TORONTO – Freedom Mobile today announced the launch of what it’s calling “Big Gig”, a brand new plan giving customers 10GB of data for $50/month.
The new plan gives both new and existing Freedom Mobile customers access to more data for less with no penalties for data overages, “and is unlike anything currently being offered to Canadians,” says the company’s release. The Big Gig plans are available beginning Thursday, October 19. As Rogers Communications, Bell Canada and Telus are all about to report their third quarter results over the next two weeks, we bet there will be questions on how…
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TORONTO – Corus Entertainment today announced it will sell French-language specialty channels Historia and Séries+ to Bell Media for approximately $200 million.
The sale is pending approval by the CRTC and the Competition Bureau and the two companies expect it to close mid-2018.
"In the 18 months since Corus acquired Shaw Media, we have demonstrated a resolute commitment to de-lever our balance sheet to 3.5 times net debt to segment profit by the end of fiscal 2017 and 3 times by the end of fiscal 2018," said Doug Murphy, president and CEO of Corus, in the company’s press release.
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GATINEAU – CRTC commisioner Christopher MacDonald’s persistent questioning on day one of the hearing into license renewals for several BDUs roughly translated to: “What’s taking so long with the set top box viewership data?”
Quebecor, Rogers, Shaw and Eastlink, all members of the Set Top box working group (check), each had very similar answers to MacDonald’s line of questions. Essentially the answers boiled down to: “What we’re doing is hard, pioneering, and with an uncertain business model, so yes, it’s a slow process.”
The group first met more than two years ago.
During the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV process,…
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OTTAWA – New CRTC chair and CEO Ian Scott (pictured) will make his first public speech at next month’s New Developments in Communications Law and Policy.
Presented by the Canadian Chapter of the International Institute of Communications, the event will take place November 14 -15 at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa. The conference will provide opportunities to hear from and network with the lawyers, regulators and business leaders at the heart of the Canadian communications industry.
Other newly confirmed speakers include Grace Koh, special assistant to U.S. President Trump for Technology, Telecom and Cybersecurity, as well as U.S. FCC Commissioner…
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MONTREAL – After getting into wireless last year with the purchase of Wind (now Freedom) Mobile, many expect Shaw to soon start offering wireline/wireless bundles in the west just as Telus, its biggest competitor, already offers.
But the telco isn’t worried, Stephen Lewis, Telus’ senior vice-president and treasurer, told a CIBC investor conference on Wednesday. “We’ve seen this coming for a number of quarters and we are very confident in the preparation we’ve done for when they do bring the Shaw wireless brand to market,” he said.
He cited the “robustness” of Telus’ Internet and OptikTV offering and its continuing installation of…
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MONTREAL – When a U.S. branch of Montreal-based Cogeco Communications paid US$1.4 billion for the rest of the MetroCast cable network this year, onlookers wondered how big the company wants to grow down south.
Pretty big, CEO Louis Audet suggested Wednesday at an investor conference in Montreal run by CIBC. “We have the potential for our U.S. operations to become bigger one day than our Canadian operations” in Quebec and Ontario, he said. “There is sufficient acquisition potential for that to occur … Now you need to work hard and be a bit lucky.”
Cogeco’s first…
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TORONTO – Industry sales veteran Graeme Mackrell is joining the sales group at Telelatino as national account manager.
Most recently, Mackrell (pictured) was vice-president strategy at sponsorship integration company TACK10. Prior to that, he was director of national sales at Shaw Communications.
In his new role, Mackrell will work primarily with agencies and clients to sell regular and integrated advertising and special events for all of Telelatino Network’s culturally connected brands and platforms.
“Graeme has over 15 years of experience leading successful broadcast, digital and brand partnership teams for Shaw Media, with significant success in representing lifestyle and factual content”, said Telelatino…
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MONTREAL – While some cable companies are eliminating community TV stations, Cogeco instead is investing in theirs and has renamed its community television stations in Ontario and Quebec to better reflect its ties to the local communities that it serves.
The 19 CogecoTV stations in Ontario are now branded ‘YourTV’ and its 15 Québec stations will now be known as ‘NousTV’. Cogeco made the announcement at the same time as it released its slate of new fall programming, available at Facebook.com/yourtvontario/ and Facebook.com/NousTVQuebec
“This change in the image of our community television…
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IQALUIT — Northwestel today announced that all 25 Nunavut communities will be receiving 15 megabits per second (Mbps) Internet in 2019, which means Nunavut residents and businesses will have access to the same broadband service levels as those in most remote northern communities in Canada.
This announcement comes on the heels of the federal government’s announcement of new funding for Northwestel in order for it to improve high speed internet access in the territory.
“Northwestel is pleased to expand our Internet offering to every community and provide better broadband services to our Nunavut customers,” said Curtis Shaw,…
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CALGARY – Western Canadians now have a new way to binge-watch their favourite content after Shaw said Thursday that it has integrated Netflix with its BlueSky TV product.
Beginning immediately, customers who subscribe to Shaw BlueSky TV, Shaw WideOpen Internet 150 and Netflix can watch thousands of shows and movies through one integrated platform. Using the Shaw BlueSky TV voice remote, subscribers can easily find any title provided through Netflix, in addition to live TV, video-on-demand, and recorded content.
"Shaw BlueSky TV has already revolutionized the way Western Canadians watch TV by making it quick and easy to find the shows…
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