BURBANK – There may be millions fewer people in their theme parks right now, but The Walt Disney Company said Friday it now has more than 137 million streaming subscribers – and it’s about to kick growth of its direct-to-consumer business into overdrive.
“The tremendous success we’ve achieved across our unique portfolio of streaming services, with more than 137 million subscriptions worldwide, has bolstered our confidence in our acceleration toward a DTC-first business model,” said CEO Bob Chapek (pictured), during the company’s investor day. That number includes Disney+ (86.8 million subscribers), ESPN+ (11.5 million) and Hulu (38.8 million) subscribers as…
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QUEBEC CITY – Epic Storyworlds co-founders Steve Couture and Ken Faier announced this week they have set up Loomi Animation, a studio based in Québec City focussed on animation series for Epic Storyworlds/Epic Story Media original content and third-party projects.
Louis Leclerc, formerly executive director of Pixel Québec has joined as director of the studio, while Guylaine Robidoux and Daniel Belleville of Montreal’s ToonDraw have come on board as consultants. The studio is the recipient of a funding grant from the city’s economic development initiative.
The first project Loomi Animation will undertake is Epic Storyworlds’ recent commission from Radio Canada -…
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By Peter Nowak
IMAGINE, FOR A SECOND, someone making fun of you for being too skinny. Then they take all your food away.
Got that image in your mind? Okay, good. You’ve just pictured what trying to grow a telecom business in Canada is like.
For years, that’s essentially what big companies such as Bell, Rogers and Shaw and their armies of lawyers, lobbyists and hangers-on have been doing to TekSavvy and other independent service providers.
They’ve argued that the only good telecom company in Canada is one that builds its own networks head-to-toe, from the poles that hold the wires in the…
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CALGARY — The annual Shaw Charity Classic golf tournament, which was cancelled this year due to Covid-19, has still helped to raise more than $12 million this year for more than 200 youth-based charities across Alberta, Shaw Communications announced today.
When tournament officials were forced to cancel the 2020 edition of the event in June, they promised the Shaw Birdies for Kids presented by AltaLink program would continue.
The tournament’s title sponsor, Shaw Communications, along with the Shaw Family were first to step up in the annual fundraising drive with a commitment to match up to $2 million in community donations….
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications today announced Thursday it’s opening two new retail stores, in Prince George and West Vancouver.
The 1,900-square-foot retail store at Pine Centre in Prince George opens this week, and, next week, the company will open a 1,882-square-foot location at Park Royal in West Vancouver, completing its retail expansion for the calendar year, with more to be announced and opened in 2021.
“The new retail stores in Prince George and West Vancouver are visually stunning, informative and technology-rich environments that will delight our customers,” said Paul Deverell, president, consumer.
Since launching Shaw Mobile in July 2020, Shaw has built…
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TORONTO — Corus Entertainment today confirmed to Cartt.ca that it is not renewing its licensing deal with BBC to operate the BBC Canada channel, which will no longer be available as of January 1, 2021.
This is the only BBC channel to which Corus owns the licensing rights for Canada, and therefore no other BBC-branded channels are affected by this news.
According to the last financial information Corus filed with the CRTC, as of August 31, 2019, the BBC Canada channel had approximately 2.4 million subscribers, which was a 3.55% decrease from a year earlier. In 2015, its number of subscribers…
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By Denis Carmel
VANCOUVER – Talk to anyone in the telecom industry and they know one of the most pressing challenges facing Canada is connecting our Indigenous communities to proper, and affordable, broadband.
In his Thursday keynote to the online Canadian Telecom Summit, Tony Geheran (above), executive vice-president, and chief customer officer, at Telus outlined the company’s commitment to connecting those communities to fibre.
Geheran went through the company’s various PureFibre, Health, Agriculture and Telus for Good spending, in the billions over the years, connecting millions of Canadians in various ways for various services.
However, what stood out in his speech was the…
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And why there’s much more to rural connectivity than funding
By Lynn Greiner
AN ADDITIONAL $1.75 BILLION for rural broadband, which the federal government announced this month, is certainly a good step, albeit delayed, in the right direction. But, it’s not enough.
“It’s not a silver bullet,” said Telus vice-president telecom policy and chief regulatory legal counsel Stephen Schmidt during the Canadian Telecom Summit’s annual Regulatory Blockbuster session on Wednesday. “It won’t work on its own… In our view, complementary spectrum policy reform is an essential companion piece that will ensure that the networks that get built with or without public…
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TORONTO — International content producer, distributor and channel operator Blue Ant Media today announced two executive promotions. Sarah Etherden (pictured, left) is now the company’s vice-president of global communications and Craig Junner (right) is vice-president of programming for Canadian media.
“Sarah’s promotion reflects the significant role she has played in building the profile of Blue Ant Media’s distribution business, production companies and media brands globally, while also overseeing the company’s internal communications,” reads the company’s press release.
“Craig’s new position reflects his on-going leadership in overseeing all aspects of the content and programming strategy for Blue Ant Media’s eight linear Canadian…
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Report due by February
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The federal government’s pledge to have wireless prices drop by 25% is expected to be studied during House of Commons hearings into accessibility and affordability of telecommunications services, starting next week.
The committee on industry will begin the proceedings on Tuesday with witnesses Telesat and Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX). Both satellite companies made news over the past two weeks as they push low earth orbit satellites to colve rural broadband coverage. The former this week formalized a $600-million agreement for the federal government to purchase satellite capacity to serve…
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