HALIFAX – A new ‘TV Channel Exchange’, launched today by Eastlink, is aimed at giving consumers access to a new kind of choice and flexibility, in real time.
Customers can now immediately personalize their TV channel line-up using the exchange, which enables consumers to swap out one or more TV channels they don’t want in their TV lineup with channels they do want to watch, from over 150 selections.
“Consumer interests vary widely and they have been very clear about their sensitivity to pay for TV channels they don’t want,” said Eastlink CEO Lee Bragg in a press release. “Younger families…
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ST. JOHN’S – Eastlink has confirmed that it will jump in to the mobile phone market in Newfoundland and Labrador starting next year.
According to a CBC News report, Eastlink said Monday that it was preparing to launch LTE service in St. John's sometime in 2017, with service in additional communities in the province expected to follow.
The Halifax-based company has sent notice to the City of St. John's that it will build an LTE wireless antenna system on top of the Beothuk Building in the city. The notice was heard at council on Monday night.
"We are not like other cellphone…
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TORONTO – Food lovers may gorge on Bell Media’s Gusto over the holiday season thanks to a national free preview of the food and lifestyle channel.
The exclusive home to all-new Jamie Oliver programming in Canada, programming also features cooking series from lifestyle guru Martha Stewart, including the new Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party where she cooks and entertains alongside her unlikely friend and King of Kush, Snoop Dogg. Gusto’s lineup also includes superstar British chef Lorraine Pascale in her new series Lorraine’s Fast, Fresh And Easy Food, the perfectly paired exclusive series The Wine Show, plus hours of original Canadian programming,…
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GATINEAU – Smaller broadcasters warned the CRTC on Wednesday that it must guard against differential pricing practices because they could have a significant negative impact on their content.
The Independent Broadcast Group told the Commission Wednesday morning it has to consider potential abuses from media companies which own both content and ISPs.
Brad Danks, CEO at OUTtv, noted in his opening remarks to the IBG’s appearance in the DPP hearing that it’s pretty clear that vertically integrated (VI) media companies are able to prefer their own content in ISP distribution. In addition, once the VI’s affiliated broadcast distribution arm gets ISP…
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GATINEAU – Social media giant Facebook took the stand in the CRTC’s differential pricing practices (DPP) hearing on Tuesday and argued that zero-rated services don’t need to be anti-competitive and can be constructed to meet net neutrality rules.
Blair Levin, an advisor to Facebook, said under questioning that zero-rated services such as the company’s Free Basics offering (which has faced scrutiny around the world) don’t run amok of net neutrality because ISPs are prevented from acting as content gatekeepers.
“When companies use their position as the gatekeeper to essentially favour one kind of content or another, then…
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GATINEAU – The full results of a first-of-its-kind independent, national study on broadband performance in Canada shows that Internet service providers (ISPs) largely meet or exceed their advertised download and upload speeds.
Participating ISPs in the survey (announced last year and for which preliminary results were made public in the spring), conducted by SamKnows and which was commissioned by the CRTC, included all the main wireline service providers in Canada, with the exception of Sasktel, which declined to participate, said the CRTC in a press release this afternoon.
The data collected will…
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GATINEAU – Canada’s broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs) say they are doing what is required of them to meet rules on an entry level small package of TV channels, and that calls from consumer groups for additional provisions on promotions and set top box prices are unwarranted.
Eastlink noted its in final reply that a request from the Consumers’ Association of Canada (CAC) and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) to include comparison charts explaining the differences between tiered services and the small basic package should be denied.
“As noted by other parties during the hearing, when one takes into account both…
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HALIFAX – Eastlink is throwing its support behind Nova Scotia's TV production industry with a $690,000 contribution to the local certified independent production fund administered by the Nova Scotia Independent Production Fund.
Eastlink said that it has contributed $3.9 million over the last six years to an independent production fund in the province, providing local opportunities for producers and filmmakers.
"As a company proudly rooted in Nova Scotia, we look for ways that we can make meaningful investments back into the local economy and encourage continued growth in our home province," said Eastlink CEO Lee Bragg, in the news release. "We were…
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HALIFAX – Eastlink TV kicks off its 12th season of QMJHL hockey on September 16 with the classic exhibition matchup between the Halifax Mooseheads and the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles.
QMJHL Friday Night Hockey on Eastlink TV will feature 24 regular season games from Halifax, Cape Breton, and Charlottetown plus playoff coverage. Games face off at 7:00 PM ADT and the pre-game show, which will also be live streamed on YouTube, starts at 6:30 PM.
"We've been bringing QMJHL to Eastlink TV viewers for more than 12 years and challenge ourselves each year to raise the bar on our in-depth coverage…
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Without a major regulatory change, the traditional TV industry here faces a chilling future
IF THE CRTC DOESN’T, at long last, review the 1999 New Media Exemption Order, the Canadian TV industry as we know it may well perish in the next five years, at the cost of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs – all while production of Canadian content shrivels to whatever the CBC makes.
Last week, the Federal Communications Commission reached a compromise deal with the subscription TV titans in the States over the American regulator’s so-called push to “unlock the…
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