GATINEAU – The place, and prominence, of American specialty networks in Canadian television programming packages may soon be changing as the CRTC grapples with the part that U.S. discretionary services play in our rapidly changing broadcast environment.
When the Commission launched the third phase of Let’s Talk TV: A Conversation with Canadians last April, it also proposed a potential new approach to licensing foreign services for carriage in Canada. That proposal suggested a simple test: a non-Canadian service would be authorized for carriage and distribution unless it would have “an undue negative impact” on the Canadian TV system. Services that…
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TORONTO – HBO Canada wants viewers to binge watch its new Canadian dramedy Sensitive Skin, and is making the entire first season available to subscribers online and on demand following its broadcast debut next Sunday.
The bittersweet comedy stars and is executive produced by Golden Globe Award winner and Emmy Award nominee Kim Cattrall along with Genie and Tony Award winner Don McKellar, who also directs all six episodes. Based on the original British version, Sensitive Skin is about a woman of a certain age and her long-time husband attempting to change their lives.
Sensitive Skin will premiere July 20 at…
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GATINEAU – The press release headlines sound pretty good, but it’s in the conditions, the details, where all this talk of consumer choice and flexibility gets bogged down.
The three largest Canadian vertically integrated media and carriage companies (Bell, Shaw and Rogers) each issued press releases Friday – the day their submissions to the CRTC on its TV Policy Review were due – saying, and we’re paraphrasing here: “boy oh boy, are we consumer friendly and choice leaders!” The big three each said they support more pick and pay, or a-la-carte channel selection, so that Canadians…
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MONTREAL – Stingray Digital has finalized an agreement with Mood Media Corporation for its remaining 8,000 Canadian commercial accounts, and will continue to be Mood’s exclusive partner for the representation of their products and services in Canada.
Through the agreement, announced Friday, Stingray will continue to provide its 72,000 commercial clients with music services, digital signage solutions and other value added services. Clients now serviced by Stingray’s commercial account team include Loblaws, Telus and Mark’s Work Warehouse retail locations.
“We strongly believe in the continued growth of our commercial music services in Canada and as stated in a recent SOCAN…
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TORONTO – Struggling Mobilicity has received another extension to its creditor protection.
After filing materials earlier this week with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the wireless carrier confirmed Wednesday that it has received a further extension under its current CCAA proceedings from June 30 to September 26, 2014. It was initially granted creditor protection last September.
Mobilicity added that it’s previously announced mediation is ongoing and it "continues to be business as usual” for customers.
All things considered, the company is hanging on, with 157,000 customers as of June 16th, according to the Monitor's Report, and "that management expects this number…
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VANCOUVER – The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) is officially endorsing Telus WISE (Wise Internet and Smartphone Education), a unique educational program focused on helping Canadian families stay safe online.
The Telus WISE Internet and smartphone safety program has two tailored components – one aimed at adults interested in helping them and their families remain safer online, while the second, Telus WISE footprint, appeals directly to youth. To date, the Telus WISE program has reached more than 300,000 Canadians.
Members of the CACP Board of Directors are encouraging policing services within their jurisdictions to utilise the Telus WISE…
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TORONTO – Wind Mobile Canada has never been so candid, or detailed, about its numbers.
During his luncheon keynote Tuesday, Wind CEO Tony Lacavera released subscriber, ARPU and various other metrics that make Wind, now with about 740,000 Canadian customers, look like a growing, viable, business – despite the hundreds of millions in debt owed from 2008 spectrum purchases and its network build since then.
But there’s a method to that data dump. Wind needs investors. With its foreign backer Vimpelcom having written Wind Canada’s value down to zero, that gave license to pundits, analysts and competitors…
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OTTAWA – The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the Consumers’ Association of Canada (CAC) have filed a joint application challenging the wireless device deposit programs offered by Rogers and Telus.
According to the press release, the Rogers “NEXT” and Telus “T-Up” programs require subscribers to pre-pay a monthly fee in addition to their usual service charges for at least 12 months. These payments, which range from $17 to nearly $30 a month, claims the application, go toward the partial cost of a new cellphone. If the customer stays subscribed and returns their old phone and signs a new two year contract,…
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TORONTO – Service providers should be working together, collaboratively, to build a truly integrated ecosystem for delivering next-generation, personalized customer services, said Telus CTO Ibrahim Gedeon during his Monday afternoon keynote at the Canadian Telecom Summit.
Admitting that no single service provider will ever own its clients’ end-to-end business, he added: “Not every service is 100% Telus, or CIBC, or Air Canada, or Rogers or Bell.”
He pointed out Telus was able to work with Bell and Rogers in the past on the OneAPI initiative that created a single API for the mobile industry in Canada. “How many people know that…
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TORONTO – Wholesale wireless service continues to be a prickly topic between wireless incumbents and new entrants, and quickly became a dominant theme Tuesday morning during the Canadian Telecom Summit’s annual regulatory blockbuster panel, moderated again this year by Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien.
Bell, Rogers and Telus remained steadfast in their collective belief that increased regulation on wholesale wireless services will result in decreased network investments. Ken Engelhart, SVP regulatory for Rogers Communications, got that ball rolling early in the 90 minute panel, raising the matter in his opening “trite observations”.
“Wholesale regulation inevitably leads to a reduction in investment,…
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