OTTAWA – The New Democratic Party today released a four-point plan for "broadcast sovereignty".
The four points are:
* Change the governance structure of CBC board of directors — ending the patronage appointment process and giving the board the power to hire or fire the CEO, who is currently appointed by the Prime Minister. * Ensure stable long term funding to expand regional programming. * Maintain clear limits on foreign ownership of Canadian airwaves. * Restore the obligation of Canadian broadcasters to promote home-grown drama.
NDP Heritage Critic Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay) said in the release that Prime Minister…
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TORONTO – The gala evening celebrating women in communications is Wednesday in Ottawa, but Canadian Women in Communications has announced who the award winners will be.
Woman of the Year: Sarah Crawford, vice-president, Public Affairs, CHUM Television, Toronto
Employer of the Year: Alliance Atlantis Communications
Chapter Leader of the Year: Diane Johnson, president, Descriptive Video Works, Vancouver
Trailblazer of the Year: Sandy Larson, manager of customer service and operations, SaskTel and Mayor of Swift Current, Saskatchewan
Mentor of the Year: Cindy Chatwell, acting marketing manager, Aboriginal Peoples’ Television Network (APTN), Winnipeg
The CWC Jeanne Sauvé Program winners are: *…
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REVIEWING THE WORK OF Rogers Communications chief technology officer, Nick Hamilton-Piercy leaves one a little awestruck.
He’s been at the forefront of just about every technological development in the cable industry almost since there was a cable industry. If Nick and his team at Rogers (and before that, Canadian Cablesystems) wasn’t first with something, you can bet they weren’t far behind – and most likely contributed to its development, anyway. Hamilton-Piercy (left) seems to be enjoying his semi-retirement from Rogers (which is now going on six years) in a role that…
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MISSISSAUGA, ON – Internet telephony provider Vonage Canada announced today it has appealed to the CRTC to investigate Shaw Communications’ "thinly veiled VOIP tax to determine if Shaw is unfairly driving up competitor’s prices and forcing Western Canadians to pay more for phone service," says the company release.
Shaw tells its high-speed Internet customers that they should pay an extra $10 charge per month if they use a Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) phone service provider such as Vonage Canada.
The big western MSO says the fee it meant to ensure that customers of Vonage, for example, using Shaw’s…
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TORONTO – It’s too bad CRTC commissioners weren’t here to see this.
During May’s commercial radio review, commissioners will host an orderly procession of industry stakeholders, from musicians to record producers to broadcasters to industry associations. They’ll all make their points in front of the Commission, answer questions and then go home to wait some months for a decision.
Yesterday though – in a packed, hot (-tempered, sometimes) room – broadcasters and producers went at each other in a highly-charged, eminently entertaining hour of running ideas up the flagpole and see who salutes… or moons… or kicks over the…
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I HOPE I HAVEN’T BEEN helping put Dave Armstrong out of business.
Dave is the owner-operator of Markdale Cable, a 1,200-customer operation serving the folks in and around Markdale, Ont. – a ski-country/farming community (and home of Chapman’s Ice Cream) about 40 kms southeast of Owen Sound, Ont.
I’ve been a skier since I could walk and my family and I are part-time customers of Markdale Cable (weekends and holidays during the winter). I needed high speed Internet at the place we rented for the season and Markdale Cable delivered. Dave even showed up on New Year’s Day to…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC Wednesday approved the addition of five new foreign language channels for digital distribution.
Canal 52 MX is a 24-hour, general interest, Spanish-language television service. The service originates from Mexico and its programming includes news, informal education, recreation and leisure, sports, drama, music video and general entertainment.
Supercanal Caribe is a 24-hour, general interest, Spanish-language television service which originates from the Dominican Republic, offering an average of 10 hours daily of live original programming in Spanish. Its programming includes news, religion, music, sports, sitcoms, talk shows, variety, comedy and general entertainment.
TELEFE Internacional is a 24-hour, general…
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OTTAWA – On Monday afternoon, the CRTC released its much-anticipated digital migration framework – the set of rules by which analog pay and specialty services will move into an all-digital distribution mode.
And at first blush, broadcasters and at least one cable company both actually say they like it.
The 13,000-plus word document follows some of the model set out by Rogers Communications and a group of major broadcasters, which www.cartt.ca first reported on in May.
"We haven’t done a full analysis on it yet, but it looks like a very positive step in terms of striking a balance…
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THE WEATHER NETWORK/METEOMEDIA is not just a couple of weathered TV channels any more.
The company that owns them, Pelmorex Media, is a growing weather and interactive powerhouse. I mean really – when it snows and you’re in the office, which web site do you go to? Which channel gets flipped to first?
The company has long been working beyond TV. It’s had an interactive division since 1995 and millions now visit its 12-year-old web site. In fact, says Pelmorex CEO Pierre Morrissette, he has a database of 250,000 subscribers who have signed up to have weather alerts dropped…
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WITHOUT CANCOM, THERE MIGHT never have been Columbus Communications.
While Whitehorse TV founder Rolf Hougen might find it surprisingly strange that he’s the first person mentioned in a story about an aggressive cable and telecom company in the Caribbean, we just have to start way north before heading south.
In need of a distant signal provider to beam TV to his fledgling cable operation in the late 1970s, Hougen applied to the Department of Communications for permission to launch a satellite company which would deliver TV not just to the subscribers in Whitehorse (who had to endure a community…
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