OTTAWA – When Shaw Communications purchased Canwest Global’s TV assets last year, the Competition Bureau gave the transaction its blessing.
The Bureau’s statement on that deal said: “this transaction would not likely give rise to a substantial lessening or prevention of competition,” and rubber-stamped it.
No such simple approval was forthcoming from the Bureau today when it commented on the acquisition of CTV by BCE. Instead, it seems worried about the extent of vertical integration among big media companies and distributors in Canada. While the statement from Commissioner of Competition Melanie Aitken said “at this time”, the Bureau doesn’t have…
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OTTAWA – Shaw Media wants to take a crack at sports broadcasting, while Astral hopes to add two new French-language services to its roster, according to 19 new broadcasting applications made public by the CRTC on Friday.
Shaw Media Sports will be an English-language category two channel airing competitive mainstream sports specialty programming, reads the application. Astral has asked for a channel called Investigation that will be devoted to exploring justice and forensic science, legal and police investigations, fraud and swindling, espionage, major trials and forensic pathology. It has also filed an application for a channel called Tendances which promises programming on fashion,…
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LOS GATOS, CA – Netflix has done so well since its launch in Canada four months ago that it is planning to expand in to a second international market later this year.
In a letter to shareholders earlier this week detailing the company’s Q4 financial results, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings described the company’s Canadian results as “excellent”, and predicted that the service will have between 750,000 and 900,000 Canadian subscribers by the end of March, 2011.
While Netflix declined to specifically break out the current number of Canadian customers, it did report 3.08 million new subscribers overall in its fourth…
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OTTAWA – BCE insists that it does not have to pay tangible benefits on its proposed acquisition of CTVglobemedia, noting requiring it to pay a second time is inconsistent with Commission policy.
In reply comments, the company argues that it paid a $230 million benefits package in 2000 when it first acquired CTV and despite the decision to sell an 85% stake in the broadcaster in 2006, it never relinquished control and therefore shouldn’t be required to pay again.
“If the Commission were to require that the same acquirer (BCE) pay tangible benefits on the same assets (CTV) on…
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TORONTO – Global Television’s original drama series Combat Hospital has been picked up by ABC, Shaw Media said Monday.
The 13 episode series, the second Global series to be picked up by the U.S. network, will air in simulcast with ABC this summer (airdates TBC). Set in a hospital inspired by the Role 3 Multinational Medical Unit at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan, Combat Hospital charts the frantic lives of the hospital’s resident doctors and nurses from Canada, America, the UK and other allied countries.
“With the record setting success of Rookie Blue, we’re looking forward to partnering with ABC on another…
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U.S. CABLE OPERATORS likely ended up generating a record US$5 billion in commercial services revenue in 2010, up 25% from $4 billion in 2009, according to the latest data (figures in US dollars).
What’s more, the three largest American MSOs all scaled the $1 billion threshold for business services revenue for the first time last year. In December, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Cox Communications all indicated that they would easily clear the $1 billion mark for 2010.
Speaking at a Light Reading conference on cable business services in New York recently, Craig Collins, senior vice-president of services sales and marketing…
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MARKING A STUNNING break with the past, North American cable operators are now embracing telco-like PON (passive optical network) technology to deliver multimedia services over fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) networks.
In a key move signaling this change, CableLabs recently announced that it would shortly issue a new set of standards for leveraging Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) technology on fibre lines. The planned new specs are designed to provide a common way of using DOCSIS provisioning and back-office systems for supporting EPON-based fiber networks. Known as DOCSIS Provisioning of EPON (DPoE), the specs are intended primarily for commercial-class IP and Ethernet…
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THE CRTC MUST ENSURE that independent broadcasters have sufficient access to distribution in the wake of the BCE Inc. proposed acquisition of CTVglobemedia, say those ‘casters.
As well, the Commission has to force BCE to pay the full benefits to producers in the form of 10% of the transaction’s entire $3.2-billion value, say some of those producers. These are two of the critical issues that the CRTC will have to stickhandle once it begins hearing arguments on the proposed transaction on February 1st.
Generally, Bell’s fellow distributors are in favour of the transaction. But they say that safeguards need to…
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“COME WITH ME. I’LL show you why I wanted to be president of the CBC.”
Those were CBC president and CEO Hubert T. Lacroix’s first words to me last week as we sat down in the meeting room overlooking the Montreal skyline and St. Lawrence River at Radio-Canada’s headquarters. I jumped to my feet and followed him into his office.
Just inside his door is a headless mannequin dressed in a whimsical suit, topped with a bowler cap. “It might be a bit before your time but do you know who this is?” he asked me, excitedly. I wrack my brain…
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TORONTO – Shaw Media has named Jamie Schouela as VP of marketing , where he will oversee the marketing, publicity, and creative efforts for Global and the company’s 19 specialty networks.
Schouela has more than five years of experience overseeing the marketing and publicity efforts for Shaw Media’s conventional network, Global. Before that he spent seven years with Alliance Atlantis leading image and show specific campaigns across its stable of specialty channels.
“We are confident that Jamie’s experience, coupled with his passion for our business will enable him to…
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