MONTREAL – Bell TV is facing a class action lawsuit over its late fees.
According to a statement by Montreal-based law firm Paquette Gadler Inc., the suit is open to all persons who have paid late fees since June 1, 2010 as part of a contract for television services with Bell ExpressVu.
The statement claims that Bell ExpressVu levied an annual interest rate of 42.58% on late payments, a 58% increase compared to the annual interest rate of 26.82% charged to customers prior to June 1, 2010.
Describing the new late fee interest rate as “abusive”, the statement continues that this suit…
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VANCOUVER – Canadian crime drama series Endgame premiered for U.S. audiences this week on Hulu and the Hulu Plus subscription service.
Produced by Thunderbird Films in association with Front Street Pictures, the series stars Shawn Doyle as a former world chess champion who uses his analytical skills to solve crimes. It premiered in March 2011 on Shaw Media-owned Showcase and earned five Gemini nominations, but was not renewed for a second season.
Lionsgate acquired the series for North American distribution, and Endgame is distributed internationally by Endemol.
"The emergence of new digital partners like Hulu has dramatically extended the longevity and significantly increased the syndication…
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TORONTO – Rogers Media has named Christos Nikitopoulos as vice-president of revenue planning and strategy, effective immediately.
Nikitopoulos was most recently VP of sports at Shaw Media, and VP of programming and revenue planning at Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium. Reporting to Shannon Valliant, VP of financial operations, he will lead the development of a centralized revenue planning and strategy team that will work across Rogers Media’s television, publishing, digital and radio platforms to deliver maximum yield and growth for the company’s assets.
“As Rogers Media continues to drive the individual and collective expansion of our powerful brands, Christos brings added…
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TORONTO – History Television has rolled out a new marketing campaign around three of its top series and one new one using its “Born to” tagline.
The four week, national campaign targets adults 25-54 across multiple platforms in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton. Building on the channel’s Fall marketing blitz, the campaign centres around the new series Around the World in 80 Ways plus Canadian Pickers, American Restoration, and IRT Deadliest Roads: Andes. The creative features the series’ hosts in their natural environments and the consistent use of the headline “Born to…” across all executions.
It also an on-air component across…
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LAS VEGAS – The last decade in consumer electronics (CE) has been one dominated by the digital transition of music, film, and tape. The next era in CE will be characterized by leveraging the potential of these digital devices by creating vastly improved user interfaces (UI).
This was one of the key predictions made by Shawn DuBravac, the Consumer Electronic Association’s chief economist, during the CES 2012 pre-show press event in Las Vegas on Sunday.
Ironically it was Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer who made a very similar prediction two full years ago as the keynote speakers at CES 2010. At the time…
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TORONTO – Shaw has tweaked its Global TV video app for viewers looking to extend their mobile viewing experience to a bigger screen.
The app now uses Apple’s AirPlay video streaming technology to wirelessly stream select shows from a users’ iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to their television via Apple TV. The device can then be used like a remote control to rewind, fast-forward, or for video navigation to find other Global content.
The upgrade makes Shaw Media the first private broadcaster in Canada to support AirPlay capabilities in its mobile application.
The company said that the free app has been downloaded 720,000…
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REGINA – It’s been an jarring 18 months for SCN, the former Saskatchewan provincial public broadcaster, and viewers in the province.
Back in the first half of 2010, the government there decided to close the channel down, citing a need to cut costs and get out of non-core government initiatives such as television few seemed to watch. However, just before the government faded it to black, Bluepoint Investments, which is headed by advertising executive Bruce Claassen, stepped into the breach and paid $350,000 for the operation.
The CRTC approved the transaction in late 2010 and altered the…
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OTTAWA – BDUs must provide at least 60 days notice to broadcasters before changing their terms of carriage, packaging or retailing of any programming service, the CRTC has reiterated to carriers in a letter this week.
The Commission drove home this point, originally set out in Broadcasting Public Notice 2005-35, at the behest of the Independent Broadcast Group/Le groupe de diffuseurs indépendants (IBG/GDI). In a letter to the CRTC, one that also copied vertically integrated companies Rogers, Bell, Shaw and Quebecor, the group expressed concern that the notice policy might be discounted by the big BDUs.
“If adequate notice is not provided,…
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TORONTO – Global News and Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) are joining forces on a partnership designed to improve journalism in Africa.
Over the next year, Global News will deploy six of its journalists to JHR's offices across Africa for three weeks at a time. While there, they will assist JHR's team to train local journalists to report on human rights and governance issues more effectively.
"We are honoured to be partnering with Journalists for Human Rights to create a program that will both further the cause of democracy and provide our journalists with an opportunity no other broadcast organization offers,"…
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CORD-CUTTING, OR SHAVING, could take a big, 1.7-billion-dollar bite out of Canadian television distribution revenues by 2017, according to a new report from RBC Capital Markets.
While that sounds pretty painful, the reports authors call that a modest hit to an industry which pulls in some $10 billion annually. The real challenge will be after that, during what they call the 2017-’19 inflection period, where cord-cutting could really accelerate, especially if over-the-top video services grab much more of the premium programming and the traditional industry isn’t proactive.
“Prior to our OTT inflection period, we do not expect the financial impact of…
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