DARTMOUTH, NS – Radio broadcaster Newfoundland Capital Corp. Ltd. recorded a $7.4 million profit in the first quarter ended March 31 mainly due to a $10.5 million gain on the sale of its units of Halterm Income Fund Trust.
Profits for the quarter were $6.2 million more than the same quarter last year, with proceeds from the sale of Halterm Income going to repay long-term debt.
Revenue grew 5% to $19.5 million in the company’s broadcasting operations.
“The 5% total increase in broadcasting revenue is in-line with the radio advertising industry’s average growth rate of 5.1% for the same…
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HALIFAX – If you thought Bragg Communications, parent company of EastLink, was content with being the dominant cable operator in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island – not to mention a painful, persistent competitive thorn in Bell Aliant’s side, you’d be wrong.
On Friday, Bragg more than doubled its size by announcing it has signed a purchase agreement with Persona Communications. The combined company – when you add in its impending purchase of Amtelecom – will have close to half a million basic cable subscribers (260,000 from Persona added to EastLink’s approximate 230,000).
The agreement to purchase the shares…
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OTTAWA – About 10.6% of Canadian households subscribe to a cable telephone or voice over IP service, Statistics Canada reports.
For the first time ever, Statscan’s Residential Telephone Service Survey asked respondents in December 2006 if they had cable or VoIP service, so there’s no comparison from previous periods.
That month, about 90.5% of homes had a land line, while 66.8% had at least one cell phone. Only 5.0% of homes relied exclusively on a cell phone, compared with 4.8% in December 2005.
Among those without a land-line service, 10% said it was because they couldn’t afford the basic…
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OTTAWA – Saying it achieved "major strides" in advancing diversity in Canadian broadcasting in 2007-07, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters has filed its second annual report to the CRTC on the issue.
The CAB’s report describes initiatives taken on matters of cultural diversity, as well as those concerning the presence, portrayal and participation of persons with disabilities in broadcasting, says the press release.
“The CAB is very proud of the strides taken by private broadcasters in the area of diversity,” said CAB president and CEO, Glenn O’Farrell. “In addition to building on our previous work in this area, our…
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GATINEAU – Hockey and regulation, two things Canadians are well known for, thoroughly revealed their influence in statistics released today by the CRTC.
The headline, of course, was the massive revenue line. Revenues earned by Canadian specialty services, pay-TV channels and video on demand license holders surpassed $2.5 billion in the 2006 broadcast year, ended August 31, 2006, says the Commission data on the industry released today.
During the last year, this part of the electronic media industry saw the highest growth in its revenues as they rose by 12.4% as compared to 2005.
However, profits before interest and…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC today released new pricing rules that will govern the rates charged by large telephone companies for local telephone services, until forbearance arrives, that is.
The rules, known collectively as the price cap regime, will come into effect on June 1, 2007, and apply to Bell Canada, Telus, SaskTel, MTS Allstream and Bell Aliant. It also lets the incumbent telcos increase their rates for payphone service to up to a dollar.
The new regime only applies in regions where local phone service has not been deregulated. So they will apply everywhere at first and quickly become…
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HALIFAX – "Our first quarter results again demonstrated our ability to maintain solid financial and operational performance," said Stephen Wetmore, president and CEO of Bell Aliant Regional Communications Income Fund in kicking off his company’s first quarter results press release.
"Looking forward we expect this performance to be enhanced by the recent changes to the forbearance rules and we applaud yesterday’s price caps decision issued by the CRTC. Both will enable us to provide more choices to our customers and more fully compete in many of the markets we serve."
Q1 operating revenue for the telco serving Eastern Canada…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC today released new pricing rules that will govern the rates charged by large telephone companies for local telephone services, until forbearance arrives.
The rules, known collectively as the price cap regime, will come into effect on June 1, 2007, and apply to Bell Canada, Telus, SaskTel, MTS Allstream and Bell Aliant.
They only apply in regions where local phone service has not been deregulated. So they will apply everywhere at first and quickly become less and less important as markets are forborne from regulation.
"This third-generation price cap regime provides greater pricing flexibility for large…
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OTTAWA – While Shaw Cable might say that American cable channel USA Network doesn’t compete with existing Canadian services, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters begs to differ.
In February, Shaw submitted an application asking that the popular general interest channel – which is seen in 90 million American homes and is anchored by shows like Monk, The 4400, pro wrestling, a couple of Law & Orders, reruns like Walker Texas Ranger, Coach and JAG and feature films – be added to the eligible satellite list for digital distribution.
The rights to all those shows – and several others, not…
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MONTEBELLO, Que. – Canada’s telecom industry must move swiftly to create the new consumer protection agency the federal government has called for or face the prospect of new legislation governing how the companies deal with miffed customers.
In a speech Wednesday at the 2007 Telecommunications Invitational Forum (read: no media) in Montebello, CRTC Chairman Konrad von Finckenstein told delegates that he wants to see the industry establish this new consumer agency so that it’s up and running when Canada’s incumbent telcos are forborne from regulation, which is likely to begin happening late this fall.
Part of the federal government’s…
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