TORONTO – The CRTC has approved the plan of arrangement between Alliance Atlantis and CanWest Global that will run Alliance Atlantis until the Commission can decide on the purchase and transfer of ownership in a hearing.
The Plan of Arrangement will see AA Acquisition Corp. (formerly 6681859 Canada Inc.) acquire all of the outstanding shares of Alliance Atlantis for $53 cash per share, as was announced in January. AA Acquisition is primarily funded by Goldman Sachs, with CanWest Global to be controlling shareholder of the regulated assets.
AA owns (directly or indirectly) the securities of certain entities which are…
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OTTAWA – The Minister of Industry will receive a blizzard of paper tomorrow as incumbent wireless operators, and those who would like to be one, submit their opinions on how the next auction of wireless spectrum should be run.
The newcomers, led jointly by Quebecor and MTS Allstream, have not backed off their rhetoric at all. They want into the fast-growing wireless market and they don’t want to pay through the nose for entry with a costly purchase of spectrum at auction.
Keying on a few lines from the 2006 Telecom Policy Review Report (the one which the…
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TORONTO – CTV and Rogers today announced new three-year television deals with the National Football League beginning next season, shutting out CanWest Global, which has carried American football for decades.
Financial details of both agreements, which were apparently done separately, were not disclosed.
Under terms of the CTV deal, the broadcaster gets the Canadian broadcast rights for the NFL regular season Sunday early afternoon game package (1 p.m. ET), every NFL playoff game, and for the first time ever, the Super Bowl (which last year was watched by 3.4 million Canadians). The deal covers the 2007, 2008 and 2009 NFL…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The folks at MaxTrax and Galaxie may be wondering about their futures on Rogers Cable today.
The CRTC granted a pay audio license to Rogers Communications this morning. The company plans to launch a 30-channel service of music and spoken word programming. Currently, CBC-owned Galaxie and Corus Entertainment-owned MaxTrax are both carried by Rogers, which hasn’t said when or how it will launch its own service.
The regs require that any carrier which owns a pay audio license must also carry a non-affiliated service meaning that when Rogers launches, it only has to carry one of Galaxie…
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COUNT CANADA’S SATELLITE and cable companies (outside Quebec, anyway) as generally pleased with the Commission’s new policy on over-the-air TV broadcasters.
"We think it’s a very balanced decision and we’re happy with it," said Rogers Communications vice-chair Phil Lind.
"I think it’s overall a balanced decision," added Shaw Communications vice-president, regulatory, Ken Stein.
"They were clearly listening to everybody because they’ve come up with a balanced decision that reflects all parties representations I think," explained Bell ExpressVu president Gary Smith.
Only Telco TV’s Ann Mainville-Neeson stayed off the balance beam, saying: "Kudos to the Commission for a very…
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TORONTO – About 18 months after abandoning some of its multi-product bundles, Bell Canada has re-launched a new quad-play bundle.
The new Bell Bundle is a package of Sympatico high speed Internet, Bell ExpressVu HDTV, Bell long distance and Bell Mobility wireless. Local phone is not included in the new bundle because local phone market deregulation (local forbearance, to use the lingo) hasn’t happened just yet.
The inability to offer discounted local phone was part of the reason Bell dropped the former bundles in the first place. Without local phone, it’s simply an incomplete package.
"We’ve developed the Bell Bundle to meet the…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications announced today that Rogers Cable and Rogers Wireless will become one on July 1st.
There is nothing in the release on how the restructuring will affect the people working in each company division.
RCI has sent notices "to the respective trustees of each of their public debt indentures, the agent of Cable’s bank credit facility and each of their various secured swap counterparties stating that, subject to certain conditions, all security provided by bonds issued under the Cable deed of trust and the Wireless deed of trust will be released on or about Thursday, June 28,…
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REGINA – RTNDA, the association of electronic journalists handed out its Prairie region awards for 2006 this weekend at the annual Prairie Regional Professional Development Seminar.
This year RTNDA Canada created five new award categories to recognize outstanding videography, use of sound, new media, information programming and diversity.
The RTNDA "Diversity Tool Kit" which was released across the country in January offers practical solutions to bring diversity to our stories and to our newsrooms. To acknowledge those accomplishments RTNDA created a new Diversity Award this year. Global Calgary and CBC Saskatchewan won the inaugural awards in the Prairie region….
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OTTAWA – Saying the wireless market is not competitive enough in Canada, Quebecor and MTS Allstream have joined forces to lobby both government and Canadians so that the companies are given a break in 2008’s wireless spectrum auction.
“Canada needs to permit new competitors in the wireless sector to ensure consumers are offered lower prices and advanced services which other countries already enjoy,” says a press release from the Coalition for Wireless Competition issued today.
Citing the oft-referenced but little understood Telecom Policy Review Panel report which “identified the need for a more efficient and vibrant wireless industry…
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TORONTO – GEO TV, a 24-hour Pakistani channel broadcast in the Urdu language, has been added to Rogers Cable, the TV distributor announced Friday.
The general entertainment channel is on free preview for digital TV customers in Ontario until June 8.
“Rogers is continually striving to provide its customers with the most in multicultural programming by offering a choice in their preferred language,” said David Purdy, Vice-President and General Manager of Television Services for Rogers Cable. “With the addition of GEO TV, Rogers Personal TV customers can now choose from three channels in the Urdu language, with the other…
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