OTTAWA – Saying the wireless market is not competitive enough in Canada, Quebecor and MTS Allstream have joined forces to lobby both government and Canadians so that the companies are given a break in 2008’s wireless spectrum auction.
“Canada needs to permit new competitors in the wireless sector to ensure consumers are offered lower prices and advanced services which other countries already enjoy,” says a press release from the Coalition for Wireless Competition issued today.
Citing the oft-referenced but little understood Telecom Policy Review Panel report which “identified the need for a more efficient and vibrant wireless industry…
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MONTREAL – While fending off persistent questions from financial analysts, Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau left the impression that his company may, in fact, pursue wireless spectrum beyond Quebec.
Responding to queries yesterday during the company’s first quarter conference call, Peladeau said it was too early to close the door on anything, marking a change in what the company has said thus far – which has been that it wants its own wireless network, but only in areas where it has cable, i.e. Quebec.
“If we think that the conditions (of the wireless spectrum auction) are acceptable, we will…
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MONTREAL – Higher subscription revenues at Quebecor Media’s specialty TV channels combined with lower content costs for its over-the-air channels drove revenues in its broadcasting sector up 2.6%, or by $2.4 million, to $93.3 million in the first quarter ended March 31.
Subscription revenues at specialty TV channels Mystere, Argent, Prise 2, LCN, mentv and Mystery increased 2.2% or $1.6 million. There were also higher advertising revenues generated at TVA Network, Sun TV and the specialty TV channels along with an increase in revenues from commercial production.
Quebecor’s broadcasting segment recorded operating income of $2.7 million in the first quarter…
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MONTREAL – Videotron added 29,000 digital TV customers for a total of 653,000 in the first quarter ended March 31, and also recorded net gains in Internet and telephony customers, according to financial results released Thursday.
Videotron attributed its digital TV subscriber growth to its content offering, which includes the largest selection of French-language HD channels in its service area and an expanded Hispano package with the addition of Nuevo Mundo TV for a total of 11 Spanish-language channels.
The cableco’s illico digital TV on-demand service was also popular, with nearly 434,000 paid and free orders per week for…
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MONTREAL – Quebecor Inc. announced Monday it would spend $2.5 million over five years to preserve, promote and provide access to Quebec films via subsidiary Videotron’s illico on demand TV service.
The project called Quebecor’s Elephant: memoire du cinema quebecois involves digitizing about 800 features films, many of which are currently only on the original film stock. All revenues, except for a nominal administrative fee, will go to the rights holders. Access to the catalogue will be free to film students and researchers.
Quebecor is also creating an online database of Quebec movies on its Canoe website that will…
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MONTREAL — TVA Group posted a $936,000 profit in the first quarter ended March 31, 2007, compared with a loss of $2.7 million in the same quarter a year ago.
The Quebecor Media subsidiary also announced May 4 that its revenues had increased by 2.6% to $93.3 million, while expenses decreased slightly to $90.6 million.
The turnaround was attributed to a $2.6 million growth in operating income in the television sector compared with the same quarter last year. The increase resulted from a 52.6% growth in operating income for TVA’s specialty TV channels, a 21% increase in the operating income…
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TORONTO – After spending $7 billion over two decades to build what’s become the largest wireless company in Canada, Rogers Communications CEO Ted Rogers said he is more than a little miffed at the lobbying tactics being deployed by one of his business partners.
After noting on a conference call with financial analysts on Tuesday afternoon that Rogers Wireless has had in its 20 years, "losses for 19 and profits for one," the company founder set out in no uncertain terms how he feels about lobbying spearheaded by Videotron to decrease the Quebec media company’s cost of entry to…
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OTTAWA – If 2006 was the year of local forbearance and the fight over deregulating the wireline phone market, 2007 will be the year newcomers and incumbents wrestle over wireless.
In fact, the lobbying has already begun. Last week, as reported by Cartt.ca, Quebecor Media CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau told Ottawa’s Canadian Club that the cozy oligopoly of existing players keeps prices high, stifles innovation and ensures new wireless applications already available in other countries are slow to market in Canada.
On Monday at the Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa, a large roomful of wireless regulatory lawyers, financial analysts,…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has added NASA Television to the list of foreign TV channels eligible for carriage in digital in Canada, despite objections from CTV’s Discovery Channel.
The CRTC noted in Broadcasting Decision 2007-43 that it found “the overlap between NASA TV and The Discovery Channel or Discovery HD is minimal and that NASA TV is sufficiently different in terms of target audience, service orientation, programming genres and programming to be considered neither partially or totally competitive with The Discovery Channel or Discovery HD.”
The request to bring the U.S. channel featuring documentaries, archival programming and coverage of…
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MONTREAL – BCE Inc., Canada’s largest telecommunications company, with 127 years of history, has confirmed it is in talks with a group of investors to take the whole enterprise private.
In a statement today, the company said it is having discussions with a group of leading Canadian pension funds.
The group is led by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, and Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), who have signed a non-disclosure and standstill agreement with BCE on a non-exclusive basis.
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co. (KKR), a…
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