Steve Faguy
MONTREAL and GATINEAU – Less than a week after it launched, Vidéotron's answer to Netflix is under attack from a competitor.
Astral Media filed a complaint this week with the CRTC alleging that the Quebecor-owned cable company's subscription video on demand service called Illico Club Unlimited competes directly with Astral's French-language pay TV movie channel Super Écran, and that the Commission should order Videotron to stop.
Quebecor responded to Astral's complaint before it was even published by the CRTC, issuing a press release on Friday morning and publishing an opinion piece written…
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MONTREAL – Quebecor’s TVA Group reported $9.4 million in net income for the fourth quarter of 2012, a decrease of $2.1 million in the same quarter of 2011. It blamed the decrease in operating income at TVA Network due mainly to a 5.6% decline in its advertising revenues.
The company’s publishing division also reported a 27% decrease in operating income from the third quarter, to $1.86 million.
In contrast, operating income for TVA’s television segment increased 5.6% to $19.1 million during that period, which TVA attributes to the deconsolidation of the results of SUN News,…
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MONTREAL – On Thursday, the Vidéotron announced the launch of Illico Club Unlimited, an online video subscription service that will have the largest collection of French-language movies, television series and other programming available in Canada.
The service, which launches on Saturday, will cost $9.99 a month, a bit higher than the $8 a month that Netflix Canada charges. It will be available to everyone in Quebec and Ontario, regardless of whether they live in an area served by Vidéotron or subscribe to a Vidéotron service. This may expand to other provinces as well. Quebecor executives say they have secured rights…
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GATINEAU – If adopted, the draft wireless code of conduct will likely cause some significant unintended consequences, SaskTel told the CRTC during the last day of the hearing Friday. The provincial Crown corporation pointed to the potential for unsatisfactory experiences, increased use of notifications and mandatory caps on overage fees as ones that could have big negative impacts on Canadians.
The amount of information that consumers will need to know can be considered excessive and will hinder wireless operators’ ability to improve efficiencies, according to SaskTel executives. Under the draft code, consumers would be subjected to a lengthy process involving…
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GATINEAU – “The initial reaction to say remove the three-year contract as an option outright, is actually anti-consumer. Yes, I say that, it’s anti-consumer,” said Jonathan Daniels, vice-president of regulatory law at Bell Canada on day four of the CRTC’s wireless code of conduct hearing.
Bell took its turn on the hot seat on Thursday morning after delivering its opening remarks on Wednesday afternoon to defend its comments on the draft code. The company argued that three-year contracts benefit consumers, and in fact, the length of the fixed term isn’t the underlying problem consumers find with the system.
Daniels explained that…
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GATINEAU – Upstart wireless operator EastLink had its opportunity to address the contentious issue of a mandatory $50 cap on overage charges on customers bills as a way to prevent bill shock on day three of the CRTC’s wireless code of conduct hearing.
The Commission’s draft wireless code calls for a cap on additional fees of $50 (usually driven by data usage), but also says that once the cap is hit, the service provider is to suspend all service so that no more charges are incurred.
“We feel basically a cap is just not necessary or necessarily…
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AFTER SIX YEARS, SATELLITE radio produced its first-ever profit in Canada when earlier this month SiriusXM Canada reported it was $3.3 million in the black for the first quarter of fiscal 2013.
For executive chairman John Bitove, that Q1 result is vindication after plugging away just as XM Canada to begin with – in competition with Sirius Canada – and then finally merging with it in 2011 two years after the American satellite radio companies combined themselves. Satellite radio faced numerous launch obstacles, chiefly convincing people to want to pay for radio in the first place,…
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WIND MOBILE WANTS THE federal government to throw whatever book it can at Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications over their recent spectrum deal.
Last week – as part of a multi-faceted $700 million transaction – Rogers Communications paid $50 million to Shaw Communications for an option which assures Rogers will purchase Shaw’s AWS spectrum when it is allowed to come on the open market in late 2014.
As a new entrant to the wireless game, Shaw paid $190 million for spectrum in the 2008 auction that was set aside just for wireless newcomers. Wind Mobile, Videotron, Shaw,…
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OTTAWA – Will it be a 9(1)(h) Christmas in April for some Canadian specialty channels? After much delay, the CRTC has set a date to hear applications for the mandatory distribution of specialty channels (some new, some not) on Canadian BDUs.
The hearing will take place April 23 in Gatineau and the deadline for submission of interventions/comments/answers is February 20, 2013. The hearing will also take a look at existing channels that are currently distributed on a mandatory basis (APTN, AMI, etc) and will assess whether these services “should continue to benefit from such distribution,…
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MONTRÉAL – Videotron and OSMO Foundation have formed a major partnership to support young entrepreneurs and web developers, as well as students and investors through the Notman House project. As founding partner, Videotron has pledged $2.5 million to back the creation of a hub of technological innovation and enterprise in Montréal that is dedicated to enhancing Montréal’s vibrant high-tech ecosystem.
“This is a big day for Notman House,” said Alan MacIntosh, President of the OSMO Foundation. “Videotron’s significant support will give entrepreneurship in Montréal a major boost, helping an entire community achieve its…
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