By Doug Barrett, adjunct professor in the Arts, Media & Entertainment MBA Program at the Schulich School of Business. From 2004 to 2008 he was the chair of the Canadian Television Fund
Phil Lind was an unlikely hero, but a genuine one. Since his passing, much has been written about his decades’ – long service to Rogers Communications, his role as consiglieri to Ted Rogers, his determined recovery from a major stroke in his mid-fifties, his art collection, and his love of the Yukon.
However, scant attention has been paid to what I think is his greatest accomplishment: he was the…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – A coalition of public interest groups has asked the CRTC on Friday to consider a financial plan for a fund that bankrolls their involvement in broadcasting hearings.
Public interest participation in those hearings is funded through a not-for-profit organization known as the Broadcasting Participation Fund (BPF), which spawned out of Bell’s purchase of CTV network assets in 2011. The problem for the fund, according to its proponents, is that it relies on money, called tangible benefits, that only comes as a condition of approving broadcasting acquisitions that are now uncommon.
Interest groups have said the fund is…
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YELLOWKNIFE – Bell subsidiary Northwestel announced Wednesday it has launched fibre internet in Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, making it the northernmost community in Canada to have fibre technology.
Northwestel customers in Tuktoyaktuk can now access high-speed, unlimited fibre internet with speeds up to 50 Mbps, up from 15 Mbps previously, says a press release.
“We’re very proud to bring in-community fibre to the first Arctic Ocean community,” Northwestel president Curtis Shaw said in the release. “Technology like this helps break down barriers to distance education, virtual health care and enables more participation in…
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Cogeco hopes for mobile wireless launch by this time next year
By Ahmad Hathout
TORONTO – Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri said Tuesday that Freedom’s competitive mobile wireless offers ahead of the back-to-school season didn’t have a “material impact” on its market share in Ontario.
“They launched a few, I would say, price points didn’t have a material impact on the market, frankly,” Staffieri said during the BMO telecom conference.
“So one of the things we’ve gotten a lot better at is to let the competition do their thing, we’ll do our…
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MONTREAL – NBCUniversal’s all-reality TV subscription streaming service Hayu is now available to Videotron customers in Quebec through Videotron’s Helix platform, the companies announced Tuesday.
Videotron customers will be able to access more than 300 reality series directly through their Hayu subscription, with the streaming service accessible via Helix voice command on their Videotron remote, a press release says.
A Canadian subscription to Hayu costs $6.99 (plus taxes) per month.
Hayu’s extensive content library includes shows such as Love Island, Below Deck, Vanderpump Rules, and franchises such as The Real Housewives and Million Dollar Listing, plus exclusive content like Watch What…
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By Ahmad Hathout
TORONTO – Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne announced Monday that all carriers will need to provide service to their customers on Rogers’s wireless network in Toronto’s subway system by October 3.
All carriers will need to provide service within three weeks from Monday and will have to enter commercial agreements within the next 100 days – or December 20. Those stipulations, which will apply to Bell, Quebecor’s Freedom and Telus, are as of Monday conditions of those carriers owning spectrum, the technology powering wireless communications.
Government officials said on a technical briefing with media Monday that carriers will need to…
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By Ahmad Hathout
CALGARY – Calgary has issued a notice to the public Thursday indicating its interest in entering a contract with Rogers to include a cohort of residents in the cable company’s Connected for Success low-income services program.
The pilot agreement would involve providing the city’s Fair Entry-eligible households with access to price-reduced services from Rogers, including internet, TV or wireless, for one year with an option to extend into the long term.
The city’s Fair Entry program does an income and residency assessment for residents to assess their eligibility for fee-reduced programs, which currently include property tax,…
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Quebecor CEO asks, ‘Should we be surprised…?’
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Bell has sent a letter to the Federal Court of Appeal backing Rogers’s appeal of the CRTC’s decision to choose Quebecor’s price to access the cable company’s national wireless network.
“The proposed appeal raises crucial issues relating to the ‘just and reasonable’ standard pursuant to which the CRTC sets the rates for a wide range of regulated telecommunications services, including the facilities-based MVNO access service mandated by the CRTC in 2021,” Bell, which isn’t a party to the matter, said in a letter dated August 31.
“These issues include the ability…
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By Mark Goldberg, a telecommunications consultant
An opinion piece in Monday’s Globe and Mail included a line that caught my eye. “A 2022 study found that Canada’s wireless rates were the second most expensive in the world – seven times more expensive than Australia, 25 times more expensive than France and Ireland and 1,000 times more expensive than Finland.”
Canadians complain about mobile prices, but does anyone in Canada actually believe that they are paying one thousand times more than what they would pay in Finland?
In fact, we don’t.
So how did the author, a university professor and academic…
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TORONTO – Production company Vérité Films, in association with Jeremy Fisher Music and Hidden Pony Records, announced Tuesday CBC original animated kids’ series Jeremy and Jazzy is premiering new episodes today on CBC Gem in English and on Radio-Canada’s ICI TOU.TV platform in French.
The new episodes consist of 26 two-minute episodes and one 11-minute special. Starting Monday, Sept. 11, the episodes will air daily Monday through Saturday as part of CBC TV’s CBC Kids morning schedule and will begin airing on Radio-Canada on Sept. 18.
In addition, the episodes are being released today in the…
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