OTTAWA – Back in May, Videotron asked the CRTC to amend its conditions of licence so that it would not be forced to share its cable set-top box audience measurement with Numeris, and pending the decision, it abandoned the industry group working to bring to market that data as part of the ratings systems.
CRTC responded June 28th saying that the condition of licence still applies and changed the deadline for providing a measurement system to 15 January 2020.
On July 5th, however, Vidéotron announced it intended to challenge in court that CRTC refusal. The company…
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MONTREAL – Vidéotron’s Club illico and corporate sister Quebecor Content announced last week they will create the very first reality series for the digital platform.
L’appartement, which will be produced by Datsit Sphere and directed by Simon Sachel, will place five young non-Montrealers (aged 18-25) with very different backgrounds who are from all around Quebec in the same Montreal apartment where viewers will watch them live their lives and try to make a go of it in the city.
The 10 installment, 30-minute episodes will be available in 2020. It has yet to be cast (so the photo here is the…
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BTLR panel wades through 2,085 submissions
OTTAWA – The federal government’s Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review (BTLR) made public its preliminary report today, a summary of what it heard from more than 2,000 written submissions and a dozen conferences spread out over the past 10 months.
Its What We Heard Report, released today along with all of those written submissions (see links below), reflects the panel’s “extensive outreach and engagement process to hear what Canadians had to say about updating the existing laws to reflect the realities of our rapidly evolving digital world,” says the announcement.
In September 2018, the panel launched an…
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MONTREAL – Long-time Quebecor lawyer and executive Serge Sasseville has announced he is retiring from the company at the end of 2019.
Currently senior vice president, corporate and institutional affairs, Sasseville has been with the company for 32 years where he held a variety of positions such as director of legal services of Quebecor, corporate secretary of Quebecor Communications, vice-president of legal affairs, corporate secretary and assistant to the president of Archambault Group, founder and general manager of the archambault.ca e-commerce site, vice president of legal affairs and corporate secretary of Videotron and Canoe; and president, Archambault Group Music Division.
He…
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OTTAWA – In another chapter of the ongoing saga between Bell and Quebecor, the CRTC has directed Bell to continue providing roaming services to Vidéotron, at least for now.
A Part 1 application from Québecor Média on behalf of its Vidéotron subsidiary to the Commission earlier this month said that Vidéotron’s end-users have had access to Bell’s roaming service since May 2015, but that Bell had threatened to suspend that service after alleging that “ a significant number of Vidéotron’s users …were using Bell Mobility’s roaming service …on an illegitimate, non-occasional and permanent basis” which it said contravened Bell Mobility’s…
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OTTAWA – The Federal Court of Appeal has agreed to hear Quebecor’s request to overturn a decision by the CRTC that forces it to make TVA Sports available to Bell TV customers while in dispute with Bell Canada over its distribution agreement.
According to a Montreal Gazette report, the court found that Quebecor made “solid arguments and a defendable case” about whether the Commission has jurisdiction to regulate affiliation agreements between BDUs and programmers this way.
The appeals court said that it would study two issues: whether the measures imposed by the CRTC are given to it by the…
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MONTREAL – Former Hydro-Québec exec Lise Croteau has joined the Boards of Directors of Quebecor Inc. and Quebecor Media Inc.
A chartered professional accountant, Croteau spent over 30 years at Hydro-Québec, including nearly 10 years on the senior management team and as its acting CEO from May to July 2015. She is also a former member of the TVA Group BoD.
Effective June 16, Croteau is corporate director and member of the human resources and corporate governance committee for Quebecor and Quebecor Media. She succeeds Andrea C. Martin who has left to “pursue new professional challenges internationally”, reads Monday’s announcement.
"I want…
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Blames pressure on traditional TV on unfair practices
MONTREAL – Quebecor Media's TVA Group announced Wednesday morning it has eliminated 68 jobs in its television group.
“The decision was made necessary by numerous unfair practices that have been undermining the television industry for years. It is the result of government inaction and the failure to modernize the system in order to keep businesses based in Quebec and the rest of Canada competitive,” reads the TVA press release.
"The status quo is crippling our industry, weakening our culture and driving us to the cliff's edge," said France Lauzière, president and CEO, in the…
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TORONTO –Innovation, Science and Economic Development minister Navdeep Bains is expected to reveal the proposed structure of the 3500 MHz spectrum auction on Wednesday and, tapping into his inner Raptor, Scotiabank telecom analyst Jeff Fan said in a report this week he expects Bains to “deliver its version of ‘The Klaw’.”
Using Toronto Raptors’ star Kawhi Leonard’s nickname as a fun hook, Fan set out what he believes will happen to the 3500 MHz spectrum currently co-owned by Rogers Communications and Bell Canada. Like Leonard stripping an opponent of the basketball, ISED will be stripping a lot of that spectrum…
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TORONTO – While there are no Canadian carrier CEOs on the speakers’ schedule this year, those executives not in attendance will certainly be paying attention to next week’s Canadian Telecom Summit when it opens Monday morning.
(Ed note: For long-time CTS attendees, this year it is being held at the International Centre, which is just up Airport Road a ways from its former Congress Centre home.)
The event kicks off with an interview on stage with Rola Dagher, president of Cisco Canada (the questions, however, are coming from another Cisco-ite, Ian Campbell, the company’s CTO, service provider mobility and automation, so…
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