WITH THE CLOSING OF the Persona purchase by Bragg Communications (owners of EastLink) last last month, the Canadian cable industry lost one of its leading champions – and true characters.
Dean MacDonald worked his way up through the industry beginning at Avalon Cable in Newfoundland 25 years ago, evenutally rising to president of Danny Williams’ Cable Atlantic. The exploits of Dean and Danny are part of industry lore and this reporter once published a photo of the both of them dressed as Carmen Miranda, giant fruity headresses and all.
When Cable Atlantic was sold to Rogers Cable in 1999…
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OTTAWA – The 81st annual Canadian Association of Broadcasters convention kicks off this Sunday in Ottawa and runs through Tuesday, November 6th.
(Cartt.ca, which is a media sponsor, will be there with a team of reporters covering the sessions – and will also produce a printed show daily on-site.)
The 2007 convention theme, Broadcasting, Redefined, “targets issues of fundamental importance to the broadcasting and distribution industries: new technologies and platforms, new business models and partnerships, and new policies and regulations that will allow Canada’s private broadcasters to thrive in an increasingly complex global business environment,“ says the CAB.
There…
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GATINEAU – Canadian sports fans will soon be able to get a far greater dose of American college games as the CRTC today approved the addition of College Sports Television to the eligible satellite list for digital distribution.
Its addition to the Canadian list was sponsored by Rogers Cable.
CBS-owned CSTV is a 24-hour network devoted exclusively to broadcasting college sports programming. It televises 35 men’s and women’s college sports, including football, basketball, baseball, hockey, lacrosse, soccer, wrestling and volleyball, from every major conference in the United States.
Click here for the full decision.
www.crtc.gc.ca www.cstv.com
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OTTAWA – MTS Allstream reiterated Friday that it believes a robust definition of telecom “essential facilities” is more important than ever, or continued competition and innovation in the Canadian telecommunications landscape, may wither.
Such a definition is important when it comes to “the associated benefits of choice and competitive pricing for customers, especially in the business market,” says their release, which came as the CRTC holds hearings to review the definition of those essential facilities, as Cartt.ca has covered.
"The government has deregulated the retail pricing of the large former monopolies in major markets across Canada for both consumer…
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Dear Editor,
This is in response to the letter to the editor Cartt.ca received from Bill Roberts, president and CEO of Vision TV, earlier this week criticizing the Rogers’ brief in the upcoming review of the regulatory frameworks governing BDUs and discretionary services. Mr. Roberts appears to have either misread or misunderstood our filing and I would like to set the record straight.
In his letter, Mr. Roberts alleges that our key message in this proceeding is to remove protections for Canadian services and make it easier to import foreign services. In fact, our key message in this…
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TORONTO – A joint submission to the CRTC’s BDU and specialty policy review from seven independent broadcasters recommends putting those channels in all BDUs’ digital "basic" packages.
Saying the diversity of the Canadian television system depends on preserving a place for small, independent specialty services, the channel owners say they should all be in digital basic in order to offset impact of media concentration and integration (See: Rogers buying Citytv, CTV buying CHUM, CanWest buying Alliance Atlantis…).
Such a move would grant the independent Canadian channels "must-carry" status.
The members of the independent specialty services group are: Aboriginal Peoples…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Association of Broadcasters said today that Global Edmonton news anchor Lynda Steele will be the 2007 recipient of the Gold Ribbon Award for Outstanding Community Service by an Individual Broadcaster.
Steele is passionately committed to community service, says the CAB, particularly in promoting literacy. “While Lynda has a special fondness for events that promote literacy, she has thrown herself behind several causes. She has been at the forefront of efforts to raise awareness about domestic violence, fundraise for cancer research, and find affordable housing solutions for Edmonton’s less fortunate,” says the CAB release.
She is…
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GATINEAU – An airing of Radio-Canada’s "Fric show" which examined the porn industry – complete the nudity and frank language – at 7:30 p.m. was a poor decision, the CRTC told CBC this week.
In a decision released Tuesday, the Commission found that by airing the program on April 26 2007 before 9 p.m., the CBC did not meet the Canadian broadcasting policy objective set out in the Broadcasting Act that programming should be of high standard.
The Fric show is produced by the CBC and hosted by Marc Labrèche. It’s not a public affairs or news program but rather…
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GATINEAU – Having to wedge six new channels to the collective basic cable lineups in Edmonton and Calgary at essentially the same time is just too much to ask, Shaw Communications has told the CRTC.
In a recent application, Shaw has asked for a new condition of license to let it carry Crossroads Television System (CTS), a new religious broadcaster in Calgary and Edmonton which has been in operation in Ontario for years, on channel 51 – an unrestricted channel, but well away, numerically, from where most other must-carries are placed.
Shaw notes that the CRTC approved new licenses not…
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SOME FILED REAMS of digital paper with the Commission (Rogers Communications’ submission was 132 pdf pages and a few appendices), while others were more concise (Shaw’s was just nine pages, plus a couple of research reports)
Anyway, we’ve read more than a few thousand words and identified what appear to be the primary issues facing the CRTC with its review of the policies governing broadcast distribution undertakings (all licensed video providers) and specialty services. The hearing is set for February 4 in Gatineau.
Below is a bit of a synopsis of what the BDUs are asking for and what…
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