TORONTO and OTTAWA – Shaw’s acquisition of the TV assets formerly controlled by Canwest Global garnered cautious approval from a number of industry stakeholders.
After the Commission gave its official thumbs up to the deal on Friday, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) issued a statement saying that while it welcomed “the stability (the acquisition) will being to Canada’s broadcasting sector”, it said that the deal’s tangible benefits package “falls short”.
The group, which represents professional performers working in the English-language recorded media in Canada, also said that it is “wary of the extreme level of convergence in Canadian media”….
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GATINEAU – Since all of the country’s biggest broadcasters (save CBC) will soon all be owned by Canada’s biggest carriers, the CRTC has announced a new proceeding to examine safeguards to prevent anti-competitive behaviour.
The proceeding will include a public hearing starting on May 9, 2011, in Gatineau, Que.
“The broadcasting industry is being significantly reshaped by a series of major transactions,” said Konrad von Finckenstein, chairman of the CRTC, in the press release. “As a regulator, it’s only prudent that we study the implications to ensure we have the right tools to deal with competitive concerns as they arise….
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CALGARY – As has been expected, Brad Shaw, the younger brother of CEO Jim, has been appointed chief executive officer of Shaw Communications, effective January 13, 2011. After 12 years as CEO, Jim has decided to step down and recommended Brad as his successor, the company reported this morning.
The younger Shaw fils has been taking on more of a public profile for the last 12 months or so, appearing at a number of industry events, even leading the Shaw team through much of the Shaw-Canwest purchase hearing in front of the CRTC in September.
(We even speculated, correctly as it…
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OTTAWA – Given that the conference theme is "Towards a National Digital Strategy for Canada" how could federal Industry Minister Tony Clement not be the opening speaker at the 2010 International Institute of Communications Canadian chapter conference next month in Ottawa?
The Minister, whose pet project has been the construction of this strategy (fed by two months of consultations held during the summer), isn’t expected to announce the strategy itself (it’s a bit too soon), but it is hoped he’ll reveal some of the direction he and his ministry is headed said Bernard Lord, chair of the conference…
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TORONTO – CBC announced the appointment of veteran journalist Kirk LaPointe as its new ombudsman, effective November 1.
LaPointe replaces Vince Carlin, whose mandate will officially expire December 31, 2010.
The CBC ombudsman acts as an appeal authority for members of the public who are dissatisfied with the public broadcaster’s journalistic and information programming. The office is independent of CBC program staff and management and reports directly to the president and, through the president’s office, the CBC’s board of directors.
LaPointe will be based in CBC’s Vancouver office, where he lives, but will work from other CBC locations regularly as part of…
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OTTAWA – "We successfully overcame many challenges and managed to come out of the year stronger, more focused and more financially sound than we were at the outset," said CBC/Radio-Canada board chairman Tim Casgrain in kicking off the Corp’s second Annual Public Meeting held Wednesday morning in Ottawa.
Canadians from across the country participated via live webcast as Casgrain, president and CEO Hubert Lacroix, and VP and CFO Suzanne Morris reviewed the highlights of 2009–2010, provided an overview of the next year and took some questions.
Lacroix focused on the myriad changes in the media industry globally – and locally as…
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TORONTO – Author and consultant Mark Ramsey will be the first guest speaker at the Ontario Association of Broadcasters’ Connection 2010 this Thursday in Toronto.
He will be talking about “Success in the Post Media Age” and will address new opportunities for broadcasters in a new era where everything and anything can be media, says the OAB
Ramsey heads his own media consulting firm, Mark Ramsey Media, in San Diego, and has authored two radio industry books: “Making Waves: Radio on the Verge” and “Fresh Air.” He has worked with several television and innumerable radio broadcasters over his career, including Clear…
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OTTAWA – Telus is telling Industry Canada that it stands to lose as much as $200 million in an auction of the 2500 MHz bandwidth if the current spectrum swap proposal remains unchanged.
The company’s comments come as verbal sparring over the specific rules for transitioning wireless broadband spectrum in the band continued this month with interested parties arguing over transition deadlines and the amount of spectrum to be given back to Industry Canada for auction.
Telus says that adopting the department’s plan would result in incumbents retaining 21% more spectrum than they currently have. This “would be…
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MONTREAL – Bell Canada and McAfee today launched a new secure Internet solution called Bell Internet Protect powered by McAfee for Canadian small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
The service combines both e-mail and Internet security, enabling Bell customers to manage their own security services, says the press release.
The service offers online protection for computers, servers and e-mail against security threats such as viruses, spyware and more; firewalls for desktop computers; secure searches, web site blocking and filtering; vulnerability analysis of web services; compliance with the PCI (Payment Cards Industry) standard; e-mail security services through McAfee-hosted servers; messaging server security; and…
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OTTAWA – Wind Mobile has asked the CRTC to step in to try and make sure its customers’ calls aren’t repeatedly fumbled with so-called “hard handoffs” from its roaming provider Rogers Communications.
Wind wants the Commission to toss a flag on Rogers and grant it seamless, or soft, handoffs. A hard handoff, for example, means a Wind customer call is cut off as he moves out of out of a Wind network zone into a Rogers area. A soft handoff would mean the call isn’t dropped as the subscriber moved from network to network while chatting.
In a Part VII filed…
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