MONTREAL – Bell has confirmed its minority interest in the Molson family’s bid to acquire the Montréal Canadiens hockey club and the Bell Centre arena.
Team owner George Gillett and Geoff Molson announced Saturday that they had reached an agreement in principle for the sale of the Gillett family’s interests in the Canadiens, the Bell Centre and Gillett Entertainment Group.
Expected to close in late August, the transaction requires the approval of the Board of Governors of the National Hockey League. Financial and other terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
"Bell’s relationship with the Montréal Canadiens spans many…
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EDMONTON – Allarco Entertainment, owners of Canadian pay-TV service Super Channel, filed for protection from its creditors under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act on Tuesday, Cartt.ca has learned.
According to documents filed with the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta, the company has liabilities of $139 million and assets of $68 million.
In those documents – as well as a letter sent to its affected program suppliers – Allarco president and COO Malcolm Knox said the company plans to reorganize and continue broadcasting. He blamed the poor economy and a lack of BDU promotion follow-through for the young broadcaster’s…
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MONTREAL – Quebecor Media announced Wednesday evening it has filed a formal offer to purchase the Montreal Canadiens hockey team and its properties.
The offer has been approved by the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, co-shareholder with Quebecor of Quebecor Media. The Fonds de solidarite FTQ and Productions Feeling, Rene Angelil’s management company, are supporting Quebecor Media’s offer and contributing their complementary range of expertise to the bid.
Angelil is also the husband and manager of megastar singer Celine Dion.
According to other media outlets, there will be competition to buy the team from the Gillett…
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TWO SOURCES HAVE confirmed to Cartt.ca that former Heritage Minister Sheila Copps is one of the finalists for the position of president and CEO of the Canadian Broadcasters Association.
Final interviews are apparently being done this week, say the sources with intimate knowledge of the situation, but Copps is apparently the leader in the clubhouse right now.
Copps, a very high profile MP through the 80s and 90s, held the Hamilton East riding for 20 years for the federal Liberals, beginning in 1984 and was Deputy Prime Minister under PM Jean Chretien from 1993 to 1997.
A journalist by…
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GATINEAU – Canadian convention broadcasters have had their licenses renewed for a year, won’t face a one-to-one foreign-Canadian programming spend requirement – and will have a LOT of regulatory work to do in the next 12 months,
As first reported by Cartt.ca this week, the CRTC announced its preliminary decisions on a few matters from the public hearing to renew the licences of most of Canada’s private conventional television broadcasters.
“We are making our initial determinations public to provide a measure of guidance to conventional broadcasters as they prepare for the upcoming broadcast year and embark on program purchases,”…
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MONTREAL – Quebecor’s television division, TVA Group, reported a net income of $6.5 million the first quarter of 2009, compared with a net income of $5.5 million for the corresponding quarter of 2008.
Growth in the television sector’s operating income of $937,000, or 10.2%, compared with the same year-ago quarter, was explained by a 4.2% growth in operating income for its specialty services and a 4.2% growth in advertising revenues for all properties, of which 90% was from the broadcast of its popular Star Academie show.
In the publishing sector, news stand revenues dropped 9.9%, while advertising revenues decreased slightly by 2.9%…
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MONTREAL – Its illico digital cable platform helped to drive growth at Videotron in its first quarter, the Quebec cable giant announced late Wednesday.
Videotron reported 1,729,168 subscribers for its basic cable TV service as of March 31, 2009, an increase of 13,552 households during the quarter. This included 35,831 new digital cable subscribers, bringing its total to 963,153, or 56% of its basic cable base, compared to 49% during the same period last year. Digital cable recorded “the largest growth among all (of Videotron’s) products”, the press release detailed.
Its high-speed Internet subscribers in Québec reached 1,089,251 cable modem…
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MONTREAL – Astral Media urged the government to proceed with “caution” before amending any broadcast industry regulations, and encouraged a thorough examination of “the broader matrix of rules that serve to produce a carefully regulated balance between the various sectors of the industry”.
"The Canadian television industry has developed because of a careful balance in benefits, rights and obligations," said André Bureau, Astral’s chairman of the board, in a company statement. "It may well be that we have reached a point where a rethink is required. However, it has taken 40 years to establish this balance and we should be careful…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has released the schedule for the upcoming licence renewal hearings for the country’s private conventional televisions stations.
CTV Television plus Quebecor’s TVA Group and Sun TV Company kick off the hearings beginning April 27, which will continue daily through May 11.
Count on Cartt.ca to be there with regular reports on the proceedings.
To view the Commission’s complete agenda, click here.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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MONTREAL – In its appearance Monday at the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage hearings, Quebecor Media took the opportunity to pat itself on the back for spending over $370 million on “cultural content” in 2008.
Calling the impact of its investment in cultural industries “substantial”, the Quebec media giant said that in fiscal 2008, it spent more than $373 million on developing, creating, producing, broadcasting and promoting Canadian content, making it the largest private producer of original content in Canada. The figure includes $123 million spent by its TVA Group on original television content for the Quebec market.
Describing…
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