MOOSE JAW — TSN and RDS will continue to be the exclusive English and French broadcasters of Curling Canada Season of Champions events for eight more years. The deal extension was announced during TSN’s Curling Day in Canada broadcast during the 2020 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Moose Jaw, Sask.
The agreement, which includes both broadcast and digital media rights, takes effect in the 2020-21 curling season and will carry through the 2027-28 season. Season of Champions curling is available to TSN, RDS, TSN Direct and RDS Direct subscribers, and at TSN.ca, RDS.ca and via the…
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TORONTO — While Canadian tennis fans patiently await Bianca Andreescu’s return from injury to the WTA Tour, TSN announced Friday it is expanding its live court coverage with a new slate of marquee WTA Tour events, beginning February 23.
In addition to the Qatar Open starting this Sunday, TSN has acquired the broadcast rights to a multitude of the biggest events in women’s tennis, including the BNP Paribas Open, Miami Open, and culminating with the WTA Finals in November. The addition of marquee WTA Tour events complements TSN’s exclusive live coverage of all four Grand Slam tournaments and comprehensive coverage…
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By Greg O’Brien
GATINEAU – “Our initial capital budget for this coming year… was about $220 million. We’ve cut $60 million out of that. We’ve laid off people.”
This was part of the response from Eastlink CEO Lee Bragg when asked by CRTC commissioner Christopher MacDonald of the possible impact of a mandated mobile virtual network operator regime. Bragg said the fear of such a decision – coupled with the recent third party internet access decision on the wired side where Bragg says CRTC-set rates are below-cost and which it is fighting on many fronts – pushed the family-owned company…
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GATINEAU – The market should anticipate more of the same “me too” wireless plans across all large national carriers without mandated mobile virtual network operators, according to smaller telecoms.
While admitting Shaw’s Freedom has somewhat changed the dynamics of the market with its pursuit of higher data thresholds for customers at lower prices, representatives from the Canadian Network Operators Consortium and Distributel argued in front of the CRTC on Thursday these plans are often very similar to each other – which represents the limits of the current competitive environment.
“When Freedom introduced the Big Gig plan, it did lead to a…
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Cogeco airs its HMNO model
By Greg O’Brien
GATINEAU – On Wednesday, CRTC commissioners tried to get Bell Canada CEO Mirko Bibic and other company executives to pick what they might think is a least-bad mandated mobile virtual network operator option from the choices of MVNO models others have brought to the proceeding.
Each time, Bell said no MVNO is the only option.
While some operators have said, if forced to choose, the only palatable proposed MVNO model is the one from the Competition Bureau, which would see MVNO access mandated for existing regional operators like Freedom and Videotron, and only for five…
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TORONTO — WildBrain’s Family Channel announced its new drama series My Perfect Landing, starring competitive gymnast Morgan Wigle, will premiere Sunday, March 1 to help kick off the channel’s month-long freeview.
From the creator of the award-winning series The Next Step, Frank van Keeken, the My Perfect Landing series centres around aspiring young gymnast Jenny Cortez (played by Wigle), and her family, as they move from Miami to Toronto to open their own gymnastics club, says the news release.
My Perfect Landing was filmed last summer in Toronto and Miami. The series also stars Tom Hulshof as Jenny’s brother and…
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By Greg O’Brien
GATINEAU – If you’re looking for drama, day one of the CRTC’s wireless policy review hearing was not for you.
That’s not to say it was boring, however. During the morning session, we got an engaged CRTC chair Ian Scott taking a deep, detailed dive into the Competition Bureau’s evidence as well as its idea for mandating a tempered vision for mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) in Canada.
The Bureau is not for broadly mandating an MVNO structure where any company that comes along wanting to sign up wireless subs using a CRTC-decree as the crowbar can get into…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) has filed a counter submission to the Governor-in-Council (a.k.a. federal cabinet) over petitions sent by the big incumbent carriers who are protesting the CRTC’s decision to lower wholesale prices for internet.
Last August, the CRTC lowered the final prices the incumbents – Bell, Rogers, Telus, Shaw, Videotron, Cogeco, and Eastlink – can charge resellers, and made those rates retroactive to 2016, when interim rates were set. The incumbents protested to the Federal Court, the cabinet and the CRTC. The court granted the leave to appeal and has yet to…
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MONTREAL — Stingray is adding to its TV channel offerings with the launch announced Tuesday of its Stingray Country music video channel, featuring new country, bro-country, ’90s country hits, pop country and more. Stingray says the channel is currently the only dedicated country music channel in Canada.
“We are thrilled to introduce our latest TV channel, Stingray Country, to Canadian country music fans,” said Mathieu Péloquin, senior vice-president of marketing and communications for Stingray, in the news release. “With a growing millennial fan base including both men and women, country music’s popularity is spreading across all regions of the…
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GATINEAU – One of the most important CRTC hearings in some time (perhaps the most hyped since Let’s Talk TV) begins Tuesday in Gatineau. Hundreds of thousands of words have been written about the upcoming hearing, including thousands by Cartt.ca breaking down the issues (please see our extensive coverage at the bottom of this piece), but it’s important to remember the Commission is interested in a number of specific questions.
Some things to remember. The CRTC already had the wireless carriers come up with low-cost data only plans. We wonder how those are selling? Wireless wholesale roaming is different than…
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