OTTAWA – Globalive Communications Corp., the Yak-led consortium, which had boasted of becoming Canada’s fourth national carrier, appears to have a gaping hole in the province of Quebec as bidding activity peters out in Canada’s auction for advanced wireless services in the 2 GHz range.
“Globalive has as close to a national license as anyone, but Quebec is a hole for them,’’ says Evan Kelly, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP’s national communications industry leader. “They’ve backed off. Quebec is one of the regions where there are no multiple parties going after licences anymore, so it seems to have settled.’’
With 135 rounds…
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TORONTO – The Association of Electronic Journalists (RTNDA) announced its new board of directors on Tuesday, after elections were held over the weekend as part of the organization’s national conference in Ottawa.
The newly elected board consists of:
President Cal Johnstone, A-Channel
Vice-President, Radio Jason Moore, CKLW
Vice President, Television Renato Zane, OMNI Television
Treasurer Andy LeBlanc, CTV
International Representative Terry Scott, The Canadian Press
Past President Bob McLaughlin, CP24/CTV
RTNDF President Ken Kingston, CJFX-FM
Awards Chair Michael Fulmes, Global Television
Conference Chair Peter Angione, A-Channel
Atlantic Directors Radio Sheldon MacLeod, CKBW
Television Nancy Waugh, CBC Television
Central Directors…
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CAMPBELL RIVER, BC – The board of directors of the Campbell River TV Association (CRTV) announced Monday that they unanimously support Shaw Communications’ offer to purchase the community-owned cableco.
Subsequently, a voting package was sent to all CRTV members, including a voting proxy that can be mailed in or brought to a special meeting on July 2.
The board of directors in a statement said “this has been a difficult decision,” but they “feel that this offer is in the best interest of all CRTV members.”
Cable 10 aired an interview with CRTV President John Kerr on Monday evening…
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OTTAWA – Shaw Communications won’t be carrying a third broadcast feed introduced by the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) in October 2006 to better serve western Canada, and this is causing some discrepancies in what’s on the air and the channel’s posted scheduling information.
“APTN has made every reasonable effort to inform cable and satellite providers serving the western provinces of these enhancements and has made numerous requests that they discontinue use of the APTN East signal and instead provide the more appropriate APTN West signal to viewers situated west of the Manitoba/Saskatchewan border,” the broadcaster…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC said today that while many things should change about the Canadian Television Fund, Shaw Communications and Quebecor Media still have to pay into it – and in a timely manner.
And, while the Commission also said it would alter the BDU regs to make monthly contributions to the CTF mandatory, the report says it won’t make that move until the federal government has dealt with the substantive issues covered by the report.
That means distributors could still choose to withhold monthly payments in favour of quarterly or annual ones until Heritage Minister Josee Verner and…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC will make public its recommendations for the future of the Canadian Television Fund at 2 p.m. today.
It’s a story Cartt.ca has been following closely for about 18 months and the release should be a sensation at the Banff World TV Fest beginning this weekend in the Alberta town (Cartt.ca will be there, of course, covering that gathering).
In December of 2006, cable companies Shaw Communications and Quebecor Media decided to withhold their contributions to the fund, citing numerous issues the companies had with the fund, from its corporate governance to the types of programming being…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC said today that while many things should change about the Canadian Television Fund, Shaw Communications and Quebecor Media should not be able to opt out of paying into it.
As reported today by Cartt.ca, The Commission today submitted its report on the CTF to the Minister of Canadian Heritage. It contains 11 recommendations relating to the CTF’s mandate and governance structure. (Click here to follow the links to the full background of this story.)
“It is our hope that the recommendations we have put forward will assist in resolving the issues surrounding the CTF,” said…
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OTTAWA – Despite an auspicious beginning, the Advanced Wireless Spectrum auction that began this week still has the ingredients for “both a robust auction process and a more competitive marketplace thereafter,” predicts the SeaBoard Group in a white paper released Wednesday.
The SeaBoard Group contends that Canadians have not lost the promise of more choice in cell phone providers and of lower cost services because of the seeming bidder disarray. It points out that 24 of 29 new-entrant bidders remain in the race.
The research firm predicts that Videotron and MTS Allstream, now bidding on its own, will bid…
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CAMPBELL RIVER, B.C – The Campbell River Television board of directors has called a special meeting for July 2nd to discuss details of an offer to purchase CRTV by Shaw Communications.
Details of the offer have not yet been made public but the 13,000 customer cable system could sell for over $20 million, given current cable valuations. The board said earlier this month it had had discussions with the big Calgary-based MSO.
“This is a critical meeting and members who wish to have input should appear in person or authorize a proxy for an immediate family member who…
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TORONTO – The charity event "Together for China – Earthquake Relief Telethon" brought to Chinese Canadians nationally on Friday by TV channels Fairchild and Talentvision, raised a phenomenal $2,286,300 across Canada.
The event was a national earthquake relief effort by Fairchild Television in partnership with the Canadian Red Cross featuring renowned performing artistes from Asia, Eric Tsang, Jackie Cheung, Alan Tam, Aaron Kwok, Hacken Lee and more popular singers from Hong Kong and representatives from Canadian organizations appealing and presenting pledges to help the earthquake victims.
The program was simulcast on Shaw TV Cable 4 and Shaw Multicultural Channel,…
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