GATINEAU – This morning the CRTC will release its policy decision on the levels of media concentration in Canada, Cartt.ca has learned, just four months after holding a hearing, dubbed the “Diversity of Voices” proceeding in September.
While existing rules were used to make decisions in 2007 on Canwest’s purchase of Alliance Atlantis, CTVglobemedia’s acquisition of CHUM Ltd., Astral’s Standard Broadcasting buy and Rogers Media taking over the Citytv network, new rules will apply to any other mergers.
The old rules, for example, prevented CTVgm from taking the Citytv stations in its deal for CHUM…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Culture industries should be treated differently that other industries when it comes to competition policy say ACTRA and the Writers Guild of Canada
The two groups filed a joint submission last week in response to the discussion paper, “Sharpening Canada’s Competitive Edge”, issued by Industry Canada’s Competition Policy Review Panel. The two entertainment-industry associations say Canada’s cultural industries will face “devastation” should government remove protections.
"The current foreign ownership rules as they apply to broadcasters do not ensure that Canadian news and entertainment programming are made from and reflect a Canadian perspective, "says Maureen Parker, executive director,…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Janet Gillespie is Canadian Satellite Radio’s new vice president of marketing.
"We are delighted to have someone with Janet’s background and experience join XM Canada at a time when the company is poised to make a significant mark in the Canadian satellite radio industry," said Michael Moskowitz, president and CEO of XM Canada, in a press release.
Gillespie has more than 20 years of experience in marketing and sales from a variety of leading technology and communications firms, including the past eight years at smart phone maker Palm Canada Inc. Most recently, she was responsible for wireless…
Continue Reading
KENORA – Bell Aliant said today it will spend $27 million to buy the Kenora Municipal Telephone System from the City of Kenora.
"In an increasingly competitive industry, Bell Aliant has the necessary scale and resources to offer our customers access to the latest products, services and innovative technology," said KMTS general manager Dennis McCaffrey in a press release.
"We understand the importance of KMTS to Kenora and look forward to building on the excellent foundation of service and value already in place for customers in this area," said Stephen Wetmore, President and CEO of Bell Aliant.
This acquisition…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Thanks to over 500 Access to Information requests in just three months, CBC/Radio-Canada is having to staff up its Access to Information Office
CBC/Radio-Canada came under the Access to Information Act on September 1, 2007 and since then, it has received nearly 500 requests, “which is substantially higher than was anticipated, based on benchmarking against other organizations of similar size and scope,” says the Corp.
“For instance, this is more than the number of requests typically received by the Department of Industry for an entire year. Amongst the Crown Corporations that came under the Act on September…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The Communications Energy and Paperworkers Union, Canada’s largest media union, said today it is consulting lawyers to explore avenues of appeal of the CRTC CanWest/Alliance deal, announced late yesterday by the CRTC.
"This is an appalling decision which skirts foreign ownership regulations based on a financial rationale that would bring a grin to the face of Karlheinz Schreiber," said Peter Murdoch vice-president media for CEP.
"We are not going to sit back and let the CRTC sell off Canada’s broadcasting industry to the U.S. The decision is a violation of the Broadcasting Act and we expect…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – CanWest Global’s uniquely structured deal to acquire the broadcasting assets of Alliance Atlantis was approved late Thursday by the CRTC.
CanWest is buying the 13 specialty channels owned by Alliance Atlantis (BBC Canada, BBC Kids, Discovery Health, Fine Living, Food Network Canada, HGTV, History Television, Independent Film Channel Canada, National Geographic Channel, Showcase, Showcase Action, Showcase Diva, and Slice ) for about $1.4 billion. The deal also includes the acquisition of partial ownership in The Score, One: Body, Mind and Spirit, Historia and Series+.
The acquisition is being financed through debt, $260 million from CanWest and…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – CanWest Global’s unusually structured deal to acquire the broadcasting assets of Alliance Atlantis was approved today by the CRTC.
CanWest is buying the 13 specialty channels owned by Alliance Atlantis (BBC Canada, BBC Kids, Discovery Health, Fine Living, Food Network Canada, HGTV, History Television, Independent Film Channel Canada, National Geographic Channel, Showcase, Showcase Action, Showcase Diva, and Slice ) for about $1.4 billion.
The deal also includes the acquisition of partial ownership in The Score, One: Body, Mind and Spirit, Historia and Series+.
The acquisition is being financed through debt, $260 million from CanWest and $650…
Continue Reading
IT WASN’T SO LONG AGO when Telus was just the Alberta telephone company with little to no presence anywhere in Eastern Canada.
Now, thanks to the exponential growth of wireless (buying Clearnet proved a good idea) and huge wins on the business telecom services side, the former provincial telephone monopoly is a national communications conglomerate with well over 10,000 employees just in Ontario and Quebec. In 2000, its workers in the two provinces numbered in the hundreds.
The man at the top of this unprecedented growth in Eastern Canada has been Joe Natale, executive vice-president and president, Telus Business…
Continue Reading
HALIFAX – Atlantic Canada’s incumbent telco Bell Aliant announced an overhaul of its digital TV lineup for its 11,000-plus customers this week.
“Customers have told us they want more packages to choose from and that is what our new program line-up provides,” said Claudine Langan, Aliant’s director of consumer marketing, in a release. “Customers will continue to get all the most popular channels in our Digital Advantage package. Then, customers can add to this package with 14 new theme packages. The new theme packages are organized around different genres of programming so we think customers will appreciate this additional…
Continue Reading
