WINNIPEG – The media supply chain is irrevocably more complicated and potentially scary for Canadian broadcasters, according to two sessions on personal media on Monday at the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ annual convention.
The morning session was called “Personal Media Models: Who will supply the media-savvy consumer” and the afternoon session was entitled: “New Models, New Rules: Managing the personalized media revolution.”
On demand technology of all sorts, delivered from all platforms, is irrevocably altering the way media companies do business and on demand, specifically wireless on demand, content was front and centre for panelists as they discussed how…
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ALVISO, Calif. – DVR manufacturer TiVo today announced a partnership with Yahoo! TV to enable users to remotely program their digital video recorder to record programs.
Yahoo! TV users can now request, via TiVo’s scheduling technology, recordings of their favorite TV shows on their TiVo Series2 devices from anywhere they access Yahoo!. Subscribers with a TiVo Series2 box and a standard Yahoo! user ID can use the service starting today.
“(C)onsumers using Yahoo! TV can easily program their TiVo devices remotely to record that new show they read about or catch their favorite show they discovered is being re-aired….
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WINNIPEG – Cable and satellite companies paying fees for the Global TV signal is just one of the major structural changes that must happen if conventional broadcast television is to endure, CanWest Global Communications CEO Leonard Asper said on Wednesday.
While the company’s fourth quarter press release made a vague, innocuous reference to “structural and regulatory” issues that need to be addressed, Asper was much more specific in his comments to financial analysts in a conference call late in the afternoon.
Referring to a “rigorous regulatory plan”, Asper said the company wants: * Cable and satellite companies to pay…
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I THINK WE’VE ALL HIT the point of severe fatigue when it comes to talking about telecom policy.
A number of senior telecom executives rehashed their recent regulatory presentations this week in Toronto during the third annual Canadian Telecommunications Forum, put on by Insight Communications.
The sessions featured all the usual suspects from Telus (EVP Janet Yale), MTS (SVP Chris Peirce), the CCTA (president Michael Hennessy) and others. But in their sessions on Monday, let’s just say the spark was missing that has been there at other times this year.
Bell’s main regulatory honchos, Lawson Hunter and Mirko Bibic actually…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications became the first BDU in Canada to add Turner Classic Movies to its channel lineup, both on Shaw Cable and Star Choice.
TCM has actually been on the eligible satellite list for about eight years but because of movie copyright ownership issues, Canadian cable and satellite companies have been reluctant to carry a channel which would then need to be blacked out often.
However, executive vice-president Tom Karsch told www.cartt.ca in an interview on Tuesday that the channel has been working on new deals to gain the North American rights to its classic movies (primarily…
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MONTREAL – Inukshuk Internet has announced the launch of its 2005 Calls for Proposals in Alberta, British Columbia, Eastern Ontario and Outaouais, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Québec and Yukon.
Inukshuk, which has had a number of owners in its lifespan, but is not a commercial service as yet, was granted licenses from Industry Canada for multipoint communications systems (MCS) spectrum in the 2500 MHz frequency range, to build a unique, "last mile" broadband wireless access network.
On November 8, 2004, Rogers acquired the control of Microcell, including Inukshuk. On September 16, 2005…
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TORONTO – Hardcore sports fans can be just a push of a button away from their favourite team’s score with Score Mobile, launched Thursday by sports specialty channel The Score Score Mobile delivers up-to-the-minute scores to subscribers’ cell phones. Using an interactive menu that enables users to skip almost instantly to the scores they crave most, Score Mobile delivers live in-progress scores and odds (for the wagerists) for all major professional sports leagues, U.S. college football and basketball and Canadian CIS football. Score Mobile Version 1.0 can be downloaded now for free at www.thescore.ca, subject to…
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CALGARY – To the chagrin (but maybe not the surprise) of Canadian broadcasters, Shaw Communications CEO Jim Shaw said Thursday that pushing digital cable is not at the top of the company’s priority list.
During its quarterly conference call with financial analysts to discuss its third quarter results, Shaw was asked why its strategy when it comes to marketing digital cable is so different when compared to Rogers. While Rogers carries just about every channel under the sun and strongly markets digital cable, Shaw has been far more reluctant to add many of the new category two channels…
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TORONTO – After a remarkable 50 years in the broadcasting, CHUM Ltd. founder Allan Waters, has stepped down as a member of the board of directors, the company announced this afternoon.
The octogenarian has been named an honorary director.
Waters (right) began his broadcasting career in 1954 with the purchase of 1050 CHUM in Toronto which, under his leadership, became the first Top 40 radio station in Canada. As chairman and president until 2002, Waters created the vision for CHUM Limited’s growth to its current position as one of Canada’s premiere media companies with radio and…
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IT’S NOT OFTEN THAT a family-owned cable company will bring in an outsider to run it. Especially a telco guy.
But, when that cable operation is in the middle of turning into a telephone company, too, it doesn’t seem like such a bad idea after all. Until June of this year, John Piercy was working as a consultant to Hamilton’s Mountain Cablevision, working out the kinks in its telephony offering, leading up to this past summer’s launch.
That’s when Owen Boris (Mountain’s founder) and his son Les asked Piercy (right) to come aboard full time as president. Les is…
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