OTTAWA – Canada’s top two communications industry regulators lamented the fact that they don’t have the appropriate tools to deal with a rapidly changing marketplace.
CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein and Helen McDonald, assistant deputy minister at Industry Canada, were speaking on a panel of regulators at the International Institute of Communications annual conference in Ottawa earlier this week (where Cartt.ca was the media sponsor).
McDonald said that for the department to more effectively manage scarce spectrum resources, legislative changes are in order. She pointed to secondary market trading for spectrum as an area that would run much more efficiently…
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Perry Hoffman
OTTAWA – Broadcasters and digital media companies still haven’t yet found the secret formula on how to make money from digital content, the International Institute of Communications Canadian chapter conference heard earlier this week.
Raja Khanna, co-CEO of broadcaster GlassBOX Television, said after years of trying to make money from digital content using a variety of business models, it’s become clear which models don’t work. While some of the business models may have started to crystallize, now “we can, in black and white, see how we’re not going to make money,” he said during a panel session on…
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JAY SWITZER IS ABOUT to find out if Canadians want to accept an invite into his new Hollywood Suite.
That’s the name Switzer, the former CHUM Ltd. CEO, and David Kines, another former CHUM executive (who was EP of the just-wrapped Gemini Awards) have given their new company, which is about to launch four new high definition movie channels: dubbed at their license approvals: Velocity, The Love Channel, Kiss, and Adventure.
The independent broadcaster will officially launch in the coming days, announcing key people, branding and programming, aiming at an April 2011 launch with Canadian carriers.
Switzer and…
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OTTAWA – Well known communications lawyer Chris Johnston died Tuesday at his home in Ottawa. Johnston, 75, was diagnosed with cancer in April this year.
Johnston was appointed as General Counsel of the CRTC in 1974. In 1980, he partnered with Robert Buchan and Charles Dalfen to found the Ottawa-based telecommunications law firm of Johnston & Buchan LLP. That firm merged with Fasken Martineau in April 2007. While he officially retired in 2007, Johnston remained as a consultant to Shaw Communications over the last few years. In addition to Shaw, Johnston also counted WIC, Cancom, TSN, BC Tel, Pelmorex and…
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GATINEAU – Bell TV and Shaw Direct used the rebuttal phase of the CRTC’s Direct-to-Home (DTH) policy hearing to make new proposals in hopes of showing good faith to the Commission and Canadian broadcasters that they are willing to do more to carry local over-the-air (OTA) signals.
On Thursday, Shaw proposed to add six virtual channels in MPEG4 by August 31, 2011. To do this, the company will upgrade a transponder to MPEG4, which requires it to drop eight full-time channels. The addition of virtual channels would require Commission approval.
Jean Brazeau, Shaw Communications’ senior VP of regulatory affairs, noted…
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GATINEAU – Canada’s DTH carriers must do a far better job of carrying French-language programming in all regions of Quebec, said the Bloc Québécois, the syndicat des communications de Radio-Canada (SCRC) and the CBC, who spoke in near unison at the CRTC’s Direct-to-Home policy hearing on Wednesday.
The three groups each took their turn on November 17, calling on the Commission to force the DTH companies to carry more French-language programming than they currently do. They noted that while the various regional TVA affiliates are carried by both DTH companies, the lack of Radio-Canada carriage is disconcerting.
Bloc MP Carole…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications has announced that effective today (Wednesday), Brad Shaw is now its CEO.
The company said in an evening release: “Jim Shaw has advanced the company’s previously announced senior management changes to become effective today.”
"We are well underway in the integration of the Shaw Media assets and it became clear to Brad and I that it would be best for Brad to assume the role of CEO immediately so that he can move forward with the necessary decisions,” the release quotes Jim Shaw as saying.
The changeover from Jim to Brad was to occur during the company’s…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC kicked off hearings into the Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite TV policy yesterday with chair Konrad von Finckenstein questioning why Bell TV hasn’t yet started to transition to MPEG4, a move that would add more capacity to the company’s satellite distribution offering.
Under questioning from the chairman, Bell Canada acknowledged that it has yet to begin transitioning to the higher compression standard.
“We’re evaluating methods by which we may be able to stage that migration obviously because of the limited number of MPEG4 boxes that are in our installed base,” said Heather Tulk, senior VP of residential…
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OTTAWA – Mark your calendars for the hottest place to be this February – the CMPA’s Prime Time in Ottawa 2011.
Scheduled for February 16-18 at the Westin Ottawa, the conference is a national networking event for Canada’s business leaders, decision-makers and policy experts in the television, film and interactive media production industry.
The event will kick off with predictions from world-renowned keynote speaker Richard Tercek who has been dubbed one of the “Digital Dozen” to watch in new media. Delegates will also find out how consumers are consuming content. Are Netflix and YouTube the biggest game changers in Canada? What about…
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TORONTO – Bell Canada CEO George Cope couldn’t have been more blunt or matter of fact when asked about what the auction of 700 MHz wireless spectrum, which is expected in 2012. “It has to be a wide open auction,” he said. “There can be no discussion on this.”
Cope was speaking Tuesday afternoon at the Scotia Capital 2010 Telecom and Technology conference in downtown Toronto.
Cope spoke just after both Globalive (Wind Mobile) chairman Anthony Lacavera and Public Mobile CFO Jim Hardy had addressed the very same issue – albeit with different opinions than Cope, or earlier in the…
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