From Right Hand Man: How Phil Lind Guided the Genius of Ted Rogers
By Phil Lind with Robert Brehl
IN 2013, HALFWAY THROUGH its mandate, Stephen Harper’s government was looking tired and bereft of captivating political ideas for the next election. It was then that the Conservative PM wrapped himself in his “Captain Consumer” cape and launched an assault upon Canada’s big three wireless phone companies: Rogers, Bell, and Telus.
He and his government were going to lower monthly wireless bills for consumers by cracking the cartel. Harper painted us as Russian-style oligopolists who feared increased competition, which was unfair and…
Continue Reading
CALGARY – Shaw Communications is offering $500 million principal amount of 3.80% senior notes due 2023 and $500 million of 4.40% senior notes due 2028.
The net proceeds of this offering will be used for general corporate purposes, which may include the repayment of outstanding indebtedness.
Pending any such use of net proceeds, Shaw may invest the net proceeds in bank deposits and short-term marketable securities. Closing is scheduled to occur on November 2, 2018.
www.shaw.ca
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – While the main governmental expert panel reviewing the Telecom, Broadcasting and Radiocommunication Acts is only now getting under way, some of the most interesting conversations on the matter are happening now in front of the Senate (who knew?!).
While CRTC chairman Ian Scott appeared today (October 30) in front of the Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications, to talk about the Regulator’s needs, last week Canadian Communications Systems Alliance CEO Jay Thomson told the senators about his members’ (115 independent carriers who serve more than 1,200 communities – lots rural – with broadband,…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Videotron has unveiled the name of its new IPTV platform based on Comcast’s Xfinity X1 platform, à la Rogers and Shaw.
Speaking at the Canadian Club of Montreal on Monday, outgoing Videotron president and CEO Manon Brouillette said that the platform will be called Helix and will hit the market in 2019.
Helix will deliver smarter and more powerful Wi-Fi, an enhanced TV experience thanks to IP technology and seamless integration of Web content platforms, as well as home automation services, she added.
"Helix is revolutionary. It is a fast-changing, adaptive ecosystem that is ready to compete with the international…
Continue Reading
The TV tax battle
By Phil Lind with Robert Brehl
FEW THINGS GET ME SEETHING like the Canadian television networks’ attempted fee-for-carriage cash grab, the so-called “TV tax.” After everything cable did to increase their TV licences’ value over the years, in 2006 the broadcasters ignited a six-year battle to get us to pay them for carrying their signals. It went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, and they came very close to winning.
Just writing this raises my hackles. Ken Engelhart and Jan Innes would joke that fee-for-carriage was my “Wullerton.” I had no idea what they meant…
Continue Reading
Cable technologists embrace DAA as a complement to DOCSIS 3.1, fibre deep and other technologies
ATLANTA – Believing their industry's hybrid fibre-coax (HFC) networks have plenty of life left in them, cablecos are pushing forward with distributed access architectures (DAA) designed to enable them to boost capacity for gigabit and other advanced services.
Speaking here at the annual SCTE Cable-Tec Expo show last week, top cable technologists from North America and Europe said they are turning to on DAA and new versions of the industry's DOCSIS broadband specs to meet the bandwidth demand with their existing networks. Rather than junk their…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – With the large Canadian telecom players reading the writing on the wall (where it appears the Commission is seriously considering some sort of new code of conduct for telecom sales practices) a few of the larger carriers last week set out some ideas for commissioners to consider while they deliberate.
Each company last week essentially told the CRTC during its hearing into telecom sales practices the same thing: “There’s no problem with us when it comes to selling wired or wireless products and services to Canadians.” If there is, added most of the intervenors, the problem stems mainly…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – Back in August, when the CRTC and researcher Ipsos launched a survey on what Canadians think of the sales practices of Canadian telecom companies, much private (and some public) hue and cry arose from the carriers across the country.
The tight timeline for Ipsos to finish the survey and the weak overall structure and wording of the questions could only lead to negative answers, they said. They were right. The results came back substantially negative, but does that mean they have a point? Does the survey’s supposedly skewed queries mean the results should be tossed out?
Consumers and consumer…
Continue Reading
CALGARY – A surge of new Freedom Mobile customers helped to buoy fourth quarter revenues at Shaw Communications, the company said Thursday.
For the quarter ended August 31, 2018, Shaw said that it added approximately 85,000 net wireless revenue generating units (RGUs), which were substantially all postpaid customers, more than double its 41,000 net additions in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017.
“Fiscal 2018 was an exciting year for our Wireless business”, said CEO Brad Shaw, in a statement. “In a short amount of time, we have created a stronger, high quality network and are delivering an improved customer experience. Our…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – SOCAN exec Michael McCarty has been tapped as the 2019 inductee to the Canadian Music and Broadcast Industry Hall of Fame.
McCarty will be honoured at the Canadian Music & Broadcast Industry Awards gala dinner on May 9, 2019 at Rebel Entertainment Complex in Toronto.
As chief membership & business development officer at SOCAN, McCarty is responsible for leading a department of 40 people across Toronto, Montreal Vancouver, Los Angeles and Nashville engaged in building a roster of 150,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers that includes Canadian music creators like Drake, Alesia Cara, The Weeknd, Shawn Mendez, Frank Dukes, Mudah Beats, Keith Power, Andrew…
Continue Reading
