CALGARY – Shaw’s Freedom Mobile has announced plans to deploy its recently acquired spectrum to enhance its network in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton.
The company said Thursday that the move will improve Freedom Mobile's LTE-Advanced network performance, especially in dense urban areas, and support nearly all LTE devices currently in use in Canada, making it easier for Canadians use their own devices on its LTE-A network.
These latest network upgrades – specifically deploying 2500 MHz spectrum and “refarming” a portion of its existing AWS-1 spectrum – are already underway, and are expected to be completed by early December 2017…
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RANDY LENNOX IS beloved in the music business. Leading Universal Music Canada for close to 20 years, he was instrumental in finding and developing Canadian talent and growing the Canadian music industry into an acknowledged international force.
The Weeknd, Shawn Mendes, Justin Beiber, Shania Twain, Drake, Hedley, The Tragically Hip are all artists Lennox signed or helped build up. He probably could have remained at Universal until he was old and grey, if he wanted. Earlier this year the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) awarded Lennox (pictured*) the Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award for his longstanding…
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GATINEAU – It looks as though a portion of a CRTC decision that flew under the radar for many people has wrecked what was an excellent promotional outlet for Canadian specialty services and charities.
In decision CRTC 2015-86, part of the Let’s Talk TV process, the Commission surprised the industry by tightening the rules surrounding how the two minutes of local advertising time made available each hour by U.S. channels such as CNN, A&E, Golf Channel and TLC could be used.
Dubbed “local avail” time, American cablecos and other pay TV carriers have turned the sales of…
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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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