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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WHISTLER, B.C, – There was precious little new information doled out today by some of the participants at RBC Capital Markets annual telecom and media conference in the B.C. ski town.
However, one key parallel was drawn during the afternoon session featuring Shaw Communications president Peter Bissonnette, Rogers Cable president Edward Rogers, Bell Canada’s consumer solutions president Kevin Crull and Bell Nordiq CEO Roch Dubé.
When talking about the potential for cable telephony market penetration, Rogers said that a 15% to 20% local market share gain by cable companies was probably too conservative when saying it could be done…
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OTTAWA – SaskTel has asked the CRTC to amend its VOD license so that it can create and deliver a local community channel on demand.
SaskTel offers digital subscriber line delivered MaxTV to several Saskatchewan communities and has nearly 50,000 customers.
Sounding like a real community channel, "SaskTel proposes to work with community members, local clubs, and local production companies to create and provide a range of programming that would reflect each community in its licensed areas and the province as a whole," says the application.
SaskTel proposes that the programming offered through its outlet for local expression be…
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TORONTO – Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment’s basketball channel, Toronto Raptors Network, has applied to the CRTC to let it show more live games.
It wants to boost the amount of time it can devote to games from 5% of its schedule to 15%.
The deadline to reply is March 23.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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OTTAWA – Once upon a time, the boys and girls in the content production and delivery business gathered for many huddles. They were figuring out how to pass film and video content to the receiver, the Internet, and score a business model for web content. The play action took the form of rights management issues, and the strategy was nearly intercepted by haggling over the ownership and dollar value of rights.
Today, as the Internet joins video MP3 players, cellphones, games and podcasting among the receivers of digital content, the players are huddling once again and again, the quarterbacks…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Having been authorized in November by the previous government to create a national do-not-call list, the CRTC today launched the public proceeding on the file, asking for input on the list and the rules surrounding it.
As reported by cartt.ca, Bill C-37 was passed just before the election was called and said that Canadians needed a way to avoid telemarketers by signing up for a national do-not-call list. The public proceeding will address issues such as what the specific DNCL rules should be and which, if any, of the existing telemarketing rules continue to be…
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