By Ahmad Hathout
Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) approved Thursday the extended use of the extended Ku (xKu) band for direct-to-home satellite broadcasting service (DTH) for at least another decade.
The department will allow Telesat to continue providing the service to Shaw Direct, which parent company Rogers uses to provide television services to some consumers and other broadcasters, until November 2039. In 2010, ISED forbade Telesat from continuing to carry DTH services in the band after January 1, 2028.
Telesat had requested the extension in December and, in filing the supporting intervention, Rogers warned about the negative impact…
Continue Reading
Damian Abraham, frontman of Canadian punk band F*cked Up, and International Digital Emmy-winning producer Zach Feldberg have partnered to launch Cut & Paste Pictures.
The Toronto-based production company is entering the market with a slate of projects in development, spanning scripted and unscripted formats, and a feature documentary currently in production.
“Focusing on bold, voice-driven projects rooted in music, counterculture, and outsider perspectives, Cut & Paste champions unconventional stories with wide audience appeal,” reads a Wednesday press release announcing the prodco’s launch.
The creative partnership between Abraham and Feldberg combines their backgrounds…
Continue Reading
Vancouver-based Magnify Digital on Wednesday announced New Zealand’s national Māori screen content funder, Te Māngai Pāho, has signed an agreement to deploy Magnify Digital’s audience intelligence platform, ScreenMiner, across funded Māori productions.
The agreement will make ScreenMiner available to 150 projects annually, giving producers access to consolidated quantitative metrics and structured qualitative audience feedback to inform strategy and strengthen audience growth, Magnify Digital said in a press release. Te Māngai Pāho will receive standardized reporting and portfolio-level insight across participating titles, it added.
“We invest in stories that promote Māori language and culture, but we…
Continue Reading
Bell said Thursday that its 5G+ Advanced network is live across parts of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.
The network is powered by Bell’s 5G standalone core and delivers greater capacity, lower latency and theoretical peak download speeds of 4.3 Gbps, its fastest yet, the telco said in a press release.
The service is currently live in Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Hamilton, Markham, Vaughan, Oakville, Richmond Hill, Burlington, Oshawa, Whitby, St. Catherines, Milton, Ajax, Pickering, Grimsby, Thorold and Niagara Falls.
Bell said it is expanding the service into the Niagara region, “bringing next-generation mobile performance to more communities across Ontario’s fastest-growing areas.”
The…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
Quebecor’s mobile wireless segment reported positive monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) growth on a year-over-year basis for the first time since the Freedom Mobile acquisition in April 2023.
ARPU was $35.23 in the fourth quarter, up 1.4 per cent or 48 cents, against the same quarter the year prior. Since the acquisition of Freedom from Shaw, mobile ARPU was consistently down against their comparable quarters, despite sequential improvements in the metric for every quarter in 2025 leading up to the final three months.
The company attributed the improvement this time around to lower promotional discounts and customers moving…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers is warning Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) that if the department forces direct-to-home satellite broadcasting services (DTH) off the extended Ku (xKu) band, then its ability to provide broadcasting services to rural and remote communities will be negatively impacted.
Rogers, through its Shaw Direct brand, uses a direct-to-home satellite broadcasting service (DTH) that is powered by Telesat’s Anik G1 satellite using the xKu band in the 11 Ghz frequency, which also allows the cable giant to deliver services to third-party broadcasters, who also service these remote areas.
But there’s a problem: as a condition of Telesat’s licence…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers wants the CRTC to revisit an October decision approving a tariff that would force the cable giant to go through Telus to get compensated for moving its transmission lines at the behest of government entities, claiming that this would drastically reduce the amount third parties get for relocation.
Being forced to go through Telus to get compensated for moving its transmission lines – as opposed to directly negotiating with the government – will mean being undercompensated because Telus can only negotiate with the government the cost of moving its own transmission lines and not those of third-party…
Continue Reading
Toronto-based Cantina Media, a Serial Maven Studios production company, and Brighton, U.K.-based Big Wave Entertainment announced Monday a new premium wildlife series, Baby Elephant School, has been co-commissioned by Channel 4 and CBC as a U.K./Canada treaty co-production.
Filming is now underway in Sri Lanka at the world’s largest baby elephant sanctuary, Udawalawe Elephant Orphanage, a joint press release said.
Baby Elephant School is being produced in distinct versions for international broadcasters. The U.K. version (four episodes x 60 minutes) for Channel 4 is hosted by Welsh wildlife biologist and elephant researcher Lizzie Daly, while the one-hour…
Continue Reading
The Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) received a record number of complaints from telecom and TV customers this past fiscal year, with billing problems continuing to be the leading complaint issue, according to the CCTS’s annual report published early Wednesday.
Between Aug. 1, 2024 and July 31, 2025, the CCTS accepted 23,647 complaints from customers across Canada. This represents a 17 per cent increase from the previous year and is the highest number of complaints accepted in the CCTS’s history.
The top 10 issues raised across all service types were: incorrect charge for…
Continue Reading
By Connie Thiessen
Corus has announced a major plan to reorganize its finances that could save the media company up to $40 million in annual cash interest payments.
If the plan is approved by the courts and shareholders, Corus says it will cut its third-party debt and other liabilities by over $500 million.
The proposed “recapitalization transaction” is a complex debt-for-equity swap designed to stabilize the company’s financial foundation. It comes on the heels of last week’s fourth-quarter earnings release, which saw revenue decrease 14 per cent for the quarter and 11 per cent for the year, primarily due…
Continue Reading
