WINNPEG – Shaw Media has signed a new, one year partnership with the National Screen Institute that it says is worth $200,000.
This agreement sees the return of the $1,000 Shaw Media Fearless Female Director award in the NSI Online Short Film Festival and a brand new course, the Shaw Media Diverse TV Director program, which will launch in early March. The course is designed for participants with directing experience who are interested in directing scripted television and includes an intense ‘bootcamp’ in Toronto plus a four week director job shadowing experience on the set of a…
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OTTAWA – Bell Media’s Mary Ann Turcke has been named Woman of the Year by Women in Communications and Technology (WCT).
Turcke, pictured, began her career at Bell as VP of customer experience and operations for Small & Medium Business in 2005 and was later promoted to EVP of field services in 2008. In 2014, she was appointed group president of media sales, local TV and radio at Bell Media where she oversees almost $2 billion in media sales across multiple platforms as well as local TV and radio in English Canada. Turcke also serves on the boards of Maple…
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TORONTO – Global Television has partnered with online food delivery service JUST EAT to celebrate the 25th season of The Simpsons.
The three week campaign, which launched February 16, uses JUST EAT branded promo spots on air to encourage fans to vote online for their favourite episodes of the adult animated sitcom. The interactive round-robin tournament will consist of three rounds, and the final 16 episodes will air on Saturday, March 7 and Sunday March 8 from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM ET/PT.
“Fans of The Simpsons have an appetite for punchy humour and memorable experiences. Our partnership with JUST EAT offers…
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OTTAWA — Bell Media has asked the CRTC to dismiss a complaint filed last week by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and Consumers’ Association of Canada (CAC) that called into question the tied selling of Bell’s CraveTV streaming service to existing TV subscription services.
And in a separate procedural request submitted to the CRTC today, Telus (one of CraveTV’s distributors) asked the Commission “to either return the CraveTV application to PIAC-CAC in order for deficiencies to be remedied or to close the file.”
As reported last week, in one of two applications submitted to the CRTC on February 6,…
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OTTAWA — The CRTC announced Thursday it is closing the file on a complaint from the Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) regarding various cable carriers’ wholesale high-speed access (HSA) services, and directed CNOC and the cable carriers to address outstanding issues through bilateral discussions or the CRTC Interconnection Steering Committee (CISC).
In Telecom Decision CRTC 2015-40, the CRTC further directed CNOC and the cable carriers in question to submit a report, within 90 days, on the state of progress in resolving these issues. The cable carriers who were specifically included in CNOC’s original complaint, first submitted to the CRTC…
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TORONTO — Following on its exclusive deal last summer to distribute WWE’s flagship programming in Canada, Rogers announced today it has reached carriage agreements for WWE Network with multiple television providers.
Rogers became the exclusive Canadian distributor of WWE Network through 2024 in a 10-year broadcast and multimedia agreement reached with WWE in August.
In addition to Rogers and Eastlink, the premium WWE Network linear TV channel will soon be available to Cogeco Cable Canada, Shaw and Shaw Direct, Telus Optik TV and Telus Satellite TV, and Vidéotron subscribers. (In a Rogers press release issued today, no word was…
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OTTAWA – A number of independent ISPs are telling the CRTC that Shaw Communications’ proposed wholesale broadband rate increases are out of whack with economic reality. They say if the Commission adopts these rates, they may in fact have to choose not to compete in Shaw territory.
In its January 6 Tariff Notice 22 filing, the Calgary-based media and communications giant is seeking approval for new Third Party Internet Access (TPIA) service speeds and rates. The increases in TPIA rates range from a low of 21.8% to a high of 127.7%. For example, the 7.5 Mbps service…
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CALGARY — Shaw Communications announced Wednesday it will reorganize its customer service operations over the next 11 months, a move affecting 1,600 employees at its Calgary, Edmonton and Kelowna customer contact centres, which are scheduled to close in the next year.
Shaw’s customer care operations will be realigned around its expanding contact centres in Victoria, Vancouver, Winnipeg and Montreal. Shaw’s contact centres in Nanaimo and Mississauga are not affected by these changes, Shaw said in a news release.
As part of the move, Shaw’s Edmonton contact centre operations and part of its Kelowna operations will be closed in June, and…
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TORONTO — Shaw Direct satellite TV customers will soon be able to watch exclusive live matches, tournaments and worldwide sporting events thanks to the addition of beIN Sports to Shaw Direct’s channel lineup.
beIN Sports provides live games, original sports programming, news and highlight shows with in-depth analysis of worldwide sporting events, leagues and tournaments. According to a beIN Sports news release, Canadian sports fans will now receive unrivalled coverage of top soccer leagues, including Spain’s La Liga, Italy’s Serie A, France’s Ligue 1, England’s Football Championship and the 2015 Copa America tournament, along with other exclusive soccer matches…
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LAST WEEK WE SPECULATED that the big, vertically integrated Canadian telecom, cable, wireless and media companies could get out of media.
We talked to a few broadcasters who spoke on condition of anonymity who angrily wondered – with the CRTC apparently not listening to their concerns about costs, nor about being able to use their content as a point of differentiation with wireless or broadband customers while also taking simsub away, at least for the Super Bowl – why should carriers continue to own broadcasters?
The answer is cash flow, capex and a lack of available suitors.
Bell…
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