NIAGARA FALLS – APTN has asked the CRTC for a 10-cent increase in its monthly wholesale rate.
The request is part of its broadcasting license renewal application which the CRTC will hear today in Niagara Falls.
As a CRTC-mandated must-carry, the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network already gets 15 cents per TV subscriber per month from all cable and satellite TV customers and wants the Commission to increase it to $0.25.
It would mean an increase in annual baseline subscription revenue from about $18 million to approximately $30 million, given that there are a little over 10 million TV subscribers…
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MONTREAL –Videotron today announced the addition of RAI International to its channel lineup.
This must be one excellent, in-demand channel, because Videotron is the third cable company in three weeks (Rogers was first, then Cogeco) to make a formal announcement of its addition since the CRTC decision allowing it into the country.
Heritage Minister Liza Frulla is even attending a launch event for the channel on Sunday.
RAI International will be available to Videotron’s illico digital television service in the Montreal and Gatineau areas starting 2:30 p.m., June 5, 2005.
RAI International is the international service of Italy’s largest…
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NIAGARA FALLS – For the first time in memory, the CRTC is coming to Niagara.
And, will they get an earful on Monday when three days of hearings begin because up first is broadcast veteran Wendell Wilks, who is looking to recreate ITV all over again, this time in the Niagara region.
The founder of Edmonton’s ITV (which is now Global Edmonton) says that the Niagara region (pop. 500,000 or so) is so poorly served by the existing Canadian TV broadcasters that it needs its own station and he’s willing to bet $20 million to prove it.
What’s interesting…
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BURLINGTON – Today, on Festa Della Republica, the Italian National Day, Cogeco Cable announced that it will offer RAI International to its digital cable customers in Ontario starting June 5.
A temporary promotional source feed will be available on channel 104 starting June 2 with the full broadcast beginning June 5. RAI International has recently been added to the eligible list of satellite services by the CRTC.
RAI International is a 24-hour international programming service of Italy’s public broadcaster targeted at Italian-speaking communities. It offers a broad range of programs including feature films, news and entertainment. RAI International is…
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MONTREAL – Calling Bell Canada anti-competitive, the Coalition of Quebec Internet Service Providers said it’s “deeply concerned” with Bell Canada’s decision to try and keep high tariffs on “naked DSL” wholesale service.
In April 2005, the Coalition had submitted comments to the CRTC in regards to Bell Canada Tariff Notice 6862, asking that rates charged by Bell Canada to wholesalers for naked DSL (which refers to DSL service without the local phone line) “should allow them to remain a viable alternative to Bell Canada’s Sympatico while remaining reasonably profitable,” says the group.
"Bell Canada failed to address the main…
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TORONTO – Don’t expect Bell Canada Enterprises to let up on the CRTC any time soon.
Still stinging from the Commission’s May 12th VOIP decision, which maintains traditional regs on telcos’ voice over IP offerings while cablecos and others get a head start, BCE CEO Michael Sabia made plain today in his keynote address at the Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto that the company will keep pressuring government for wholesale change.
The situation is dire, he said, as Canada loses ground in the information communications technology (ICT) space to forward-thinking countries like Ireland and Korea. “By making a conscious…
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TORONTO – While he didn’t name names, one of the newest players in the telecom space in Canada appear to be having problems dealing with a certain western MSO.
At a Monday session during the Canadian Telecom Summit entitled VOIP Pioneers – Early Results, Matt Stein, vice-president of new technology and services with VOIP provider Primus Canada, expressed his frustration with customer issues that are peculiar to the west.
“The vast majority of our quality issues are from Alberta and British Columbia,” he said. “An overwhelming amount comes from those provinces and while I won’t name the company, it…
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MONTREAL – A province-wide news network is next for Corus Radio now that the purchase of the former Telemedia group of radio stations from Astral Media has been completed.
Corus Québec president Pierre Arcand announced today that the deal was official, making Corus Québec the largest talk radio broadcaster in Quebec. In this transaction, Corus Québec acquired seven AM stations and one FM station: CKAC Montreal, CHRC Quebec City, CJRC Gatineau, CKRS Saguenay, CHLN Trois-Rivières, CHLT Sherbrooke, CKTS Sherbrooke, and CFOM-FM Lévis. In return, Corus Québec will transfer the following five FM stations to Astral Media: CJOI-FM Rimouski, CIKI-FM…
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WINNIPEG – While his announcement that Shaw Communications’ VOIP launch in Winnipeg is imminent got some headlines after a speech last week, company CEO Jim Shaw used the forum to pound away at one of his favorite topics: transforming government policy.
After saying in the prepared text of his speech to the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce that he expected Shaw to launch voice over Internet protocol telephony in Winnipeg, “in the next few weeks,” he went on to outline his vision of a lighter regulatory regime for the telecom and TV industry.
Broadcast, telecom, it doesn’t matter, all areas…
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WE ALL HAVE A WISH-list, don’t we? Things we think and sometimes say about what we’d change if a genie popped from a bottle.
While a genie grants but three wishes, I have many, many more than that. Greedy, I guess, but here goes. I wish:
* I had telephone call display on my TV screen. That’s a nifty option Sasktel and MTS offer on their DSL TV service. It’s something I’d certainly pay for.
* Telcos and cablecos would quit going after each other at the Commission so often and concentrate on their marketing and engineering. Each side…
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