TORONTO – There may have been over a dozen topics on the hit list for this year's regulatory blockbuster session at this year’s Canadian Telecom Summit, but the six panelists kept coming back to one: MVNOs, yea or nay.
Moderator Greg O'Brien, editor and publisher of Cartt.ca, set the tone, commenting, "This panel is often fun, always a little prickly, which is part of the fun
“The industry is being transformed from all sides," he went on. "It's being changed from within, from without, and, crucially, from Ottawa."
Key among the events include the broadcast and telecom legislative review panel, a proposed…
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MVNOs won't work in Canada
TORONTO – Shaw Communications’ Paul McAleese co-founded and ran a successful MVNO in the United States for a dozen years before coming back to Canada to head up Freedom Mobile.
While he’s still a satisfied investor in i-wireless, which runs the mobile offering of the Kroger chain of grocery stores, he said comparing that company and the U.S. wireless market in general to Canada’s is a mug’s game. First, the American market is just so much bigger, where MVNOs can carve out a living with low margins there thanks to American market scale in a way…
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TORONTO – As it faces a shrinking cable TV landscape and still needing buzzy shows to entice advertisers and compete with Netflix, the biggest headline from Corus Entertainment's upfront presentation Monday was that rookie and returning American content will remain front and center, especially on Global TV, as the media company remakes itself for the streaming era.
"We're transforming too," Corus CEO and president Doug Murphy said against the backdrop of the Evergreen Brick Works, an abandoned brick factory along Toronto’s Don Valley turned into an urban innovation hub for sustainable city-building.
Given the focus on originals at Netflix and Amazon,…
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TORONTO – Canadian government and telecommunications carriers have nothing to fear from Huawei's 5G network products, the chief security officer of the company's Canadian division told telecom industry leaders, and it is free from interference from Beijing.
"Huawei operates in over 107 countries around the world, and in each they comply with local rules and regulations," Olivera Zatezalo (pictured) told the Canadian Telecom Summit on Monday during a panel session on cyber security. "All I can tell you is in Canada we are 100% compliant" with whatever the government asks.
Asked specifically about the company's independence, she said Huawei Canada is…
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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 – Citytv has scooped up the ‘Chicago’ franchise which it said will anchor its 2019/20 schedule that also includes 15 new shows and 17 returning favourites.
New series include scripted drama series Bluff City Law, comedies Perfect Harmony and Mixed-Ish, as well as new weekday talk show The Kelly Clarkson Show. Dick Wolf dramas Chicago Med, Chicago Fire and Chicago PD will air back-to-back on Wednesday nights.
Last season’s hit dramas, A Million Little Things and Manifest return to Citytv, along with The Bachelor / The Bachelorette franchise, Black-ish, Bob’s Burgers, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Dancing with the Stars, Family Guy, Hockey Night in…
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TORONTO – As Canadian broadcasters pitch linear TV as a safer space for brands than toxic social media platforms during their upfront presentations, it was some surprise to see on stage Thursday at Twitter's TwitterFront event in Toronto top execs and talent from Corus Entertainment, CBC, Rogers Media and Bell Media.
"Everyone is working with us," Paul Burns, a former digital exec at Shaw Communications and now Twitter Canada’s managing director, told Cartt.ca about Canadian media players who are increasingly making the most of a social media platform often derided by critics for being a land…
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TORONTO – Canadian media circles have long been gripped by a dramatic industry narrative that Netflix and other U.S. tech giants will kill their pay TV business as audiences shift online.
The quieter truth is traditional Canadian distributors are still in business as (cord cutting aside) TV viewers mostly still refuse to part with the cable bundle while also embracing Netflix, Amazon and other digital alternatives.
"Year over year, it's always a bit of doom and gloom. Is TV in decline, is it going away? We believe TV has lots of runway," a bullish Rogers Media president Rick Brace said Thursday…
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TORONTO – As streaming video grows and younger viewers move online, traditional Canadian TV networks in recent years have been keen to tell advertisers they were following audiences online as multiplatform players amid fast-changing viewer habits.
But the CBC, underpinned by new leadership, had a stark selling point at its upfront presentation in Toronto on Wednesday beyond excitement over their new and returning TV shows – brand safety and transparency.
"The last year illustrated some of the dangers the digital world represents. There are traps," Jean Mongeau, general manager and chief revenue officer at CBC Media Solutions, told Cartt.ca, as U.S….
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OTTAWA – Canada’s creative community applauded the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage for hitting the right notes in calling for better pay for Canadian artists in its Shifting Paradigms report presented to Parliament on May 15.
Now, however, groups representing artists want the federal government to produce a symphony of legislative change from the committee’s 22 recommendations, which include a call to both support creators and creative industries adapt to new digital markets, and review safe-harbour exceptions and laws to ensure that Internet service providers (ISPs) are “accountable for their role in the distribution of content.”
“As technology…
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