TORONTO – Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. (MTS Allstream) has joined with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and The Blackstone Group L.P. to jointly submit an application to bid as a new entrant in the Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum auction, it was announced Monday.
The consortium stated it had made a $340 million deposit in letters of credit to Industry Canada. MTS Allstream, CPPIB and Blackstone will each own one-third of the new entity.
If the consortium is successful in acquiring spectrum licences, it is anticipated that Andre Tremblay, founding CEO of Microcell, will lead a team…
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GATINEAU – Reply comments filed with the CRTC on Friday on its broadcasting distribution undertakings and specialty services policy review don’t show anyone has changed their minds. They’ve mostly dug right in, as expected.
(And, we’ll set aside the fee for carriage debate right away for this particular piece. Over-the-air broadcasters and producers who look to see more funds flow their way want consumers to pay a fee for conventional TV stations. Cable and satellite companies do not. We’ll dive deeper into the issue in a later story.)
This story, however, is a tale of two extremes. We looked…
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OTTAWA – The answer to the question of what’s going to happen to the Canadian Television Fund won’t be coming from the CRTC after all.
Less than two weeks after hearings into the fund and a CRTC task force report written on it late last year, the federal government announced late Wednesday it will decide what to do.
In her speech marking the opening of the Canadian Film and Television Producers Association 2008 Conference, “Prime Time” Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages, Josee Verner said that while it wants recommendations from the CRTC, which took…
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GATINEAU – “The CTF is gratified that the great majority of interveners strongly support the Canadian Television Fund and emphasize that one of the Fund’s greatest strengths is its adaptability to new challenges faced by the industry,” said Douglas Barrett, chairman of the board of the Canadian Television Fund, in closing the week-long hearing on the future of the fund today.
“When considering changes to the industry’s funding system, the most critical objective is ensuring that, given that the competing demands of stakeholders in the production, broadcast, and distribution system, the interests of the Canadian public, including both taxpayers…
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OTTAWA – The new Canadian Centre for Child Protection’s fight against the sexual exploitation of children received significant support from the Government of Canada this week with an investment of $2 million in new funding for the Centre over the next two years.
"This announcement is another concrete action that our government is taking to protect children from online adult sexual predators, and to prevent them from being sexually abused,” said the Honourable Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety, in a press release.
“This funding follows an investment we provided the RCMP to combat child sexual exploitation, as well…
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HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of new dollars could pour into the Canadian television system under a new fee-for-carriage plan proposed by Canada’s two main private broadcast networks.
Rivals CTVglobemedia and Canwest made a little history Friday by filing a joint submission to the CRTC’s review of its policies governing broadcast distribution undertakings (cable and satellite companies) and specialty services. Those hearings are set to begin April 7th.
Saying conventional television – thanks to the ever-increasing rate of audience fragmentation driven by specialty services and new media outlets – is in “crisis”, the broadcasters want the Commission to add a subscriber…
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TORONTO – Canada’s High Fidelity HDTV Inc. has signed on London-based TVF International as its international distribution partner for programming produced by the broadcaster’s production entity, High Fidelity HDTV Media Inc.
The agreement was unveiled Tuesday at Real Screen in Washington.
Along with about 70 hours of already produced programming, TVF will have the first option for distribution of High Fidelity’s yearly production slate, and will play a role in sourcing international co-production financing.
HD productions include Secrets of the Exhibit (7 x 60), about the secrets behind orderly, perfectly labeled museum displays; Oasis Earth (1 x 60), which…
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TORONTO – After securing carriage on Shaw Cable, Star Choice and Cogeco Cable, Teletoon Retro, a digital channel launched less than two months ago, already has over 4 million subscribers.
That’s within anvil-tossing distance of some analog stations, like BNN, which has just over five million, for example.
The rapid build-up can likely be traced to the channel’s decision, as we reported here, to request digital basic carriage in exchange for very low wholesale rates (free for a year, six cents the following year and five cents for the next three years). So for the BDUs that carry…
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IN 2003, WHEN THE HOUSE of Commons Heritage Committee issued the “Our Cultural Sovereignty” report (better known as the Lincoln Report) it recommended that “the existing foreign ownership limits for broadcasting and telecommunications be maintained a current levels.”
At that time, the then Canadian Alliance Party, whose leader was Stephen Harper, put out the following dissenting opinion: “The Canadian Alliance disagrees with (this recommendation). The Canadian Alliance supports relaxing foreign ownership rules on Canadian industry, including telecommunications and broadcast distribution. We suggest conducting an immediate review to determine whether to reduce or completely remove these rules.” Those very same…
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TORONTO – Shawn Redmond has been promoted to vice-president, marketing at TSN Phil King, president of the network, announced today.
Reporting to King and effective immediately, Redmond will oversee the overall consumer marketing strategy for TSN and digital sports networks NHL Network and ESPN Classic.
In his role, Redmond is responsible for consumer advertising, on-air promotions, communications, research and special events, helping TSN maintain its brand strength.
Redmond (pictured) will also manage relationships with TSN’s various sports partners and rights-holders.
He joined TSN in 2005 as senior marketing manager, where he led the integration of the market Continue Reading
