OTTAWA – The CRTC should amend the Broadcasting Distribution Regulations to stipulate distributors must make monthly, rather than just annual, contributions to the Canadian Television Fund (CTF), the all-party Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage recommended in a report released this week.
That was one of six recommendations contained in the report, entitled The Future of the Canadian Television Fund. It includes dissenting opinions from the Bloc Quebecois and Conservative Party members. The report was tabled on March 21.
The Standing Committee under recommendation number one strongly condemns the actions of Shaw Communications Inc. and Quebecor Media – both of…
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CALGARY — Shaw Communications announced Wednesday it has expanded its Shaw digital phone service to Chilliwack, B.C.
Currently, more than 250,000 Canadians have Shaw’s digital phone service, according to Shaw Communications Inc. President Peter Bissonnette.
Like other Shaw Digital Phone customers, Chilliwack residents have the choice of two home telephone plans: Shaw Digital Phone, which includes unlimited long distance calls within Canada and the U.S. and 1,000 minutes per month of international calling to 50 countries; and Shaw Digital Phone Lite, which doesn’t include long-distance.
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DEJA VU IS A CURIOUS THING. It happens sporadically to most of us where we think "hey, I’ve been here before."
It often feels like that time is now in the media/telecom space: That we have been here before, riding a weird, growing technological and services wave. Just like the late 1990s and into 2000-’01 it seems like we have every company (some really big, some really small) going a million miles an hour in every direction all at once.
Back then, AOL bought (snicker…) Time Warner, CanWest bought The National Post and what was the Southam newspaper group…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has launched a public proceeding to set out rules regarding the installation of a network interconnection device (NID) when the incumbent local exchange carrier’s (ILEC) network is disconnected from the inside wire at the home of a residential customer who has elected to take a cable telephone service and no longer wishes to use any services provided on the ILEC’s network (Telecom Public Notice 2007-3).
The commission is asking for comment on whether a NID should be installed at the premises of a residential customer when no such device is present; should the cableco or…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) is opposing a bid by Shaw Communications to get regulatory approval to both offer and charge customers for content and advertising from non-Canadian sources on its Shaw on Demand VOD service.
The CAB says Shaw’s proposal could result in U.S. studios, especially those vertically integrated with a non-Canadian TV channel, withholding VOD rights from Canadian programmers even though the same program airs on both a Canadian and non-Canadian TV station.
The organization of private broadcasters also charges the non-Canadian TV channels would expect to receive something of value, such as increased…
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GATINEAU – Leave it to the mavericks at Shaw Communications to best articulate how carriers feel about granting analog channels preferred status once digital migration occurs.
In its intervention, which opposes all of the applications, Shaw’s senior vice-president of corporate and regulatory affairs Ken Stein writes: "Shaw considers that the Digital Migration proceeding and the subsequent gazetting of applications for mandatory digital carriage on basic has been a colossal waste of time and energy for Shaw. Shaw’s request for packaging flexibility to serve consumers and meet unprecedented competitive challenges, all of which will strengthen the system and protect it…
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THE SESSION ON WHAT TV distributors think of content and its changing place in their business plans was a popular session at the Canadian Film and TV Producers Association annual Prime Time conference in Ottawa three weeks ago.
As we noted in part one last week, the great big elephant not in the room was a cable company. Moderated by Peter Lyman, senior partner, Nordicity Group, the panelists included Chris Frank, vice-president, programming and pay-per-view, Bell ExpressVu, Michael Hennessy, vice-president, broadband and video policy, Telus (and former head of the Canadian Cable Television Association); Tom Laird, general manager, digital…
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CALGARY – DTH provider Star Choice said today it is launching the World Fishing Network, GolTV, and five new high definition channels.
On March 15, 2007, WFN and Gol will take their places on the Star Choice lineup while on March 22 superstation WGN HD and 24/7 HD channel HDNet will be turned on.
In May, the Shaw Communications-owned satellite company also plans to launch three new French HD channels from Astral Media: Canal Vie HD, Series+ HD, and Z télé HD.
Pricing and packaging of the HD channels will be announced later.
www.starchoice.com www.wfn.tv www.goltvcanada.com…
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ENTITLED "BDU CONTENT Strategies: Can Cable and Phone Companies Do Their Own Thing?", the session on what TV distributors think of content and its changing place in their business plans was a popular session at the Canadian Film and TV Producers Association annual Prime Time conference in Ottawa two weeks ago.
The elephant not in the room, however? A cable company. But one former cable guy spoke for the industry anyway. Moderated by Peter Lyman, senior partner, Nordicity Group, the panelists included Chris Frank, vice-president, programming and pay-per-view, Bell ExpressVu, Michael Hennessy, vice-president, broadband and video policy, Telus; Tom…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications launched its voice over IP services, Shaw Digital Phone and Shaw Digital Phone Lite, in Vernon, B.C., this week.
The service includes local phone service, popular calling features, anytime calling at 4 cents per minute within Canada and the US and 50 other international countries for as low as $29.95 per month.
Shaw Digital Phone is a primary home phone service that uses Shaw’s secure managed broadband network, not the public Internet, which enables Shaw to offer a consistent level of quality and reliability to its phone customers.
www.shaw.ca
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