It has been argued in the media that “Cable companies have built profitable businesses based on the exploitation of free programming supplied by local broadcasters without giving any of the proceeds back to the stations.”
Nothing could be further from the truth. Over-the-air television stations receive advertising revenue and they need cable to get to more eyeballs with better pictures. Cable’s capital investment to provide the bandwidth that carries local stations costs literally billions of dollars and the broadcasters do not pay a cent for the use of this network. In addition, cable gives the broadcasters a low…
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INVIDI TECHNOLOGIES CEO DAVID DOWNEY has been long been dining out on John Wanamaker’s now ancient and clichéd quote: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”
It’s been a key portion of Downey’s presentations to investors and industry folks for years. Now Wanamaker, the innovative American department store pioneer (he’s said to have invented the price tag and the “sale”) died in the 1920s, so one would think that we have progressed beyond the late retailer’s ad spend calculations over the century or so since he spoke those words….
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CRTC COMMISSIONER MICHEL MORIN apparently didn’t like much about his first CRTC hearing.
He disagreed with the companies that got the licenses (Vista Radio and Sun Country Cablevision, instead of CTV, Corus or Deep Waters Media), sharply criticized a cynical format flop ploy by the two ownership groups already in the market and said the whole process of calling for applications and hearing them isn’t transparent enough.
In a scathing dissenting opinion following this month’s decision on granting a pair of new radio station licenses, the former broadcaster unloaded on both Astral Media and Jim Pattison Broadcast for their…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Inc. announced Tuesday that it has been entirely released, without costs, from its obligations to CIBC as guarantor of Groupe TQS, contracted on December 14, 2008.
The release of Cogeco follows the repayment by Remstar Corporation of all sums owed by Groupe TQS to CIBC, Cogeco said in a statement.
Remstar won the bidding competition for the financially-troubled Quebec TV network earlier this month, and is now in the process of finalizing details of the purchase and presenting its proposals to creditors. TQS is 60% owned by Cogeco and 40% by CTVglobemedia.
Creditors will vote on…
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TORONTO – It’s all about the users. That’s the underlying theme to this year’s Canadian Telecom Summit, taking place June 16-18 in Toronto.
Bringing together the people who are transforming Canada’s telecommunications industry, the 2008 Summit will feature 20 keynote speakers and 50 panelists discussing the theme “Maintaining relevance for the customer”.
Leaders of some of the major players in the mobile wireless auction will share their perspectives, including Nadir Mohamed, President and COO of Rogers Communications, who will open the conference on June 16, Pierre Blouin, CEO of MTS Allstream, and Robert Depatie, President and CEO of Videotron….
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WE HAVE SOME questions for everyone. Feel free to answer, if you like, at editorial@cartt.ca. Answers will remain confidential – unless you’d like us to make them public… ************ 1. Quick, what’s a two-syllable word, ending in “o” that is a low-cost Canadian wireless brand? With the launch of a new name, Koodo, on the Telus network, we now have three answers to that question – counting Bell’s Solo and Rogers’ Fido. Can someone in marketing can explain to me the reasons why cheap Canadian wireless brand names apparently must end in o? Why is that such a…
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OTTAWA – Saying that “community radio stations will continue contributing to the visibility and vitality of Canada’s minority official-language communities,” the federal government today announced a number of grants totaling $539,471 for a number of French language community radio projects.
Pierre Lemieux, Parliamentary Secretary for Official Languages and Member of Parliament (Glengarry-Prescott-Russell), on behalf Josee Verner, Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages, made the announcement today, the International Day of La Francophonie, in Ottawa.
The funding will, among other things, be used to establish and manage community radio stations
"The Government of Canada knows that…
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MONTREAL – Bell Canada has announced the schedule established by the Québec Court of Appeal for the legal proceedings related to the appeals initiated by certain holders of Bell Canada debentures.
The schedule established by the Court of Appeal provides for three and a half days of hearings, over a maximum period of five days, beginning on April 28, 2008. The Court has indicated that it expects to render a decision expeditiously.
"We are very pleased that the Court of Appeal has agreed to a schedule that will allow for the expeditious resolution of these appeals," said Martine…
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OTTAWA – It will take three weeks to plough through the various issues to be presented by 74 intervenors who wish to speak during the CRTC hearing into the policies governing specialty channels and broadcast distribution undertakings in Canada.
Beginning on April 8th with Rogers Communications, commission staff has estimated it will take until April 28th to get to Lee Weston, the final intervenor (who has community TV on his mind) listed on the lineup released Friday.
The Regulator also released some preliminary financial data on the sector to help people prepare.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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TORONTO – The Ad Hoc Committee of the 1976 and 1996 Bell Canada debentureholders said late Monday it has launched appeals against the court judgments rendered on March 7, 2008 by the Quebec Superior Court of Justice.
The decision granted permission for the proposed leverage buyout of BCE Inc. by a consortium led by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board ("Teachers") and dismissed the bondholders’ proceedings contesting the Plan of Arrangement, “seeking enforcement of their contractual protections and for oppression remedies. Inscriptions in appeal were filed today with the Quebec Court of Appeal in Montreal,” reads the committee’s press…
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