TORONTO and MONTREAL – Look Communications has obtained permission from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to hold a shareholders meeting to approve a plan to permit the sale of some or all of its key assets, it was announced today.
Look’s key assets include approximately 100MHz of contiguous licensed spectrum in Ontario and Quebec covering approximately 18 million people; a mobile broadcast license which has been renewed by the CRTC to August 2011; approximately 30,000 broadcast and Internet subscribers; two network operating centers (Toronto and Montreal) plus 26 one-way broadcast sites and 10 two-way broadcast sites; and approximately $300…
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OTTAWA – While businesses can make mistakes by altering course too quickly, industry regulators make most of their mistakes by moving not quickly enough, Rogers Communications vice-chairman Phil Lind said Monday evening at a conference in Ottawa.
He was the keynote speaker – pinch-hitting for company founder Ted Rogers, who is still in a Toronto hospital – at opening dinner of the International Institute of Communications Canadian conference in Ottawa. (While Cartt.ca will be there tomorrow, we were sent a copy of Lind’s speech, which is represented in this story).
With CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein doing the intro…
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GATINEAU – When Star Choice took Sun TV (Quebecor’s Toronto station, CKXT) and CBKT Regina (CBC) out of its channel lineup in May, it did not violate its conditions of licence, the CRTC ruled Thursday.
Back in May, the DTH company (a division of Shaw Communications) took five stations out of its basic package, including the two mentioned above as well as CTV Calgary, which was quickly reinstated after customers complained. French-language CBC news channel RDI was also taken off, but the Commission forced Star Choice to reinstate it last week, as Cartt.ca reported.
This followed a stern Commission…
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TORONTO – So this is why Corus Entertainment paid $73 million for Canadian Learning Television.
CLT, licensed by the CRTC in 1996 and launched as one of the final few Canadian analog cable channels back in 1999 by former majority owner CHUM Ltd., wasn’t valued so much for its programming or brand. Its value lay in its analog slot on most cable systems in the country as well as pre-existing satellite carriage – and that Corus knew it could take advantage of that.
CLT was part-owned by CHUM and Alberta educational channel Access and never did find ratings success…
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TORONTO – CTV announced 105 job cuts today, most of them in Toronto, and many of those are reportedly coming from the 299 Queen St. W. location.
The announcement follows a memo to staff from CEO Ivan Fecan last week warning that falling advertising revenues would result in layoffs and a hiring freeze.
A company statement from EVP human resources Dawn Fell said that no further staff reductions would be made for the balance this year.
However, CTV should be making commitments to the employees losing their jobs that employment will return when times are better, says Canada’s largest…
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GATINEAU – Shrinking the authorized contour of an FM station so that buying the station won’t violate the CRTC’s common ownership policies, is no way for a station to be acquired, the Commission ruled on Friday when it denied Jim Pattison Broadcasting’s second request to purchase CIGV FM in Penticton from Great Valleys Radio.
This is the second time Pattison has been turned down in its request to buy this country station with repeaters in Keremeos and Princeton.
The first time, back in February, the Commission said that letting Pattison buy the station (Giant FM) would violate its policies…
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TORONTO – Along with Canwest and CTV, count the CBC as another Canadian broadcaster telling staff that it must cut back on discretionary spending and that new hires will be closely scrutinized.
Of course, it’s nowhere near as bad as at Canwest, which cut 210 positions from its TV division less than two weeks ago, or at CTV, which said last week layoffs are likely coming, but with a $45 million dollar revenue shortfall on the English side of the CBC coupled with the downturn in the economy and a soft ad market, the national public broadcaster has…
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DARTMOUTH, NS – Newcap and Rogers Broadcasting have received CRTC approval to exchange a couple of radio stations, as well as their respective applications to convert the AM radio licences to the FM frequency.
The two companies announced their intended swap earlier this year.
Newcap will exchange its CFDR AM 780 (country) broadcast licence in Halifax, and in turn receive Rogers’ CIGM AM 790 licence (news/sports/country music) in Sudbury plus a cash consideration of $5 million.
Formal closing is expected in the next 60 days while launch of the two FM stations is expected within the next twelve months, according…
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OTTAWA – New Canadian Heritage and Official Languages Minister James Moore didn’t wait long to get his hands dirty.
On the job for less than a month, his ministry today announced the federal government has referred back for reconsideration and re-hearing, the August 26th decisions by the CRTC to award new radio station licenses in the Ottawa-Gatineau region.
The decision, as reported by Cartt.ca, licensed two new English-language commercial FM radio stations to serve the area and some complained that both licenses were going to English-language broadcasters. Under orders from the Minister today, the Commission now has to squeeze…
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TWO OF CANADA’S BIGGEST media conglomerates have announced cuts as fallout from the bursting financial bubble spreads. Last week, Canwest announced it was cutting 560 jobs in its TV and newspaper operations; this week, CTVglobemedia warned of looming layoffs.
The economic crisis makes the announcements seem reasonable and prudent, but the cuts are unfortunately part of a longer trend. Why invest in local programming and reporting when the real money is in newspaper monopolies, cable specialty channels and prime-time simulcasting of American hit shows?
In the midst of the debacle, the CRTC – which approved media mergers as the…
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