MONTREAL – Quebecor’s content division TVA Group today reported a slight dip in operating revenues to $125.6 million in the third quarter of 2019, a 1.4% decrease over the same period in 2018.
Consolidated adjusted EBITDA at the broadcaster, publisher and producer came in at $31.1 million for the quarter ended September 30th, a $3 million increase over Q3 2018. The $21.45 million in adjusted EBITDA broadcasting segment, a $4.5 million increase was mainly attributable to the acquisition of the Évasion and Zeste channels and a 25% increase in the adjusted EBITDA of the…
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GATINEAU – "The Commission is of the preliminary view that certain device financing plans may create a new barrier for customers to take advantage of competitive offers in the market.
“In particular, customers, who may benefit in the immediate term from lower monthly costs related to their devices, appear to be asked to accept terms and conditions that may require them to stay with their current WSP after the end of their wireless service plan commitment period or be charged for the remainder of the cost of the device,” reads the notice from the CRTC when it opened a Continue Reading
MONTREAL — CBC/Radio-Canada announced Wednesday that Donald Lizotte will be taking over the role of general manager and chief revenue officer of CBC & Radio-Canada Media Solutions, after last week’s announcement that Jean Mongeau is leaving the position, effective February 24, 2020.
In his new role, Lizotte will oversee all teams associated with CBC/Radio-Canada’s self-generated revenue, including the advertising, distribution and content-licensing streams, CBC/Radio-Canada said in a news release.
Lizotte comes to CBC/Radio-Canada with more than 25 years of experience in the telecommunications, retail, food and media sectors, including 14 years as an executive with Quebecor. Previously, Lizotte was…
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GATINEAU – An acquisition which would see Bell Media pay $20 million to add five conventional French television stations in Québec, Montréal, Saguenay, Sherbrooke and Trois-Rivières from Groupe V Media will be probed by the CRTC in February.
In July, Bell Media announced its intention of to purchase certain Groupe V assets, pending CRTC approval and the application was made public today, Bell is requesting the conditions of licence for the V conventional stations relating to the broadcast of local programming and local news be maintained where:
each station shall, in each broadcast week, broadcast at least five hours of…
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MONTREAL — Telefilm Canada is adding two new members to its executive leadership team, with the announcement that René Bourdages has been named senior director of cultural portfolio management, and Marie-Claude Lavigne has been named director of government and public affairs.
Bourdages (pictured on left) will join Telefilm Canada on December 2 and will be based in Montreal and Toronto. Lavigne (pictured on right) will join the organization on November 12 and will be based in Montreal and Ottawa.
Prior to joining Telefilm Canada, Bourdages served as the National Film Board’s director general of creation and innovation since 2016. In the…
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New one is coming, though
GATINEAU – On October 11, 2019, Videotron filed an application to the CRTC to decommission its fastest Internet service, saying it would cease offering its Giga-Service to its retail as well as wholesale customers.
In a bit of a twist, the CRTC wrote back to Videotron noting mistakes in the application meant it could not accept it – and so it returned it to the company.
First, Videotron had indicated it wished to cease offering the Giga Service starting immediately but Commission staff told the company that such service eliminiation has to be…
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MONTREAL – Stingray Digital Group announced Monday Valérie Héroux is joining its management team as vice-president, content acquisition and programming, effective November 11.
Héroux, who will be based in Montreal and report to Mathieu Péloquin, will oversee Stingray’s content and programming team as well as publishing and label relations to advance Stingray’s content strategy, says the company press release.
She had been senior director of content and strategic partnerships at Videotron and prior to that role, she was senior legal counsel for Québecor Média.
Héroux “brings over 10 years of experience in media and broadcasting, with a proven track record of…
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But it may have support to change that CoL from other Canadian BDUs
OTTAWA – The Federal Court of Appeal this week refused to hear Vidéotron’s appeal of its condition of license which requires it to take part in a new ratings system using set top box data from all large pay TV providers.
Earlier this year, the Quebecor-owned BDU pulled out of the industry working group which is tasked with making the set top viewer data part of the ratings of the television industry in Canada and in May, as we reported, the company asked the…
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GATINEAU – As part of the unrelenting effort by Canada and other jurisdictions to put an end to fraud and scam calls, last December, the CRTC launched a proceeding that would see the Implementation of universal network-level blocking of calls with blatantly illegitimate caller identification.
The deadline for telcos to have that in place, if they don’t already, is December 19th.
This summer, however, Bell suggested going even further and, as Cartt.ca reported, applied for Commission approval for a pilot project which would use artificial intelligence to build on universal network blocking tools to stop certain verified fraudulent and…
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Would let the province veto future Netflix-type deals
OTTAWA – In the most detailed plan yet on broadcasting from any of any of the major political parties during the federal election campaign, the Green Party has broadened its protectionist policy to provide Quebec with a veto on agreements with foreign production companies, such as Netflix, which affect the province’s cultural sector.
“The culture of Quebec needs to be protected from content that streams into our homes online that has nothing to do with Canada,” Green Party leader Elizabeth May said at Place des Arts in Montreal on Wednesday.
She was joined by…
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