MONTREAL – For the first time in Canada, a new TV show will debut in the video on demand space – before it airs on broadcast television.
Vidéotron’s video on demand service will carry previews of Nos Etés II starting December 20, 2005. The program is the continuation of the popular television series Nos Etés, broadcast last winter on the TVA television network. Subscribers to illico Digital TV will have the opportunity to be the first to see the second season of the gripping family saga. The program will subsequently be broadcast weekly on the TVA network, starting in…
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MONTREAL – Today, Quebec MSO Videotron began rolling out voice service on the North Shore of Montreal.
In under a year after its launch, Videotron’s voice over Internet protocol telephony product is now available on the South Shore of Montreal, Laval and Quebec City.
Featuring an extremely low (some say too low) base price of $16 a month, Quebecor Media-owned Videotron recently surpassed the 100,000 voice subscriber mark.
"Our new cable telephone service has been an instant hit since we introduced it at the beginning of the year," said Robert Depatie, president and CEO of Videotron, in a press release. "We…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC Friday scuttled a bid by broadcasting veteran Wendell Wilks to launch a local TV station for the Niagara region.
The founder of Edmonton’s ITV (which is now Global Edmonton) told the CRTC at a June hearing in Niagara Falls that the area is so poorly served by the existing Canadian TV broadcasters that it needs its own station.
However, perhaps sensing that the southern Ontario market is already pretty well served by TV (not to mention pretty well fragmented), there were no other competing applications.
Besides being HD-ready at launch, TVN (as reported by…
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OTTAWA – During its 79th annual convention in Winnipeg, The Future Summit, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters elected its board members for the 2005-2006 year.
Of note this year is that the board includes a record number of women – 11 compared to eight this past year.
EXECUTIVE Rob Braide (Joint Chair), Vice-President & General Manager, CHOM-FM/CJAD/CJFM-FM, Montreal Alain Gourd (Past Chair), President, Alain Gourd Communications Inc., Gatineau Rael Merson (Chair, Radio), President & CEO, Rogers Broadcasting Limited, Toronto John Hayes (Vice-Chair, Radio), President, Radio, Corus Entertainment Inc., Toronto Pierre Lampron (Chair, Television), Vice-President, Institutional Relations, Quebecor Média inc.,…
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MONTREAL – While the Quebecor Inc. continues to have difficulty with its huge printing operation, its media division, especially cable company Videotron, remains strong as the MSO continues to show positive subscriber gains, along with revenue and income increases.
Quebecor Media posted revenues of $650.9 million in the third quarter of 2005, ended September 30th, an increase of 10.3% compared with the same period of 2004. All business segments without exception reported revenue increases. Operating income rose by 3.4% to $175.4 million.
Year-to-date, Quebecor Media’s revenue has increased by 10.2%, to $1.95 billion, and its operating income rose by…
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MONTREAL – On Friday, Quebecor Media’s TVA Group reported third quarter net income was off by 66%, at $2.7 million, when compared to Q3 2004..
This decline in net income, says the company, is due mainly to “the significant reduction in income” from its magazine publishing sector, as well as to losses incurred by our new services, such as Mystere, Argent and SUN TV. (TVA Group does not include Quebecor Media’s other publishing division, Sun Media.)
On the bright side, “TVA Network continues to post excellent audience ratings” but much higher content costs caused a slight drop in operating…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Broadcaster Crossroads Television (CITS) will stay on basic cable on Videotron’s Quebec-Ontario border systems, the CRTC told the company today.
Videotron wanted to distribute the Christian broadcast channel as a digital basic service to its Gatineau, Buckingham, Thurso and Montebello, Quebec – and Rockland, Ontario, systems.
CTS said it would submit to digital basic distribution, so long as Videotron wanted to do it province-wide.
The Quebecor Media-owned cable company, however, added that moving it to digital would free up network space to other specialties and new services.
“Videotron noted that CITS-TV-1, an English-language television programming undertaking devoted…
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MONTREAL – Rogers Communications founder and CEO Ted Rogers used a speech to the Canadian Club Monday in Montreal to blast Bell Canada’s lobbying efforts and predatory pricing ideas.
Just days after the local forbearance hearings in Ottawa and in the middle of the Telecom Review undertaken by Industry Canada, Rogers’ comments had serious purpose behind them.
Mentioning Videotron and its parent company, Quebecor, as well as iconic owner Pierre Karl Peladeau, Rogers outlined how Canadian cable companies are working hard to provide facilities-based local telephony competition in Canada. He said he’s pleased with the uptake on Rogers Home…
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OTTAWA – Personalized media will take centre stage at next month’s Canadian Association of Broadcasters annual convention in Winnipeg, November 6 to 8.
This year’s plenary sessions examine the industry’s “big picture” issues, including the prospects for regulation in a broadband universe, and the future of advertising in a digital environment.
The concurrent sessions tackle such hot-button issues as the impact of new personal media devices; the prospects for Canadian HDTV; the new marketing imperative for broadcasters; the upcoming CRTC review of the Canadian radio industry; and the future of news.
On Tuesday November 8th, the ever-popular closing plenary…
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OTTAWA – Not every intervention filed with the CRTC over the four new pay TV license applicants were negative. Many were overwhelmingly supportive.
As reported previously, four groups are vying for new must-carry pay TV licenses from the Commission and will face a hearing on October 24th.
The applicants are: Spotlight TV, a bid led by former Alliance Atlantis executive George Burger (backed by Insight Media and now Bell ExpressVu); One from Allarco (backed by the Allard family, the former owners of WIC Broadcasting); another from a division of Quebecor Media for BOOM TV, and a unique…
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