MONTREAL — TVA, Quebecor Content and Productions Déferlantes today announced Star Académie is returning to the TVA network next winter with a new host and revamped format.
The Quebec talent show will feature 15 young singers from different styles and backgrounds who will go through an exceptional training experience at the Star Académie music school, says the TVA press release.
The season will launch with a brand-new introduction to the series called “Le camp de selection”. For two weeks, viewers will see the top 100 participants who auditioned across Quebec and New Brunswick. The intensive creative boot camp will be supervised…
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MONTREAL – Back in September of 2010, Videotron turned on its own network and made its entry into the wireless market, the company noted today.
The company began learning wireless in 2006, when it started offering mobile service over the Rogers network and then in 2007, it bought 40 megahertz of set-aside spectrum in the AWS auction, allowing it to begin building its own network.
“Quebecor had been gearing up to enter the mobile services market for several years,” said Pierre Karl Péladeau, president and CEO of parent company Quebecor in a press release today. “At the time, we made the…
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By Greg O’Brien
MONTREAL – Calling the wireless market in Quebec “crazy” and saying the company will have good news to report when it announces its next quarterly results, Videotron president and CEO Jean-Francois Pruneau (above) insisted all competitive options remain on the table for the Quebecor-owned ISP/cableco/wireless operator.
He believes the company is emerging well from the pandemic and capturing most of the pent-up demand that was tamped down in the province during the lockdowns where Quebecers couldn’t go out and shop for a new wireless provider.
“We were able to capture that pent up demand, I would say better than…
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GATINEAU — The CRTC announced today it has agreed to a nine-month extension of the deadline for the implementation of the STIR/SHAKEN framework for authenticating caller ID information for IP-based voice calls. The implementation deadline is now June 30, 2021.
STIR/SHAKEN stands for Secure Telephony Identity Revisited/Signature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKENs. The framework provides a suite of protocols and procedures intended to combat fraudulent caller ID spoofing by authenticating and verifying the caller ID information. It’s something upon which the federal government is focused.
In December 2019, the Commission mandated Canadian telecommunications service providers (TSPs) implement the security…
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GATINEAU — Cablevision du Nord has until September 22 to respond to a Videotron complaint alleging Bell-owned Cablevision has been refusing to process some of Quebecor-owned Videotron’s third-party Internet access (TPIA) orders as well as interconnection capacity upgrades in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region of northwestern Quebec, the CRTC informed both parties in a letter on Friday.
Videotron claims its service launch in the region is being stymied by Cablevision’s alleged actions, and on September 1 the Quebecor-owned company filed a Part 1 application (as we reported here), asking its complaint be expedited, and for Cablevision to file its response within…
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TORONTO — Reacting to last week’s news Bell Media is winding down Le Fonds Harold Greenberg and committing to maintaining its English-language equivalent for only one more year, the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) today called on Bell to protect the Harold Greenberg Fund and maintain its investments in Canadian feature film.
“Over nearly 35 years, the Harold Greenberg Fund has become an indispensable source of investment in Canadian feature film,” said DGC national executive director Dave Forget, in the guild’s press release. “Private sector investment is essential to the health of the domestic film business and we’re…
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CEO prods Bell for shuttering French language fund
MONTREAL – Quebecor announced Friday it contributed more than $500 million to Quebec’s cultural industries in 2019.
“Québec culture is an integral part of Quebecor’s raison d’être,” said Pierre Karl Péladeau, president and CEO, in the company’s press release. “It is at the heart of our business just as it is central to our philanthropic activities. Since March 2020, Québec – and the world – have been plunged into an exceptional crisis. At this time, our commitment to energizing our culture and supporting our artists and cultural workers will be more critically important…
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – Interconnecting on your competitor’s network can be a long, protracted process and Videotron, which is trying to get a foothold in northwestern Quebec, is discovering how frustrating it can be.
If it is tedious for a company of the size and sophistication of Videotron, imagine what it is when you are a smaller entity.
In September 2019, Videotron announced it would offer in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue “a full line of telecommunications services, including Internet, television and IP telephone service” by the end of 2019. But, to do so the company had to ride on Cablevision’s network as…
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MONTREAL — Quebecor’s TVA network announced Tuesday its fall lineup which includes more than 34 original productions and 11 new shows, as well as several returning hit series.
“Our new schedule is designed to reinforce our leadership in innovative and surprising ways, while staying close to viewers so they can see themselves reflected in our shows. This is all thanks to the great work of Quebecor Content and its production teams. Our 2020-2021 season connects with all family members, with content and personalities that bring people together and resonate with viewers,” said Nathalie Fabien, senior director of stations and programming…
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By Steve Faguy
MONTREAL — Quebecor has cut funding for MAtv, Videotron’s community channel in Montreal, by 45%, prompting an anglophone member of its advisory committee to resign in protest.
Fortner Anderson, a local artist, said he can “no longer in good conscience” remain on the committee because the latest cuts “will substantially alter and reduce the benefits MAtv provides to the English language community of Montreal, and because they will diminish the vitality of that community.”
The 45% cut is the result of Quebecor’s decision to take advantage of an allowance the CRTC gave large vertically-integrated companies in 2016. As part…
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