TORONTO – CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein, and CWTA President Bernard Lord will join Industry Minister Tony Clement as speakers at this year’s Canadian Telecom Summit.
Scheduled for June 7 – 9, 2010 at the Toronto Congress Centre, the three day event will also feature leaders from Canada’s top wireless companies and suppliers, all of whom, to varying degrees, will outline their visions for the role that wireless communications can play in the lives of all Canadians.
Now in its ninth year, this year’s theme is ‘New Economic Realities, New Approaches: The Communications Industry in Transition’.
For more information or to…
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WHY DO THE OLD TV sets in the living rooms, garages, kitchens or at the cottages of millions of Canadians deserve to go digital?
As the transition to digital over-the-air TV deadline grows closer and the industry is awakening to the need to act, the question has been asked in some quarters: Why bother?
We can keep fibbing if we want but as an industry we already know it’s now impossible to update our over-the-air television broadcasting system to digital by the August 31, 2011 deadline set years ago by the CRTC. Not “virtually impossible.” Not “challenging.” It is not…
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WINNIPEG – MTS Allstream saw revenue drop by nearly 6% in its first quarter, which the company blamed on the economic downturn and aggressive price competition in its home province of Manitoba.
Revenues from continuing operations were $442 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2010, down from $469.8 million in the same period last year. EBITDA dropped 11.4% year-over-year to $132.7 million.
The company said Thursday that its results reflect continuing strong growth in its wireless, converged IP and digital TV lines of business, which were offset by declines in its unified communications, security and monitoring, local access, long distance…
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OTTAWA – Allowing more foreign investment in the telecommunications business, particularly for broadcast distributors, will almost certainly have an impact on the content carried on Canadian airwaves, according to Astral Media Inc.’s chairman of the board, André Bureau.
Speaking to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology for its study on foreign ownership restrictions in telecommunications, Bureau said broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs) have an “enormous influence” over the programming offered to Canadian consumers.
“BDUs are not just pipes. BDUs make programming decisions everyday. They control and decide which programming services consumers will have access to….
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THE LEADERS OF SHAW Communications took a look at the media landscape around us and decided that if they’re going to be a player in the new always on, video on demand culture, one which is expanding by the second, they had better own some hit shows. Some good brands.
And Monday it announced a $2 billion deal to purchase the TV assets of Canwest Global outright – a move that will cement it as the leading media and distribution company in Canada. The prior deal Shaw announced earlier this year was to purchase just 20% of the company.
Rogers…
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TORONTO – International news channel Al Jazeera English took to the Canadian airwaves Tuesday on Bell TV, Rogers and Videotron.
Additionally, the channel announced plans to open its first Canadian bureau in Toronto next month, a move that it says “signifies the channel’s commitment to presenting Canadian news and perspective to a global audience”.
"We are extremely pleased that AJE’s groundbreaking news and programming is now available in Canada, one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world”, said AJE managing director Tony Burman, in a statement. “Over the past year, I have had the opportunity to travel throughout…
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THUNDER BAY, ON – A future Liberal government will ensure that high-speed Internet is available across the country plus expand mobile phone coverage for rural and remote Canada, all within three years of being elected, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said Tuesday.
Using proceeds from the upcoming spectrum auction slated for 2011, Ignatieff said that his party would target connectivity of at least 1.5 Mbps for all Canadian communities, followed by “a more ambitious goal for 2017”, Canada’s 150th anniversary as a country.
“Too many rural communities can’t access essential services like education, healthcare or economic development because we don’t have the digital…
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OTTAWA – Rogers’ testimony at the CRTC community TV hearing may not have been entirely accurate, according to the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS).
In a statement on Tuesday, CACTUS noted that Rogers TV VP Colette Watson said that "close to 60%" of the programming on Rogers’ Ottawa channel was "access programming", or made by members of the public. But a review of Rogers’ Ottawa schedule posted on-line reveals that almost all the daily shows on the programming schedule list Rogers employees as producers, CACTUS maintained.
The group also expressed concern over the number of community station closures, and said that part of…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications has bought Canwest Global Communications Corp. for $2 billion, the companies announced early Monday morning.
The deal includes 100% of CanWest’s over-the-air and specialty television businesses, including all of the equity interests in CW Investments Co., the CanWest subsidiary that owns the specialty television channels acquired from Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. in 2007.
The Calgary-based cable giant also announced that Paul Robertson will have overall responsibility for CanWest, including the Canadian Television Limited Partnership and the CW Media Group subsidiaries. Robertson, who was most recently president of Corus Television, will report to Shaw CEO and vice chair…
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OTTAWA – The CBC received CRTC approval Wednesday to operate a new French-language regional television station in Toronto.
The Commission also approved CBC’s requests to amend the broadcasting licences for CBOFT-TV Ottawa and CBOFT-DT Ottawa in order to transfer certain analog transmitters to the new station. The original CBLFT-TV station was closed in 1991 and converted to a rebroadcasting transmitter for CBOFT-TV Ottawa.
CBLFT-TV Toronto must broadcast a minimum of five hours per week, on average on an annual basis, of local programming intended for television viewers in Toronto and a large part of Ontario.
At the CBC’s request, the Commission…
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