TORONTO – What is the best way to offer choice to your customers when the very act of choosing is personal and subjective?
That was the basis of a panel entitled ‘Packaging Flexibility: Customer Choice vs. Brand Investment’ at the CTAM Canada Broadcaster Forum held Wednesday in downtown Toronto. And that panel, a mix of broadcasters and distributors moderated by Rogers’ senior vice-president of content David Purdy, all agreed that Canadians’ ability to choose their own television channels was inevitable, whether mandated by the government, the Regulator, or driven by consumer demand.
“This…
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OTTAWA – Turns out that creating actual public policy is far more complicated than a few easy sound bites about choice and protecting jobs.
While the federal government last week demanded a report from the CRTC on letting Canadians break up their subscription TV bundles by April 30th, the written direction to the CRTC from the Privy Council shows an argument that is far more complex than the throw away sentences about “protecting consumers” which were a part of the Speech from the Throne on October 16. It seems to be demanding a report on providing pick and pay without…
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TORONTO – Global Television’s ET Canada has launched a new monthly music series that gets viewers up close and personal with top recording artists at The Orange Lounge Recording Studio in Toronto.
Called ET Canada At The Orange Lounge, the show offers intimate interviews and performances with select musicians. Music fans left wanting more may visit ETCanada.com for an extended version of the same session that also includes behind-the-scenes footage. Viewers can also join the Twitter conversation using #ETCanadaOrange.
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DID THAT HEADLINE get your attention? I can already hear irritated e-mails disputing that claim being tapped out in response, but bear with us for a few paragraphs.
“What!?” some of those running popular specialty video brands might be asking, “Isn’t Galaxie just that group of sleepy music channels which are a throw-in with everyone’s digital cable box?” Well, they may be a value-add which come automatically with most digital TV subscriptions, but some comprehensive recent measurement shows the suite of music channels (anywhere from 40 to 100, depending on the BDU) is anything but sleepy. This is…
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OTTAWA – Chinese communications equipment giant Huawei Technologies is leading the charge on 5G with much of the work being done here in Canada, an effort which is happening a little more than two years after Canadian wireless carriers began rolling out their 4G LTE networks across the country.
The company hosted a gathering of academic researchers and industry stakeholders to discuss 5G on November 13 at its facility in the west end of Ottawa. While still likely a decade away, Huawei is taking 5G seriously with a planned investment of US$600 million by 2018 with the team…
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MONTREAL – Canadian social TV audience measurement service Seevibes is expanding to Europe after acquiring French social TV measurement firm TvTweet. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Founded in Bordeaux in 2011, TvTweet is already present in seven European countries, covering more than 100 media, and working with industry names that include Orange, TF1 and NRJ12. Seevibes said Monday that it will soon open an office in France to jump-start its development in Europe.
With a database of several thousand TV shows and 500 top brands, Seevibes measures and analyzes television’s social media…
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TORONTO – Rick Brace, president of specialty channels and CTV production at Bell Media, will retire at the end of the year after a nearly 40-year career.
Brace (pictured) will continue to serve as the company's representative on the board of directors of Discovery Canada, CTV Specialty Television Inc., and the Hockey Hall of Fame, as well as lead some “special projects” as a consultant.
Following Brace's retirement, Phil King will assume responsibility for Bell Media's English-language specialty channels, in addition to his current…
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TORONTO – Telus said Monday that it is on track to implement all necessary requirements of the CRTC’s new Wireless Code of Conduct by the end of the month.
The code, which comes into effect on December 2nd, establishes a common set of rights for all wireless consumers in Canada.
Telus said that it adopted many of these customer-friendly provisions long before the Code was drafted. It is currently modifying policies and procedures to add domestic and international data caps and notifications at $50 and $100 respectively; and, customers who purchase a device outright…
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OTTAWA – Industry analysts and a journalist duked it out over wireless pricing and government policy in Canada during a session at the annual International Institute of Canada conference on Monday.
Jeff Fan, research analyst at Scotia Capital, presented some figures that countered many of the arguments which have been made by the federal government and others who say that competition in Canada’s wireless market is lacking. Fan noted that the elimination of three-year contracts as mandated by the CRTC earlier this year in its Wireless Code of Conduct has actually made things worse for consumers by leading…
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OTTAWA – Forcing broadcast distributors to offer specialty services on a pick and pay basis may not result in big savings for consumers, Kevin Crull, president of Bell Media, said during a luncheon keynote speech at the International Institute of Communications Canada’s annual conference in Ottawa on Monday.
Crull’s comments come as the CRTC has undertaken a broad conversation with Canadians about the future of TV and as the federal government has all but told the industry it will force pick-and-pay upon it. After talking directly to consumers for a while, the Commission will…
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