THUNDER BAY – Add Tbaytel to the list of IPTV providers who credit the Microsoft Mediaroom platform for smoothing the way for the rollout of video services.
After selecting the Calix B6 Ethernet Service Access Node (ESAN) for the launch of its advanced IPTV services to residential subscribers in Thunder Bay, Canada’s largest independent telco added Microsoft Mediaroom-powered TV services to its list of services last November by leveraging VDSL2 and Active Ethernet fibre access technology.
Tbaytel president and CEO Don Campbell told Cartt.ca that the VDSL2 multi-year deployment is well underway, but that it will still take “a couple of…
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TORONTO – Canada’s broadcasters and telcos are rumoured to top the list of suitors interested in acquiring the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan’s majority stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.
The OTTP confirmed Saturday that it will “explore the possibility of selling” its 66% majority share of the sports and entertainment giant which reportedly includes more than a billion dollars worth of assets ranging from Air Canada Centre to the Toronto Maple Leafs to sports channels Leafs TV, NBA TV Canada and Gol TV.
The Toronto Star published a report last December claiming that Rogers Communications was in talks to buy the…
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TORONTO – Global News has been chosen as the 2011 recipient of the ‘Bill Hutton Award of Excellence’ from RTNDA Canada: The Association of Electronic Journalists.
Formerly known as the ‘Friend of RTNDA Canada Award’, the award was renamed in 2009 to honour the late Bill Hutton, RTNDA Canada’s first president. The award is given to individuals or organizations which have shown a true commitment to RTNDA and the betterment of broadcast journalism in Canada.
"I’m happy that Global News continues to be a loyal friend of RTNDA Canada”, said RTNDA Canada president Andy LeBlanc, in the announcement. “Global News and…
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TORONTO – Showcase has released a national consumer advertising campaign in support of its new original series Endgame in advance of its premier on March 14 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
At the cornerstone of the campaign is a street stunt which will see eight-feet high chess pieces displayed around high-traffic areas of the downtown Toronto core. Playing on the theme of the series, the king pieces, one black and one white, appear murdered: the white piece by hanging and the black piece by a knife, both branded with the Showcase logo and Endgame tune-in. The campaign also includes transit shelter ads…
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DENVER – Looking towards the future, two cable industry standards groups have adopted two different sets of technical specifications aimed at spurring the industry’s deployment of all-fibre networks.
In late December, the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) finally approved its Radio Frequency over Glass (RFoG) standard after more than two years of discussion and sometimes testy technical debates. The new RFoG specs enable cable operators to extend fibre lines all the way to homes and businesses without needing to switch out their existing headends, back-office systems, set-top boxes, cable modems, or other equipment. As a result, MSOs now have…
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“WE’RE AT SUCH A significant spectrum disadvantage, we think government should level the playing field,” says Globalive CEO Tony Lacavera about the wireless auction of 700 MHz spectrum, expected in late 2012.
So significant is that disadvantage, the federal government should set aside all of the spectrum and bar any wireless company which holds 800 MHz spectrum (each of the big incumbents, that is) from participating in the 700 auction.
“We know we’re making a pretty significant ask here, but on the other hand, the incumbents have incredible swaths of spectrum,” added Lacavera (whose wireless company operates as Wind, of course)…
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OTTAWA – Let’s not get lost in the weeds, Canadian broadcasters have told the CRTC.
With respect to calls for more specific Canadian content spending requirements suggested by some parties to the group-based licence renewals of the private broadcasters, broad and flexible rules will do a much better job than micro-managing the broadcasters’ Cancon spending obligations – and any requirements to spend additional money on Canadian content should be rejected, say those broadcasters.
CTVglobemedia, Rogers Media, Shaw Media and Corus Entertainment argue that many, particularly those from the creative sector, are trying to re-write the rules by requiring specific spending obligations…
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DENVER – Upstream channel bonding – meaning far faster uploads – is coming to cable.
With DOCSIS 3.0 now passing an estimated 75 million homes in North America and set to pass another 10 million households by the end of the year, U.S. and Canadian cable operators have been steadily offering higher downstream data speeds to broadband subscribers. Thanks to the wideband spec’s channel-bonding capabilities, at least six North American MSOs offer peak downstream speeds of at least 100 Mbps today, including Videotron and Shaw Communications.
Upstream data speeds have lagged behind, though, due to a lack of upstream channel-bonding. As…
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OTTAWA – The incumbent wireless operators want a straight-up winner-take-all auction (mostly).
Those newer to the wireless game want some protective rules in place. They say some restrictions (set asides, caps) are needed in order for them to be able grab a slice from the lucrative, high quality, 700 MHz wireless spectrum to go on auction likely in 2012 or 2013.
In November, Industry Canada launched a consultation on a technical framework to auction spectrum in the band 698-806 MHz (also known as the 700 MHz band). Comments were sought on general policy considerations related to commercial mobile broadband spectrum…
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OTTAWA – TV and film production stakeholders are urging the CRTC to not lose sight of its Canadian programming expenditure (CPE) benchmarks when considering the group-based licence renewals of the large, vertically integrated, broadcasters.
The Canadian Media Production Association tells the Commission that it shouldn’t acquiesce to any demands to deviate from its proposed 30% CPE requirement and argues that the CRTC should reject outright broadcasters’ demands to have CPE requirements lower than 30%.
“Since the broadcaster groups all compete for the same types of programming (both Canadian and foreign) and for the same advertisers, they should all be…
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