TORONTO – As Shaw Communications continues to examine its new TV broadcasting division, the former Canwest Global, a number of executives will be leaving the company, or have had their roles downgraded, Cartt.ca has learned.
According to sources, among those departing are long-serving executives Brett Manlove, VP of Global TV’s British Columbia stations and general manager of Global B.C. (26 years); Karen Gelbart, SVP lifestyle specialty channels, who came to Canwest with the Alliance Atlantis purchase, a company she had been with since 1997; and Patrick O’Hara, vice-president of Global TV’s eastern stations and general manager of Global Toronto (20-plus…
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TORONTO – Comedy-focused Bite and music service AUX have launched on Shaw Direct, owner Glassbox Television announced Monday.
Together with their recent carriage on Shaw Cable, the availability of Bite and AUX has increased by an additional 2 million households across Canada. Bite is available on channel 368/68 (Classic/Advanced) and AUX is available on channel 585/269 (Classic/Advanced).
“With the myriad of choices available, it takes creativity and new thinking to come to carriage agreements that make business sense for both partners,” said GlassBox co-CEO Raja Khanna, in the announcement. “We are delighted that these two GlassBOX services, which are focused…
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CALGARY – Shaw wants to be invited to your next family reunion.
On the heels of its Fill the Food Banks campaign, Shaw has launched the Amazing Family Reunion contest as the next initiative in its ‘Together is Amazing’ charitable campaign.
The contest, which kicked off on Monday and runs through January 15, 2011, invites Canadians to create a virtual scrapbook page sharing their story of why they would like to reunite their family. Ten winners will be chosen by a panel of judges and will create their dream family reunion, each valued up to $25,000.
"We want to bring people…
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CALGARY – Shaw and its partnering organizations have more than doubled their goal of raising one million pounds of food for registered food banks across Canada, prompting the company to donate $250,000 in cash to the cause.
The Fill the Food Banks initiative, the first launched under Shaw’s ‘Together is Amazing’ charitable campaign, ran from September 20 – November 15. Shaw matched 350,000 pounds and Campbell Canada matched 300,000 pounds of food as part of the national food giving program which also included Safeway Canada. Including the matching 650,000 pounds of food, the final total came to 2,612,633 lbs of…
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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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