OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Led by specialty TV, Canada’s pay, pay-per-view (PPV) and video-on-demand (VOD) television services generated $3.7 billion in revenues in 2011, a 7.9% jump over the previous year.
According to CRTC data released Tuesday, the increase comes as a result of a 10.9% growth in advertising revenues totaling $1.2 billion, and a 7% increase in subscriber revenues that exceeded $2.4 billion. Expenses grew from $2.5 billion in 2010 to $2.7 billion in 2011.
As a result, profits before interest and taxes (PBIT) improved to $930.5 million, with a PBIT margin of 24.9%, up from $873.9 million in 2010 when the PBIT margin was…
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OTTAWA – The use of a package-based auction bidding format could benefit all participants, says the head of Wind Mobile, but he still has questions about whether Bell Canada and Telus Corp. will be allowed to bid separately under Industry Canada's proposed new 700 MHz wireless spectrum auction rules announced last week.
In an interview with Cartt.ca on Friday, Anthony Lacavera, chairman and CEO of Wind Mobile, notes based on the definition of associated entities contained in the consultation, it’s still not clear whether Bell and Telus will be considered one bidder or two. “This is…
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by Steve Faguy
GATINEAU – It's the most important decision about private French-language television in Canada in years, but the CRTC's renewal of licenses for major broadcasters contained few surprises.
On Thursday, the CRTC renewed broadcasting licenses for Quebecor's Groupe TVA, Astral Media and the independent specialty channel Canal Évasion. The Commission also reviewed the licenses of the V network (formerly TQS), which was given exceptional relief from its regulatory obligations in 2008 when purchased by its current ownership while in bankruptcy. For the most part, the decisions were based on proposals made during discussions at the hearings in Montreal in…
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OTTAWA – Changes may be coming to Canada's foreign investment review process just as the government opens the door to more foreign investment in the telecom industry.
The federal government said Friday that it has proposed amendments to the Investment Canada Act that would provide the Minister of Industry with a greater ability to publicly communicate information on the review process, and more flexibility in enforcement.
The revisions would allow the Minister to disclose publicly the fact that he has sent a preliminary notice to an investor that he is not satisfied that the investment is likely to be of net…
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TORONTO – Independent producers who attended a special Banff Media Festival preview event and reception in Toronto on Wednesday were likely very encouraged to hear top Canadian media executives speak about the value they place on high-quality original programming.
During a special media leader panel discussion, David Purdy, senior vice-president of content for Rogers Communications, cited several examples of successful TV channels – all of which feature a high percentage of original TV series content in their daily broadcast schedules. “If you look at A&E, they used to carry Murder She Wrote and CSI,” Purdy said. “A&E is now going…
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OTTAWA – If you ask anyone on the regulatory side of this industry, they’ll tell you that Bob Buchan and Peter Grant are two of the most admired legal minds in the country.
Together, Buchan, of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin and Grant, of McCarthy Tetrault, created and organized the Law Society of Upper Canada’s New Developments in Communications Law and Policy Conference, held every two years in Ottawa. It’s a must-attend for those working the regulatory trenches in Ottawa.
As stewardship of the conference has been handed over to co-chairs Grant Buchanan of McCarthy Tetrault and Laurence Dunbar of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin,…
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OTTAWA – Industry Canada is proposing to switch from a single licence auction format to one where bidders would place a single bid on a package of licences. The department released its proposed 700 MHz licensing framework on Wednesday afternoon.
This new format, called a combinatorial clock auction (CCA), would enable a bidder to bid on a specific set of licences, or a package. This is different from the previously used simultaneous multiple round ascending (SMRA) auction where each bidder had to place bids on all the individual licences it wanted.
There are a number of benefits…
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STRATFORD, Ont. – While saying a digital economy strategy will come from the federal government sometime later this year, in the meantime, Federal Industry Minister Christian Paradis challenged Canadian business leaders “to take risks, invest, think creatively and act boldly to ensure Canada’s success in the global digital economy.”
“We need a growing information and communications technology sector that drives product and service innovations and propels them into every corner of our economy,” said Minister Paradis in his keynote speech to the Canada 3.0 Digital Media Forum in Stratford. “We need to make Canada a world leader in the creation…
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IT’S BEEN A NUMBER OF months since we last tried to publicly discomfit the Canadian Internet service provider industry over its lack of action on delivering a cohesive, national, inexpensive broadband program to low income urban Canadians.
As we’ve noted, it’s happening south of the border. A program (the creation of private industry done at the urging of the Federal Communications Commission and with zero government money) called Connect 2 Compete allows qualifying low income families to get access to broadband for $9.95 a month as well as to low cost computers and tech support.
In the…
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MONTREAL – Broadcasters will now be able to contribute to Telefilm Canada’s new private donation fund which has been recognized by the CRTC as a certified independent production fund.
The fund, announced in early March, will consist of two streams – one that will provide better support to emerging filmmakers, and the other aimed at established filmmakers that will help them achieve their full potential both in Canada and abroad.
Under the CRTC's broadcasting distribution regulations, BDUs are required to contribute to the Canadian broadcasting system by fostering the production of new quality Canadian programming through a financial contribution to be directed…
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