By Connie Thiessen
Vista Radio has named Joe Gabor as company president, effective today.
Gabor succeeds Bryan Edwards, who had held the role since the fall of 2019, when Vista released four of its senior executives, including President Geoff Poulton. Prior to that, Edwards had been in the role of senior vice president of business development.
Bryan Edwards
Gabor is promoted from the position of vice president of business development. He has been with Vista since…
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Telesat announced Tuesday it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with space and defence company Canadian Strategic Missions Corporation (CSMC) to collaborate on the deployment and operation of CSMC’s micro nuclear reactor technologies using Telesat’s low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite network, Telesat Lightspeed.
Based in Toronto and Waterloo, Ont., CSMC is developing micro nuclear reactors designed to provide safe, reliable and scalable power for remote communities, critical infrastructure and strategic missions.
Under the MOU, Telesat and CSMC will work together to deploy highly secure satellite communications that can support the…
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By Howard Law, author of MediaPolicy.ca and Canada vs. California: How Ottawa took on Netflix and the streaming giants (Lorimer, 2024)
The other shoe dropped last week when the CRTC delivered two rulings that nearly complete its new regulatory framework for Netflix and the rest of the Hollywood streamers, as well as Canadian television broadcasters.
The reaction to the rulings from the Hollywood streamers and their Canadian enablers offered more heat than light. Media reports played them as a trade story and some breathlessly speculated on Culture & Identity Minister Marc…
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Regulator aims to float services of “exceptional importance” through fund
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC on Thursday ordered online streamers to contribute a total of 15 per cent of their annual Canadian revenues into the broadcasting system, which includes the five per cent base amount the regulator ordered them to pay in a 2024 decision that foreign streamers are currently fighting in court.
Simultaneously, the regulator is reducing the amount Canadian private broadcasters have been paying into the system – from between 30 and 45 per cent to at least 25 per cent – which is the CRTC’s answer to leveling the…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC has turned down a 2023 application that asked it to align the rates competitors pay Bell for disaggregated and aggregated fibre access.
Quebecor’s application, which hoped for an update to rates established in 2017, was opposed by Bell and Rogers for a reason that the CRTC would adopt Tuesday: the regulator is already reviewing how to update the disaggregated regime, which forces competitors to get their own transport/traffic facilities to obtain access to the fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) portion of the legacy telcos’ network.
“The proceeding initiated by Telecom Notice of Consultation Continue Reading
Brad Danks | CEO, OUTtv Media Global
Part 7 – CARTT Series: Beyond the Walled Garden
Read – Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7
At this year’s European Film Market in Berlin, a high-level panel titled “Balancing Cultural Diversity, Artistic Freedom and Competitiveness in the Platform Era” felt like a genuine policy turning point. European Parliament First Vice-President Sabine Verheyen summed up the moment: “If a handful of players decide which stories are visible, whose voices are amplified, and which languages are profitable, cultural diversity is no longer guaranteed,…
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Brad Danks | CEO, OUTtv Media Global
Part 6 – CARTT Series: Beyond the Walled Garden
Read – Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7
Moving toward global distribution doesn’t make the domestic market irrelevant. In fact, the opposite is true: countries that export the most media usually have the strongest homegrown broadcasting institutions. Export success isn’t just supported by a solid domestic base, it depends on it.
Domestic strength isn’t about protectionism. It’s the industrial backbone that allows us to achieve both cultural goals and export ambitions.
The International Evidence
This pattern…
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Brad Danks | CEO, OUTtv Media Global
Part 5 – CARTT Series: Beyond the Walled Garden
Read – Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7
By now, the pattern is clear. Canada’s media problem isn’t a shortage of creativity or public investment. The real issue is a system that rewards activity instead of learning, production instead of ownership, and stability over adaptation. The result? A steady stream of cultural moments that never add up to lasting advantage.
What’s often overlooked is that the future of Canadian media is already being built at…
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“Our Canadian telecom CapEx will continue to decline”: Bibic
By Ahmad Hathout
Bell President and CEO Mirko Bibic said Thursday that the telco is focusing its investing strategy on what it calls “higher-return growth opportunities” during a period of lower overall spending.
The spending focus is less on “legacy segments” and more on its build-out of AI data centres across Canada (AI Fabric) and Ziply Fiber, its newly acquired internet brand in the United States, which added 6,775 net new fibre customers in the quarter. Bell said the Ziply goal of reaching three million fibre passings by the end of 2028 is…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Culture Minister Marc Miller said Thursday that the $6 billion he said was the projected value of a prospective tax credit for broadcasting news was an “error.”
“On Tuesday, I conflated the projected Film & Video Tax Credits over the next 6 years with the Journalism Tax Credit for the audiovisual news sector, for which we announced consultations in the Spring Update and which has yet to be quantified,” Miller said on X this afternoon. “This error is entirely mine.”
The correction appears to address the confusion about how the minister came up with the figure,…
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