TORONTO – Former Astral Television CEO Lisa De Wilde is returning to broadcasting as CEO of TVOntario, the provincial government announced Thursday.
The highly-regarded broadcaster left Astral in 2001 after eight years there and has been out of broadcasting since, and according to sources, was a key federal Liberal Party fundraiser during the last election. Prior to Astral, de Wilde worked at the CRTC as well as for law firm Heenan Blaikie and has been active with the Toronto International Film Festival.
De Wilde replaces Isabel Bassett, who leaves TVO after six years as chair and CEO.
Those two jobs…
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TORONTO – Canadian Satellite Radio today appointed former Coors Canada marketer Colin Bettam as senior vice-president of marketing and sales.
In this role, Bettam will be responsible for overseeing all sales and marketing functions of CSR, including retail and automotive distribution channels. He will also lead marketing, promotion and advertising strategy for CSR’s launch and ongoing operations, says the company.
“We are thrilled to have Colin join our launch team for the introduction of satellite radio in Canada” said Stephen Tapp, president and COO of CSR, in a release. “He’s got all the right stuff and a proven, winning…
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ST. JOHN’s and GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. – Persona Communications has come to an agreement to purchase Northern Cablevision, www.cartt.ca has learned.
Terms of the deal or its targeted completion date are not known. However, the CRTC has granted its blessing, www.cartt.ca was told by Persona officials Wednesday.
The company serves approximately 25,000 customers in 26 northern Alberta communities and will substantially boost the size of Persona’s western division.
Established in 1974, Northern Cablevision is a privately held company, owned by president Lorn Becker.
More on this story to come.
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MONTREAL – Saying they’ve served their purpose, Bell Canada has ceased offering discounts for customers who choose to take more than one service from the company.
Existing discounted Bell customers will still be able to keep their cheaper rates but no new cut-rate bundles are planned right now. Customers had been able to take advantage of savings in the range of 5% to 15% if they took additional Bell services such as Sympatico, Mobility and ExpressVu, to go with their local phone.
While there was no press release announcing the move, the news came out at last week’s CIBC…
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Dear Editor, Re: “New Pay TV Apps are a Luxury No One Can Afford”, September 22, 2005. I AM RESPONDING ON BEHALF of The Canadian Film Channel (one of the applicants) to a recent article published in www.cartt.ca. I am writing to correct a glaring error that appeared in the September 22nd article. However, I am aware that the error was made by the Credit Suisse First Boston Equity Research (CSFB) in their report and not by www.cartt.ca.
On September 19, 2005, CSFB published a report on the impact of additional pay television channels on the pay television…
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OTTAWA – Declining service at Aliant means that the phone company should be paying its customers millions of dollars in rebates, says the head of the telephone workers’ union in Atlantic Canada.
"Ever since the merger of the four provincial telephone companies (NBTel, IslandTel, NewTel and MTT) into Aliant, we have noticed a significant decline in customer service, particularly non business customers," said Ervan Cronk of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada in a press release today.
Customers who can prove they’ve been served poorly can make an application to the CRTC for service rebates.
"Our members…
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GATINEAU – The upcoming hearings to license four new pay TV applicants isn’t just a fight between the incumbents and the possible newcomers, says CanWest Global.
The interventions and replies surrounding the four applications were made public by the CRTC Monday and of course the incumbent pay operators, Astral Media (The Movie Network, Super Ecran) and Corus Entertainment (Movie Central) are solidly against licensing any of the new applicants.
The hearing is scheduled for October 24th.
As many already know from the re-tellings, last year, Spotlight TV, a company led by former Alliance Atlantis executive George Burger (backed…
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VANCOUVER – OMNI TV British Columbia’s first new production is The Standard, a daily prime-time current affairs television program interlaced with spirituality.
It launches Monday, September 26th at 9 p.m. PT.
Viewers of the hour-long show will learn stories from around the world, meet newsmakers up close, and discover the spiritual sides of men and women from all walks of life, and delivered from a Vancouver perspective, says the Rogers-owned broadcaster.
“The Standard grew out of a shared thirst for knowledge and the allied need for enhanced understanding of our rich cultural and spiritual diversity,” said Terry Mahoney, general…
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TORONTO – The four new pay television applications before the CRTC offer questionable customer value, will increase churn and hammer the bottom lines and the share prices of the two incumbent license-holders, says a research report published this week by investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston.
The report, entitled “A Luxury No One Can Afford,” says the four new pay services misinterpret the state of the Canadian pay system (which it characterized as “gold plated”) versus the American system and that any new applicant would find it very tough to stimulate high penetration levels.
The pay TV space in…
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GATINEAU – After a wave of complaints, the CRTC has decided to extend the deadline to respond to a Bell Canada request.
Bell Canada recently applied to the CRTC for permission to price its VOIP voice services differently in Ontario and Quebec. Current regs say that if Bell offers a low price in one of its regions, it must make that price available in all regions.
It made the application on September 2nd, and the Commission gazetted it September 9th, asking for comments from interested parties within five days.
As reported by www.cartt.ca, the Canadian Cable Television Association complained –…
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