Quebecor’s digital-only wireless service provider Fizz announced Thursday a flash offer of 50 GB of monthly data with unlimited talk and text across Canada for $29.
The promotion is available until March 31 to new and existing customers in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario. There is no fixed-term contract, and the price is guaranteed for as long as the customer wants.
Fizz offers customizable plans, automatic data rollover and community data gifting.
The pricing move by Fizz, which also offers internet and television services, is in-line with Quebecor’s strategy of customer acquisition and retention. It also comes after…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Industry Canada’s new fee structure for spectrum below the 10 GHz band is contrary to the challenges facing the Canadian economy, the trajectory of mobile wireless prices, and out of touch in relation to peer countries, the largest wireless service providers are arguing.
Earlier this month, the department changed how it would charge for those spectrum fees in certain low and mid bands. Instead of the existing annual base rate with a multiplier based on MHz held and population served, the department has opted instead for a three-rate fee system that applies discounts to an annual base rate…
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The Quebecor Fund board of directors announced Wednesday that it selected two projects for its Film Production Assistance Program, submissions to which closed in January.
The $390,000 grant will be shared between two productions: Furies and Ma belle-mère est une sorcière.
Furies is “Quebec’s first comedy about women’s sports” centring on a “group of women led by a feisty octogenarian” who form a roller derby team after losing their ice time at the local rink. The film’s screenplay is written by Gabrielle Cote and directed by Melanie Charbonneau and will be produced by Echo Media Inc. and distributed by Immina…
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TV5 Québec Canada’s board of directors on Monday announced the appointment of Yann Paquet as president and CEO, effective April 14.
Paquet will succeed Marie-Philippe Bouchard to the helm of the non-profit media company, which includes French-language specialty channels TV5 and Unis TV as well as the TV5Unis platform.
With more than 25 years of experience in the media industry, Paquet most recently held the position of vice president at Quebecor Content, where he oversaw foreign television program acquisitions and the financing of productions aired on TVA Group’s networks and Videotron’s platforms. He also contributed to the development of Quebec cinema…
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Rogers charges OUTtv using regulatory system to stop it from making commercial decisions
By Ahmad Hathout
LGBTQ+ TV broadcaster and streamer OUTtv is alleging Rogers is violating Wholesale Code rules by shuffling the network into a less popular cable TV package.
The subscription-based service is alleging in a Part 1 application dated March 5 that the cable company is violating section 9 of the code by not putting the network in the “best available” package, negatively impacting its wholesale fee revenue. The complaint alleges that Rogers shuffled the service it must carry out of a “Premier” package and “into a different and…
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Regulator also designates small ILECs as ONPs
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC on Friday extended by two years the deadline to decommission the legacy 911 system, after public safety groups said they wouldn’t be able to make the March 4, 2025 deadline to implement the new system.
The regulator said a majority of proceeding intervenors – including the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs, and the Paramedic Chiefs of Canada – said they would not be able to implement the system by this week.
The CRTC has now set March 31, 2027 as the deadline for the…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau said on a fourth-quarter conference call Friday that the company’s subsidiaries have been able to navigate around playing the aggressive price game in the fourth quarter while maintaining a favourable price position vis-à-vis its competitors.
Peladeau said promotional door-to-door offers of “unreasonable” 60 per cent discounts on wireless by its competitors have “stupidly” pushed down all the telecoms’ revenues. Quebecor executives have previous called moves by Bell on the wireline front, such as $45 offers for 500 Mbps download speeds, to be “blatantly stupid for everyone .”
Despite these comments, Peladeau…
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PIAC, Competition Bureau, CCTS push label as important opportunity
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC must take a light-touch regulatory approach when it comes to determining how internet service providers (ISPs) present certain technical plan details, as being too prescriptive risks providing unnecessary information while adding implementation costs, according to several large service providers.
The gist of the ISP argument – both large and regional – can be distilled to some form of the following: they already provide the necessary information they believe an already-informed public should know, and the one example of a mandated “broadband label” – that is the one in…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Two of Canada’s largest telecoms are warning the CRTC against implementing a uniform internet subsidy for the far north or risk increasing internet service prices in rest of the country. Others are saying the subsidy contribution would be a negligible amount to support those in need of affordable services.
The CRTC last month proposed a monthly subsidy to be distributed by internet service providers (ISP) to all households in the far north. The contributions would come from the National Contribution Fund (NCF), which subsists on ISP contributions.
The concern, outlined by some providers in submissions to…
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Quebecor Content on Wednesday announced season one of the acclaimed sci-fi drama series Société distincte (Distinct Society) has been acquired by TVCine Channels to air and stream on its premium pay TV and film brands in Portugal.
The 10-episode, one-hour series was produced by Blachfilms and is distributed worldwide by Quebecor’s TVA Distribution and Incendo. It will debut in the first half of 2025 on TVCine Edition and TVCine+ in its original French language with Portuguese subtitles.
“Distinct Society follows Marc, a ufologist who has been searching for his missing brother, Gabriel, for nearly 15 years. Alongside his mother Micheline, Marc seeks to prove that…
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