CALGARY and KENORA – Shaw Communications has signed a deal to purchase Norcom Telecommunications Limited it was announced today.
Kenora Ont.-based Norcom operates cable systems located in Northwestern Ontario including Kenora, Red Lake, Sioux Lookout, Ear Falls and Ignace, and owns the local television station, CJBN-TV Kenora. It is owned by LeBlanc & Royal, the former broadcast tower manufacturer, which has been selling off most of its assets for a few years.
The station, which is available on ExpressVu and Star Choice, is sort of a small superstation which is branded as a CTV station (it carries the CTV…
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Ted spins things cable’s way During his conference call this week with financial analysts to present the company’s very strong second quarter results, Rogers Communications founder and CEO Ted Rogers lit into Bell (again) for daring to complain about regulation. During the call Rogers grumbled that the distribution rules between cable and satellite are still different – and more favorable to DTH companies when compared to cable.
While a case can be made for that, one can’t be made for what he said next when he insisted that Canadian satellite companies have used those rules to take cable customers…
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DELTA, B.C. – One of the original British Columbia cable systems, Delta Cable, is changing hands.
Persona Communications agreed to purchase the 38,500-customer cable company based in Delta, B.C. (including its Coast Cable operation) late Wednesday. President and CEO of Delta, John Thomas, the son of late company founder Stan Thomas, is said to be retiring.
Financial terms were not released and the deal is pending CRTC approval.
Stan Thomas, one of the industry’s true pioneers, founded the cable company in 1954 and was one of the creators of the Canadian Cable Television Association, which first met in 1957….
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WINNIPEG – Missed deadlines, low levels of Cancon and what appears to be an avoidance of some of its license conditions has landed Winnipeg’s CJWV-FM in regulatory hot water.
The Commission will have a single item on its hearing agenda at the Winnipeg Radisson on September 29th – CJWV and its failure to comply with several Commission demands – not to mention the demands of its own license.
For example, the station, owned by a company called Harmony Broadcasting, is licensed as an instructional campus radio station. However, from the look, feel and sound of its web site,…
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OTTAWA – Rawlco Radio, Harvard Broadcasting, Newcap Inc. and CHUM Limited will soon all launch new radio stations in Calgary.
The CRTC approved four new stations for Calgary and three other new stations serving: Calgary bedroom communities Airdrie and Cochrane (Tiessen Media Inc); Lethbridge (a numbered company partly backed by Island Radio’s Paul Larsen); and High River/Okotoks (Golden West). Also approved was Golden West’s purchase of CJTS-FM Lethbridge from Spirit Broadcasting.
(There are more stations to come in the resource-rich province as the CRTC just went through a hearing in June, as attended by Cartt.ca, studying 19 applications…
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OTTAWA – On Friday, the CRTC assigned the number 511 for weather and traveller information services. The decision paves the way for a cross-Canada, 24-hour telephone service providing Canadians and others with vital weather and traveller information. The goal of Canada’s 511 service is to provide up-to-date information about weather and travel conditions so that callers can make informed choices for their travel plans. A similar service is already available in more than half the states in the U.S.
Once Canada’s 511 service is in place, Environment Canada, one of the partners in the Canada 511 Consortium, will…
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QUISPAMSIS, N.B. – Without the CCTA tagging along this year, the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance gathering in Muskoka in September is scheduled and formatted a bit differently.
Set for September 17 to 19 at the Taboo Resort in Gravenhurst, Ont., it begins on a Sunday this year with a president’s reception. This year’s theme is "Small: The New Big."
Monday is the busiest day with a technical vendor tabletop trade show from 8 a.m. to noon, followed by the annual awards lunch. "There’s a lot of demand for the trade show," said the CCSA’s director of member services, Connie…
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MONTREAL – Canadian communication policy has shifted. New media are no longer new. Convergence has come and gone and even come again. Policy makers are chipping away at facet after facet of the emerging networked mediascape.
But what role should Canadian communication researchers play in this policy environment? How can their work inform, influence, and shift the agendas of policymakers in Canadian jurisdictions? Should it at all? And just whose work is at issue, as a new generation of communications researchers, activists, and decision-makers begins to take its place in Canadian institutions?
Questions like these are a growing part…
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OTTAWA – With several video distributors now asking to add the satellite radio channels from XM Canada or Sirius Canada to their respective channel lineups, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters has asked the CRTC to take a close look at the applications.
Responding to a request made by Bell Canada earlier this year to add the satellite radio signals to its terrestrial TV channel lineups, the CAB said "the application focuses attention on one of the fundamental principles of the Canadian broadcasting system, i.e. the requirement for a predominance of Canadian services, and that therefore a number of matters…
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TORONTO – A query about shifting CRTC regulations got Rogers Communications founder Ted Rogers to take a few swings at government and his telco competition this morning.
During the company’s second quarter conference call with financial analysts, one asked about the potential for changing CRTC regs and what that might do to Rogers’ business plan. While no one mentioned the VOIP decision (and the Cabinet demand that the CRTC reconsider it) or the local forbearance decision (and the appeal filed by the traditional telcos, plus Industry Canada’s demand the CRTC let market forces rule),…
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