MONTREAL – Canada’s English and French-language producers say they are determined to reach a fair deal with television networks as each side prepares to make their case on a new deal for program rights across a variety of platforms and media.
Tomorrow, the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFPTA), which represents the majority of English-language independent producers, is slated to sit down with CTV, Canwest Global and Rogers to begin negotiating so-called “terms of trade” negotiations – framework agreements aimed at defining and valuing program rights. These framework agreements would apply to individual negotiations between broadcasters and producers…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications, in a statement released today, says the nearly $1 billion it bid to increase its spectrum holdings during the current wireless auction will ensure the company is “well prepared to serve its customers now and in the future with leading innovative broadband wireless services.”
"The 20 MHz of Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum gained through the auction supports Rogers’ continued growth strategy, and is a responsible investment particularly in the future diverse and growing opportunities to be found in broadband wireless data services," said Rob Bruce, president, Rogers Wireless. "This additional spectrum provides us with…
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OTTAWA – Finally, after nearly two months of bidding, involving 331 rounds, Canada’s auction of wireless spectrum ended today, but is merely the first wave of change that will transform the nation’s telecommunications industry.
Canadian companies bid a total of $4.25 billion for 282 wireless-airwave licenses, the proceeds are more than twice the amount analysts had expected. The 15 successful bidders of the auction that began May 27 are eligible to receive licenses after making their final payments and showing compliance with Canadian ownership and control requirements.
Rogers Communications, Canada’s largest wireless carrier, bid $999.4 million for 59 licenses, reports…
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GATINEAU – Having taken control of the Citytv network but not the local news cable channel Citytv Toronto fed in Hogtown, CP24, Rogers Media has asked the CRTC for a category 2 digital specialty license for a new channel serving Canada’s most populous city.
CTVglobemedia kept ownership of CP24 when it bought former owner CHUM and spun off Citytv to Rogers.
“The applicant states that most of its programming will be sourced from its local television – OMNI and Citytv stations – and radio news properties. The programming will consist of a mix of local news, traffic, weather, business,…
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MONTREAL – It’s time for Corus Entertainment to jettison its stable of 15 Quebec radio stations, says an analyst’s report.
“Admittedly, Corus Radio’s performance in (fiscal) 2008 has been disappointing relative to plan. Despite the Western skew of the company’s radio operations (40% of total), Corus has been struggling to keep up with industry performance,” reads a report from Genuity Capital Markets media and communications analyst Carl Bayard.
“The reasons: several new competitors in Calgary, where Corus grew by 7% compared to market growth of 13% in Q3/08, and a lagging station group in Quebec, combined with a very soft…
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TORONTO – If everyone agrees the deployment of advanced advertising, finely targeted advertising, is a damn good idea that should yield a nice, new burst of revenue, why can’t the industry pull it off?
That was the question I had in my head prior to Tuesday morning’s CTAM Canada panel discussion on the topic held in Toronto at the Velma Rogers Graham Theatre. I’ve heard the players who spoke on this topic at other events and have chatted with most of them in person, too, on this topic.
Invidi Technologies, which led off the morning with a presentation on…
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OTTAWA – The CFTPA has added one of the architects of the Canada-U.S. free trade agreement, Gordon Ritchie, to its negotiating team, just prior to beginning talks on program rights deals with the major private over-the-air television networks, as well as CBC.
“Gordon’s wealth of experience and sound judgment will be invaluable to us as we sit down with CTV, Canwest Global, Rogers and CBC to negotiate more equitable trading terms with our broadcaster partners that reflect the realities facing independent Canadian producers,” said Canadian Film and Television Producers Association chair Sandra Cunningham, in a release.
According to the…
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MOST OF THE MEDIA coverage and blog writings and newsgroup postings and Facebook rantings are made up of ill-informed opinion masquerading as facts, driven by scare-mongering types who fear an invisible big brother looking to crush their Internet experience.
The reality is that most of the information the general public has been consuming on the topics of Internet traffic and network neutrality is, well, hooey.
To try and counterbalance that, we went to someone working in the trenches, as it were, to help explain what is actually going on inside that vast cloud we call the Internet.
Tom Donnelly…
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TORONTO – CBC and TSN each announced the details surrounding their respective coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics,, which begins August 8th.
In its final Olympics for a while (CTV owns the rights for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games and the 2012 London Summer Games and will co-broadcast them with Rogers), CBC is pulling out all the stops, and will provide an unprecedented 2,400 hours of coverage.
Canadians will see the entire Games in high definition for first time ever
CBC’s broadcast of Beijing 2008 begins on Wednesday, August 6 at 4:45 a.m. ET on CBC Television and CBCSports.ca…
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TORONTO – It was one of the key topics under discussion during the CRTC hearing into new policies to govern broadcast distribution undertakings and CTAM Canada is about to hit the topic again for its members.
Advanced advertising, or targeted advertising, advertising within the VOD stream, or on PVRs, or split demographically, whatever you call it, it will all be on the table July 15th in Toronto.
The morning will begin with a presentation from David Downey, president and CEO of Invidi, a leader in the advanced cable advertising whose platform is being deployed by major American MSOs right…
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