CALGARY – Despite hinting at its future wireless service, Shaw was short on details around when and how it may eventually introduce a mobile offering.
“During fiscal 2010 we also plan to take initial steps to commence wireless activities, with build out planned over the next several years", said CEO and vice chair Jim Shaw, in a press release Thursday morning that detailed the company’s first quarter results.
However, when asked about wireless during a conference call with media and industry analysts on Thursday afternoon, Shaw would only confirm that the company is focused on “fundamental issues” around the project…
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TORONTO – Saying it will launch in both Edmonton and Ottawa next month, Wind Mobile, the country’s newest national wireless provider – announced today the launch of a hiring campaign to recruit both full-time and part-time employees in both cities.
Available positions include: store managers, assistant store managers and sales associates. An open house session will take place at the Westgate Shopping Centre on Ottawa Thursday, January 21st, from 1 to 9 p.m.
Wind (better known so far as its parent company, Globalive) launched its service in December in Toronto and Calgary after battling incumbents and the CRTC for the right…
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OTTAWA – As it awaits its turn in front of the CRTC next month, Mediadenovo said that it has devised a way to provide an additional layer of funding for the beleagured Canadian TV broadcasting system.
Through an expansion of its commercial insertion system (CIS), the company said that it could offer new program rights protection measures to Canadian broadcasters by allowing them to work with BDUs to jointly develop non-simultaneous substitution (NSS) for Canadian program rights.
For broadcasters who own Canadian program rights, this would provide an opportunity to support NSS by offering a way to insert commercials in both…
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CLIFFORD, ON – Wightman Telecom appears to be gearing up for expansion.
As the independent telco readies its video-on-demand launch scheduled for early this year, it has asked the CRTC to expand the area that it is currently authorized to serve to include the entire province of Ontario.
Wightman offers broadcast services in ten markets, though its current VOD authorization only covers six – Clifford, Teeswater, Mildmay, Neustadt, Gorrie and Ayton, ON.
In its application, the company outlines plans to expand services beyond these markets over the next few years.
Interventions or comments are due by February 16, 2010.
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OTTAWA – CACTUS wants to rally Canadians to “take back” their local community channels from cable companies.
The Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) says that there “are virtually no true community channels left since the cable companies started to ‘professionalize’ them more than 10 years ago”, and is encouraging consumers to demand that CRTC hand back control when it undertakes a review of community TV in April.
The group has published a free guide to the forthcoming review, and is urging consumers to share their views about community TV, including their hopes for its…
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THUNDER BAY, ON – Thunder Bay’s TV station CHFD-TV has told the CRTC that it plans to drop its affiliation with CTV to become an independent station aligned with CTV rival Canwest Global.
After more than 37 years as a CTV affiliate, CHFD-TV said in its application that is unable to negotiate a new program supply agreement with the national network after its previous one expired last August.
At issue is a new agreement on national commercial inventory. In documents filed with the CRTC in November, CHFD-TV said that CTV’s new proposed agreement would reduce its revenue by approximately 45% “therefore…
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OTTAWA – The new year is shaping up to be a busy one for broadcasters and the CRTC alike.
In addition to reviewing Mediadenovo’s request to sell ad time on US specialty channels’ local avails, the CRTC will consider a number of other applications at its hearing scheduled for February 22.
Astral Media has applied for three new broadcasting licences for national, English-language Category 2 specialty television networks. Adrenaline would air action movies and series “primarily driven by a fast-paced fictional plot featuring car chases, explosions, special effects, or martial arts” according to its application, whileSuperstar will be devoted…
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VANCOUVER – Most Canadians expect that cell phone prices will drop this year now that the country has a fourth major wireless company, a new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll has found.
More than half of respondents (53%) say that Canada is one of the most expensive countries to use a cell phone – including more than 60% of those in British Columbia and Alberta, while one-in-four (24%) believe the country is “slightly” more expensive than others.
In an on-line survey of a representative national sample Canadian adults, 72% of respondents said that the decision to allow Globalive’s Wind Mobile to operate in Canada…
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OTTAWA – Glenn O’Farrell’s plan to sell ad time on US specialty channels’ local avails in Canada is one step closer to fruition.
The former CAB president and CEO’s new company, Mediadenovo, learned Wednesday that its application will be considered as part of a CRTC public hearing scheduled for February 22, 2010. If approved, Mediadenovo would become a new programming undertaking that would sell the two minutes per hour of local availability ad time to national advertisers, and in turn, direct the majority of the revenues to Canadian programming.
In a move designed to further demonstrate its public policy credentials, the…
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OTTAWA – Public Mobile is the latest new wireless entrant scheduled to have its ownership structure scrutinized by the CRTC.
In a letter to the nascent company dated December 18, secretary general Robert Morin advised that Public Mobile will be subject to a Type 2 review of its ownership and control in order to determine its eligibility to operate as a Canadian telecommunications common carrier.
“When reviewing the ownership and control of Public Mobile, the Commission will apply the existing jurisprudence relating to determinations of control in fact, cognizant of the fact that in varying Telecom Decision CRTC 2009-678,…
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