HALIFAX and QUISPAMSIS, N.B. – They’re not completely out, but they’re not in, either.
The Canadian Cable Systems Alliance and its largest member, EastLink, are going their separate ways in 2008. It’s not an acrimonious breakup mind you, or a complete separation, but it’s a break just the same.
With its purchase of Persona Communications finalized last year – alongside the acquisition of Amtelecom Communications and RuSh Communications in 2007, EastLink now has over half a million cable customers – a figure which comprised over half of the cable customers the CCSA represents through its cable…
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KENORA – Bell Aliant said today it will spend $27 million to buy the Kenora Municipal Telephone System from the City of Kenora.
"In an increasingly competitive industry, Bell Aliant has the necessary scale and resources to offer our customers access to the latest products, services and innovative technology," said KMTS general manager Dennis McCaffrey in a press release.
"We understand the importance of KMTS to Kenora and look forward to building on the excellent foundation of service and value already in place for customers in this area," said Stephen Wetmore, President and CEO of Bell Aliant.
This acquisition…
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OTTAWA – The Communications Energy and Paperworkers Union, Canada’s largest media union, said today it is consulting lawyers to explore avenues of appeal of the CRTC CanWest/Alliance deal, announced late yesterday by the CRTC.
"This is an appalling decision which skirts foreign ownership regulations based on a financial rationale that would bring a grin to the face of Karlheinz Schreiber," said Peter Murdoch vice-president media for CEP.
"We are not going to sit back and let the CRTC sell off Canada’s broadcasting industry to the U.S. The decision is a violation of the Broadcasting Act and we expect…
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GATINEAU – CanWest Global’s uniquely structured deal to acquire the broadcasting assets of Alliance Atlantis was approved late Thursday by the CRTC.
CanWest is buying the 13 specialty channels owned by Alliance Atlantis (BBC Canada, BBC Kids, Discovery Health, Fine Living, Food Network Canada, HGTV, History Television, Independent Film Channel Canada, National Geographic Channel, Showcase, Showcase Action, Showcase Diva, and Slice ) for about $1.4 billion. The deal also includes the acquisition of partial ownership in The Score, One: Body, Mind and Spirit, Historia and Series+.
The acquisition is being financed through debt, $260 million from CanWest and…
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GATINEAU – A newly established consumer agency, the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services, was given a conditional go-ahead by the CRTC this Thursday afternoon.
"We are very pleased that the industry came together to establish this consumer agency so quickly," said Konrad von Finckenstein, chairman of the CRTC, in a press release. "It will provide residential and small business customers with an effective, accessible and consumer-friendly recourse when they are unable to resolve a disagreement with their service provider."
As reported by Cartt.ca, the agency was launched on a provisional basis in July 2007. During the first…
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GATINEAU – Bell Canada has won a five-year contract to run the newly established National Do Not Call List (DNCL), the CRTC announced today.
The company was the only bidder that was compliant with the requirements of the Request for Proposal.
Bell Canada will be responsible for registering numbers, providing telemarketers with up-to-date versions of the list, and receiving consumer complaints about telemarketing calls.
In addition, Bell Canada will operate the National DNCL using the fees that telemarketers will pay to subscribe to the list. The contract stipulates that the list should be launched by September 30, 2008.
Once…
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GATINEAU – CanWest Global’s unusually structured deal to acquire the broadcasting assets of Alliance Atlantis was approved today by the CRTC.
CanWest is buying the 13 specialty channels owned by Alliance Atlantis (BBC Canada, BBC Kids, Discovery Health, Fine Living, Food Network Canada, HGTV, History Television, Independent Film Channel Canada, National Geographic Channel, Showcase, Showcase Action, Showcase Diva, and Slice ) for about $1.4 billion.
The deal also includes the acquisition of partial ownership in The Score, One: Body, Mind and Spirit, Historia and Series+.
The acquisition is being financed through debt, $260 million from CanWest and $650…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC has scheduled a public hearing into the transfer of Bell Canada Enterprise’s broadcast licenses to an Investor Group led by Teachers Private Capital, Providence Equity partners, Madison Dearborn and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity.
Since Teachers owns 25% of CTVglobemedia and BCE owns 15% of the media company (bringing the new company’s CTVgm stake to 40%) and all of Bell ExpressVu, the Commission must approve this part of the transaction to ensure, among other things, that non-Canadians don’t control those assets.
While the overall price tag on taking Bell private is $39.8 billion, the deal…
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OTTAWA – Right now, we would just call it “rumoured rumblings,” so one can never tell the veracity of the statements, but sources tell Cartt.ca they believe a decision from the CRTC on the CanWest Global purchase of Alliance Atlantis could come as early as Thursday.
What we do know is that CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein was pushing staff to get the decision done and released prior to the end of 2007 – and the timing of a release this week would place it right in the range of other 2007 broadcasting acquisition decisions. For example, the regulator…
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TORONTO – There are two large cable operators based in the province of Quebec, but each have their own different ideas of where growth will come from.
One, Videotron, envisions building itself into an important wireless player. The other, Cogeco Cable, has so far shunned wireless investments in favor of pursuing growth outside of North America.
Its 2006 acquisition of Cabovisao, which now serves over 300,000 customers in Portugal has been nothing but positive for the company as revenue and margins have risen throughout 2007. The integration of the new division is now complete.
The company launched digital cable…
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