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…
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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…
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VANCOUVER – Telus launched a pair of products today that will help lost customers find where they’re going and let parents electronically track their kids.
Navigator and Kid Find are the two new GPS services that will help "consumers get increased peace of mind whether on the road, at the park or going trick or treating," said Robert Blumenthal, Telus senior vice-president of products and services, in a press release.
Navigator and Kid Find now operate throughout Telus’ 1X Digital PCS coverage area in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe region, which stretches from Oshawa to Kitchener, and…
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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…
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HALIFAX – Customers want to know they have choice in their TV channel lineups and programming selection, even if they don’t really intend to exercise that choice, EastLink co-CEO Dan McKeen told almost 50 people Monday morning at the first-ever CTAM Canada East Coast breakfast (which was sold out).
Held between EastLink’s very popular CSR programming training day on Sunday and the Nova Scotia cable company’s much-anticipated Fall Classic golf tournament Monday afternoon, the morning CTAM session saw a pair of programmers (Corus Entertainment VP Lisa Lyons and Turner Networks’ Doug Lindauer) face a pair of operators (McKeen and…
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IT’S NO WONDER THERE couldn’t be a CAB submission to the CRTC on the TV policy review.
While there is some agreement on what must be done to alter the course of conventional television in Canada, along side the regularly substantial chasms in opinion between the usual suspects – distributors and broadcasters – there are also substantial variances between fellow broadcasters on what must be done to secure the future of conventional television stations and companies.
So, for this most important of policy reviews, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters had to step aside and tell its members that since…
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GRAVENHURST, Ont. – As the only cable gathering in the country now, the 13th annual Canadian Cable Systems Alliance annual general meeting has this year attracted over 250 delegates, up from 180 last year.
Kicking off Sunday at the Taboo Resort with a relaxed, well-attended president’s reception, the AGM continued Monday morning with a four-hour table top trade show. Some of the vendors used the trade show to reveal a few new products aimed at the small cable system market (even though a couple of folks from Rogers and Cogeco also made the trip north).
TVC Canada unveiled its…
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WINNIPEG IS ONE OF THE HOTTER bundling battlegrounds in Canada.
While Shaw is the incumbent video provider and a nascent voice company in the Manitoba capital, MTS Allstream, the provincial telco (which is also a national wholesale and enterprise player) has claimed about 55,000 video customers with MTS TV in Winnipeg – the only city in the province in which it has a cable license.
Customers like the simple bill, the fact they can re-jig their channel lineups on screen or even see e-mails and caller ID on their TVs. Finally, last month, MTS TV added a key piece…
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OTTAWA – The VOIP decision will stand, with a "but".
Today the CRTC re-affirmed its May 2005 decision on voice over Internet protocol. Federal cabinet told the Commission in May of this year to reconsider that decision after all but one of Canada’s ILEC’s filed an appeal.
However, because of the sheer speed in which Canada’s incumbent local exchange carriers are losing customers, the Commission did signal it’s prepared to alter course when it deems necessary and will already re-examine its March 2006 decision on local forbearance.
Specifically, it "declared that competition in local telephone service is…
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WINNIPEG – So much for the DSL disadvantage.
Cable – and to a lesser extent, satellite – companies have long said one of the advantages they have over DSL-pushed digital television delivered over the telephone companies’ legacy systems was that the thickness of their pipe to the home could deliver HD while DSL could not.
Yesterday, however, MTS TV launched seven high definition channels for its customers in Winnipeg.
"Our HD service provides the range to enjoy all of today’s hit shows and live sports with a crystal clear picture and amazing digital sound,” said Kelvin Shepherd, president, consumer markets…
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