VERNON, BC – The Jim Pattison Broadcast Group has agreed to buy the FM radio station CKIZ-FM (KISS-FM) that services this community located north of Kelowna, BC from Rogers Broadcasting. Financial details of the transaction, which is still subject to CRTC approval, were not released.
“We are great believers in the growth of prospects of BC’s interior, especially in the Okanagan Valley,” said Jim Pattison Broadcast Group President Rick Arnish. “We consider this to be an important acquisition – one that expands our presence in the north Okanagan and will complement our two radio stations located in Kelowna and…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is asking if it should eliminate winback rules for incumbent cablecos with 6,000 or more subscribers serving multiple-unit dwellings (MUD).
Broadcasting Public Notice 2007-48 was issued Tuesday following a request last month from Rogers Cable Communications Inc. for the elimination of the remaining winback restrictions. The cableco argued the imposition of winback rules on the cable industry creates an asymmetry in the broadcasting system that protects telephone companies entering the TV distribution business and the country’s two satellite TV distributors from the normal workings of a competitive market.
Rogers noted that a similar winback restriction…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC wants to know to what extend local number portability (LNP) has to be supported for access-dependent local voice over Internet Protocol services.
The commission wants interveners to comment on implementation constraints, technical issues, customer demand and the cost-effectiveness of support for LNP in the following situations:
1. secondary numbers assigned from within the company’s operating territory, 2. secondary numbers assigned from outside the company’s operating territory, 3. primary numbers assigned from outside the company’s operating territory, 4. with respect to the porting-in of telephone numbers.
This proceeding will not include matters relating to the recovery…
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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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