GATINEAU – Saying it is “shocked” and “appalled” at the CRTC’s decision to deny its $3.4 billion purchase of Astral Media, Bell Canada says it isn’t through with this fight yet.
"This is a decision that should not stand. Canadian consumers were told today by the CRTC that they don't deserve more – more choice, more competition, more Canadian content funding – all of which Bell and Astral committed to with this transaction," said George Cope, president and CEO of Bell Canada and BCE Inc. in a sharply worded statement released hours after the Commission decision was made public at…
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THE ASTONISHED FEEDBACK came fast and furious late Thursday as people tried to give voice to their feelings on the Commission decision to deny Bell Canada’s $3.4 billon purchase of Astral Media.
******************** “Like most observers, we had expected conditional approval,” said analyst Dvai Ghose of Canaccord Genuity in a note to clients. “This could also have implications for other potential media transactions such as Shaw-Corus, although in that case both entities are already controlled by the Shaw family. We also believe that the speculation of a Corus bid for Astral could rise and could be more palatable for regulators.
“While…
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ORLANDO – Look for the next generation of cable's DOCSIS broadband platform to support "multi-gigabit speeds" and be backwards-compatible with earlier DOCSIS versions, according to Phil McKinney, the new president and CEO of CableLabs.
Speaking on a cable technology panel here just prior to the annual SCTE Cable-Tec Expo show, McKinney said CableLabs and its members and vendor partners began working in earnest on the new DOCSIS 3.1 specification about two months ago. Although he didn’t spell out all of the technical details about the proposed standard, he said the aim of the new initiative is to boost MSO broadband…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC said Thursday that Corus Entertainment's OWN and G4techTV (co-owned by Rogers Communications with minority owner Comcast Corporation) specialty channels are not complying with their licenses and must tell the CRTC why those licenses shouldn't be revoked or suspended. The hearing is set for December 11 in Gatineau, Quebec.
As analyzed by Cartt.ca in August, Corus had filed an application to change OWN (the Oprah Winfrey Network which began life in 1999 as Canadian Learning Television) from a Category A service to a Category B service and to drop its educational…
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CALGARY- Children 12 and under can now cast votes for their favorite TV show through the 8th annual Shaw Rocket Prize and possibly win a $2,500 scholarship.
The Shaw Rocket Prize is one of the key initiatives of the Shaw Rocket Fund, a not-for-profit corporation that focuses on excellence in the production of children's programming. With an award of $50,000, the Shaw Rocket Prize is presented each year to an independently-produced Canadian children's, youth, or family program and its associated digital content.
By voting, children 12 and under are entered to win one of…
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OTTAWA – Allarco Entertainment, owner of SuperChannel, has lost its bid to have Shaw Communications’ Movie Club and Corus Entertainment’s Movie Central banned by the CRTC. At the heart of the complaint was a dispute over whether on-demand programming offered by Shaw Movie Club can be considered an on-demand extension of its linear service if it does not duplicate all of its linear programming.
The CRTC decision is a welcome one for Shaw which launched its Movie Club service last year in direct response to the increasing competition from…
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TORONTO – FX Canada debuts today on Shaw and Shaw Direct where subscribers can now view exclusive programming including award-winning series American Horror Story and Louie, cult comedies The League and Wilfred, and late-night shows Brand X with Russell Brand and Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell.
FX Canada is available to Shaw subscribers in standard definition on channel 156 (channel…
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TORONTO – Stephanie MacKendrick is calling it quits after more than 16 years at the helm of Canadian Women in Communications. She will be leaving the organization as president on December 1, 2012 to pursue new opportunities. She will remain involved in the organization as a Special Advisor to the Board.
The CWC also announced a number of “transformative measures“ it`s taking to “accelerate its position as the leading organization for women to advance and navigate their careers in Canada's media, communications,…
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TORONTO – As part of its major re-launch, specialty channel GameTV has announced a number of new executive appointments. To support the re-launch the channel has also unveiled a trade media campaign this week, with a consumer campaign planned for October 29th. The channel, owned by Insight Sports, launched in 2005 as Casino & Gaming Television. It was renamed GameTV in 2007 and is now available in 9 million households across Canada.
“We have assembled this stellar team to lead the re-launch of the GameTV brand across all aspects of the channel from sales and marketing…
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MY FIRST MEETING WITH SHAW Communications president Peter Bissonnette in the winter of 1998 seems like a lifetime ago. It was in Richmond Hill, then the home base of Shaw’s substantial Ontario cable operations. I think it was February.
This was before Bissonnette was even president of the company. Before Shaw and Rogers traded their Ontario and British Columbia cable systems to each other. Before Izzy Asper and JR Shaw split up WIC (Western International Communications). Before the Shaw family spun its media assets into Corus Entertainment. Before a Jean Monty-led BCE bought CTV the first time, claiming – a…
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