DENVER – Looking towards the future, two cable industry standards groups have adopted two different sets of technical specifications aimed at spurring the industry’s deployment of all-fibre networks.
In late December, the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) finally approved its Radio Frequency over Glass (RFoG) standard after more than two years of discussion and sometimes testy technical debates. The new RFoG specs enable cable operators to extend fibre lines all the way to homes and businesses without needing to switch out their existing headends, back-office systems, set-top boxes, cable modems, or other equipment. As a result, MSOs now have…
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OTTAWA – Let’s not get lost in the weeds, Canadian broadcasters have told the CRTC.
With respect to calls for more specific Canadian content spending requirements suggested by some parties to the group-based licence renewals of the private broadcasters, broad and flexible rules will do a much better job than micro-managing the broadcasters’ Cancon spending obligations – and any requirements to spend additional money on Canadian content should be rejected, say those broadcasters.
CTVglobemedia, Rogers Media, Shaw Media and Corus Entertainment argue that many, particularly those from the creative sector, are trying to re-write the rules by requiring specific spending obligations…
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“WE’RE AT SUCH A significant spectrum disadvantage, we think government should level the playing field,” says Globalive CEO Tony Lacavera about the wireless auction of 700 MHz spectrum, expected in late 2012.
So significant is that disadvantage, the federal government should set aside all of the spectrum and bar any wireless company which holds 800 MHz spectrum (each of the big incumbents, that is) from participating in the 700 auction.
“We know we’re making a pretty significant ask here, but on the other hand, the incumbents have incredible swaths of spectrum,” added Lacavera (whose wireless company operates as Wind, of course)…
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DENVER – Upstream channel bonding – meaning far faster uploads – is coming to cable.
With DOCSIS 3.0 now passing an estimated 75 million homes in North America and set to pass another 10 million households by the end of the year, U.S. and Canadian cable operators have been steadily offering higher downstream data speeds to broadband subscribers. Thanks to the wideband spec’s channel-bonding capabilities, at least six North American MSOs offer peak downstream speeds of at least 100 Mbps today, including Videotron and Shaw Communications.
Upstream data speeds have lagged behind, though, due to a lack of upstream channel-bonding. As…
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OTTAWA – The incumbent wireless operators want a straight-up winner-take-all auction (mostly).
Those newer to the wireless game want some protective rules in place. They say some restrictions (set asides, caps) are needed in order for them to be able grab a slice from the lucrative, high quality, 700 MHz wireless spectrum to go on auction likely in 2012 or 2013.
In November, Industry Canada launched a consultation on a technical framework to auction spectrum in the band 698-806 MHz (also known as the 700 MHz band). Comments were sought on general policy considerations related to commercial mobile broadband spectrum…
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OTTAWA – TV and film production stakeholders are urging the CRTC to not lose sight of its Canadian programming expenditure (CPE) benchmarks when considering the group-based licence renewals of the large, vertically integrated, broadcasters.
The Canadian Media Production Association tells the Commission that it shouldn’t acquiesce to any demands to deviate from its proposed 30% CPE requirement and argues that the CRTC should reject outright broadcasters’ demands to have CPE requirements lower than 30%.
“Since the broadcaster groups all compete for the same types of programming (both Canadian and foreign) and for the same advertisers, they should all be…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications recently added a couple of new executives, one to oversee its wireless push, and promoted a pair of others.
The company has named Jay Mehr to senior vice president, operations for Shaw Communications with responsibility for all of Shaw’s distribution activities including Shaw Cable, Shaw Business, Shaw Satellite and Shaw Wireless.
Cam Kernahan has been promoted to group vice president, wireless and business with responsibility for Shaw’s wireless product launch and the Shaw Business organization.
Jim Pitt has been hired as vice president, operations – wireless (he replaces Lawrence Cooke, with whom Shaw parted ways in January). Pitt…
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CALGARY – Shaw has selected the ten winners of its Amazing Family Reunion contest after receiving over 5000 nominations.
Launched last November, the contest asked Canadians to create a virtual scrapbook page sharing their story of why they would like to reunite their family. Ten deserving families – from Victoria and Surrey, BC; Edmonton and Red Deer, AB; Saskatoon, SK; Thunder Bay and Port Perry ON; and Wickham, QC – were chosen by a panel of judges to create their dream family reunion valued up to $25,000.
The Amazing Family Reunion contest is the latest initiative in Shaw’s ‘Together is Amazing’ charitable…
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OTTAWA – Three major actors in the Canadian broadcasting sector say they are bullish on the future of the system in the face of new technologies and changing consumer TV viewing behaviour.
CBC/Radio-Canada, Astral Television Networks and Shaw Media said they have taken steps to ready themselves for new consumer content consumption behaviour resulting from new mobile technologies and other emerging platforms. They noted they did this even in the face of a significant advertising downturn resulting from the global financial recession.
During a panel moderated by former Global TV News anchor Kevin Newman, representatives from the three companies…
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OTTAWA – Broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs) say they need greater regulatory flexibility to offer on-demand services to compete with over the top service such as Netflix, particularly if they continue to take eyeballs away from conventional distributors.
This was the one primary messages to come out of a session on over the top (OTT) services at the Canadian Media Production Association’s annual Prime Time event in Ottawa last week.
David Purdy, vice-president of video product management at Rogers Cable, insisted that OTT services will have an impact on the Canadian broadcasting system and as a result, it’s only fair…
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