GATINEAU – This morning the CRTC will release its policy decision on the levels of media concentration in Canada, Cartt.ca has learned, just four months after holding a hearing, dubbed the “Diversity of Voices” proceeding in September.
While existing rules were used to make decisions in 2007 on Canwest’s purchase of Alliance Atlantis, CTVglobemedia’s acquisition of CHUM Ltd., Astral’s Standard Broadcasting buy and Rogers Media taking over the Citytv network, new rules will apply to any other mergers.
The old rules, for example, prevented CTVgm from taking the Citytv stations in its deal for CHUM…
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MONTREAL – Quebec’s Culture and Communications Minister Christine St-Pierre dropped a firecracker into the middle of the debate over the future of financially troubled broadcaster TQS last week, saying that if the private broadcaster disappears, Radio-Canada will be partly to blame.
“I think that if TQS dies, they’ll find a bullet from Radio-Canada close to the heart,” said St-Pierre who, until her election last year, was a Radio-Canada journalist in Ottawa and Washington.
Radio-Canada vice-president Sylvain Lafrance immediately dismissed the comment, saying the publicly-owned network has nothing to do with TQS’s liquidity problems.
Last year, Radio-Canada announced it would…
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TORONTO – Culture industries should be treated differently that other industries when it comes to competition policy say ACTRA and the Writers Guild of Canada
The two groups filed a joint submission last week in response to the discussion paper, “Sharpening Canada’s Competitive Edge”, issued by Industry Canada’s Competition Policy Review Panel. The two entertainment-industry associations say Canada’s cultural industries will face “devastation” should government remove protections.
"The current foreign ownership rules as they apply to broadcasters do not ensure that Canadian news and entertainment programming are made from and reflect a Canadian perspective, "says Maureen Parker, executive director,…
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MONTREAL – While bankrupt convention television broadcaster TQS has been a drag on the company, Cogeco Inc. continues to grow thanks largely to its cable division.
"Cogeco’s first quarter financial result is very positive,” said company CEO Louis Audet in a release late Wednesday afternoon touting the company’s first quarter results.
“In the cable sector, Cogeco Cable has continued on its growth trajectory and is in an excellent position to achieve superior growth in 2008… With regards to the court order involving TQS, after careful thought, the time has come to end our participation in the general interest…
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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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