Netflix, et al, changing the market
GATINEAU – The tipping point is coming.
That was part of the message delivered to the CRTC by Bell Media during its appearance before the CRTC for the company’s group license renewal. Thanks to new content buyers with global reach and enormous purchasing power, securing the rights to foreign content for Canada is getting ever-more expensive.
“Last May, we were in Los Angeles buying our foreign television content,” said Bell Media president Mary Ann Turcke to the commission panel. “There were three shows that we were bidding on and Netflix was the competitor – a competitor…
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TORONTO — Since launching five years ago with 11 full-time employees, under the leadership of Canadian TV industry veterans Jay Switzer and David Kines, commercial-free movie service Hollywood Suite has slowly but surely been growing.
After rejigging its original studio-focused channels a year ago and rebranding them as a quartet of decades-focused channels in anticipation of the rollout of the pick-and-pay regime, company executives believe the company is well positioned for the new market reality of a la carte TV channel choice.
Despite continuing to be small in stature, now employing 14, Hollywood Suite’s success shouldn’t come as too…
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GATINEAU – The demise of Shomi has raised a number of questions regarding the future of domestic streaming services in the face of competition from global competitors such as Netflix, including some from CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais today. But for Rogers Media, it means that partnering with global giants might be the best approach going forward.
Rick Brace, president at Rogers Media, noted during the company’s appearance before the CRTC’s major English language broadcasters licence renewal hearing, that while shomi was a response to Netflix, it quickly became apparent that the cost to acquire programming was escalating quickly and the…
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OTTAWA – Three Canadian programs won the Shaw Rocket Prize for best in kids and youth programming as well as the best in digital experience at an industry gala held this week in Ottawa.
DHX Media’s Kate & Mim-Mim and Slugterra (pictured) plus Breakthrough Entertainment’s Anne of Green Gables each won a $25,000 prize after earning the most votes by children from across the country.
"On behalf of the Shaw Rocket Fund, we would like to congratulate Kate & Mim-Mim, Slugterra and Anne of Green Gables for producing quality kids and youth television shows which incorporate innovative digital experiences that Canadian…
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OTTAWA – The Wireless Code plus customer service improvements by the country’s wireless and Internet providers helped to cut telecom service complaints for a third straight year, the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) said Thursday in its annual report.
The report, Guidance In A Sea Of Change, showed that the CCTS received 8,197 customer complaints in 2015-16, down 18% from 9,988 in 2014-15, and that it increased its resolution rate two points to 89%. Wireless services complaints once again topped the list with 50.3% of all complaints, followed by 26.5% for Internet, 19.6% for local telephone service and 3.6%…
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LAVAL — After a day of pushing major French-language television broadcasters to justify their demands for fewer regulatory burdens, the CRTC pushed the other way on Wednesday, for interest groups to justify the need for regulatory intervention as Canadians increasingly get their audiovisual content from unlicensed sources.
“I see a representation of a corporate interest, but not necessarily from the person that the CRTC must serve, the TV viewer,” chairman Jean-Pierre Blais told the Association québécoise de la production médiatique, one of many production groups to present at the licence renewal hearing in Laval, north of…
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Also offers up new best practices: PIAC says not far enough
GATINEAU – While noting Canadian subscription TV carriers are operating within the rules, the CRTC made the unprecedented decision to renew the large carriers' broadcast distribution undertaking licenses for just a single year, as opposed to the usual seven-year term.
To the CRTC, this continues its efforts to put consumers at the centre of the Canadian broadcasting system. In the November 21 decision, the Regulator offered what it sees as the best practices that broadcast distributors should undertake to ensure that Canadians are aware of small basic packages, their limits and offers related to them.
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TORONTO – Tickets are now on sale for next month’s CTAM Canada Broadcaster Forum.
Scheduled for December 1 starting at 1:00 PM at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto, the fourth annual event will focus on Innovation in the Pay TV ecosystem and offer five distinct sessions including exclusive, Canadian-specific market research, two moderated panels of industry leaders, and a Q&A between Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien and CBC’s EVP English Services Heather Conway. A networking reception will follow the event.
Session #1: Technology & Television Innovation – “The requirement to stay relevant”
Industry professional Norm Lem…
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TORONTO – Farewell Wind Mobile and welcome Freedom Mobile.
The once plucky wireless upstart, now owned by Shaw Communications, announced the rebrand Monday morning in Toronto plus committed to launch LTE service in Toronto and Vancouver on November 27 using its AWS-3 spectrum band. LTE service will expand to all of the Greater Toronto Area and Greater Vancouver by spring, while Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton will join by summer. The company’s remaining 3G coverage areas (including southwestern Ontario, the Hamilton-Niagara corridor, Barrie, Kingston and Peterborough) will join by the Fall. LTE roaming will be available in the U.S. and Canada in early…
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Minister Bains wouldn’t say, except perhaps between the lines
OTTAWA – It’s been nearly seven months since Bell Canada announced an agreement to buy Manitoba Telecom Services for $3.9 billion and still there has been no official word from the federal government on what it thinks of the deal.
The Competition Bureau is the primary regulator Bell has to satisfy with this purchase, but since the Bureau doesn’t do public hearings the way the CRTC does, we really don’t know what it is telling BCE officials about the deal, or the questions it has, but the six-plus…
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