MONTREAL — “I’ve gotten such great press lately,” Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly joked to break the ice in a speech Friday to Montreal’s board of trade. But despite mounting pressure, especially in Quebec, to impose sales taxes on foreign over-the-top services like Netflix, Joly had no new announcements to make, sticking to repeating the promises made in the Creative Canada plan released in September.
“I hear you,” she told the crowd present, including board president Michel Leblanc, who said during his introduction that he expected Joly to explain the government’s position on this issue. She repeated several times that she’s…
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MONTREAL – Over 100 Quebec business, culture and other leaders have put their names to a new push in the province urging all levels of government to make sure foreign companies selling goods and services digitally in Canada are subject to the same taxes as Canadian companies.
The group, hashtagged #100voix, have put their names behind this declaration: "We cannot allow foreign giants to avoid the taxes that all local businesses must charge. This injustice must be corrected. It penalizes our businesses, our artists and our workers. We have a shared duty to protect Québec and Canadian culture."
Business leaders such…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC said Tuesday it wants the opinions of Canadians about additional information provided by the large French- and English- language television groups as part of the reconsideration of decisions to renew their television licences.
The CRTC will gather comments until January 23, 2018.
On May 15, 2017, the CRTC issued a series of decisions to renew licences for the television services of large English- and French-language private ownership groups (Bell Media, Corus Entertainment, Rogers Media, Groupe V and Quebecor Media). On August 14, 2017, the Governor in Council referred back to the CRTC certain…
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TORONTO and MONTRÉAL – The Canada Media Fund and the Quebecor Fund have announced a new pilot partnership to promote the export of Canadian content.
According to the announcement, the CMF will “draw on the expertise of the Quebecor Fund in the management and implementation of the latter's export assistance program.” Through this partnership, the two organizations will support various business models to promote the export of audiovisual projects produced in Québec. Click here to access the program’s guidelines.
The partnership between the CMF and the Quebecor Fund's Export Assistance Program will encourage the development of content…
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MONTREAL – An uptick in subscribers at Videotron combined with the company's spectrum sale buoyed third quarter revenues and profits at Quebecor.
For the period ended September 30, 2017, revenues of $3.06 billion were up 3.3% year-over-year. Revenues increased in Telecommunications ($97.1 million or 4.1% of segment revenues), Sports and Entertainment ($2.1 million or 8.5%) and Media ($1.4 million or 0.2%).
Net income attributable to shareholders rebounded to $171.9 million from a net loss attributable to shareholders of $8.3 million in the same period of 2016, due in large part to a $243.1 million gain on the sale of spectrum licences recognized this quarter, including $121.6 million without any tax consequences.
Videotron grew…
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MONTREAL – Quebecor said Wednesday that its board of directors have approved a two-for-one stock split of the company’s outstanding Class A multiple voting and Class B subordinate voting shares.
On November 15, shareholders will receive one additional share for each share owned. The Class A and the Class B shares will commence trading on a post-split basis on November 17.
Quebecor confirmed that it has received the regulatory approval from the Toronto Stock Exchange with respect to the stock split.
www.quebecor.com
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MONTREAL – Yann Paquet has been promoted to VP of Quebecor Content while Martin Picard has taken on the new VP role at TVA Group as part of a number of employee moves announced Tuesday.
Paquet has held several positions since joining the Quebecor family in 2011, including as Videotron’s vice-president of multiplatform content, and vice-president of acquisitions and international development for Quebecor Content. In his new role, he will be responsible for brands and content, as well as acquisitions and international development.
In addition, Christine Maestracci was named senior director, acquisitions and Ariane Lahière is now director, administration and financing.
Over at…
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MONTREAL – Quebecor’s broadcaster/TV producer/publisher TVA Group reported last week a net loss of $15.3 million in the third quarter of 2017, ended September 30th, compared with a net loss of $32.5 million in the same quarter of 2016.
Revenues climbed, however, by 6.8% in the quarter to $140.8 million, thanks largely to the growth of its TVA Sports channel, higher ad revenues at the main broadcaster, TVA, and better results at the film and TV production unit the company said in its press release. This was offset somewhat by declining revenues at its magazine division.
"We are satisfied with…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC has pushed back its deadline for comments pertaining to TV channels wishing to renew their places in the basic programming package.
After recently announcing that it would kick off its 9(1)(h) hearing on April 30, the Commission said Wednesday that the deadline to submit interventions, comments and answers is now December 8, 2017, and not November 16 as first announced. The deadline for the applicants to submit their replies is December 18.
The new deadlines comes as a result of a joint procedural request from BCE, the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance, Cogeco, Quebecor, Rogers, Shaw and…
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TORONTO — Canada’s major media companies are presenting a united front as they prepare to combat piracy of their TV content.
A special panel discussion at last week's CTAM Canada Broadcaster Forum provided a comprehensive overview of the impact of piracy on the broadcasting industry as legal experts from Bell, Rogers and Quebecor talk about their biggest concerns as they all believe illegal streaming of pirated TV content is on the rise in Canada. The panel participants also spoke about potential future strategies and recent victories in their fight against the companies who sell internet-connected set-top boxes which make pirated content so…
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