TORONTO – Canadian BDUs recently began telling customers as of September 30th, both Cosmo TV and the Independent Film Channel will cease broadcasting because owner Corus Entertainment has decided to shut them down.
According to Corus filings with the CRTC, the two specialty services were showing some profit, but those, along with their subscriber numbers, were shrinking, meaning they weren’t earning enough to make it worthwhile to renew their licensing deals.
Cosmo TV (which licenced the Hearst Publishing Cosmopolitan magazine brand in Canada) had 2.5 million subscribers as of the end of August 2018 (the most recent figures available) and earned…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications today said Freedom Mobile has launched its LTE network in eight more western Canadian cities.
“We are excited to invite the residents of Lethbridge, Kamloops, Vernon, Prince Rupert, Penticton, Courtenay, Comox, and Campbell River to join Freedom Mobile and experience our fast LTE network on the fair and affordable data plans that are disrupting the Canadian wireless market,” said Paul McAleese, Shaw’s wireless president, in the press release.
As part of its expansion, Freedom Mobile is offering introductory pricing on Big Gig Unlimited plans to residents in each of the cities, which added…
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CEO Pruneau wants it to be the in-home hub for Quebecers
MONTREAL — Vidéotron has officially joined the IPTV family, announcing Tuesday its Helix platform is available to the general public as of now.
Using Comcast's X1 technology, which is also deployed by Rogers (Ignite) and Shaw (BlueSky), it includes features like cloud-based DVR, restart of missed live TV programs, voice-controlled remote, intelligent Wi-Fi and combined search of live TV, video-on-demand and three streaming apps: YouTube, Netflix and Videotron's own Club Illico.
But those three apps are it for now. No Amazon Prime Video, or Bell's Crave, or DAZN, or Radio-Canada's Tou.tv,…
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TORONTO – Following the announcement of its “The New Home of Football” campaign in Canada, sports streaming platform DAZN has unveiled a trio of all-star spokesmen – and a new contest.
NBA legend, soccer analyst, and club owner Steve Nash, former NFL superstar Marshawn Lynch, and renovation and DIY expert Sebastian Clovis will all engage with media and fans in Canada letting it be known that both Euro and American football can be found on DAZN..
Additionally, the streamer has launched a new contest where one fan in Canada will win a new “home” for football – in the form of…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) and the Fédération des télévisions communautaires autonomes du Québec are now taking applications from community television organizations to hire a journalist under the Local Journalism Initiative.
The LJI was announced by Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez on May 22 (when he announced the government bailout of large newspapers) and is meant to fund “civic journalism” in “underserved communities”, to address the gaps in local news coverage that have arisen in the wake of community newspaper closures, and the outflow of local ad dollars onto international platforms such…
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PRINCE GEORGE, B.C – Shaw Communications today continued its string of summer network expansion announcements with the launch of Freedom Mobile wireless services in Prince George. B.C.
“Our expansion to Prince George reflects our continued commitment to improving our customers’ experience by upgrading our Extended Range LTE network and enabling them to stay connected in more places,” said Paul McAleese, Shaw’s wireless president, in the press release.
Residents in Prince George (a community of about 78,000 situated about an eight-hour drive west of Edmonton) can now take advantage of introductory pricing on Big Gig Unlimited plans, as…
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Eastlink says it'll slow network spending because of CRTC. Videotron, Shaw to review network investments; estimated costs now over $300M
WHILE LARGE INCUMBENT network operators mull their legal options in the wake of last week’s CRTC decision to decrease the wholesale rates third party ISPs must pay them, three more have said the decision not only costs them millions, but will cause them to rein in network expansion, which will affect rural broadband builds.
The Commission’s decision to retroactively impose the rates with the decision that took more than three years to complete also threw…
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New mega-streamer to launch here on same day and date as U.S.
BURBANK, Calif. – The Walt Disney Company announced Monday its direct-to-consumer streaming platform Disney+ will launch in Canada and The Netherlands on November 12th, the same day as its much-anticipated U.S. launch.
It will then debut in Australia and New Zealand one week after that.
However, with the Canadian rights to certain Disney content still owned by Canadian companies, we wondered what the Disney+ offer will actually look like here, because it will be a different. Netflix subscribers and CBS All Access subscribers, for example, know the content libraries found…
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Bell to cut rural broadband rollout by 20% in response; Other carriers equally disappointed, angry
MONTREAL – Bell Canada spent the weekend crunching numbers (update: Rogers did the same) and announced today that last week’s CRTC decision to slash the rates paid by independent third party internet access (TPIA) providers – retroactively, too – will have a cost which will be paid by rural Canadians.
Bell said Monday morning it has estimated the impact of the CRTC’s decision to lower wholesale fees, retroactively, to be $100 million, and in order to pay for that, it will reduce…
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GATINEAU – In a long-awaited decision, the CRTC today set final rates for wholesale access to the high speed wired networks of Bell, Cogeco, Eastlink, Rogers, SaskTel, Shaw, Telus, and Vidéotron.
The process had started in May 2015 and interim decision was rendered in October 2016. That said, this is a fight that has been going on for more than a decade.
The rates released today (which are paid by independent third party ISPs like TekSavvy and Distributel) are lower than the interim rates and retroactive to 2016. The monthly capacity rates are 15% to 43% lower…
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