MONTREAL – Partially led by the growth of Videotron’s new residential telephone service (at 41,800 customers at the end of June), Quebecor Media posted gains in revenue and operating income.
Revenues at the division (which also houses TVA and Sun Media, among other assets) grew by $56 million to $692 million and operating income increased by $1.8 million.
Overall, Quebecor Inc.’s revenues (which includes its huge, global printing company) decreased by $89.9 million (-3.5%) to $2.51 billion in the second quarter of 2005. The 9.1% revenue increase at Quebecor Media Inc. did not entirely make up for the decrease…
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TORONTO – Four new pay television license applications are set to be made public today, one of which tugs on the Commission’s Cancon heartstrings – and if approved, would yank open the existing pay TV channels’ purse strings.
New pay television applications from Allarco Entertainment, Groupe Archambeault, Spotlight Television and Channel Zero will be made public at 11 a.m. this morning, www.cartt.ca has learned.
The Allarco application is backed by Dr. Charles Allard and his family, who used to own WIC and Superchannel and who still own several smaller broadcasting assets in radio in western Canada. Groupe Archambeault is…
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TORONTO – About 100 technical employees at broadcaster Alliance Atlantis have voted to join the Canadian Media Guild.
The union has filed an application with the Canada Industrial Relations Board to represent about 100 technical employees at the Toronto-based company which owns and operates channels such as BBC Canada, Showcase, Food Network Canada, Life, and HGTV.
"The employees at Alliance Atlantis came to us seeking benefits many other unionized workers in the media enjoy, such as pensions and opportunities for training and advancement", says Scott Edmonds, vice-president of the Canadian Media Guild, in the press release.
"Alliance Atlantis may…
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MONTREAL – Videotron employees have voted to accept an agreement in principle reached last week top extend current collective agreements between the cable company and its union.
The agreement extends the collective agreements to December 31, 2009 in the Montreal and Quebec City areas, January 31, 2010 in Saguenay Lac St-Jean, and August 31, 2011 in Gatineau.
In the bargaining talks with the unions, Videotron management sought the increased operational flexibility the company needs in order to make new investments, particularly in network modernization and new products such as the recently launched cable telephone service, says the Videotron release….
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ALMOST ALL OF MY TELEVISION watching is on demand. My house is an OD house.
I’m not saying all I watch are movies, old TV shows and kids stuff that my cable company offers via video on demand. What I’m saying is that about 80% of all of my TV watching has morphed into a near fully on-demand model.
I started thinking seriously about that just this week when I read a short Canadian Association of Broadcasters submission to the CRTC. The letter was in response to recent applications from Rogers Cable and Groupe Archambault (a division of Quebecor…
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TORONTO – While confirming that Toronto 1’s flagship news program Toronto Tonight is no more, the Quebecor Media-owned station also announced The Source has been dropped.
Given the fact that anchor Ben Chin has been hired by Global Television, Toronto Tonight’s final show will be June 30th, said the station.
“Ben’s commitment and journalistic excellence has been instrumental in making Toronto 1 one of the city’s leading sources of world-class current affairs programming and he will surely be missed,” says Jim Nelles, vice-president and general manager.
The Source, a local entertainment show hosted by Wei Chen, has also been…
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NIAGARA FALLS – For the first time in memory, the CRTC is coming to Niagara.
And, will they get an earful on Monday when three days of hearings begin because up first is broadcast veteran Wendell Wilks, who is looking to recreate ITV all over again, this time in the Niagara region.
The founder of Edmonton’s ITV (which is now Global Edmonton) says that the Niagara region (pop. 500,000 or so) is so poorly served by the existing Canadian TV broadcasters that it needs its own station and he’s willing to bet $20 million to prove it.
What’s interesting…
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TORONTO – Toronto 1 has reportedly cut at least 20 staffers as two of its main local shows have been axed, says The Toronto Star’s media columnist Antonia Zerbisias in her blog.
Both Toronto Tonight, the channel’s flagship news program hosted by Ben Chin and Sarika Seghal and Wei Chen’s The Source have been targeted and will air for the final time on July 15th.
Click here to read the entry on the former Craig Media, now Quebecor Media-owned, channel.
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MONTREAL – As of Monday, a far larger portion of Videotron customers will be able to take advantage of the company’s telephony bundle.
“After the enthusiastic response to its new telephone service via cable on Montreal’s South Shore and Laval,” says a Videotron press release today, “Videotron is continuing the roll-out of the new service on the West Island, where it will be available as of May 30.”
West Island residents who subscribe to the new service will enjoy substantial discounts on their phone bill, especially if they are already Videotron customers, since Videotron has launched a very cheap…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC’s recent decision on voice over Internet protocol telephony has rendered complaints from the Canadian cable industry pointless, said Bell Canada in a letter to the Commission on Thursday.
Cogeco Cable, Quebecor Media (owners of Videotron) and the Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association had all complained in April that Bell Canada had launched a VOIP service in violation of the CRTC’s telecom regs, since Bell did not apply for rate tariffs prior to its launch in Quebec City, Trois Rivieres and Sherbrooke.
Knowing full well that the CRTC had already said in a preliminary viewpoint that it…
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