BANFF – Vertically integrated media companies in Canada are essential to the long term health and viability of the Canadian production industry, delegates at the 2011 Banff World Media Festival heard Sunday afternoon.
Speaking at a panel discussion called ‘Canadian Media Leaders: The State of the Nation’ here on opening day, it wasn’t a shock that representatives from Bell Media, Rogers Media and Shaw Media took that tack. But it was somewhat surprising that CBC and Astral, neither of whom is affiliated with a BDU, would agree so readily.
“There’s a lot to be said for how’s this industry has been working…
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BANFF – CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein is one busy guy these days – just ask him. “We have a hearing virtually every month which is unheard of”, he told Cartt.ca on Monday morning at the Banff World Festival.
A few of the biggest broadcast-related issues on his plate at the moment – the pending digital transition and the impact that the over-the-top services are having in Canada – figured prominently in his annual breakfast speech to delegates here on the confab’s first full day.
Congratulating the country’s TV broadcasters on their efforts to date to comply with August 31st deadline,…
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TORONTO – Shaw Media announced today it has made a couple of new hires in its marketing department.
Sherida German has been appointed to the newly created role of senior director, marketing, Global News. In this role, she will oversee all news marketing and community relations strategy for the Global stations across the country, as well as Global National. German first the company in 1998 and most recently negotiated the largest co-marketing initiative in the company’s history with Johnson & Johnson’s brand Motrin, which resulted in brand exposure for TVtropolis and Wipeout Canada in 1,400 major national retail outlets.
She will…
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WOODSTOCK, NB – Xplornet Communications has acquired more than 1,300 satellite broadband subscribers predominantly in Alberta and B.C. from NetKaster, a division of Northwestel, the companies announced Friday. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
These subscribers will migrate over to Xplornet’s network and packages starting in July.
“This kind of acquisition speaks to our aggressive growth model and follows on other similarly successful acquisitions”, said Xplornet CEO John Maduri, in the announcement. “More importantly, these new Xplornet subscribers will see the benefits of Xplornet’s 24/7 customer service, our coast to coast dealer network and constantly upgraded network. We look…
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OTTAWA – Bell’s decision to repackage Canadian specialty channel The Cave while continuing to distribute its own like-minded service and a comparable foreign service smacks of undue preference and disadvantage, the CRTC ruled Friday.
The Cave (formerly known as Men TV) is a category 1 specialty service controlled by Quebecor’s TVA Group and licensed to Shaw Television. Quebecor filed a complaint with the Commission last December over Bell’s decision to repackage it from the ‘Lifestyle 2’ package, where it had been for the past eight years, to the ‘Variety 3’ package, alleging an undue disadvantage and an undue preference…
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TORONTO – Telus customers will soon be able to use Skype on their smart phones and purchase Skype credits through their Telus accounts. In addition, Telus will launch the first Skype edition smart phone in Canada, the LG Optimus Black, the companies announced Thursday.
Skype is a software application that allows users to make low cost voice and video calls and chats over the Internet. With 663 million registered users as of 2010, the company was acquired by Microsoft for US$8.5 billion last month.
Telus said that its partnership with Skype will allow customers to make unlimited Skype-to-Skype voice calls and instant…
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HALIFAX – Global Maritimes is bringing back Ron Kronstein as its new senior anchor as it overhauls its evening news programs.
Kronstein will host both the New Brunswick Evening News and the Nova Scotia Evening News, which make their debut on June 13 at 6pm AT. Reporter Marie Adsett will move to the anchor chair to helm Global Maritimes’ hour-long News Final program at 11pm weeknights, while anchor/reporter Rebecca Lau will take over responsibility as anchor of the Weekend News while continuing to report during the week.
A veteran reporter, producer and anchor, Kronstein has more than 25 years of television experience,…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is asking for comments on a proposed code of best practices for access programming on cable community channels.
The code, available here, was submitted by the Cable Industry Working Group which was assembled last August and includes representative from Rogers, Shaw, Cogeco, EastLink, Quebecor and the CCSA.
The deadline for submitting comments is September 6, and replies are due by September 16, 2011.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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CALGARY – Shaw officially unveiled its new broadband plans Tuesday after announcing last month that it planned to boost its bit caps.
The company is offering two new Internet packaging and pricing options. The first allows customers to keep their existing Internet packages and receive higher data levels at no extra charge. For example, customers with Shaw High Speed Internet will see their monthly data levels increase from 60 GB to 125 GB per month.
The second includes new broadband packages for customers who require greater data levels, and can be subscribed to on their own or bundled with phone or…
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TORONTO – Shaw Media has tapped digital media measurement and research company Rentrak to provide on-demand audience measurement services for its Global Television Network and Food Network Canada.
"With on-demand advertising now part of Shaw Media’s broadcast sales offering, the granular data available through OnDemand Essentials will be invaluable as we seek to best understand the performance of our networks on the platform," said Errol Da-Re, Shaw Media’s SVP of sales, in the announcement.
Rentrak will provide daily, census-level on-demand data via its OnDemand Essentials service.
“We are proud to be working with Shaw Media as they utilize Rentrak’s third party reporting to…
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