WHEN NBTEL FIRST CAME to market in 1998 with a digital TV product serving customers in Moncton and Saint John, N.B., the cable industry laughed.
Sure, it was all-digital television, but each TV needed its own set top box, channel-changing latency was a problem and due to the limitations of the early ADSL technology it used, all the TVs in the house had to be tuned to the same channel. Fine for homes without a second TV, but not so much for most folks.
At the time, NBTel (which is now Aliant) was the North American leader on the…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – The owners of Bridges TV took their fight for carriage on Rogers Cable to the media late on Wednesday.
An incendiary press release from the English-language Muslim specialty service obviously meant as an unvarnished public attempt to bully the cable company into capitulation, says that by not letting Bridges TV into its channel lineup Rogers is ignoring and discriminating against the Muslim community, is censoring Islam and disrupting dialog between the Muslim community and all Canadians.
By not adding American-owned Bridges TV, Rogers may even be at fault for the fact Muslims in Canada "continue to bear…
Continue Reading
REGINA – On Friday, the Access Communications Children’s Fund and the WHL team the Regina Pats will launch the new “Brady Brady, Make Reading a Fun Goal” literacy program.
The goal of the program is to encourage young students to read. The program is supported by the donation of complete sets of the new Brady Brady children’s books to all elementary schools in communities served by Access Communications across Saskatchewan. The Regina Pats players will support the program by reading the books to students during school visits in Regina. The program is being launched in Regina first, with other…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – After already having launched on Rogers Cable, Shaw Cable and Bell ExpressVu PPV, Cogeco Cable has also added Survivor: Cook Islands to its on demand lineup.
Starting with tonight’s episode (October 12), Cogeco digital cable customers will be able to see the show on VOD the day after it airs by purchasing it, commercial-free, for 99-cents.
Rogers, Shaw and ExpressVu, however, are offering the show on demand immediately after it airs on Global Television while Global itself is offering the episodes the next day for free on the web.
The latest and the prior three…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Survivor: Cook Islands fans have nothing to complain about if they miss their Thursday at 8 p.m. date.
Global Television today announced the show will be made available online at www.globaltv.com, joining prime time game show Deal or No Deal as the latest U.S. primetime series to be added to the network’s online programming library. Canadian original offerings on the site include: Global National with Kevin Newman, Global Currents, Falcon Beach and The Jane Show.
"The launch of the globaltv.com premium video player is a successful continuation in the network’s broadband video rollout – the free,…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – The Canadian Television Fund (CTF) on Friday announced the election of two independent directors to its board: Michel J. Carter and Anne-Marie Jean.
Jean is a former television producer and currently serves as executive director for Culture Montréal. Carter is an experienced finance and broadcasting executive and former president and CEO of TQS Inc. and Cogeco Radio-Télévision Inc.
As part of its commitment to accountability and governance best practices, the CTF board screens all independent candidates to ensure they pass the CTF independence test, including Carter and Jean. In accordance with the corporation’s bylaws, the process includes…
Continue Reading
CANADIANS NEED TO PAY MORE for their TV, according to additional submissions to the CRTC on its conventional television policy review.
Filed last Wednesday three months ahead of the November 27th hearing, we could only plough through a few submissions at first, but having had a bit more time to read some more, it’s clear that TV distributors are in tough against many players who want to see wholesale subscriber fees paid to conventional broadcasters.
CTV, Quebecor Media (owners of TVA and Videotron), the Canadian Media Guild, ACTRA, and the Canadian Coalition of Audio-visual Unions all said they were…
Continue Reading
CALGARY – As if there aren’t enough gobblers on the TV schedule already, Shaw Cable will mark the Thanksgiving holiday with Turkey TV, a signature channel featuring all turkey, all the time, the company announced today.
Shaw customers can tune in to Shaw’s community cable channel for Turkey TV on Thanksgiving Day for "on-going coverage of exciting turkey action and entertain your family and friends with this exclusive, premiere holiday blockbuster," says the press release.
Turkey TV will offer non-stop coverage of "a beautiful, roasted turkey, surrounded by fresh greens, carrots and tomatoes in an open flame forno oven….
Continue Reading
CALGARY – As reported last month by Cartt.ca, Shaw Communications is dropping the Cancom name from its repertoire of brands, changing it to Shaw Broadcast Services.
The company also announced some other new names:
* Cancom Tracking, a leading provider of electronic on-board computing and communication solutions for the Canadian trucking industry, will be re-named as Shaw Tracking.
* Star Choice Communications, Canada’s second-largest DTH satellite television provider, will now be branded as Star Choice, a Shaw Company.
* Big Pipe, an operator of a national fibre-optic backbone network of data networking and Internet services, will change its name…
Continue Reading
HAVING WORKED IN ALL SECTORS of the TV industry over a number of years, one of the trends that was always in the back of Mitch Nadon’s mind was employee and executive training, recruitment and skill development.
The founder of MediaINTELLIGENCE has worked in production and post production, animation (Nelvana), and broadcast (CTV and TVOntario) in various roles, from management to production to regulatory. She has experienced how excellent companies, bosses and employees work and how lesser ones don’t work as well.
It’s a company’s employees who have the most direct effect on the bottom line and Nadon (pictured…
Continue Reading
