ALEXANDRIA, VA – In an “unprecedented” move, CTAM Chairman Joe Rooney has selected all CTAM Chapters as the joint 2008 recipients of the Chairman’s Award to be awarded at next week’s CTAM Summit in Boston.
The award will be shared by the volunteer leaders of each of the CTAM chapters. Mountain Cable president John Piercy is the president of CTAM Canada and will be on hand for the official announcement next Tuesday.
The award was designed to honour “extraordinary contributions to CTAM and the cable business as a whole”, and past recipients include various cable company executives. The organization’s…
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ON THE SURFACE, the 2008 Canadian Association of Broadcasters convention went off with nary a hitch.
Speeches and panels were mostly interesting, attendance was stable compared to last year and the country’s broadcasters did their usual good job in celebrating their best and brightest while we were all entertained by various musical acts over about a 42-hour span at the Westin Hotel.
Behind the scenes though, it’s a much different story. Now, while no one would go on the record with me about any of this, it became quite clear while talking to many people on the show floor…
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OTTAWA – This year’s theme of The International Institute of Communications – Canadian Chapter’s conference is "Digital Interactive Media – Are We Maximizing the Benefits?", the organization has announced.
The conference will be held in Ottawa on December 1- 2, 2008, and promises to feature featuring keynote speakers and panel discussions that will examine the latest issues in the industry from new media to broadband wireless, to programmers and distributors, while addressing questions like:
* Is Canada investing sufficiently in wireline and wireless networks to support broadband access anywhere, anytime? * What is required to incent deployment of next…
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OTTAWA – Private radio and television broadcasters contribute millions in airtime and tens of thousands of volunteer hours to their communities, says Broadcasting 2008: the Canadian Association of Broadcasters annual report on the industry, released this morning at the CAB convention in Ottawa.
The total value of pledges and PSAs reached $314.5 million over the past year while the time volunteered by employees – on-air personnel and others – totaled more than 230,000 hours.
“Canadian private broadcasters’ commitments to their communities have always been central to their operations,” said CAB president and CEO Glenn O’Farrell, in a release. “Our…
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TORONTO – GlassBox Television is set to launch a new multi-platform channel dedicated to emerging Canadian music later this month, the company said today.
Called Aux, the channel will focus on Canadian artists through videos, live performance, artist interviews, in-depth profiles, behind-the-scenes docs, news, and insider reports on top industry events, the release continues.
Aux will premiere with a weekly two hour programming block on Bite TV, the company’s specialty channel, beginning November 24th at 9 p.m. ET. GlassBox currently has an application before the CRTC for a category 2 specialty television license for the service, and one supposes…
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TORONTO – S-Vox has appointed Monique Lafontaine as their vice-president of regulatory affairs, said the broadcaster today.
The former general counsel for the Directors Guild of Canada will be responsible for directing S-Vox’s regulatory agenda, and in engaging with policy makers and other stakeholders effective November 24.
"The Canadian broadcasting system is confronting significant change on the regulatory front”, said Bill Roberts, president and CEO of S-Vox, in announcing the appointment. “Small and independent companies such as S-Vox face unique challenges in this environment, and it is essential that we have expert counsel to help us navigate. Monique Lafontaine…
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TORONTO – New wireless venture BMV Holdings has appointed ex-Bell Mobility president and ex-Rogers executive Alek Krstajic as CEO to lead its introduction of wireless services in Ontario and Quebec in late 2009.
BMV, which will launch under another, yet unannounced brand name, said in its release today that it will build a wireless network in both provinces that will provide unlimited talk and text offerings at “an industry-leading price point” using flat-rate plans. The company was created in July following its purchase in Industry Canada’s wireless spectrum auction of PCS G Band covering almost 19-million Canadians in the…
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SAVE FOR THE CONVENTIONAL broadcasters who wanted their new fee, many in the industry are, if not slapping the Commission heartily on the back, recognizing that coming up with new regulatory frameworks for BDUs and discretionary TV channels wasn’t likely an easy task and that the Regulator has done a decent job in addressing the myriad issues.
Click here for our summary of Thursday’s release.
Sure, cable, satellite and telco TV companies don’t want to divert another 1% of revenue to yet another programming fund, the broadcasters’ bet on fee-for-carriage didn’t come through and many wish advertising in…
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GATINEAU – The telecom glitterati (yes, yes, insert your joke here…) graced Gatineau for the Canadian Telecom Hall of Fame annual awards last night at the Museum of Civilization, right across the river from Parliament Hill.
Bell Canada president and CEO George Cope (just a FEW people were trying to get a word with him!), CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein, MTS Allstream president and CEO Pierre Blouin, SaskTel CEO Bob Watson, RIM co-founder Mike Lazaridis, Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg, new CWTA head Bernard Lord and former Industry Canada DM Michael Binder were just a few of the over 250…
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TORONTO – Facing a "moderate recession" in Canada, our cable and media companies seem well positioned to weather a deteriorating economy, says a recent analyst’s research report.
BMO Capital Markets financial analyst Tim Casey – who covers cable and media in Canada – admitted that while he was lowering his overall earnings forecasts “for the second time in three weeks” based on an “underlying thesis” of a “moderate recession in Canada” like the one we endured in the early 1990s, most companies seem well positioned to ride it out.
On the radio side, which is of course tied to…
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