – Score Media has reported its highest quarterly revenue and EBITDA in its history.
For its first quarter ended November 30, 2009, revenue grew 8% ($0.9 million) to $11.4 million, compared to $10.5 million in the same quarter last year, while EBITDA was $3.3 million, compared to $1.2 million in the previous year.
Excluding the impact of the $0.8 million CRTC Part II regulatory fee reversal, EBITDA for the quarter more than doubled with an increase of $1.3 million to $2.5 million, compared to $1.2 million in the previous year. Net income was $1.1 million, compared to $0.2 million in…
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