TORONTO – Law firm Heenan Blaikie LLP has issued a media release stating that CanWest Global Communications Corp.’s takeover of Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. shouldn’t necessarily be barred because American investment firm Goldman Sachs is putting up more than 80% of the equity to fund the purchase.
The deal doesn’t necessarily challenge foreign-ownership rules, according to a lawyer at the firm, who calls the case “far more gray” than transactions where there have been specific tests banning transactions, such as owning too many TV stations in one market.
“The broadcasting foreign ownership rules do not expressly prohibit a foreign…
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SINCE WE’RE ALL GOING to be visiting family and eating turkey this weekend, Cartt.ca won’t publish a newsletter on Tuesday, October 9th.
We’ll still post the news as it happens, of course, and we will also be covering the CRTC’s review of regulatory framework for wholesale services and definition of essential service hearing beginning Tuesday in Gatineau – and will resume regular newsletter service on Thursday.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
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TO SAY 2007 HAS been a year of growth for EastLink is simply a colossal understatement.
So far, the company has acquired Amtelecom Communications, Persona Communications and RuSh Communications – meaning EastLink (or officially, its parent company, Bragg Communications) has more than doubled in size to around 500,000 customers.
No longer just a regional cable concern, Bragg/EastLink is a national force to be reckoned with, with cable and telecom services extending coast to coast.
The company is a pioneer, having launched phone service years before other North American cable companies – to much success – in Nova…
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TORONTO – CTVglobemedia announced five key appointments on Monday as it reorganized its television division into strategic channel groups following its acquisition of CHUM Ltd.
Susanne Boyce and Rick Brace will lead the television division’s content and business strategies, while Dawn Fell, Andre Serero and Paul Sparkes will be responsible for the corporate units. Robin Fillingham remains chief financial officer and will continue to handle all financial matters pertaining to CTVglobemedia.
As president of creative, content and channels at CTV Inc., Boyce will be responsible for all creative aspects of the conventional, specialty and digital platforms, excluding sports. She…
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OTTAWA – When it comes to wholesale access services, the CRTC should no longer make incumbent telephone companies share parts of their networks with competitors in the residential telephone market, recommends an independent report released Monday by the Commission.
The author of the report, competition and commercial litigation lawyer Michael Osborne, makes the recommendation for areas of the country where large cablecos are emerging as big telephone players.
In business markets, Osborne suggests the CRTC adopt an ex post regulatory approach to allow wholesale access-dependent competitors to demonstrate that mandated access must be continued, because there is less facilities-based…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Ian Scott, vice-president of government affairs at Telus, has agreed to participate, for a two year period, in an executive interchange with the Commission, the CRTC announced Friday.
Effective October 1st, Ian will become Chief Policy Advisor to the Chairman on strategic issues such as the CRTC’s role on the international scene and its new approach to regulatory convergence. Scott’s agreement with the Commission is governed by the terms of the Interchange Canada Program and the Values and Ethics Code for the Public Service.
Scott had been with the Commission from 1990 to 1994, where he was…
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MONT TREMBLANT – Cogeco CEO Louis Audet said Thursday he thought it pretty improbably that Rogers Cable would want to overbuild his company’s regions of Halton, Oakville and Burlington.
He was responding to a question at the CIBC Institutional Investor Conference at the Fairmont Mont Tremblant, Quebec.
Cartt.ca broke the story last week that Rogers had applied to the CRTC to expand its cable licensed territories to include the large piece of Cogeco’s Ontario territory as well as that of Aurora Cable.
Audet doesn’t figure Rogers has any plans to completely overbuild, as it would be far too costly….
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC today approved Rogers Media’s $375 million purchase of Citytv as well as Astral Media’s Standard Broadcasting buy. A decision that took about than a month from the end of the hearings.
Rogers had proposed the acquisition of the Citytv stations in Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver, which the Commission wouldn’t let CTV have when it bought the stations’ former owner, CHUM Ltd.
In its decision, the Commission is also requiring that Rogers Media sell, within the next 12 months, its two religious stations, CHNU-TV Fraser Valley and CIIT-TV Winnipeg, since maintaining these two stations would…
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VANCOUVER – On Thursday, the CRTC deregulated 35 exchanges for local business phone services in Telus regions in Alberta, B.C. and Quebec, including all major metropolitan areas.
"We welcome today’s announcement by the CRTC of deregulation of local telecommunications services for businesses in these regions. It will allow Telus to bring the full benefits of competition to these customers, providing us with the flexibility to quickly bring creative offers to the marketplace while continuing our investment in technology and innovation for the benefit of businesses across the country. We look forward to similar decisions that will enable us to…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC announced Wednesday it is giving interested parties more time to prepare their submissions for the regulatory review of broadcasting distribution.
Responding to a series of requests, the CRTC has decided to extend the deadline for the filing of comments by 10 days, to Oct. 19th, and the filing of replies to Nov. 16th. The oral public hearing will also be delayed, by one week, and will be held beginning Feb. 4, 2008 in Gatineau.
Most of the country’s cable and telephone companies, along with the Canadian Film and Television Production Association and the Canadian Conference…
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