HALIFAX – Canada’s communications regulatory regime is in desperate need of repair, says a report by The Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS).
In the recently released ‘In The End of that ’70’s Show: Rethinking Canada’s Communications Regulatory Institutions for the 21st Century’, report author and former AIMS research director Ian Munro says technological advances have made the existing regime obsolete.
"Long gone are the days when the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors were distinct entities," Munro said in a statement. "Yet the regulatory regime still treats them as such, which creates inefficient duplication and complete disconnects across government agencies and departments with…
Continue Reading
By Michael Janigan, PIAC
THE CURRENT SPECTACLE of Canada’s television networks engaged in a pie-throwing contest with the cable and satellite industry seems as confusing to the viewer as an episode of “Lost”.
For one thing, the mantle of “consumer champion” sits uneasily on the shoulders of the distributors – the cable and satellite companies, whose own offerings are crammed with services owned by them that hoover up ever-increasing subscriber fees. In turn, some Canadians are startled to learn that there still is significant local broadcasting, after over two decades of damaging cuts to such programming.
The facts are that the…
Continue Reading
TORONTO and VANCOUVER – Calling it “a bad day for Canadians and wireless competition in Canada”, Globalive may be down, but it doesn’t sound like they’re entirely out of the wireless industry in Canada.
After learning that the CRTC found it to be non-compliant with Canadian ownership and control requirements, the company said in a statement that “Wind Mobile will be delayed in becoming Canada’s newest competitive wireless operator in over a decade.”
It also expressed surprise that the Commission’s decision would be “at odds” with Industry Canada.
“Having already received approval from Industry Canada, we are extremely disappointed that the…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – The Ontario Association of Broadcasters annual general meeting and awards luncheon honoured former Global Television and Rogers Radio, president and CEO, Jim Sward.
The Ontario Association of Broadcasters’ Community Service Awards are presented annually to member stations for their outstanding contributions of airtime and staffing to worthwhile organizations in their respective communities, says the OAB release.
The gathering Wednesday at Toronto’s Boulevard Club featured a longer networking reception and a new feature, a panel discussion, where industry leaders discussed the impact of new technology on radio revenue, according to the OAB press release.
Laura Gaggi, president of Gaggi Media moderated…
Continue Reading
HALIFAX – Former EastLink co-CEO Dan McKeen has left the company, Cartt.ca has learned.
In an e-mail to Cartt.ca, McKeen confirmed his last day at Canada’s fifth-largest cable company in the country was Tuesday, October 27.
He plans to take a few months off before looking at other opportunities. “I have fully enjoyed my time at EastLink. I describe it as the opportunity of a lifetime,” he wrote.
Until this year, McKeen had been co-CEO of the company, along with Lee Bragg, but recent personnel shuffles at the top of the company saw a number of folks change jobs or depart. McKeen’s…
Continue Reading
HALIFAX – Former EastLink co-CEO Dan McKeen has left the company, Cartt.ca has learned.
According to sources, McKeen’s last day at Canada’s fifth-largest cable company in the country was Tuesday, October 27.
Until this year, McKeen had been co-CEO of the company, along with Lee Bragg, but recent personnel shuffles at the top of the company saw a number of folks change jobs or depart. McKeen’s role was altered, too, as his title was shifted to deputy chair, external relations as Bragg was named sole CEO and Debra Shaffner, president, among other personnel moves.
McKeen began his career in the cable industry…
Continue Reading
DENVER – The growing demand by consumers to have their video content everywhere poses an ongoing conundrum for cable’s engineers.
They acknowledge that one day everything now delivered to TVs on RF will transition to IP delivery so that it can go anywhere. But, they are bound to today, making that RF world stay relevant, efficient and consumer friendly as IP video delivery further develops. However, there are myriad challenges (like just explaining how IP delivery is different than delivery over the public Internet, for example, let alone making it all work), according to the leading engineers at the opening…
Continue Reading
COULD OVER-THE-TOP video be the single largest threat to the current TV business model?
Join CTAM Canada on November 4 at the Velma Rogers Theatre in Toronto to hear technologist Shelly Palmer speak on the issue. Considered the foremost authority on the subject, Palmer is also the author of the book Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV.
The purpose of this event is to provide an opportunity for an industry-wide discussion focusing on longer-term thinking about over-the-top video, where new technologies are enabling content viewers to bypass the traditional TV distribution channel.
The event is free for CTAM members…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – While Quebecor is ready and able to propel wireless telecommunications to new heights, the federal government stands in the way by hindering development, says Quebecor President and CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau.
In a speech Thursday to a Quebec Chamber of Commerce business outlook conference, Péladeau said (in French, of course) that other industrialized countries have seen the need to invest in new telecommunications technology, but more than a year after Ottawa raked in $4 billion from the distribution of new spectrum licences, the federal bureaucracy is erecting roadblocks to the development of a new generation of telecommunications infrastructure.
“Canadians…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – GlassBOX Media Group has raised the bar on advertiser integrated, multi-platform reality programming with a new TV series called West 49 Ambition Skatecamp.
The 8-part series, which kicks off on November 2 on Bite TV, follows eight of Canada’s most highly accomplished young skateboarders participating in an intense competition while mentored by skate industry experts. The winner receives a profile in SBC Skateboard magazine and a chance to compete against the world’s top amateur skaters at the Maloof Money Cup, which boasts the largest purse in the history of pro skateboarding with more than $450,000 in prize money.
Emerging musical…
Continue Reading
