MONTREAL – Quebecor Media has created a new section on its corporate website that it says will explain the company’s position on various issues and “correct false statements” (translation).
Called ‘Quebecor Tells You’ (Quebecor vous informe), the area already contains letters and editorials penned by the company’s executive team, including some that it claims “the press refused to publish” (translation). The section is available in French only.
Nothing there yet on the company's ongoing spat with CBC/Radio-Canada, but one expects that can’t be far behind.
www.quebecor.com
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MONTREAL – Bell Media and Quebecor Media appear to have buried the hatchet over carriage of Sun News.
After heated negotiations between the two media behemoths earlier this year, the companies confirmed Tuesday that Bell has agreed to carry Quebecor-owned channels TVA Sports, Sun News, Yoopa and Mlle starting December 15. In return, Quebecor’s cable arm Videotron has agreed to offer Bell Media’s newest sports channel RDS2 starting Wednesday.
“With this new agreement, all TVA Group channels – including TVA Sports and Sun News – will be available to Bell customers,” said TVA Group president and CEO Pierre Dion, in the announcement. “There’s…
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QUISPAMSIS – The CCSA and Quebecor have finalized a master affiliate agreement for the distribution of Sun News.
Sun News, which bills itself as the home for hard news and straight talk, is a category two digital channel that is a joint venture between Quebecor’s TVA Group Inc. and Sun Media Corporation.
“We look forward to our partnership with Sun News and are pleased to promote this service to the CCSA membership,” said CCSA president and CEO Alyson Townsend, in the announcement. “Sun News will be a welcome addition in the channel line-up of CCSA member companies.”
“We’re very pleased to have an…
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THE REACTION TO THE CRTC’s decision to quash usage-based Internet billing in favour of a couple of other options (complete with set rates) has been all over the map, with several hailing it as a win for consumers while others predict broadband rates will only rise because of it. Then again, there are also some in the middle taking a wait and see approach.
Dennis Beland, senior director regulatory affairs, Quebecor:
“The decision is a victory for artificial competition. We’ve always been defenders of facilities-based competition and if you take a step back and look at the…
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OTTAWA – The CBC has complied with an order by the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics to provide documents requested under Access to Information (ATI) by Quebecor Media and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. But the public broadcaster’s president, Hubert Lacroix, told an audience at the National Press Gallery Monday that the documents were given under protest, and some were sealed.
Lacroix later told reporters that the decision on whether to open the sealed documents is in the committee’s hands. He said it’s the first time the committee has ordered the public broadcaster to release documents that…
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OTTAWA – CBC/Radio-Canada has handed over some, but not all, of the documents requested by the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics. And some of them remain sealed.
The move follows an order by the Committee that the national broadcaster produce records requested under Access to Information by Quebecor Media and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. CBC said Monday that it is complying with the order “under protest and with strong reservations about the purpose for which the documents have been requested”.
"After serious consideration, we decided to provide the documents to the Committee this morning, but to seal some…
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MONTREAL – Despite strong gains at its cable and telecom subsidiary Videotron, Quebecor Inc. saw its third quarter profits plummet by 35%.
The Montreal-based media giant said Wednesday that net income attributable to shareholders for the quarter ended September 30 was $26.1 million, well down from $83.0 million in the third quarter of 2010. Revenues for the period were $1.01 billion, a 4.6% year-over-increase increase from $969.9 million.
Videotron added 168,700 revenue-generating units (RGUs) this quarter, a 79.9% increase in growth recorded in the same quarter of 2010. RGUs are defined as the sum of cable television, Internet access and cable telephone service subscriptions,…
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MONTREAL – Quebecor’s TVA Group announced Wednesday it recorded across the board declines due to softer ad sales at flagship broadcaster TVA and increases in costs from the launch of three new specialty channels.
The company saw a $10,323,000 (103.1%) decrease in the Television sector's operating income compared with the same quarter of the previous year, mainly because of: a 49.2% decrease in TVA Network's operating income due to the combined effect of a 3.3% decrease in operating revenues and an 8.5% increase in operating expenses, including a 7.5% rise in content costs; the operating loss of the new SUN…
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OTTAWA – CBC/Radio-Canada president and CEO Hubert T. Lacroix used the public broadcaster’s third annual public meeting and 75th anniversary to hammer home its commitment to accountability and transparency.
Speaking Wednesday afternoon at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, Lacroix highlighted the Corp’s newly created website that details its executive expenses, information about audits and Board meetings, and includes a monthly bulletin reporting on its “progress” on Access to Information requests. He also stressed its accountability to Canadians through Parliament, the CRTC, the Auditor General and its government-appointed Board of Directors.
“We take accountability and transparency very seriously”, he said…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications said Tuesday that it will try out a leaner basic programming package that it claims will provide its cable customers with the choice and flexibility that they have been asking for.
Available November 8 as a trial in London, ON, the Rogers Digital Starter Pack will offer a standard set of 86 core TV channels, including government mandated channels, for a base price of $20.29/month excluding taxes. Customers can order the Digital Starter Pack and may then choose any additional 15, 20 or 30 channels from more than 100 options, starting at $26.38/month, plus taxes. The Digital Starter…
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