A UNIQUE 30-SECOND spot began airing across most Canadian TV channels last week trumpeting how much Canadians love television, while promoting a new iOS and Google app which, it appears, will let some individual Canadians get on TV on February 6th.
While the whole industry has so far been pretty tight-lipped about the initiative, the ad and the app have been put together by the Television Bureau of Canada and its member companies. The raison d’etre of TVB (whose members count most of the channels available to Canadians, except for Corus Entertainment’s, Quebecor’s TVA and its…
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TORONTO – For those hoping Wind Mobile would continue to build from struggling start-up into a strong, fourth national wireless competitor, those hopes were dealt a major blow Monday when Globalive Wireless, Wind’s parent in Canada, officially pulled out of the 700 MHz wireless spectrum auction beginning Tuesday.
In a statement released Monday afternoon, the Canadian wireless upstart said "Wind Mobile’s shareholder VimpelCom decided not to fund Wind Mobile’s participation in this auction, but confirmed that it remains in discussions with the federal government and Wind Mobile’s other shareholder AAL Holding to craft a path forward that will continue to…
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TORONTO – Rogers’ new 12-year $5.2 billion broadcast and multimedia deal with the NHL may have grabbed headlines across the country, but will likely have little impact on the company’s bottom line, say industry analysts.
Rogers Communications executives said Tuesday the deal will be immediately EBITDA-accretive to its Media division, predicting an influx of $25 – $35 million in the first year, rising to more than $60 million per year after that. But Dvai Ghose, managing director/head of research for Canaccord Genuity, pointed out that Rogers Media only accounted for 4% of the parent company’s 2013 third quarter adjusted EBITDA.
In…
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TORONTO – It’s a stunning deal in its breadth and depth. Rogers Communications and the National Hockey League today announced a 12-year $5.2 billion broadcast and multimedia agreement that includes all national rights to NHL games on all platforms in all languages.
The agreement, the largest media rights deal in league history, begins with the 2014-15 season and continues through the 2025-26 season. This marks the first time a premium North American-wide sports league has granted all of its national (Canadian) rights to one company on a long-term basis, says the press release.
Rogers also announced today it picked CBC…
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MONTREAL – Canadian social TV audience measurement service Seevibes is expanding to Europe after acquiring French social TV measurement firm TvTweet. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Founded in Bordeaux in 2011, TvTweet is already present in seven European countries, covering more than 100 media, and working with industry names that include Orange, TF1 and NRJ12. Seevibes said Monday that it will soon open an office in France to jump-start its development in Europe.
With a database of several thousand TV shows and 500 top brands, Seevibes measures and analyzes television’s social media…
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QUEBECERS ENJOY HOMEGROWN television fare, programs that tell their stories and reflect who they are. But are we taking our television programming for granted?
One might think so in view of the weak Francophone response to the CRTC’s invitation to participate in a conversation about the future of television (see Stéphane Baillargeon, “L’écran rêvé: Le CRTC s’interroge sur ce à quoi devrait ressembler la télé de l’avenir,” Le Devoir, November 11). This is one of the reasons why Quebecor Media is encouraging the public to participate in the discussion and submit comments to the CRTC by…
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MONTREAL – Quebecor Inc. posted a net loss of $167.8 million in the third quarter, a dramatic turnaround from the $17 million in profits it posted at this time last year.
The company attributed the loss to an unfavourable variance of $184.9 million, including a $177 million unfavourable non-cash impact of fluctuations in the value of goodwill, intangible assets and derivative financial instruments.
Revenues were up 1.9% year-over-year to $1.08 billion from $1.05 billion, and operating income increased 8.9% to $380.3 million from $349.3 million. On an adjusted basis, Quebecor recorded a profit of $63.7 million, up 28.7% from $49.5 million.
Quebecor…
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MONTREAL – TVA Group credited retroactive royalties on distant signal retransmission for a hefty third quarter jump in profits.
The Quebecor–owned communications company said Tuesday that net income attributable to shareholders was $6.3 million for the quarter ended September 30, well up from $1.5 million in the same quarter of 2012.
Revenues from TVA Group’s television and publishing and other businesses were $102.2 million, up from $97.1 million in the third quarter of 2012, while consolidated operating income increased to $18.4 million from $8.06 million year-over-year.
"In addition to the retroactive royalties on distant…
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MONTREAL – A group calling themselves the Steering Committee for an Independent Community TV Channel (ICTV) for Montreal says it wants Videotron to give up its community television license in Montreal.
In a press release issued through the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS), the group says that Videotron’s French-language community channel MAtv fails to meet the conditions of its CRTC licence to "reflect the official languages, ethnic and Aboriginal composition of the community."
“If Videotron is not willing to represent minority groups and to accurately reflect our city, then another group should administer this licence," said Laith…
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WHILE THE CANADIAN WIRELESS world and the politicians who oversee it spent the dog days of summer 2013 barking at each other over policies they said were either wrecking the business or boosting competition (depending on your point of view) one player, Halifax-based Eastlink, remained largely silent.
While Eastlink is a big deal in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island especially, and does daily battle down East with Bell Aliant, CEO, Lee Bragg told Cartt.ca in a recent interview that adding his own voice to that cacophony would have accomplished little. And besides, even though he can’t side with government…
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