GATINEAU – Both of Shaw Communications’ and Bell Canada’s direct to home and satellite relay disribution licences were renewed on Friday.
While a number of intervenors requested Bell add more high definition channels to its lineup and that Shaw be forced to keep the free local television satellite solution (LTSS) going, as we reported earlier this year, the CRTC ultimately declined those requests.
While Bell did commit to carrying 43 additional local channels (but can choose whether or not to carry them in HD) and Shaw has offered those LTSS customers rates of $10 and $25…
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ISED arm twists itself into knots trying to give MVNO its stamp of approval, but this could be a good compromise
IF I’M RUNNING ONE of Canada’s existing wireless companies, I’m relieved after reading the Competition Bureau’s most recent submission to the CRTC’s Wireless Policy Review.
However, if I’m hoping to launch a new mobile virtual network operator once the CRTC updates said policy, I might be crying into my beer a little.
After a summer of regulatory back-and-forth where the Bureau successfully fought hard for access to confidential information that only the companies themselves and…
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CEO hopes Ottawa is watching, listening, and will act
CORUS ENTERTAINMENT PRESIDENT and CEO Doug Murphy may have the toughest job in Canadian media. Or maybe just the least-appreciated.
Go ahead and ask anyone in the TV business (and we’ve asked a lot of them recently). They all say variations of the same thing: “I think he’s doing all he can… but I’d never want his job…”
Not only does Murphy run the biggest independent media company and broadcaster in the country (yes, it’s controlled by the Shaw family – who unloaded their equity interest in May after…
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OTTAWA – CTV Toronto’s September broadcast of cellphone footage of a stabbing incident, in the absence of any prior warning to viewers, constituted breaches of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) Violence Code and the Radio Television Digital News Association of Canada’s (RTDNA) Code of Journalistic Ethics, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) announced today.
During a news story broadcast during the CTV News at 6 newscast, anchor Ken Shaw explained a man in Kingston had stabbed several victims earlier that day, resulting in the death of one victim. The perpetrator himself had also died after stabbing himself.
The video footage…
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TORONTO – It’s always one of the biggest annual events on Canadian television, and Sunday night’s 107th Grey Cup was no different as Bell Media saw its audience grow by 19% over 2018, according to overnight data from Numeris.
An average audience of 3.9 million viewers tuned in to TSN (3.7 million) and RDS (252,000) to watch the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ beat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
Overall, nearly nine million unique viewers watched some or all of the game, which hit a 31% share Sunday night, meaning nearly one in three Canadians watching television then were tuned into the game.
The audience…
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Flexible storytelling is the key to the future
TORONTO – Overall, Canadians are spending less time watching video content than in 2018, but 18-to-34 year-olds increased their overall viewing, while those 35 and over have seen a decrease in viewing hours, according to new research from CTAM Canada.
Further, 50% of Canadians are using an OTT (over-the-top) service to supplement a traditional TV subscription. They want more content, but find it difficult to locate it all with a traditional TV subscription – and they believe traditional TV is too costly. Subscribers to OTT report paying around $20 a month whereas those…
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OTTAWA – The judicial process against the CRTC’s August decision on the final rates for aggregated wholesale high-speed access (HSA) service will go forward – and the decision’s application will remain suspended pending a ruling from the Federal Court of Appeal.
This means that the rates in force today are the interim ones set in 2016 and retroactive payments set out in the summer decision are suspended, pending the court’s decision.
The FCA had already granted a temporary stay on October 1st.
Justice Richard Boivin determined “the implementation of the CRTC Order that could result in a permanent market distortion…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications announced today its BlueCurve TV customers can access their Amazon Prime Video accounts from their TV set top boxes.
Prime joins other apps available to BlueCurve customers such as Netflix, YouTube and Crave – all of which can be searched along with traditional TV programming and on demand content using the service’s voice remote.
To access Amazon Prime Video via BlueCurve, customers will need an active Prime membership, which they then can authenticate through their set top box.
For more, click here.
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THE DISCUSSIONS ABOUT the Canadian wireless industry and the merits (or perils) of new competition from Mobile Virtual Network Operators can leave your head spinning. The number of price comparisons and examples, local or international, can be so disorienting you start confusing up from down, the high-end of the market from people on a budget and Bay St. from Parkdale.
This Financial Post opinion piece, for example, calls affordability an ‘alleged’ problem. While it was focused on poking holes in the numbers provided by Timothy Denton in an earlier article, it fails…
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OTTAWA – Back in the summer, as we reported, Justices from the Federal Court ordered the individuals operating the so-called GoldTV Services to cease operations.
They are unauthorized subscription services that provide access to programming content over the Internet without having obtained the rights, a violation of the Copyright Act, and Bell Media, Groupe TVA, and Rogers Media had all pursued the matter in court.
Despite the issuance of injunctions, the Court, in a decision released last week, says some of the GoldTV services remain in operation and the infringements continue.
Last Friday, the Complainants against Gold, Rogers,…
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