MONTREAL – Bell Canada announced Friday it has completed the acquisition of French-language conventional TV network V and ad-supported VOD service Noovo.ca from Groupe V Média.
“Bell Media has the commitment and resources to invest in French-language content necessary to take V forward, and to bring much-needed consumer choice and competition to Québec’s television sector,” said Mirko Bibic, president and CEO of BCE and Bell Canada in the press release.
A legal wrench in the works remains, however, in a possible legal challenge by Quebecor Media of the CRTC decision which allowed Bell Media to purchase V. The company recently…
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By Ahmad Hathout
MONTREAL – In a somewhat unusual move when it comes to a conference call with financial analysts, but perhaps not for one of two of Montreal’s perennial corporate rivals, Quebecor’s president Pierre Karl Péladeau thumbed his nose directly at Bell Canada over his company’s wireless performance in the first quarter of 2020.
“It is worth noting that our wireless subscriber growth, at over 39,000 new lines this quarter, is almost twice that of Bell even though they have a national footprint and we are only in Quebec,” Péladeau said Thursday during his company’s quarterly conference call. Mentioning…
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MONTREAL — Despite the ongoing Covid-19 crisis and its impact on live sports broadcasting and advertising revenue, Quebecor Media’s TVA Group reported late Monday afternoon a slight increase in its operating revenues and higher earnings for the first quarter of 2020.
However, TVA Group’s overall net loss was $712,000 in the first quarter of 2020, which is a significant improvement over the company’s net loss of $6.7 million in the first quarter of 2019. Q1 ended March 31st, so most of the quarter operated under much more normal times.
TVA Group’s consolidated revenues totalled $137.1 million in Q1 2020, a year-over-year…
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GATINEAU — A letter sent to the CRTC by Quebecor Media after interventions were closed for the CBC/Radio-Canada’s licence renewal process will not be added to the public record, the Commission announced Wednesday.
Quebecor made the late submission to the proceeding on April 14, after the February 20 deadline for interventions. In its letter, Quebecor complained that CBC/Radio-Canada is competing unfairly with private broadcasters during the Covid-19 crisis. Quebecor had already submitted an intervention before the deadline, but followed up with additional complaints against the public broadcaster in its letter.
In a letter dated May 6 sent to Quebecor,…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Quebecor has filed a notice with the Federal Court of Appeal saying it may seek to appeal a decision by the CRTC that approved Bell’s purchase of the V network.
The filing serves to reserve the right of Quebecor to challenge the April 3 decision because the CRTC did not release its full set of reasons for why it approved the deal – and a judicial review applicant has just 30 days to notify the court of a possible challenge. As such, following the release of the CRTC’s reasons, Quebecor will weigh whether it should…
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GATINEAU — Quebecor’s Videotron continues to pursue an undue preference claim against Bell with regard to the latter’s Super Écran and how it is distributed free of charge as part of Bell Alt TV’s basic service.
However, the CRTC said in a letter Friday to Videotron and Bell that it won’t expedite the matter as requested by Videotron in a letter dated March 23.
The Quebecor-owned cable company has been pursuing its undue preference claim regarding Bell’s Super Écran since June 2019, but on March 23, 2020 it submitted a request asking the Commission to withdraw its Part 1 application dated…
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MONTREAL — Quebecor announced Monday the launch of its new QUB musique streaming service, which it says is the first streaming platform designed and produced in Quebec featuring home-grown artists.
Accessible via a mobile app and on the web, QUB musique offers an international catalogue of 50 million songs available on demand, as well as hundreds of playlists created by local Quebec curators. To promote the launch of the service, QUB musique is being offered for free until July 31.
“Faced with large international streaming platforms, Quebecor wanted to offer Quebecers a local product which offers an unparalleled showcase for local…
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MONTREAL — As Quebec prepares to reopen its economy, Quebecor Media announced Wednesday it is launching #culturedici, which it is defining as a movement to engage with and support the creators and shapers of the province’s culture and cultural businesses, many of whom have been hit hard by the Covid-19 crisis.
In the coming months, Quebecor’s resources and energies will be harnessed to showcase Quebec talent and promote buying local, says the news release.
“Quebecor has always been committed to supporting and promoting Quebec culture,” said Pierre Karl Péladeau, president and CEO of Quebecor, in the release. “Today, Quebecor is…
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OTTAWA — Although the wholesale roaming dispute between Quebecor’s Videotron and Bell Canada has effectively been decided, with the CRTC telling Bell in early February it can’t suspend wholesale roaming services offered to Videotron, the Commission needed to step in once again to address a lingering issue in the matter.
The dispute between Videotron and Bell originated in May 2019 when the latter informed the former a number of Videotron’s customers were allegedly permanently roaming on Bell Mobility’s network, which contravened Bell’s access services tariff. In June 2019, Bell threatened to suspend the wholesale roaming service if the infraction…
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OTTAWA — The repetitive broadcast by Quebecor’s Le Canal Nouvelles (LCN) of the violent mistreatment of a horse on its public affairs morning show, Le Québec matin in November breached the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ Violence Code, the CBSC said Wednesday.
The report on November 27, 2019 showed a horse being dragged through the snow by a pickup truck and the clip was repeated a total of 11 and a half times during a one-minute-thirty-seven-second-long report, according to the news release. The video was shown three times before the show’s host warned viewers the images were not easy…
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