IT’S NO WONDER THERE couldn’t be a CAB submission to the CRTC on the TV policy review.
While there is some agreement on what must be done to alter the course of conventional television in Canada, along side the regularly substantial chasms in opinion between the usual suspects – distributors and broadcasters – there are also substantial variances between fellow broadcasters on what must be done to secure the future of conventional television stations and companies.
So, for this most important of policy reviews, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters had to step aside and tell its members that since…
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NOT EVEN A YEAR INTO HIS JOB as board chairman of CBC-Radio Canada, Guy Fournier scarcely had time to make an impact before resigning Tuesday, smothered (as reported by Cartt.ca) by ridicule for a succession of blunders about bestiality, bowel movements, and the lack of national unity cheerleading from the French-language service.
Appointed by then-Heritage Minister Liza Frulla in the dying days of the Liberal government last October, the 75-year old Quebec film producer, scriptwriter and author had only a few months to make an impression on his new political overseer, Bev Oda. Evidently, it wasn’t a good…
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AS WE MOVE INTO FALL, it’s getting closer and closer to the end of Charles Dalfen’s term as chairman of the CRTC.
His busy term expires at the end of the calendar year and he will apparently not be offered a second term.
According to a well-placed source in Ottawa, Dalfen was offered a one-year extension but he declined, asking the government to grant him another full five-year term or not at all.
So, who’s going to sit in the top chair at the Commission? Names that have been making the rounds among Ottawa communications types – and their…
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By Glenn Wanamaker
Quebec media columnists are openly wondering this week how long 75-year-old Guy Fournier, an award-winning film producer, scriptwriter, journalist, and author, can remain as Chairman of CBC-Radio-Canada’s board of directors.
In the 11 months since his appointment, Fournier has provoked one outcry after another, first over his musings about Radio-Canada’s role in promoting national unity, then over his radio comments about the joys of defecating, and finally last week, over his comments on how Lebanese law regards bestiality.
In his latest column for the popular French-language magazine “7 Jours”, a Quebecor-owned gossip/entertainment publication,…
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MONTREAL – A 20-person layer of management at TVA Group was eliminated today.
The headline on the press release was that Denis Rozon has been hired as vice-president and CFO of TVA Group, replacing Paul Buron. However, the rest of the release showed the move is just part of a serious upheaval in the management of the publishing and TV broadcasting division of Quebecor Media.
Rozon had been working as vice-president and general manager of radiolibre.ca, an online music company owned by Astral Media. Prior to that, he was VP finance and administration for Astral Radio and his appointment…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable added Mpix HD, The Christian Channel, Casino and Gaming TV, SUN TV HD and three new HD sports package channels today.
"Our customers are increasingly interested in our HD television service as they discover the outstanding quality this technology offers," said Ron Perrotta, vice-president, marketing.
In most of Cogeco Cable systems in Ontario, HD customers subscribing to the movies package will gain access to Mpix HD. High definition basic package subscribers can also now watch SUN TV HD, the HD feed of the Quebecor-owned Toronto broadcaster.
And, all HD customers who subscribe to the Super…
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MONTREAL – Quebecor and the Institut national de l’image et du son (INIS) today announced the creation of the "Quebec Bursaries for Cultural Diversity" for aspiring screenwriters who are Aboriginals or members of a visible minority.
The bursaries, of a total value of $20,000, will allow three screenwriters a year to undertake professional training at the INIS, including the interactive media program and additional courses in traditional writing, says the press release. The financial aid includes tuition, preparatory courses and traditional screenwriting courses. The deadline for submitting an application file is September 7, 2006. The training lasts five months…
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THE FOOD INDUSTRY WAS never this exciting, says Videotron president and CEO Robert Dépatie.
In the 1990s, he was in charge of the Planters brand in Quebec and prior to that, held positions with Heinz. The sheer volume of food processing technology was nothing then as compared to what his cable company faces today. The acronyms are endless: VOIP, VOD, HDTV, iTV, IPTV, DOCSIS and so on.
Last week, the MSO launched its own branded wireless service, riding on the Rogers Wireless backbone, giving it a fourth valuable service option and allowing a family’s entire telecom bill, beginning to…
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QUEBEC – Videotron Wireless hit the Quebec City market today as the fourth leg in the Quebecor division’s video, data and telecom stool.
As reported on Monday, the company officially launched its wireless phone service today with a number of different handsets and service plans. The one that might get the most attention is its $94.95 a month bundle of wireless phone, wireline phone, digital TV and Internet service.
Videotron Wireless, which is running on the Rogers Wireless network, will be available to the rest of its cable territories by the end of the calendar year. It will offer…
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STE-FOY – Quebecor’s cable company, Videotron, will launch its wireless telephony product on Thursday.
A press conference at one of the company’s Super Club stores in Ste-Foy heralds the arrival of Videotron Wireless (although we’re unsure of the actual brand name).
Videotron’s subscribers will be connected to the Rogers Wireless network as the cable company announced in 2005 it had worked out a Mobile Virtual Network Operator, or MVNO, utilizing wireless voice and data services provided by Rogers Wireless across its GSM/GPRS network. This is the same arrangement Virgin Mobile Canada has with Bell Mobility, for example.
Surf…
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