TORONTO – Bell Media’s Investigation Discovery (ID) and Discovery Science will both be opening up for a four week free preview September 22 through October 19.
The timing will coincide with the launch of new ID series Las Vegas Law, Vanishing Women plus new special Adnan Syed: Innocent or Guilty? (pictured), featuring the convicted murderer and subject of the acclaimed Serial podcast. Highlights from Discovery Science include the debut of new series How To Build…Everything and Alaska Mega Machines.
The four-week preview is available through television service providers including Bell and Bell Aliant, Cogeco, Eastlink, MTS, Rogers, SaskTel, Shaw, Shaw Direct, Telus,…
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TORONTO and HALIFAX – In the race to keep its cable customers from defecting to over the top providers, Bragg Communications’ Eastlink has announced a new live TV and on demand streaming service easy enough to use that instructions have been reduced to four screen swipes.
In a teleconference from Halifax with reporters on Thursday, CEO Lee Bragg called the new service “a transformative streaming experience, the only one of its kind in Canada.” (The photo is what it looks like on an iPad.)
“We know consumers are watching more video than ever before, discovering and subscribing to that content across…
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ST. JOHN’S – Competition in Newfoundland’s wireless market may be heating up with the pending arrival of Eastlink.
According to a Chronicle Herald report, Eastlink has applied to build two wireless towers in St. John’s plus another in nearby Paradise and plans to launch next year. Rogers Communications also has an application before the City of St. John’s to build its own cellphone tower to augment service there.
Bell Aliant is currently a dominant player in Newfoundland’s wireless market.
“Bell’s LTE wireless network is ranked as best in Canada and we’ve been the fastest-growing wireless company in the country in…
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HALIFAX – Eastlink is investing $6.5 million to bring high speed Internet and fibre services to rural areas of Nova Scotia, the company said Thursday.
The majority of the investment will be used to expand access to Internet speeds of up to 940Mbps in West Pubnico, Guysborough, Inverness, Mabou, Judique, Port Hood and Port Hastings. The remaining $1 million will be used to upgrade its existing broadband service to approximately 1,000 customers in the southern part of the province, including the communities of Kemptville, Greenfield and Margaretsville.
"Investing in small towns and communities is a fundamental part of who we are…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC shouldn’t bow to pressure from the vertically integrated (VI) entities and loosen any regulatory measures on their activities, according to comments from the non-VI broadcast distributors.
In comments to the licence renewals of the large English and French-language ownership groups (for which a public hearing is coming in November), the non-VI BDUs tell the Commission that in fact it needs to strengthen regulations ensuring the VI companies (Rogers, Bell and Quebecor) don’t exhibit any anti-consumer and anti-competitive behaviour.
Telus says the Commission has rules to ensure carriage contracts for TV channels are done on…
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TORONTO – Bell Media’s Discovery is gearing up for its first-ever nationwide free preview this fall which will include the debut of Frontier, its first original Canadian scripted drama.
Set against the raw backdrop of 1700s Canada, Frontier (pictured) stars Jason Momoa in a thrilling action-adventure series that revolves around warring factions vying for control of the fur trade in a ruthless game of wealth and power. The series will debut on November 6. Other programming highlights include the return of Canada’s Worst Driver and the premier of new original Canadian series Tougher Than It Looks? on October 24.
Discovery’s free preview…
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Thoughts on why Canadian prices are so high
THE CRTC'S RECENT REPORT on Canadian telecom prices (prepared by Nordicity) shows that we pay some of the highest rates in the world.
According to the National Post:
“Canada won gold for the most expensive low-end wireless telephone service and landed silver for premium mobile phone services that include more minutes and data, according to the ninth-annual international telecom price comparison study commissioned by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
It also landed in the Top Three for the most expensive broadband Internet, bundled services and mobile data, which…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) said today it has received a letter from the CRTC indicating the Commission is deferring consideration of almost 60 complaints filed against community TV channels until their cable licence renewals this fall.
The complaints were filed by CACTUS in partnership with community groups earlier this year, and were concerned with cable community TV channels operated by Eastlink, Cogeco, Shaw and Rogers. According to CACTUS, the channels either fail to air adequate local content (generally 60% of the program schedule) or adequate citizen-generated content (generally 50% of the schedule)…
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MONCTON – Eastlink Wireless has launched in the Greater Moncton area as the company begins the rollout of its wireless service across New Brunswick.
As it does in Nova Scotia and PEI, Eastlink will buy out new customer’s existing cellphone contracts, plus offer ‘easyTab’ which allows customers to upgrade or switch plans without penalty. Talk, text and data plans start at $30 per month, and families can share 1 GB of data plus get unlimited talk and text starting at $85 per month for two lines. Eastlink is also offering an additional $5 per month discount on select data plans for customers who…
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a.k.a. net neutrality…
GATINEAU – There is pretty broad consensus among many of the interveners in the CRTC’s differential pricing consultation that the practice can have a positive impact on the ISP business, content providers and consumers.
First round comments to the Commission’s Examination of differential pricing practices related to Internet data plans (2016-192) revealed though that it’s not a cut and dried issue. For instance, Bell Canada argued that zero-rating and sponsored data pricing mechanisms – two differential pricing practices or DPPs – are common in the communications world.
The company pointed to toll free calling and time of use…
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