GATINEAU – The CRTC has decided November 5th is the day it will hear why Corus Entertainment should be able to purchase French specialty channels Historia and Series+, three Ottawa radio stations and the piece of Teletoon (including its other animation brands) it does not yet own.
In March, Corus agreed to purchase the assets in question as part of the divestitures required as conditions of the Bell Media purchase of Astral Media. While it already held 50% of Teletoon/Télétoon (as well as Teletoon Retro in English and French, and the Cartoon Network) with Astral, it…
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TORONTO – Shaw Media is supporting today’s kickoff of its newest (read “TVTropolis rebranded”) lifestyle channel DTOUR with a national multi-platform marketing and advertising campaign.
Shaw's DTOUR specialty channel launched today with a national promo campaign that included blanketing Toronto's Bloor subway station (above) with images from various reality series, including this one from Continue Reading
TORONTO – While James Moore told Cartt.ca on Tuesday the 700 MHz spectrum auction will not be delayed – nor will the federal government be revisiting its wireless policies – Rogers Communications CEO Nadir Mohamed is equally strident saying he has “absolutely not” given up on convincing the Industry Minister and the Prime Minister’s Office to change their minds on both fronts.
“I still firmly believe the best answer comes from dialogue and debate and discussion, and that’s the process we’re in. There’s no question in my mind that there’s always time to make the right…
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INDUSTRY MINISTER JAMES MOORE has fair sized reservoir of stamina. After two full days of going west to east talking wireless with just about everyone who’ll ask for his time – and with three days of that still lying ahead – he sounded fresh and combative when it was our turn Tuesday afternoon to talk with him.
For readers not vacationing incommunicado for the past two months, Minister Moore has taken this week to tour the country to talk up the federal government’s wireless policies in the face of an all-out onslaught of sustained criticism from…
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CALGARY – The Alberta Flood Aid organization announced Wednesday evening that the Alberta Flood Aid benefit concert taking place at McMahon Stadium in Calgary on Thursday, August 15th will be broadcast and webcast live, commercial-free starting at 6 p.m. MT (8 p.m. ET) across Canada and around the world.
The star-studded 4 hour program, hosted by Brent Butt, can be seen live on the following outlets: * Omni Alberta Shaw Channels 4 (SD) and 214 (HD) (Calgary) * Omni Alberta Shaw Channels 11 (SD) and 214 (HD) (Edmonton) * Omni Alberta Telus Optik Channel 5 (SD) (Calgary and Edmonton) *…
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GATINEAU – With weeks to go before the Local Programming Improvement Fund gets cut in half, two independent television stations that rely on it are seeking access to a different fund designed to help small-market stations.
CJON (NTV) in St. John's, NL, owned by Newfoundland Broadcasting, and CHEK in Victoria, which is owned in part by its employees who bought it from Canwest, have asked the CRTC to add their stations to the Small Market Local Production Fund. The fund was established in 2003, to help compensate small-market stations for the audience fragmentation caused by direct-to-home satellite distributors. Funded by…
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BURNABY, B.C. – A telecom union which represents Telus and Shaw employees added its voice to the ongoing opposition to U.S. telecom Verizon's potential entry into the Canadian market, saying today that Canadians are being misled by the "mirage" that having a foreign carrier will mean increased competition and cheaper phone rates.
“Tempting voters with the lure of cheaper cell phone bills seems to be Mr. Harper’s plan, but it's a mirage. There is no guarantee of lower prices. It is a complete manipulation of the Canadian public,” said Lee Riggs, national president of the Telecommunications Workers…
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TORONTO – For as long as there has been cable television, the subscription has been tied not to the people paying the bills, but to the home, the physical place those people lived.
That’s changing rapidly.
Subscription TV customers are increasingly demanding they be able to take their content with them wherever they want, for viewing whenever they want, either streamed or pulled in on demand. Until very recently this was nearly impossible, but according to David Purdy, Rogers Communications senior vice-president of content, his customers will start seeing a lot more content available for multi-screen on demand viewing in –…
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NETWORK EXPANSION NEWS
Recent launches:
Telus invests $600,000 for coverage along Vancouver Island highway
COWICHAN VALLEY, B.C. – Telus announced today it has invested $600,000 to bring new wireless coverage to more than eight kilometers of the Island Highway between Shawnigan Mill Bay Road and Lakeside Road located on the southern part of Vancouver Island.
The project is part of the 10-year Connecting British Columbia agreement signed with the Province of B.C. in 2011. Under the terms of the agreement Telus will connect more than 1,700 kilometres of unconnected highways with wireless service.
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OTTAWA – Global satellite operator Telesat reported a 7% increase in consolidated revenue for its second quarter, driven in large part to the launch of its newest satellite into commercial service in May, the company announced Thursday.
For the quarter ended June 30, 2013, Telesat reported consolidated revenues of $216 million, an increase of $14 million compared to the same period in 2012.
Adjusted EBITDA was $172 million, an increase of 10%, or $16 million, over the same period in 2012.
Year to date consolidated revenues were at $435 million, an increase of $37 million…
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