WINDSOR, ON — Freedom Mobile’s customer care employees at its call centre in Windsor, Ont., have rejected a contract offer put forward by the company last week, the employees’ representatives from the United Steelworkers (USW) union announced Friday.
The employee vote took place Thursday, after a series of meetings were held throughout the day at a Windsor hotel. After reviewing the company’s contract offer, the employees held a secret-ballot vote and the offer was rejected, the USW said in a press release.
The 185 employees at Freedom Mobile’s Windsor call centre joined the USW in January and bargaining talks…
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MONTREAL — Quebecor Inc. reported Thursday consolidated revenue of $1.03 billion in the second quarter of 2017 and its largest quarterly year-over-year increase in adjusted operating income in almost five years.
The company’s adjusted operating income was $395.3 million for the second quarter of 2017, up 9.7% from the $360.3 million in adjusted operating income it reported in Q2 2016.
Quebecor’s net income attributable to shareholders was $132.4 million ($1.09 per basic share) in Q2 2017, compared with $9.8 million ($0.08 per basic share) in the same period of 2016. This increase of $122.6 million ($1.01 per basic share) was primarily…
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Now carried by all major TV providers in Canada
TORONTO — beIN Sports has announced a new distribution deal with Shaw Communications that makes the global sports network available to all Shaw Cable and Shaw Direct Satellite TV customers.
Known for its live coverage of the top soccer leagues from around the world, beIN Sports is making its Shaw Cable debut just in time for the start of the top European soccer leagues — Spain’s La Liga, Italy’s Serie A, France’s Ligue 1 and England’s Sky Bet Championship.
beIN Sports, which provides exclusive Canadian coverage of top international sporting events, such as…
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MONTREAL — Telefilm Canada announced Tuesday $4.7 million in funding for the production of 11 new Indigenous feature films in 2017-2018, following through on its commitment in February to increase financing available to Indigenous talent.
In fact, the support provided through the Telefilm Production Program’s Indigenous stream exceeds its original commitment of $4.2 million. Telefilm’s investment supports both established and emerging Indigenous talent from coast-to-coast-to-coast, with seven projects being led by women, Telefilm said in a press release.
“Telefilm Canada is a longstanding supporter of Indigenous creative talents and we are privileged to have the ongoing support of the…
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Bidding starts at $1.54 billion
OTTAWA – The auction of 600 MHz wireless spectrum, when it happens, will favour the smaller newcomers like Freedom Mobile and Vidéotron and looks to offer no payments to TV broadcasters which will be forced off the band.
While the Canadian bandwidth plan is to be harmonized with the United States (something we’ve known for a while), our auction for the valuable low frequency spectrum sure won’t be the same. In its consultation paper released late Friday (Ed note: right before the long weekend, so no questions, media!) Innovation, Science and…
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WINDSOR, ON — Collective agreement discussions have stalled between Freedom Mobile and the United Steelworkers (USW), which is negotiating on behalf of the wireless company’s customer care employees in its Windsor, Ont., call centre.
The 185 employees at Freedom Mobile’s call centre in Windsor joined the USW in January and bargaining talks for a first collective agreement for the employees began in late March.
Despite an intense last 19 hours of talks and the efforts of a federal labour conciliation officer, a settlement has not yet been reached, the USW announced in a press release late Thursday afternoon.
Freedom Mobile, previously…
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CALGARY — Shaw Communications has completed the sale of its wholly owned ViaWest subsidiary to GI Partners portfolio company Peak 10 Holding Corporation for US$1.675 billion, the company announced on Aug. 1.
ViaWest provides hybrid IT solutions, including colocation, cloud computing and security and compliance for North American enterprises.
Proceeds from the transaction were used for the repayment of ViaWest level indebtedness, repayment of Shaw credit facility borrowings associated with the original ViaWest investment in 2014 and subsequent INetU acquisition in 2015, as well as the previously announced closing of the spectrum purchase from Quebecor on July 24, 2017, payment of…
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CALGARY — Shaw Communications is teaming up with 20 Calgary-area golf courses to launch its first-ever Shaw Charity Classic Make Your Mark Day, benefiting the lives of children and youth across southern Alberta.
On Sunday, August 6, golfers in Calgary can attempt to make a birdie at the designated Make Your Mark par-3 hole at any one of the participating courses. For every birdie scored, Shaw will donate $100 to support children and youth charities across Alberta through the Shaw Charity Classic, up to $100,000. Every Make Your Mark Day participant will also be entered to win an exclusive, inside-the-ropes…
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CALGARY — Shaw Communications customers in western Canada can now wave goodbye to data caps as the company announced it is offering unlimited data to its WideOpen Internet 150 subscribers.
With download speeds of up to 150 megabits per second and available to more than 99% of western Canadians within Shaw’s footprint, WideOpen Internet 150 now lets customers stream, download and browse the Internet without fear of going over monthly data limits.
“Canadians love the Internet, and are using more data than ever before. At times though, they can be hindered by restrictive caps and costly overage fees that can curb…
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THE CORD-CUTTING ANALYSIS in Friday’s Summer Numbers: CRTC TV data dump highlights, lowlights says that 11.12 million households subscribed to cable, satellite or IPTV service in Canada in 2016, down only slightly – 3.5% – from 11.5 million in 2016.
I agree this doesn’t seem like a big drop over four years especially given the market changes in that period.
But when we look at the numbers relative to the total number of households in Canada, we see a different story emerge.
In 2011, there were 13.32 million occupied households in Canada per the census and 11.5 million…
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