OTTAWA – Canada’s publicly traded television service providers combined lost almost six times more TV subscribers in the first half of 2015 compared to the same period in 2014, and almost double what they lost in all of 2014, according to new research released Wednesday.
Ottawa-based research and consulting firm Boon Dog Professional Services also found that BCE, Rogers, Shaw/Shaw Direct, Vidéotron, Cogeco, Telus, and MTS (IPTV subscribers only) combined lost approximately 113,700 TV subscribers in their respective fiscal 2015 first and second quarters, up significantly from the 19,200 lost in the same quarters in 2014, and almost double…
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TORONTO – The CBC is refusing to air two advertisements sponsored by watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting which challenge the government’s budget cuts to the national public broadcaster, saying it could imply endorsement of the group’s campaign.
The ads "are intended to hold the Harper government to account for the damage it has done to the CBC”, claims Friends in a statement. The first ad features person-in-the-street comments from non-actors about why the CBC is important to them, and to Canada.
The second ad, according to Friends, relies on satire to make a point. In the ad, a…
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TORONTO – Corus Entertainment has announced that Teletoon Retro will cease to exist as of September 1st.
The company's Cartoon Network Canada will be shifted into its place for those TV providers who don’t already carry that channel, two carrier sources have told Cartt.ca. Both sources asked not to be named as they do not have permission to speak publicly on the matter but have been told by Corus representatives that is the plan.
While some had assumed that the channel would be rebranded as a Disney service, since Corus now owns the rights to that programming going forward and will…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU — After months of public consultation, the CRTC has put the finishing touches on its regulatory policy concerning so-called hybrid video-on-demand (hybrid VOD or HVOD) services, issuing today a revised exemption order for VOD undertakings that takes effect immediately.
In Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2015-355, the CRTC defines the newly created HVOD service category and outlines the rules that apply to HVOD services, explaining how they will be exempt from having to meet the specific regulatory requirements relating to financial contributions to and library space for Canadian programming that are applicable to traditional licensed VOD services.
To qualify for…
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TORONTO, OTTAWA, WINNIPEG and REGINA — Signalling its exit from the wireless network market in the prairie provinces, and just days after it made the original applications, Wind Mobile’s proposed sell-off of AWS-1 spectrum to Manitoba Telecom Services (MTS) and SaskTel was approved by Industry Canada on Friday.
In separate announcements, MTS said it will pay $45 million to buy 15 MHz of paired AWS-1 spectrum in Manitoba from Wind Mobile, while SaskTel will acquire six licences of paired AWS-1 spectrum in Saskatchewan for an undisclosed sum.
Industry Canada approved the two spectrum licence transfer deals Friday morning, publishing its separate…
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JOIN BILL ROBERTS (former president and CEO of VisionTV) in an exclusive Cartt.ca podcast with Conway as she talks about CBC host firings, the effect of the CRTC’s Let's Talk TV policies, staff cuts, the future of streaming content, CBC Radio 2, ad sales, NHL hockey and more. To get right to the 32-minute interview done at the CBC headquarters, click here.
(Ed note: As a busy executive, Conway doesn’t have a ton of free time for media, so our preamble you’ll read below is taken from a post-podcast interview Roberts did with her to finish…
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TORONTO — Describing it as functioning much like an “app store” for Internet of Things (IoT) technology, Telus announced Wednesday its IoT Marketplace hub has doubled in size since launching in December 2014, now offering more than 75 turn-key IoT solutions from 25 partners.
The Telus IoT Marketplace provides Canadian businesses with an online catalogue of ready-to-implement wireless network solutions that can simply be added as a monthly charge to their Telus bill, “dramatically simplifying the complexity and reducing the deployment time of IoT technology”, Telus said in a press release.
“IoT has clearly captivated Canadian business leaders by demonstrating…
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BURNABY, BC — The Telecommunications Workers Union, United Steelworkers National Local 1944 Unit 60 have reached a tentative agreement with Shaw Cable, after six months of negotiations and extended bargaining.
“I am pleased our bargaining committee has reached a tentative agreement with Shaw. I wish to thank the members of Unit 60 for their support and solidarity for our bargaining committee who worked tirelessly to reach this deal,” Lee Riggs, President of the TWU, USW National Local 1944, said in a press release.
USW National Local 1944 Unit 60 represents more than 500 members across the B.C. Lower Mainland who…
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OTTAWA – Canada’s largest communications companies acknowledge that high speed Internet is now critical for Canadians to participate in the digital economy, but they remain divided as to whether the basic service objective (BSO) should be amended to include broadband.
It’s already “self-evident,” according to Rogers Communications Inc., that broadband is a basic telecommunications service because Canadians require it to access government, health, education, business and entertainment services.
“High-speed broadband Internet access is a necessary prerequisite for Canadians to participate in the digital economy in a meaningful way and almost all Canadians now have access to this important service,” it writes…
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VANCOUVER – Rogers has begun activating some of the AWS-1 spectrum that it picked up from Shaw last month, announcing Thursday that wireless customers in BC and Alberta now have faster speeds and higher quality mobile video.
With this spectrum, which has been unused since 2008, Rogers said that it has doubled the speed that customers can get on its AWS LTE network in the two provinces. The full spectrum is first being activated in Calgary, Edmonton, Medicine Hat, Kelowna, Prince George, Vancouver and select other communities, with the remainder of the spectrum being activated by mid-2016.
"Today we're opening more lanes on…
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