GATINEAU – The press release headlines sound pretty good, but it’s in the conditions, the details, where all this talk of consumer choice and flexibility gets bogged down.
The three largest Canadian vertically integrated media and carriage companies (Bell, Shaw and Rogers) each issued press releases Friday – the day their submissions to the CRTC on its TV Policy Review were due – saying, and we’re paraphrasing here: “boy oh boy, are we consumer friendly and choice leaders!” The big three each said they support more pick and pay, or a-la-carte channel selection, so that Canadians…
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MONTREAL and TORONTO – Broadcasting and distribution behemoths Bell, Rogers and Shaw said Friday in press releases that they are advocates for more flexible packaging and channel selection options for Canadian consumers. The comments come as part of their respective submissions to the CRTC's Let's Talk TV consultation, (which Cartt.ca will be breaking down in a series of stories over the coming weeks, beginning Thursday).
Bell said that BDUs should have “continued flexibility” to include discretionary Canadian services in basic packages and offer a range of TV packaging options, while also having the ability to make all Canadian discretionary…
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MARKHAM, ON – Retired Rogers radio executive John Hinnen will receive the 2014 Hall of Fame Award from the Ontario Association of Broadcasters at the organization’s fall conference in October.
The OAB Hall of Fame Award honours private broadcasters who have devoted a substantial part of their career to the Canadian broadcasting industry and demonstrated a commitment to the highest standards of broadcast excellence and community service in their role.
Hinnen and his family emigrated from the Netherlands in 1960, arriving in Canada at Pier 21 in Halifax. As he learned English, Hinnen developed a love for the power of the…
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TORONTO – Wind Mobile Canada has never been so candid, or detailed, about its numbers.
During his luncheon keynote Tuesday, Wind CEO Tony Lacavera released subscriber, ARPU and various other metrics that make Wind, now with about 740,000 Canadian customers, look like a growing, viable, business – despite the hundreds of millions in debt owed from 2008 spectrum purchases and its network build since then.
But there’s a method to that data dump. Wind needs investors. With its foreign backer Vimpelcom having written Wind Canada’s value down to zero, that gave license to pundits, analysts and competitors…
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TORONTO – Wind Mobile chairman and CEO Tony Lacavera was on the attack again today during a luncheon keynote at CTS in Toronto, going after what he says are continuing anti-competitive behaviours of the big three wireless companies and suggesting further policy changes to the federal government.
However, Lacavera lifted the veil off of a range of Wind Canada financial metrics, too, today. So many in fact, it made us believe he is casting as wide a net as possible for more investors, or even preparing the company for a public offering.
Wind, as Lacavera’s speech also pointed out, is trapped….
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TORONTO – It’s not too late to register for the 2014 Canadian Telecom Summit which will kick off Monday at the Toronto Congress Centre in Toronto.
Now in its 13th year, the event has grown to become Canada's most important annual telecommunications and IT event, attracting hundreds of attendees from around the world.
In addition to more than a dozen keynote addresses and some 50 panelists, the confab will include the popular Regulatory Blockbuster, moderated by Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien, plus keynotes from industry heavyweights such as Rogers’ president and CEO Guy Laurence, Shaw EVP and COO Jay Mehr,…
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BANFF – One in four Canadians is a 4 screen consumer; and Canada per capita is the number one user of Facebook. Close to 40% of us readily watch TV online and Millennial YouTube and iTunes stars are popping up everywhere, exploding the old definition of TV.
So these are unsettling times for conventional Banff World Media Fest summer camp types that remember the good old days of The Banff Park Lodge (and tube-TVs…)
But that needn't be the case.
Jennifer Dettman, executive director, studio and unscripted content for the CBC, tells us that the Mother Corp is on the cusp of great…
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DENVER and TORONTO – World Fishing Network posted the highest single-month viewership in the history of the network during the month of April as part of its North American free preview.
Overall, WFN said that it experienced a 265% increase in average audience viewership in the U.S. during the preview period. Participating providers included Antietam Cable, Bright House Networks, Cablevision (Optimum), CenturyLink, Cox Communications, DISH, MetroNet and Verizon FiOS.
In Canada, Access, Bell, Cablevision du Nord du Quebec, Cogeco, Eastlink, MTS, Rogers, SaskTel, Shaw Cable, Shaw Direct, Source Cable, TBayTel, Telus, Videotron and Westman participated in the preview. While Canadian television…
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TORONTO – Last week the three largest private English language broadcasters all laid down their cards and showed their hands for the upcoming fall TV season.
While some of what we heard and saw was predictable (Rogers is hockey mad, Shaw’s Global is drama-happy and Bell took a shot or two at the amount of money Rogers spent on hockey…), there were some surprises, as well. The biggest is that Rogers has compressed what it considers Citytv’s prime time from 8 to 10 p.m. only, leaving the 10-11 hour primarily to CTV and Global (and CHCH, too).
What’s the deal at…
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BANFF – On Sunday, seven wise folk sat as a panel to road-map what the future holds for our business.
These were: moderator Peter Sussman, executive director of Aver Media Finance (part of BMO); Jeremy Butteriss of Google Canada; Walter Levitt the CMO of Comedy Central; Kirstine Stewart the managing director of Twitter Canada; John Morayniss the CEO at EOneTV; Peter Schube the president and CEO of Jim Henson Co.; and Barbara Williams, Shaw Media's content SVP.
Let's make it clear that Williams (right) was just kidding when she exclaimed she only needed a job for three more years, so could…
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