TORONTO – Asian Television Network International said it will bring ATN Bangla to Canada, a general interest channel out of Bangladesh.
ATN Bangla is a popular independent general interest satellite channel in Bangladesh with movies, news, sports, dramas, variety and religious programmes all in the "Bengali" language. Since there is a significant Bengali speaking community in Canada from Bangladesh and India, this channel is therefore expected to draw a dedicated subscriber base, says the ATN press release.
ATN owns and operates six television channels across Canada and has been awarded 16 more digital television licenses by the CRTC. The…
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ALMOST ALL OF MY TELEVISION watching is on demand. My house is an OD house.
I’m not saying all I watch are movies, old TV shows and kids stuff that my cable company offers via video on demand. What I’m saying is that about 80% of all of my TV watching has morphed into a near fully on-demand model.
I started thinking seriously about that just this week when I read a short Canadian Association of Broadcasters submission to the CRTC. The letter was in response to recent applications from Rogers Cable and Groupe Archambault (a division of Quebecor…
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OTTAWA – Shaw Communications has asked the CRTC to free its pay-per-view service from its geographic shackles.
In its license renewal application for Shaw Pay-Per-View, the company has asked the Commission for an amendment to permit national distribution, but only via satellite companies.
As the Shaw PPV license now stands, it may only distribute its service in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
Viewer’s Choice PPV gets the rest of the country in its license.
Since Bell ExpressVu has its own branded PPV service called Vu! –and the only other licensed DTH company in Canada…
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TORONTO – Last week’s Canadian Telecom Summit saw the leaders of Canada’s largest ILECs stay relentlessly on the attack, hitting at the CRTC as well as Canadian cable companies.
While Bell Canada Enterprises CEO Michael Sabia’s keynote on Tuesday said the telecom regs were just plain wrong, Telus Communications CEO Darren Entwistle backed him up the next day.
Both executives are peeved at the May 12th voice over Internet protocol regulatory decision which said, mainly, that for the incumbent local exchange carriers VOIP will be regulated as their traditional circuit-switched systems in that they must file tariffs each…
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TORONTO – With the telecom industry taking swing after swing at the Commission he runs for three straight days, CRTC chairman Charles Dalfen jabbed back on Wednesday.
He was given the last word by Canadian Telecom Summit organizers and spent much of his speech at the conference defending the CRTC’s VOIP decision. The May 12th voice over Internet protocol regulatory decision said, mainly, that for the incumbent local exchange carriers VOIP will be regulated the same as their traditional circuit-switched systems in that they must file tariffs each time they want to alter their pricing.
Telephony newcomers like cable…
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NIAGARA FALLS – The CRTC will begin three days of hearings in the honeymoon capital today focusing on a potential new TV station for the region and on six applicants for a radio station serving Woodstock and Tillsonburg, Ontario.
As reported only by www.cartt.ca last week, ITV founder Wendell Wilks is behind the well-financed, ambitious proposal for TV Niagara. He’s due up first thing this morning and is opposed by broadcasters and cable companies alike.
The roster of radio applicants for the 104.7 FM station license include Byrnes Communications, Standard Radio, CHUM Radio, Newcap Broadcasting, Sound of Faith…
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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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