GATINEAU – Quebecor’s Videotron will be Canada’s fourth national wireless player “if the CRTC creates the right conditions”.
The Montreal-based communications giant used its appearance Friday at the CRTC’s wireless hearing to encourage the Commission to regulate tower sharing and introduce roaming charges that are based on real network usage costs.
"Currently, the rates stipulated by Bill C-31 are based on costs that include equipment subsidies, marketing, customer acquisition, retail and online distribution channels, customer service and debt collection," said Videotron president and CEO Manon Brouillette. "It is unfair and absurd to make new entrants finance the incumbent carriers by supporting their…
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MONTREAL – Quebecor is expanding its philanthropic Éléphant: The Memory of Québec Cinema initiative to include a film festival devoted to restored and digitized movies.
The inaugural Éléphant ClassiQ will open on October 10 as a festival within a festival, held as part of the Festival du nouveau cinéma de Montréal, which runs from October 8 to 19, 2014. The event will feature five restored and digitized films, including three from the Éléphant collection and one each from France and the U.S.
Launched in November 2008, Éléphant: The Memory of Québec Cinema is a large‐scale project to restore, digitize in HD…
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GATINEAU – Calls for relaxed broadcast regulations from Quebecor Media appeared to ring hollow with CRTC commissioners on the second day of the Regulator’s Let‘s Talk TV policy hearing. During its appearance, the dominant Quebec media and cable company argued that unless the Commission takes immediate action, Netflix will become one of the largest distributors and broadcasters in Canada.
“There’s nothing to prevent Netflix from offering television distribution services for a pittance while adapting its business model, moving into more and more linear broadcasting windows in order to squeeze out traditional BDUs, and responding to market demand, all without being…
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GATINEAU – The implications of imposing old-style TV regulations on new age digital media providers was front and centre during the first day of the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV policy hearing today. While Google Canada suggested that other countries could follow Canada’s lead if the commission forced traditional TV regulations on digital providers, the Ontario government argued that greater regulation of online providers is critical to the long-term health of the broadcasting system and the production industry it feeds.
Kevin Finnerty, assistant deputy minister of tourism, culture and sport for the Ontario government, spoke Monday afternoon about the need for…
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SOMETHING’S NOT RIGHT. Especially if I’m quoting Macbeth.
We have analyzed the hell out of the CRTC’s TV Policy Review which is set to begin Monday in Gatineau, but there’s something ungraspable about the whole thing. Is there too much on the table? Probably. Is the Regulator looking to solve problems it has no chance of fixing – or trying to solve some where none exist? Yes, and yes, certainly.
This is a hearing about all things English Television, or English language video. Yes I know it’s supposed to be about all things television in Canada, but let’s be honest here;…
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GATINEAU – Quebecor Inc. complained to the CRTC in February that the Bell Fund, which gives money to digital and new media projects associated with television productions, had rejected three projects from Quebecor’s TVA network for “non-justified reasons” and that staff of the fund made disparaging remarks about Quebecor.
The Bell Fund rejected the accusations outright, arguing that evaluation criteria for projects is clearly spelled out and the projects in question, while admissible, received “average” grades and simply did not make the cut. It countered suggestions of bias by saying the majority of its administrators are…
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MONTREAL – Quebecor has sold its digital design and marketing services Nurun subsidiary to the French advertising and public relations company Publicis Groupe for a cash consideration of CAN$125 million.
President and CEO Pierre Dion said Tuesday that the sale is part of the company’s move to focus on its core lines of business.
"We have therefore sold Nurun, a consulting firm specializing in digital innovation, design and technology, since its operations no longer fit with our core businesses”, said Dion, in the announcement. “We are confident that Nurun, a respected and profitable firm, will continue to grow as part of Publicis…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The federal government said that it will force the communication industry to abandon paper bill charges after the country’s biggest companies failed to commit to doing so at Thursday’s CRTC review into the practice.
Industry Minister James Moore said Friday that charging extra fees to customers who receive paper copies of their bills, a practice known as pay-to-pay billing, was “unfair”, and promised that the government would introduce legislation to end it in the telecommunications sector. He did not say when such legislation would be tabled.
"More and more Canadians are finding a new charge appearing on their monthly…
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MONTREAL – Videotron has promoted Hugues Simard to senior vice president and CFO, the company said Thursday.
Simard, pictured, joined Videotron parent Quebecor in 1998. Before coming to Videotron, he was CFO of Sun Media Corporation from 2011 to 2014. He has also served as president and CEO of Netgraphe Inc. (now Canoe.ca) and as president of Quebecor World Inc.’s Commercial Printing Group. In his new role, Simard will be responsible for the execution of Videotron’s financial plan.
“I am pleased to welcome Hugues Simard to our management team,” said Videotron president and CEO Manon Brouillette, in the announcement. “Hugues is a…
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GATINEAU – A group of Canadian television viewers and consumer-oriented organizations says that it’s time for the CRTC to change the way it regulates the broadcasting system; this time, by putting Canadians, and not a specific industry, front and centre.
“The broadcasting system – and its business and regulation – must move back towards one that serves Canadians,” reads an intervention by the Groups for the Public Interest to the Commission’s Let’s Talk TV Conversation with Canadians.
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre, Consumers’ Association of Canada, Council of Senior Citizens Organizations of British Columbia, National Pensioners Federation, Option consommateurs and Canadian…
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