TORONTO – New Canadian business and financial news television channel Bloomberg TV Canada launched Tuesday in more than six million Canadian households.
An exclusive partnership between independent Canadian media company Channel Zero and Bloomberg Media, the new channel combines Canadian content and original programming with Bloomberg’s international news gathering to deliver high quality business, markets and economic coverage in Canada and around the world.
In addition to original shows such as The Daily Brief, hosted by Pamela Ritchie, and Bloomberg North, scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2016 featuring Amanda Lang, Bloomberg TV Canada will also deliver content…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The newly minted ministers of Prime Minister Trudeau’s first cabinet received their ministerial mandate letters this week, detailing his expectations and their priorities.
Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Singh Bains’ letter said that his “overarching goal will be to help Canadian businesses grow, innovate and export so that they can create good quality jobs and wealth for Canadians”.
His top priorities, as they pertain to the Canadian communications industry, include:
– Improve the quality of publicly available data in Canada. This will require working with Statistics Canada, the President of the Treasury Board and other departments…
Continue Reading
AJAX, ON – Novanet Communications has inked a broadcast equipment reseller agreement with Ohio-based Gorman-Redlich Manufacturing to become the sole Canadian distributor of its emergency alert messaging systems.
Under the terms of the value-added reseller agreement, Novanet will offer the CAP-DEC1 – Canadian Profile Common Alerting Protocol Message Processor (CAP-CP), the EAS-1 – Emergency Alert System Encoder/Decoder, and the CRW-s – Weather Radio Receiver.
“We are extremely pleased to partner with Gorman-Redlich, the experts with 35 years of experience in the emergency alerting industry, to be able to offer the highest quality and most cost effective alerting solutions to our broadcast customers in…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – After restructuring and thinning out the executive ranks through the summer and fall, as we’ve reported on extensively, Bell Media is about to eliminate about 380 more employees at the manager level and below.
As is required by the Canada Labour Code, companies which intend to cut 50 or more positions over a four-week period must inform the Minister of Labour, as well as post notices of the impending terminations inside company locations. Last week, Bell Media did just that, informing the new Minister, MaryAnn Mihychuk, on November 5th of the coming cuts. This…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Telesat has announced plans to acquire a new satellite that could launch as early as 2018.
Telstar 19 Vantage will be the second of a new generation of Telesat satellites optimized to serve the types of bandwidth intensive applications increasingly being used across the satellite industry, the company said Wednesday. With two high throughput payloads, one in Ku-band and the other in Ka-band, the new satellite will be co-located with Telesat’s Telstar 14R at 63 degrees West, a prime orbital slot for coverage of the Americas.
Hughes Network Systems was confirmed as an anchor customer on the bird.
“Telstar 19…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Former Shaw Media exec Kathy Gardner has been named to the newly created position of vice-president, media insights at the Television Bureau of Canada (TVB), effective immediately.
With more than 30 years of industry experience in television, radio, digital, research, communications, and traffic, Gardner (pictured) was most recently VP strategic insight – research at Shaw Media. Prior to joining Shaw Media in 2002, she was the EVP media director at Bates Canada.
In her new role at TVB, Gardner will have oversight of the strategic direction and expansion of all research and planning initiatives, exploring and offering insight on…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – Rogers Communications told the CRTC on Wednesday that the Commissions for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) should become “a destination of last resort” for consumer complaints.
The country’s largest wireless provider argued during day 2 on the hearing into the CCTS (click here for day one's coverage) the industry should take a page out of the banking sector’s playbook and adopt a model similar to that of the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI). Kim Walker, Rogers’ Ombudsperson, said during her opening remarks that the OBSI is the final recourse for customers after…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Two names in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s new 30-member cabinet will be of particular interest to Canada’s communication industry.
The role of Industry Minister has vanished, as the PM opted to mesh the ministries of science and technology and Industry Canada under the department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development. Navdeep Singh Bains (Mississauga-Malton, ON) was named minister of that portfolio.
After entering federal politics in 2004 as MP for Mississauga–Brampton South, Bains served as parliamentary secretary to the PM and a Liberal critic for various portfolios. He is Certified Management Accountant, holds an MBA with a specialization in finance,…
Continue Reading
WITH THE ELECTION OVER WITH, there will be debate and discussion around the priorities of the new Liberal government with regard to shaping communications and digital policy.
I suspect that, perhaps with the exception of more funding for the CBC, and a few other election promises, communications will not be an immediate priority for the transition team or for Cabinet. It’s not that communications/digital policy isn’t relevant, whether in respect of competition and choice, price, culture, accessibility, economic growth, innovation in IT or jobs. It’s just these things are not seen, politically, to be broken enough, particularly on the carriage…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Led by digital platforms like Netflix, film viewing is on the rise on Canada, particularly among younger segments of the population, says a new study by Telefilm Canada.
According to Audiences in Canada: Trend Report, 81% of films are viewed primarily at home, through either live broadcast television, paid streaming (via such subscription services as Netflix, shomi and illico.tv), and personal video recorders. Sixteen percent of films are viewed at movie theatres and 3% on mobile devices.
While Canadians, overall, say that they go to the movies less often – owing to cost, a preference for watching movies at…
Continue Reading
