Dear Greg,
MY COMPLIMENTS ON YOUR superb coverage of the 2011 Canadian Telecom Summit. I was hoping to grab a chance to speak while we were there, but we didn’t seem to cross paths. Maybe next time.
Regarding this article (CTS 2011: Don’t punish us for being early, good, says Telus’ McFarlane), I noted the following Editor’s Comment which I think it is important to correct:
"(Ed note: However, if Industry Canada likes Videotron’s other idea – to consider the HSPA network-sharing Telus and Bell, or “Belus” as Videotron CEO Robert Dépatie called them Wednesday – as a single entity, neither…
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TORONTO – It’s a message the entrenched telecom incumbents have been hammering home all three days of the 2011 Canadian Telecom Summit: Don’t hate us because we’re beautiful.
Okay, maybe “beautiful” is kind of a stretch, but executives from Bell Canada, Rogers and Telus are dying to make it clear to anyone who’ll listen that while they do have millions of subscribers and excellent profits, they have also been the ones who have taken most of the risks on wireless and other telecom investment in Canada – so how can that mean rules have to be built (like those to…
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TORONTO – Canadians are changing the way they consume Internet TV services now that they are connecting the Internet to their television sets, according to a new study from the Media Technology Monitor.
The report, The Rise of Netflix and How the Internet TV Market Has Changed, examines the shifts in the consumption of Internet TV plus the company that best symbolizes this change: Netflix. It predicts that with the underlying technologies to watch the Internet on a TV set already in many Canadian homes (e.g. broadband and a game console), the conditions are ripe for this consumer trend to spread rapidly.
Among…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Canada’s television services are back in business. CRTC figures released Thursday in a press release, (based largely on data from individual companies which we actually broke down here and here way back in January), show that the return of the advertising market translated into some, albeit modest, profits at conventional broadcasters, though the country’s specialty and pay broadcasters fared better.
According to the Commission’s count, revenue at the country’s private conventional television climbed 9% to approximately $2.15 billion in 2010 broadcast year, while expenses increased 1.7%. This resulted in profits before interest and taxes (PBIT) rebounding from a deficit of $116.6 million in…
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TORONTO – Robert Dépatie doesn’t exactly see eye-to-eye with Rob Bruce.
A day after Bruce, the president of the cable and wireless arm of Rogers Communications, called for no restrictions on the Canadian government’s upcoming auction of 700 MHz spectrum, Dépatie, the president and CEO of Videotron, called for definitive restrictions on the auction. Specifically, Dépatie made the case for an in-band spectrum cap for 700 MHz bidders while speaking at the Canadian Telecom Summit on Wednesday morning.
As the company has spelled out for Industry Canada as it prepares to write the rules of the 700 MHz spectrum auction,…
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TORONTO – Rob Bruce, the president of the cable and wireless arm of Rogers Communications, won’t be alone this week calling (as he did Tuesday opening the 2011 Canadian Telecom Summit) for a “fair and open auction” of the 700 MHz wireless spectrum.
We know enough of what the likes of Telus’ CFO Robert MacFarlane plans to say at lunch Wednesday and can hazard a guess that Bell CEO George Cope will follow up with a similar call on Thursday when he speaks to CTS delegates at the Toronto Congress Centre. The auction isn’t expected until 2012, but the…
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TORONTO – Bell Media ranked second in Canada for videos viewed in April, coming in only behind Google.
According to comScore’s April 2011 ranking, Bell Media was the only Canadian company in the top five highest-ranked companies by videos viewed. Video views to Bell Media sites were nearly 120 million, with more than 8.8 million hours of video consumed.
"Ranking up amongst the biggest on-line entities is a testament to the strength of Bell Media to compete not only as the #1 broadcaster in Canada, but as a powerful contender in the digital video marketplace," said Gary Anderson, head of Bell…
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TORONTO – Global News shed some light on its plans for the new morning news shows that it committed to as part of Shaw Communication’s purchase of its former parent Canwest Broadcasting.
The broadcaster said Tuesday that it has hired former Breakfast Television anchor Liza Fromer to front the Toronto edition of The Morning Show, which will debut early this Fall from a new street-front studio currently under construction on Bloor Street East in downtown Toronto. She will be joined by Dave Gerry, Kris Reyes, and two cast members to be announced at a later date.
New morning shows will also…
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TORONTO – In its effort to set universal broadband Internet speeds for all of Canada, the CRTC set far too low a target when it announced in early May in its "obligation to serve" proceeding decision it expects all Canadians to have access to 5 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds by 2015. That was the view expressed by at least two panel speakers at the Canadian Telecom Summit on Tuesday during the “Connecting Canadians” session.
“This is just my opinion, but I do think (the CRTC’s Internet speed target) is too low,” said Daniel O’Connell, president of…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has asked for comments as it ponders an exemption order respecting satellite relay distribution undertakings (SRDUs), and on the transport of Canadian pay and specialty services by SRDUs, whether licensed or exempt.
SRDUs are licensed undertakings that generally function as wholesalers by transporting broadcasting services and making those services available to broadcasting distribution undertakings (BDUs), which then offer them to subscribers. Canada currently has two licensed SRDUs – Shaw Satellite Services Inc., and Bell ExpressVu.
The Commission said Friday that it would like industry feedback on the following questions:
– Should the Commission exempt SRDUs from licensing…
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