MONTREAL – Quebec’s Culture and Communications Minister Christine St-Pierre dropped a firecracker into the middle of the debate over the future of financially troubled broadcaster TQS last week, saying that if the private broadcaster disappears, Radio-Canada will be partly to blame.
“I think that if TQS dies, they’ll find a bullet from Radio-Canada close to the heart,” said St-Pierre who, until her election last year, was a Radio-Canada journalist in Ottawa and Washington.
Radio-Canada vice-president Sylvain Lafrance immediately dismissed the comment, saying the publicly-owned network has nothing to do with TQS’s liquidity problems.
Last year, Radio-Canada announced it would…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications bucked the trend among its cable brethren somewhat by growing its number of digital subscribers.
Shaw added almost 40,000 digital cable customers in the first quarter of fiscal 2008, ended November 30, 2007, a 56% increase over last year’s Q1. As reported this week by Cartt.ca, both Rogers Cable and Cogeco Cable saw their digital growth slow over the same or similar time frame.
However, at just 36% digital penetration as compared to basic subs, Shaw has a longer way to go in terms of digital growth when compared to Rogers (59% penetration) and Cogeco…
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MONTREAL – Fixed wireless company Inukshuk Wireless, which is jointly owned by Bell Canada and Rogers Communications, today announced the launch of its 2008 Calls for Proposals in its 10 licensed service areas: Alberta, British Columbia, Eastern Ontario and Outaouais, New Brunswick, Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Québec and Yukon.
On a national basis, the amount of funding available under this year’s call is approximately $2.4 million. The funding is part of Inukshuk Wireless’s commitment to invest annually to promote learning in each of its licensed regions, says the company’s press release.
“The Inukshuk Wireless…
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TORONTO – Wireless, digital cable, high speed Internet and cable telephony customers all saw growth slip in the fourth quarter, ended December 31st, reported Rogers Communications today.
While the company announced a doubling of its annual dividend, the authorization for a share repurchase program, and full year 2008 guidance ranges, the fourth quarter subscriber numbers it released shows a slowdown in growth in the quarter, compared to Q4 2006, perhaps reflecting the marketing onslaught from all video and telephony carriers and the uncertain nature of the economy going into the new year.
Gross postpaid additions on the wireless side…
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HAMILTON – The next SCTE Ontario Chapter general meeting will be held Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 in Hamilton, with the theme of Fiber to the Premise/Home/etc. – otherwise known as FTTX.
The group is asking for technical papers for the session. The possible topics of interest relating to FTTX are suggested as follows:
* FTTX topologies * FTTX technologies * FTTX advanced services/content to be delivered * FTTX cost models * FTTX challenges in deployment * FTTX state of the industry, current and future deployments
The presentation of the papers at the meeting are generally 45 minutes in duration…
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OTTAWA – Right now, we would just call it “rumoured rumblings,” so one can never tell the veracity of the statements, but sources tell Cartt.ca they believe a decision from the CRTC on the CanWest Global purchase of Alliance Atlantis could come as early as Thursday.
What we do know is that CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein was pushing staff to get the decision done and released prior to the end of 2007 – and the timing of a release this week would place it right in the range of other 2007 broadcasting acquisition decisions. For example, the regulator…
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TORONTO – There are two large cable operators based in the province of Quebec, but each have their own different ideas of where growth will come from.
One, Videotron, envisions building itself into an important wireless player. The other, Cogeco Cable, has so far shunned wireless investments in favor of pursuing growth outside of North America.
Its 2006 acquisition of Cabovisao, which now serves over 300,000 customers in Portugal has been nothing but positive for the company as revenue and margins have risen throughout 2007. The integration of the new division is now complete.
The company launched digital cable…
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TORONTO – Long-time sales executive Dan Hamilton is leaving Citytv, the Rogers TV Sales Group announced today. His last day will be February 15th, 2008.
“It has been a pleasure and an honour working with our agencies and clients over the past 24 years on behalf of Citytv and the former CHUM Television brands,” said Hamilton, in a release. “I look forward to seeing great developments on this remarkable Citytv brand under Rogers leadership.”
His future plans were not announced.
“We are extremely grateful for Dan’s numerous years of excellent service and professionalism,” expressed Mitch Dent, executive vice-president, sales,…
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IN 2003, WHEN THE HOUSE of Commons Heritage Committee issued the “Our Cultural Sovereignty” report (better known as the Lincoln Report) it recommended that “the existing foreign ownership limits for broadcasting and telecommunications be maintained a current levels.”
At that time, the then Canadian Alliance Party, whose leader was Stephen Harper, put out the following dissenting opinion: “The Canadian Alliance disagrees with (this recommendation). The Canadian Alliance supports relaxing foreign ownership rules on Canadian industry, including telecommunications and broadcast distribution. We suggest conducting an immediate review to determine whether to reduce or completely remove these rules.” Those very same…
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TORONTO – Programming from CTV and its specialty channels The Comedy Network and MTV are now available for sale on the iTunes Store in Canada (www.itunes.ca).
The addition of Canadian TV shows to the iTunes Canada lineup comes two years after such programming has been available in the U.S. and U.K. It’s been on so long Stateside, that NBC has decided making its shows available on iTunes is not for them and they have pulled their programming from the Apple service.
iTunes becomes the latest digital platform for CTV’s Canadian series, in addition to The CTV Broadband Network and…
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