WINNIPEG – EBITDA and free cash flow grew during the first quarter of 2006 at Manitoba Telecom Services even though overall revenue declined, the company announced Tuesday.
Revenues were $488.8 million in the quarter ended March 31 (down from $495.1 million in Q1 2005), EBITDA increased by 4.1% to $165.7 million and free cash flow was 6.9% higher at $69.3 million. Major highlights included: Next generation data connectivity revenues climbed by 54%; Wireless revenues grew by 13.3%; Digital television revenues increased by 48.9%; Wireless customers increased by 11.5%; Digital television customers increased by 46.3%; High-speed Internet customers grew by 19.1%….
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OTTAWA – Last week, the CRTC made public its work plan from now through 2009.
Click here to review the rather massive amount of work facing the Commission and its staff.
"Major developments are taking place in broadcasting and telecommunications, which need to be factored into our decision-making as we pursue our mandate under the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Acts," said CRTC chairman Charles Dalfen, in a statement.
"In telecommunications, technological advances are enabling competition to take hold. It is our aim to continue to move towards deregulation throughout the telecommunications sector so that market forces may prevail, while…
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CAMBRIDGE, Ont. – The CRTC needs fining power to make sure telecom companies abide by the rules, chairman Charles Dalfen told the 2006 Telecommunications Invitational Forum on Sunday.
In a speech that was in large part an answer to the Telecom Policy Review report filed in March. Dalfen said the Commission is digesting the report, filed in March, and will soon implement many of its recommendations.
As well, "(w)e will also be striking a working group with the Competition Bureau to develop recommendations on how the Canadian telecom sector can more effectively benefit from the expertise resident in…
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NEW YORK – There are too many tariffs and too many changes going on in the digital world for the existing copyright and tariff regime to continue in its current form, says Canadian Association of Broadcasters president and CEO Glenn O’Farrell.
In a speech last week during a conference on international intellectual property law and policy at Fordham University in New York, O’Farrell looked to 1926 – at the CAB’s first meeting 80 years ago in Toronto – where copyright was the main reason for the group’s initial gathering.
A consensus between broadcasters and creators was arrived at then…
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OTTAWA – Former Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association senior vice-president and general counsel, Lori Assheton-Smith has launched her own business. This week she made official the establishment of Lori D. Assheton-Smith Professional Corporation, "through which I will continue to provide legal services and advice in the areas of broadcasting, telecommunications and Internet law and regulation," she said.
Assheton-Smith (right) has been with the CCTA in various roles since 2000, culminating in her SVP role. Prior to the CCTA, she was legal counsel with the CRTC.
The CCTA ceased operations in February after the association’s second-largest member,…
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GATINEAU – The numbers mask the risks inherent in launching new TV services, but it seems the risks have paid off for a majority of Canadian cable channels.
Canadian specialty, pay, and pay-per-view TV services have seen their earnings before interests and taxes grow by 19.4% in each year between 2001 and 2005, the CRTC announced today. In that same period, revenues rose an average of 10% per year.
Things really picked up steam in 2005, when EBIT for the services swelled by 31.5%, going from $418.2 million in 2004 to $549.9 million in 2005.
Revenues reached nearly $2.2…
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WHILE THE WORD CONVERGENCE is still a four-letter word to some, Rogers Media president Tony Viner sits on the axis of convergence in the Rogers Empire.
His division, which includes the Toronto Blue Jays, radio, magazines, TV and other media is a large supplier of content to the company’s other two huge divisions: cable and wireless. While all at NAB this week fret about producing for multiple platforms, hitting all the screens has been in the Rogers plan for some time, with the media division providing the content. Rogers Media president Tony Viner (left) recently chatted with…
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TORONTO – Robert Dépatie, Michael Sabia, and Darren Entwistle have been added as keynote speakers at the upcoming Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto.
Dépatie, president and CEO of Vidéotron, will be a keynote speaker while Sabia, president and CEO of BCE, and Entwistle, president and CEO of Telus, will deliver luncheon keynote addresses.
The summit will have sessions on wide-ranging telecom issues, including NextGen telecom services and platforms such as IMS, wireless applications such as mobile new media, VoIP technologies, and illegal content on the Internet.
Already announced are appearances by new Industry Minister Maxime Bernier and CRTC Chair…
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GATINEAU – HG could soon be in HD. Alliance Atlantis Communications has applied to the CRTC for high definition licences for its specialty networks: HGTV Canada, Food Network Canada, Showcase Television, History Television, Life Network, and National Geographic Channel.
The programming would be the same as the analog versions of the services.
In the application documents available on the CRTC site, Alliance Atlantis did not indicate when it hoped to begin airing HD programs. It did say that high definition licences “will be important to positioning” the channels “as the industry migrates to HD” and that the broadcaster “looks…
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GATINEAU – There are dozens of languages spoken in Canada, and it seems like most of them will soon have a specialty channel catering to them.
The CRTC today approved three more Cat 2 digital channels, all from Ethnic Channels Group Limited: Bangladeshi/Bengali TV, Portuguese TV, and Bulgarian TV.
Last week the commission approved eight new third-language channels and announced it had received applications for an additional 29 category two licences, all but two of which are for ethnic services. The commission will hold a hearing into those applications starting June 19 in Edmonton.
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