OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The idea that Canada’s signal distributors should pay conventional broadcasters fees to carry their signals is “trash” according to Rogers Communications CEO Ted Rogers.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday following his company’s appearance before the CRTC on day three of its over-the-air TV review hearings, Rogers countered the many broadcaster arguments in favour of such charges, known as fee-for-carriage (FFC), made over the hearing’s first two days. He said broadcasters should look to new technologies – not new regulations – for new revenues. “These guys should get back to high def and keep up with the new stuff.”…
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FEE-FOR-CARRIAGE will happen.
There. I said it. I don’t like it and sure don’t want to pay it, but I’ve come to believe – thanks to my talks and travels this year with folks from all sides of the issue – that in some form, the CRTC is going to grant the conventional broadcasters’ demand for more money from Canadians as additional compensation for the content they deliver.
"On the face of it, it’s a bizarre idea," Rogers vice-chairman Phil Lind told me recently. "(Consumers) get nothing extra, they just have to pay five dollars more."
True enough, but…
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TORONTO – The 2006 Crystal Awards gala luncheon next month will be hosted by Dina Pugliese, co-host of CHUM Television’s daily morning show in Toronto, while Pamela Wallin, broadcaster and former Consul-General of Canada in New York, will be the event’s Honorary Alumni Chair, Women in Film and Television – Toronto (WIFT-T) has announced.
The awards, to be presented December 4 in Toronto, celebrate the role of women in the Canadian film and television industry.
The participation of Pugliese and Wallin “further enhances what is already an exciting salute to Canada’s formidable talent in screen-based media,” said Sue Sheridan,…
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MONTREAL – Quebecor Inc. reported a third-quarter profit on Tuesday, thanks largely to the company’s media business.
The company said it earned net income of $33.8 million, or 53 cents a share, in the quarter, compared with $22.6 million or 35 cents a share in the same period of 2005.
At the same time, the company reported that its subsidiaries, Quebecor Media and Quebecor World, are performing in very different ways.
Quebecor World, the big commercial printer, reported a third quarter drop in revenues and net income, and said it has suspended its dividend on subordinate and multiple voting…
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MONTREAL – A tough conventional TV market meant that Quebecor’s TVA Group reported a net loss of $800,000 for the third quarter of 2006, compared with a net income of $2.7 million for the corresponding quarter of 2005.
"The decline in net income and in income per diluted share from the same period a year earlier is mainly due to the net impact of rationalization expenses and to the share in the depreciation of an intangible asset in the publishing business. TVA maintained its operating income at $4.8 million for the third quarter, the same amount as for the…
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OTTAWA – Telling customers "we miss you" or somesuch, doesn’t violate the CRTC’s prohibition on telecom win-back promotions, the Commission said today.
Earlier this year, Quebecor Media (owners of Videotron) complained to the Regulator, saying that Bell Canada’s practice of sending customer appreciation cards to recently lost customers violates the telecom regs, which restrict win-back promotions until 90 days after disconnect from the incumbent local telco.
The Bell cards in question had the following caption on their cover: "it just won’t be the same without you."
And inside: "I’m writing to say that we are sorry to see you…
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I’VE GOT A BIT OF A SOFT spot for the CBC because when you grew up where I did, the CBC was it.
Apologies to CTV’s Northern Ontario precursor, MCTV, but when I think of old shows from my youth, it’s most often the CBC that springs to mind. Like sooo many of my fellow Canadians, when I think of the Ceeb, I invariably recall many frigid Saturday evenings inside watching Hockey Night in Canada: Me and my father sitting down with a big bowl of warm, greasy, salted popcorn. I usually fell asleep right after Peter Puck during the…
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AFTER READING THROUGH a number of submissions to the CRTC’s conventional television policy review, I’ve got a few first impressions where I think the new policy will go.
Remember though, first impressions can be very, very wrong and really, I’m just guessing for fun, so here we go.
Impression #1: I think fee-for carriage for OTA broadcasters has a shot to win approval. Probably not at the 50-cent a sub per month level that CanWest has asked for and certainly not the $2 level the Canadian Media Guild wants (an earlier version of this story said CFTPA but was…
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TORONTO – The Canadian Television Fund (CTF) on Friday announced the election of two independent directors to its board: Michel J. Carter and Anne-Marie Jean.
Jean is a former television producer and currently serves as executive director for Culture Montréal. Carter is an experienced finance and broadcasting executive and former president and CEO of TQS Inc. and Cogeco Radio-Télévision Inc.
As part of its commitment to accountability and governance best practices, the CTF board screens all independent candidates to ensure they pass the CTF independence test, including Carter and Jean. In accordance with the corporation’s bylaws, the process includes…
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CANADIANS NEED TO PAY MORE for their TV, according to additional submissions to the CRTC on its conventional television policy review.
Filed last Wednesday three months ahead of the November 27th hearing, we could only plough through a few submissions at first, but having had a bit more time to read some more, it’s clear that TV distributors are in tough against many players who want to see wholesale subscriber fees paid to conventional broadcasters.
CTV, Quebecor Media (owners of TVA and Videotron), the Canadian Media Guild, ACTRA, and the Canadian Coalition of Audio-visual Unions all said they were…
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