Former Google exec is accelerating weather company’s transition, expansion
WHEN PELMOREX FOUNDER Pierre Morrissette trolled the executive ranks for someone new to take his place atop the company which owns and operates The Weather Network and MétéoMédia, he cast a far longer line than into the pool of TV people.
This past summer, Pelmorex surprised many by hiring Sam Sebastian away from his gig as vice-president and managing director of Google’s Canadian operations. The official announcement of his hiring, however, wasn’t a simple “welcome aboard”, but instead made it clear he will be driving an aggressive company aimed towards international expansion…
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TORONTO – A new YouTube channel backed by the Canadian audiovisual industry is serving up classic Cancon in both official languages.
Launched Tuesday from Google Canada’s offices, Encore+ is now offering over 300 videos across 100 award-winning feature films and television series, including comedies, dramas, children’s and youth shows, documentaries and short films. New titles will be added every week as part of an ongoing editorial calendar, including a number of Canadian feature films premiering in newly re-mastered versions.
Encore+ is spearheaded by the Canada Media Fund (CMF) with support from Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Former Corus exec Sylvie Courtemanche is joining the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) as its new chair, replacing the retiring Andrée Noël.
Courtemanche (pictured) was most recently a senior executive at Corus for both regulatory matters and government relations. Prior to that, she was EVP policy and regulatory affairs for the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, legal counsel at the CRTC for several years, plus had her own consulting practice related to broadcasting and telecommunications in Canada
“Sylvie is well known to all industry stakeholders and has over 25 years’ experience in the broadcasting industry and in the public sector”, said…
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TORONTO – Bell Canada isn’t content to let Telus and Rogers and Freedom dominate the discount segment of the wireless market.
During a conference call with financial analysts today discussing its third quarter results, BCE CEO George Cope said to watch for something from Bell to compete along side of Rogers’ chatr and Telus’ Public Mobile – what are sometimes called “value brands” in the industry as they tend to serve those in the low income segment of the population.
Bell, whose Virgin Mobile brand competes with Rogers’ Fido and Telus’ Koodo, doesn’t have such a third brand since it killed…
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TORONTO – Distributel has received the go-ahead from the CRTC to acquire 100% of IPTV service provider Zazeen. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The two companies have partnered for over two years on a TV service available in many English and French markets in Ontario and Quebec. Distributel also unveiled new, lower prices for its bundled Internet and TV service, pledged to offer new channel packages, and expand to new Canadian markets in the coming months.
"Distributel is once again taking a leadership role in Canadian telecommunications with this acquisition, which will allow our continued strategic investment in TV," said…
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MISSISSAUGA – Samsung Pay has extended its reach in Canada beyond credit cards to include debit cards.
The mobile payment system also announced new partners Interac Debit, Scotiabank, American Express Canada, ATB Financial, Visa Canada and Mastercard, and added that it will be available soon to Tangerine and Peoples Card Services customers.
The Canadian expansion of banks and networks begins today on compatible Samsung smartphones including the Galaxy Note8; Galaxy S8 and S8+; Galaxy S7 and S7 edge; Galaxy S6, S6 edge, and S6 edge+; Galaxy Note5 and Galaxy A5.
"We are excited to deliver an industry-leading offering with Samsung Pay that redefines…
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LONDON, UK – While Canada places within the top 25 countries for 4G availability and speed, its ranking declined slightly from six months ago in keeping with global trends, according to the latest The State of LTE report by OpenSignal.
The report examined more than 50 billion measurements collected by more than 3.8 million smartphone and smart device users between July 1 – October 1, 2017 to compare 4G speed and 4G availability in 77 countries.
While LTE availability is increasing worldwide, the same can't be said for LTE speeds. 4G signals are consistently accessible more often and in more…
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MONTREAL – Telefilm Canada says that it's well on its way to meeting a balanced production portfolio by 2020 that reflects gender parity in the roles of director, writer and producer.
At the mid-way point of the initiative’s first year, Telefilm said preliminary results show that the percentage of signed/recommended projects featuring a woman in one of the key roles is 44% for director, 46% for screenwriter, and 51% for producer.
Executive director Carolle Brabant said Wednesday that Telefilm is “encouraged by the preliminary results and the participation of our industry partners”.
“Telefilm’s primary objective for 2017 is to favour projects directed or…
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WITH THE MAJORITY OF Canadian telecom customers not loyal to one brand, telecom providers must be there in the critical moments when customers begin to ponder switching, says new data from Google.
According to Game of Switchers: The Telecom Opportunity in Canada, the average Canadian takes 33 days to think about, research, and ultimately buy a wireless or residential telecom service. The first 27 of those days are spent researching on their own, especially online, and the final six actually buying. Telecom brands that get in front of these customers during the critical “micro-moments” when customers begin their research have…
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TORONTO — While Canada may still lag a little behind other countries in rolling out more advanced advertising such as addressable ads, Canadian media companies are seeing some success with using data-enhanced TV capabilities to provide value and better targeted audiences to advertisers.
At last week’s CTAM Canada Broadcaster Forum, two separate panel discussions provided an overview of the advanced advertising landscape in Canada and other markets, including the U.S. and the U.K.
Kristie Painting, vice-president of digital platforms and revenue management for Bell Media, said her company uses both addressable TV and data-enhanced TV to provide advanced advertising options to…
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