MONTREAL – Thanks to technological advances (the gear is smaller and cheaper) and regulatory breaks (the rules are newcomer-friendly), Canadians may see additional wireless companies in the market pretty quickly once new spectrum is assigned, says a new report from the Seaboard Group.
The advanced wireless spectrum auction gets under way May 27 for the 1710-1755 and 2110-2155 MHz (AWS) frequencies but what’s still unknown is how much the eventual spectrum winners will have to spend – and how fast they can get going.
Estimates have been all over the place, with some saying it may take well over…
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MONTREAL – It’s hoped that today’s quarterly financial report is the final one Bell Canada Enterprises has to make public, as the giant telco has almost finished the work to become a private company.
But since that’s not done yet, the company released decent results for the first quarter of 2008, ended March 31st.
"During the quarter, we made good progress on the completion of the privatization transaction and delivered solid financial results, consistent with our plan for the year," said Michael Sabia, CEO. "With respect to the privatization transaction, the Québec Superior Court approved the plan of arrangement…
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OTTAWA – A Federal Court of appeal decision last week that overturned an earlier Federal Court Trial Division ruling regarding broadcast licence fees will be appealed by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, the organization announced Monday afternoon.
In December of 2006, the Federal Court Trial Division ruled the CRTC Part II Licence Fees collected by the federal government from broadcasters and broadcast distributors were an illegal tax. The Crown appealed that decision to the Federal Court of Appeal, which ruled on April 28th that the fees are valid regulatory charges. The CAB launched this challenge in 2003…
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TORONTO – So who needs to go to L.A. anymore?
Canwest Broadcasting and NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution said today that, for the first time, the companies have completed a new programming agreement in advance of the annual Los Angeles Screenings.
Canwest has acquired several new and returning programs slated for broadcast on the company’s conventional broadcast stations Global Television and E! for the 2008/09 season, as well as on the Canadian company’s 21 specialty services.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed and the release does not say if this includes the multiplatform (VOD, wireless, broadband, etc.)…
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TORONTO – CTVglobemedia today announced a $400,000 grant to the Canadian Broadcast Museum Foundation/Fondation du musée canadien de la radiodiffusion (CBMF/FMCR).
This grant is part of the public benefits package that was approved by the CRTC following CTVgm’s acquisition of the CHUM properties.
"We are pleased to continue our support of the CBMF and salute their mission to ensure our nation’s broadcasting history is preserved as an important component of Canada’s cultural heritage," said Paul Sparkes, executive vice-president corporate affairs, CTVgm, in a press release.
"This sustaining commitment by CTVgm has really set the bar for Canada’s broadcasters. In…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP) says Bell Canada’s response to the CRTC over the organization’s complaints of traffic shaping, or throttling, “confirms that the association’s arguments of wrong-doing by the country’s largest phone company… were well-founded,” reads a press release.
CAIP’s original Part VII Application was filed earlier this month in response to certain traffic shaping measures that Bell Canada is applying to local access and transport services it supplies to competitors on a regulated basis. “Independent competitors interconnect with Bell in order to gain access to their end-user through the ‘final mile’ of access…
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GATINEAU – Sounding an awful lot like they’d be very interested in morphing one or both of LeafsTV and RaptorsTV into a more general purpose sports channel, Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment brass told the CRTC today that the sports TV genre in Canada is plenty strong – and able to withstand unfettered competition.
Given the myriad sports channels already in existence and the massive amount of sports content available on the web, MLSE’s COO Tom Anselmi and SVP broadcast Chris Hebb said the company’s pair of team-branded category two digi-nets must be able to stretch beyond their narrow…
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WHERE IS JIM SHAW? is what CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein wanted to know Wednesday morning when he moseyed into the hearing room in Gatineau and spied the Shaw Communications panel, minus its CEO, facing him.
It’s more than a fair question. The Shaw Communications CEO has lobbed several virtual grenades into Ottawa of late, most notably challenging the existence of the Canadian Television Fund throughout 2007, and then declining to appear at the hearing into the CTF earlier this year – telling a newspaper that since von Finckenstein wasn’t leading that hearing, it amounted to a Commission…
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TORONTO – The Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) kicked off a new Gold/Platinum awards program for mobile ringtones with the announcement today that 43 ringtones have been awarded Platinum certification, while another 17 ringtones have achieved Gold status.
Platinum certification is awarded for sales of 40,000 ringtones and Gold is awarded for 20,000 ringtones. And in fact, 15 ringtones have already achieved Double-Platinum status or higher.
Among the top-selling ringtones are “Smack That” by Akon, which was awarded 8X-Platinum certification and “Sexy Back” by Justin Timberlake, which achieved 6X-Platinum status. Chamillionaire’s “Ridin’” also reached 6X-Platinum. Canadian notables include Nelly…
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TORONTO – Recognizing that the digital transformation is changing fundamentally how audiences consume and interact with audiovisual media, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) announced a new five-year Strategic Plan at the Hot Docs festival on Monday night.
“In a digital era, the need for the NFB as Canada’s public producer and distributor is more essential than ever to undertake the kinds of risks that an audiovisual industry in constant state of change and turmoil cannot afford to take,” the NFB states in its Strategic Plan (2008-2013).
The NFB said key aspects of its mandate include supporting creators,…
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