TORONTO – Estimates for the end of 2007 television sales in Canada show that flat panel plasma and LCD televisions will account for 61% of the over 3.2 million unit TV market in Canada, according to the Consumer Electronics Marketers of Canada.
"Price erosion on all digital technologies will further enhance the adoption of the newer Flat Panel HDTV compatible sets, fueling a big part of the growth in the market," says the organization’s annual Consumer Electronics Markets Trends and Forecast booklet released this month.
"The options by screen size will be the greatest in the 37” to 65”+…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Canada has a number of newly reassigned cabinet ministers today, including new Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages Minister Josée Verner and new Industry Minister Jim Prentice.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a cabinet shuffle today that saw nine ministries gain new bosses. Click here for the Globe and Mail story on the whole shuffle.
As we reported last week, the two ministers with oversight of the Canadian cable, radio, television and telecom industries were shuffled to new gigs. Now-former Heritage Minister Bev Oda was reassigned and is Minister of International Co-operation while star cabinet…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – It’s not just the creative side of the industry that objects to the purchase of Alliance Atlantis by Goldman Sachs and CanWest Global (and even the directors and producers aren’t totally united on that front).
The Association of Canadian Advertisers, while giving their blessing to the merger of CanWest’s and Alliance Atlantis’ substantial TV properties, also sounded an alarm, saying that even though a bigger, more robust CanWest will be much better positioned to compete with CTVglobemedia, there may now be too many individual specialty services under just two corporate umbrellas.
In its submission to the CRTC…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Saying that the proposed sale of Alliance Atlantis violates Canadian media foreign ownership rules, the Coalition of Canadian Audio Visual Unions has told the CRTC the deal must be stopped.
CanWest Global Communications and Goldman Sachs agreed in January to acquire specialty broadcaster Alliance Atlantis for $2.3 billion in an unusual deal which will see Goldman provide most of the equity and retain ownership of the CSI TV show franchise while CanWest would get control of the Alliance Atlantis specialty channels. A new company which would contain the CanWest TV assets and those from AA, whose board…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The one thing most everyone agrees on is that Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be announcing a Cabinet shuffle early next week.
According to multiple reports, all ministers have been told to be in Ottawa this weekend and next week, meaning that the PM may have major changes in mind and not just some minor tweaking (Gordon O’Connor is certainly gone from National Defense, they say). But what will it mean for the two ministers overseeing the cable, radio, television and telecom industries?
Industry Minister Maxime Bernier, by any measure, has been a very successful minister who,…
Continue Reading
PENTICTON/KAMLOOPS – The Jim Pattison Broadcast Group has agreed to buy another British Columbia radio station.
If all is approved, Pattison will acquire country station CIGV-FM (GIANT FM) in Penticton, from Great Valleys Radio Ltd. The purchase price was not disclosed.
“This is a very important acquisition for our Broadcast Group as we have worked closely with the Robinson family over the past few months to reach and sign an agreement to purchase the Great Valleys Radio assets”, said Rick Arnish, president of The Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.
“I knew Mr. Ralph Robinson, the founder of Great Valleys Radio,…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Canada’s major phone markets will soon be free from most local residential phone service controls as the CRTC has opened the floodgates to more deregulation.
The commission has approved applications from the ILECs to forbear Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa-Gatineau, Calgary, Edmonton, Hamilton, Victoria, Winnipeg, Quebec City, London, Rimouski, and many other cities.
They join Halifax, Charlottetown, Fredericton, and Fort McMurray, announced recently, as markets where the incumbent telcos will no longer need to get the commission’s approval to set local phone rates or introduce new services and packages because the regulator has deemed there is enough…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Shaw Cable has received partial approval from the CRTC to air some kinds of commercials on its video on demand service.
The commission has approved Shaw’s application to show programs containing commercial messages when the program has already aired in Canada on a Canadian channel. It’s also allowed to charge a fee to subscribers to watch those programs containing commercials.
But the regulator denied Shaw’s request to show programs with commercials that had already aired in Canada but on a non-Canadian channel that’s on the list of eligible foreign satellite services.
The decision applies to Shaw’s wholly…
Continue Reading
MARKHAM, Ont. – TVC Canada has appointed Kevin Alleyne to the position of Program Manager for its Vikimatic Division.
Effective immediately, Alleyne assumes this newly formed position, responsible for project and vendor management, in addition to marketing and sales support for TVC’s Canadian fibre optic construction and outside plant Vikimatic division. He reports directly to Tim Emoff, Canadian Director of Marketing.
“We are thrilled to have Kevin join the TVC Canada team,” said Emoff. “His sales, product management, and industry experience will greatly enhance our ability to further expand our footprint in the Canadian outside plant and fibre optic…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – The Directors Guild of Canada is adding its name to the list of production industry professions upset at the recommendations by the CRTC’s task force looking into the funding of the Canadian Television Fund.
The DGC filed comments with the CRTC this week urging the commission to reconsider several recommendations.
The task force, led by CRTC vice-chair Michel Arpin, recommended in its June report that the CTF contributions from BDUs be taken out of the fund and put into a private funding stream. The directors object to this, saying that the BDUs make those contributions as…
Continue Reading
