By Steve Faguy
MONTREAL — Quebecor is demanding the CRTC order CBC/Radio-Canada’s Tou.tv Extra paid streaming service to “cease its activities” because it goes outside the mandate of the public broadcaster and is an unfair competitor against Videotron and other regulated television service providers.
The CRTC isn’t about to go that far, but it has decided to look into whether there is an undue preference case to be made, in particular with a deal Radio-Canada has with Telus that provides Telus’s Quebec customers “exclusive” free access to the service.
Tou.tv Extra is the $7/month paid version of Tou.tv, which offers premium video…
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OTTAWA – NBCUniversal will head to Parliament Hill to lobby on favourable tax measures for the company that has created content in the country, as it prepares to push new products in the new year.
It’s the first time the mega media company out of New York (and of course owned by Comcast Corp.) has registered to lobby the feds after having done so with Alberta and Ontario this past fall. The federal registration, effective January 6, targets Canadian Heritage and seeks to “monitor” and “assist” in the “development of policies that encourage and not hamper the development of film…
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By Steve Faguy
MONTREAL — Cogeco is closer than ever to launching a wireless service, but it still requires regulatory change before it can do so properly, company CEO Philippe Jetté told journalists on Wednesday as the company held its annual shareholders meeting in Montreal.
It’s one of several dossiers where Cogeco is seeking to either change the rules or fight to maintain them depending on their business interests.
Jetté (pictured, standing), who took over from controlling shareholder Louis Audet (seated) as CEO in 2018, said he is looking forward to presenting his company’s proposal for a “hybrid mobile…
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MONTREAL — Setting a goal of going 100% electric, Quebecor announced Wednesday it is launching an action plan to step up the electrification of its vehicle fleet in order to fight climate change.
Quebecor says its transportation electrification plan will eventually extend to almost all of its 1,100 vehicles, which already include nearly 30 electric cars. The plan entails purchasing electric cars and converting light trucks from internal combustion to electric engines, using Québec technology developed by Ecotuned Automobile, the company explained in the news release.
“Business has an important role to play in tackling climate change,” said Pierre Karl…
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MONTREAL — Christine Maestracci has been promoted to vice-president of acquisitions and international distribution for Quebecor Content, the company announced Monday.
Previously senior director of acquisitions, Maestracci (pictured) will continue to be responsible for the acquisition of content and formats for all of the TVA Group and Club illico platforms. In addition to this role, she now has responsibility for the international distribution of Quebecor’s content and formats. She remains under the direction of Yann Paquet, vice-president of strategy and international affairs at Quebecor Content.
According to the news release, Maestracci’s appointment is part of Quebecor Content’s desire to promote the…
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QUEBECOR’S GROUPE TVA FORMALLY filed in December its appeal in Federal Court against a CRTC decision that forced it to continue to provide a sports channel signal to Bell customers.
But the submission to the court came before the Supreme Court of Canada determined in a set of cases late last month how it would exercise its ability to review decisions made by administrative bodies such as the CRTC – otherwise known as the standard of review. Bell was successful in having the highest court in the land reverse a 2016 decision by the CRTC that said it could…
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MONTREAL — Suzane Landry has been appointed vice-president of French-language content development and programming for Bell Media, effective today.
Landry most recently worked for Quebecor, where she was programming director for TVA Group for the last six years, before departing in October after 13 years with the company. A journalist by training, Landry started her career nearly 30 years ago as a reporter. She transitioned into production where she developed and produced content for various broadcasters, reads the Bell Media news release.
Landry’s appointment was made by Karine Moses, president of Bell Media Quebec, who earlier today was named Bell’s…
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And Bell’s complaint against Videotron on Super Écran’s packaging is dismissed
By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – In the context of Quebecor pulling its TVA Sports signal from Bell on the eve of the NHL playoff (for which the company was reprimanded), Quebecor had filed an undue preference complaint against Bell asserting that TVA Sports was not distributed as well as RDS (a Bell Media subsidiary) on Bell’s distribution networks.
(The first win came Monday when the CRTC told Bell it has to allow Videotron to ride on its network in northwestern Quebec.)
“The Commission notes that sports services rely on revenues…
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Vidéotron wins a dispute against Bell!
By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – The CRTC has ordered Cablevision du Nord, a Bell Canada subsidiary serving certain communities in Northwestern Quebec, to resume negotiations to allow Videotron to serve customers in the region as a third party internet access provider.
The Commission told Cablevision to file a Tarif Notice before February3, 2020 and to be ready to implement interconnection in Val d’Or and Rouyn-Noranda before April 3rd.
In a different decision issued the same day, the CRTC denied Cablevision’s request to withdraw its third-party Internet access (TPIA) tariff noting: “Although Cablevision was not obligated to provide…
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MONTREAL – Videotron announced today it picked Samsung as its partner for the deployment of both LTE-Advanced and 5G wireless throughout the province of Québec and the Ottawa region.
This allows Quebecor-owned Videotron to accelerate the deployment of its next-generation network and aim for a gradual service availability in the second half of 2020, said a company press release today. It’s Samsung’s first network vendor win in Canada.
The company made its selecation after “an extensive selection process to identify the most complete and evolutive 5G option that fits Videotron's ambitious objectives,” reads the release. Others thought to be in…
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