OTTAWA – Looking to push the adoption of advanced telecom technologies in this country, the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance said this week that the market should decide how telecommunications develops in Canada.
Providing better tax credits and becoming a model user of ICT were recommended steps that government could take to encourage industry growth, according to respondents.
"The survey is part of a six-month advocacy campaign by CATA to encourage the adoption of advanced telecommunications and information technologies," said John Reid, president, CATAAlliance, in a press release.
The survey was undertaken as an open online poll of the general membership…
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TORONTO – The Canadian cable industry asked for the U.S. version of Discovery HD in February of 2003 but made little progress with its request with the CRTC.
However, a decision last Friday, as reported by www.cartt.ca, licenses Discovery HD Canada – and owner CTV Specialty said today that it will launch, ASAP.
CTV Specialty Television Inc. (a subsidiary of CTV Inc.) and US-based Discovery Communications announced Tuesday that their joint venture application to the CRTC for a new High Definition (HD) specialty channel – Discovery HD – has been approved. Expected to launch before the end of 2005,…
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MONTREAL – Bell Digital Voice is now available in the Greater Montreal Area, the company announced this morning.
Already offered in Toronto for $40 a month, the service is being progressively rolled out across Québec and Ontario.
In Montreal, the offer is $35 a month. Bell has faced significant pressure in Montreal with Videotron’s $16 a month residential telephony offer. The MSO said in August that it had surpassed 75,000 customers and were adding 4,000 a week, which means the company is over or nearly 100,000 VOIP subscribers, most of which would be telephony customers taken from Bell.
As…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU –Teletoon Retro, D.I.Y. and Nostalgie are just three of the 14 new category two digital specialty channels approved by the CRTC Friday.
A few of the new licenses will sound familiar (D.I.Y., Teletoon Retro, Humour) because their owners had held similar digital licenses when they were granted in 2000, but let them lapse as they decided not to launch right away.
One would think that reviving the licenses would mean the channels will launch soon, too.
The full list and links are below:
Teletoon Retro (English)
Teletoon Retro (French)
Vista The Virtual Window
D.I.Y. Television…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC Thursday granted a category two digital specialty service license to Astral Media for French-language speed channel Télé-Vitesse.
Astral’s application proposes a service that would be devoted to speed – on land, on the water and in the air – and vehicles: automobiles, motorcycles, snowmobiles, trains, boats, planes and more.
Astral proposed to air magazine programs, documentaries, dramas, reality television shows and, on occasion, speed-sports competitions and segments on automobiles and the technologies that make them possible.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Broadcaster Crossroads Television (CITS) will stay on basic cable on Videotron’s Quebec-Ontario border systems, the CRTC told the company today.
Videotron wanted to distribute the Christian broadcast channel as a digital basic service to its Gatineau, Buckingham, Thurso and Montebello, Quebec – and Rockland, Ontario, systems.
CTS said it would submit to digital basic distribution, so long as Videotron wanted to do it province-wide.
The Quebecor Media-owned cable company, however, added that moving it to digital would free up network space to other specialties and new services.
“Videotron noted that CITS-TV-1, an English-language television programming undertaking devoted…
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TORONTO – Thanks to a partnership agreement which dates back to the beginnings of CanWest Global’s only analog specialty service, Prime TV, Rogers Communications wants to acquire one-third ownership of the channel.
In a nutshell, Rogers provided some start-up financing and covered some operating costs for the channel leading to and after its launch in 1997. In return, RCI received a subordinated debenture from CanWest, convertible into ownership of the channel, at RCI’s option.
The company has exercised its option and plans to take 33.3% ownership of CanWest’s channel.
CanWest has applied for CRTC approval for the ownership change….
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OTTAWA – Saying the Copyright Board has now moved into cultural policy, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters has called the board’s Friday decision “astonishing.”
Rather than just approving rates based on the value of music, the panel’s decision “seeks to appropriate a cultural policy making role, and establish its own economic order for the distribution of cultural subsidies,” says the CAB today.
“It is remarkable that this panel took the liberty of criticizing Parliament itself by gratuitously condemning the legislated tariff rate that Parliament granted small broadcasters,” continues the harshly-worded (and for good reason) release.
“Unlike the CRTC, which…
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MONTREAL – Rogers Communications founder and CEO Ted Rogers used a speech to the Canadian Club Monday in Montreal to blast Bell Canada’s lobbying efforts and predatory pricing ideas.
Just days after the local forbearance hearings in Ottawa and in the middle of the Telecom Review undertaken by Industry Canada, Rogers’ comments had serious purpose behind them.
Mentioning Videotron and its parent company, Quebecor, as well as iconic owner Pierre Karl Peladeau, Rogers outlined how Canadian cable companies are working hard to provide facilities-based local telephony competition in Canada. He said he’s pleased with the uptake on Rogers Home…
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TORONTO – Family Channel has applied to the CRTC for a new category two digital specialty service it’s calling Boyz Own.
Programming will be aimed at serving “the distinct entertainment and information needs of boys aged 8 to 13 years,” says the CRTC’s release. “Programming on the service will focus on issues unique to boys 8-13, including interests and activities such as action/adventure, outdoor themes, extreme sports and video games.”
Family proposed its own limits on the channel, too, including:
* No more than 10% of all programming broadcast during the broadcast week shall be drawn from category 6b…
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