TORONTO – Not surprisingly, Globalive chair and CEO Anthony Lacavera supports foreign investment in Canada’s telecom industry. But only under certain conditions, and only if “we can’t fund it in our own backyard.”
Lacavera, whose wireless company Wind Mobile has major investment from Egyptian-based Orascom Telecom, said Thursday that his company was forced to go abroad to seek capital is because “it was not available on Canadian soil to the extent required”.
“The (investment) pool is small and Bay Street is entrenched with the incumbents and their business interests”, Lacavera said during a speech to the Empire Club of Canada in…
Continue Reading
TORONTO and ST. JOHN’S – As Canada’s music industry gathered at the annual Juno Awards, recording artists and songwriters called on the federal government to amend the copyright legislation to ensure that artists are compensated for private copies made of their works.
"Canadian artists are no longer being compensated for the hundreds of millions of copies made of their works," said Annie Morin, chair of the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC), the organization which collects and distributes the private copying levy. "It’s time to bring the Copyright Act into the 21st century and to reflect how copies of music are…
Continue Reading
WINNIPEG and VANCOUVER – The losses continue to mount at Craig Wireless after the company posted a $5.56 million net loss for its second quarter.
The loss for the quarter ended February 28, 2010 was more than double the $2.07 million loss that it reported for the same quarter last year. Revenue also dipped from $433,283 in the second quarter of 2009 to $367,226.
The company generates broadband Internet access and television distribution revenues in Manitoba and British Columbia. The decline in revenues has continued over the last three fiscal years as Craig Wireless shifts its focus away from its current offering…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Canada’s first natural resource-based TV channel could be up for sale.
IDNR-TV head Ivor Barr told Cartt.ca Wednesday that he is contemplating selling the independent category two channel which airs documentaries, news and educational programming aimed at those in the natural resource industries.
While admitting that the network has been a tough sell with some BDUs, Barr said that support from the country’s resource industry and advertisers has been strong. He declined to elaborate on his reasons for potentially selling the Toronto-based channel, and asked that interested buyers drop him a line at info@idnrtv.com
Click here to read Cartt.ca’s report on IDNR-TV,…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – It’s time to open up Canada’s telecom borders to foreign investment, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development told the federal government this morning.
Dimitri Ypsilanti, head of the information, communications and consumer policy division directorate on science, technology and industry with the OECD in Paris discounted the both cultural and network sensitivity reasons for maintaining foreign investment restrictions in telecom during his chat this morning with the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology which is examining the rules on foreign investment in Canadian telecom companies.
“There’s no reason in my mind to believe that foreign telecom network…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – The majority of Canadians feel that Canadian Content rules should be relaxed, according to a new Ipsos Reid poll.
In ‘The Canadian-Content Conundrum’ survey, 53% of the 1,024 adults polled said that they closely agreed with the sentiment that ‘we should stop worrying about and imposing Canadian content rules on the TV industry because we know what our identity is and we should just care about and value creating good entertainment that anyone will tune into, and if it happens to be Canadian in content and/or production, all the better’. This was particularly true amongst those living…
Continue Reading
AS ONE OF THE VERY few Canadian reporters covering the NAB show in Las Vegas, it’s inevitable that I compare what’s going on down here with what’s up at home. Human nature, I think.
So this morning during the official opening of the National Association of Broadcasters annual convention when new president and CEO Gordon Smith talked about the “performance tax” record companies want to foist upon radio stations, I immediately thought about how that’s already going on, and gone on, in Canada, and how the Canadian industry has together fought new fees.
Smith talked about how local radio is pure…
Continue Reading
LAS VEGAS – it’s easy to be on the sidelines and criticize where we are – or more precisely, aren’t – when it comes to digital radio.
The European standard we adopted in Canada, DAB, has gone nowhere here because radio station owners don’t want to spend to fully make the shift, stores weren’t selling the receivers, automakers chose to build-in satellite radio receivers instead – and consumers likely aren’t interested in upgrading their in-home and in-car devices, which they (rightly) figure are working just fine, thanks. And now, the lack of action on digital radio has led some to…
Continue Reading
CALGARY – Shaw Communications’ hotly anticipated wireless service will launch in “late 2011” once the company has invested an additional $100 million, confirmed CEO and vice chair Jim Shaw on Friday.
“We are advancing our wireless strategy to offer a competitive offering, and we are planning an initial launch in late 2011”, Shaw said on a call with industry analysts. “Accordingly, we are accelerating our wireless capital expenditure and expect to invest approximately $100 million more in 2010. We are excited about this opportunity to enhance our products and offerings with wireless service.”
Shaw paid $189.5-million for wireless spectrum in B.C., Alberta,…
Continue Reading
IN CANADIAN TELEVISIONVILLE, the big stories of past couple weeks have been a new TV policy release from the CRTC and the release of the new CMF (Canada Media Fund) guidelines. But in my opinion, there is an even bigger story out there that hasn’t been getting near the press it deserves… though it was recently touched on by Karen Mazurkewich in the Financial Post.
Canuck content providers are getting killed, as Mazurkewich’s story reads:
Arnie Gelbart has survived the cyclical waves of the Canadian broadcast industry before. But there is no way to sugarcoat this recession. "It’s…
Continue Reading
