MONTREAL — Quebecor today launched a new identity and image for its advertising sales team — Quebecor Expertise Media.
The new branding (see the new logo above) was announced to Quebecor’s clients in a newsletter that included a “video manifesto” in which the company showcases its renewed commitment to its advertisers’ goals.
“When I started at Quebecor, I wanted to shift our approach and change our strategies, I wanted to use our unique and converging ecosystem to optimize our partners’ media placements,” said Patrick Jutras, senior vice-president and chief advertising officer of Quebecor and Groupe TVA, in a press release….
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MONTREAL and WARWICK – Videotron announced today it has acquired independent cable company and ISP Cablovision Warwick and its network.
Owned and operated by the Ouellette family for 47 years, Cablovision Warwick serves the municipalities of Warwick, Kingsey Falls and Saint-Félix-de-Kingsey in the Centre-du-Québec region (just south of Trois Rivieres), which collectively have a population of about 8,200. The purchase price was not disclosed.
“Cablovision Warwick is so highly regarded and known in the region because of the incredible work of David Ouellette and his family over the past four decades,” said Pierre Karl Péladeau, president and CEO of Videotron’s owner…
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Submissions to CRTC review shows Quebecor wants into radio, too
By Steve Faguy
TROY REEB DOESN’T THINK this story will be controversial.
Reeb, executive vice president broadcast networks at Corus Entertainment, which owns 39 radio stations, is one of several radio executives who believe the Canadian commercial radio industry needs more consolidation and is calling on the CRTC to reduce or even eliminate restrictions on how many radio stations an owner can control in a given market.
“I don’t know if there are a lot of opponents to further consolidation of radio. I haven’t heard who they are. I haven’t seen an argument…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Underlying witness testimony at Wednesday’s Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology meeting into the proposed merger between Rogers and Shaw was the message that there are things the government can control in the event the massive cable and wireless combination gets regulatory approval.
That includes policies on requiring facilities-based telecoms to negotiate with service-based mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), which the CRTC is still reviewing, and which federal cabinet can send back if it doesn’t like the Commission’s call; spectrum transfers and radio wave restrictions on the merging entities; open access to towers and backhaul…
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Briefing note pointed to Premier Legault’s promise of 50/10 for all by end of 2022
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The federal portion of the $826.3 million investment announced this week to connect 150,000 households in Quebec by September 2022 is coming from the $1.75-billion Universal Broadband Fund, Innovation Canada confirmed, less than 10 days after the final deadline for applications closed.
This would make Tuesday’s announcement the first award from the UBF’s core program, as its “rapid” stream for projects completed by November has already disbursed funds. The massive $826.3-million operation will be evenly split between Quebec’s new Operation…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Independent internet service provider TekSavvy said this week a lower court made an error when, for the first time, it ordered Canada’s ISPs to block the websites of an alleged copyright infringer.
That’s because the Federal Court, in ordering the blocking of websites associated with alleged IPTV infringer GoldTV, leaned too much toward the rights of the copyright holders at the possible expense of free expression and the impact it could have on legitimate content, it alleged in a two-day hearing at the Federal Court of Appeal this week.
TekSavvy is challenging the first site-blocking order…
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Sale includes $600 million in service agreements with shareholders Quebecor and Beneva
MONTREAL and QUEBEC CITY — Quebecor today announced Alithya Group, a Montreal-based “digital transformation company”, has reached an agreement to purchase R3D Conseil, a private Quebec firm that specializes in digital solutions, of which Quebecor is a principal shareholder.
The purchase transaction, valued at $76 million, includes the signing of $600 million worth of service agreements through to 2031 with Quebecor and Beneva, one of R3D Conseil’s other principal shareholders, to support the two companies in their digital transformation projects.
“For Québecor, Alithya, as a Quebec digital transformation leader with…
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“French to follow”
By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – This what you could read in an indignant tweet from the Fédération culturelle canadienne-française (FCCF) when the group saw the CBC had filed its final reply to the CRTC in English only. And they added facetiously that they will stop “following” the public broadcaster.
This is the culmination of CBC’s licences renewal process that lasted way too long, but we should have a decision before the end of the licence extension, on August 31, 2021. The initial renewal application by the CBC was filed with the CRTC on August 23, 2019.
That tweet…
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By Ahmad Hathout
GATINEAU – Canada’s big telecoms are divided on a CRTC proposal to create a framework that would establish an independent body tasked with creating and maintaining a block list of known malicious software networks, known as botnets.
A botnet is a network of malware-infected devices that are controlled from a central location and used to do things like steal data and/or send an overwhelming number of communications to a server, which causes it to fail (denial-of-service attack). The increasing number of internet-connected devices coming to market, a lot largely with flimsy security measures, are multiplying the risk of…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – The Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage met for the eighth time to hear witnesses’ testimonies on Bill C-10, the Act to amend the Broadcasting Act, on Monday. We’ve pretty much got a bead on who’s thinking what, now.
We heard again from Friends of Canadian Broadcasting (Friends) whose question time had been taken up by committee business and the Fedération National des Communications which could not appear in a previous meeting due to technical problems.
They were joined by BCE, Unifor, and the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA). Shaw had been slotted to…
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