GATINEAU – The funding of big budget Canadian programming as well as the role of the U.S. TV channels in the broadcasting system were put under the microscope during the fourth day of the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV policy hearing.
Rogers Communications, Shaw Communications and Cogeco Cable warned of significant negative consequences to the Canadian system if the commission removed US 4+1s (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX + PBS) from basic cable packages. The CRTC’s proposal was certainly a bone of contention for Rogers with the company saying it would face the wrath of subscribers if these channels were removed from…
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GATINEAU – Late Wednesday evening, after the TV lights had long been turned off and almost everyone else had gone home, Corus Entertainment stated its belief that despite the myriad changes happening in the global media market, the CRTC shouldn’t really do too much to upset the Canadian apple cart.
However, if the Commission does move on a smaller, mandated basic package, which is one of the many proposals under review, Corus asked that new regs be sure to include kids programming in the lineup. Corus is a big kids content producer, of course, but the company didn’t ask that…
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VANCOUVER – Telus is offering $1.2 billion of senior unsecured notes in two series, the first with a 10-year maturity, the second with a 30-year maturity.
Offered through a syndicate of agents led by RBC Capital Markets, BMO Capital Markets, and CIBC World Markets, the notes offering is expected to close on or about September 15, 2014.
The 3.75% 10-year notes, Series CQ, were priced at $99.775 per $100 principal amount for an effective yield of 3.777% per annum and will mature on January 17, 2025. The 4.75% 30-year notes, Series CR, were priced at $99.291 per $100 principal amount for…
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TORONTO – Despite their continued discounted pricing, Canada’s new wireless entrants are expected to own only 5.8% of the wireless market (or 1.64 million Canadian wireless subscribers) by the end of 2014, the same percentage as they did at year end 2013, according to a new report from Convergence Consulting.
Canadian Wireless: Assessing the Impact of New Entrants, September 2014 says that Wind Mobile and Mobilicity can in some cases undercut incumbents Rogers, Bell and Telus and their discount brands on voice and on combined voice/data packages by more than 60%. Though in some cases, especially against Videotron,…
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TORONTO – The CEOs of BCE and Rogers say they are more than happy to offer access to their upcoming online subscription video-on-demand services to other TV providers, and at least one of those other providers is eager to sign up.
At the annual BMO Media and Telecom investors’ conference in Toronto on Tuesday, Rogers CEO Guy Laurence said Shomi, a joint project with Shaw that is set to launch in November, was to have other partners (as Cartt.ca first reported earlier this year). But they decided to launch without them because they “couldn’t get their…
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TORONTO – Bell Media and Corus Entertainment have inked a multi-year, multi-platform deal with HBO for the exclusive Canadian rights to the entire past-season library of every HBO scripted series currently on air. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The deal includes the rights to more than 700 episodes from past seasons of current programs, in addition to the 300+ episodes of HBO series that are already available (Ed note: so take that, shomi and Netflix). Starting this fall, past seasons of hits like Game Of Thrones, Girls, Boardwalk Empire, and True Detective will also made available to…
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SOMETHING’S NOT RIGHT. Especially if I’m quoting Macbeth.
We have analyzed the hell out of the CRTC’s TV Policy Review which is set to begin Monday in Gatineau, but there’s something ungraspable about the whole thing. Is there too much on the table? Probably. Is the Regulator looking to solve problems it has no chance of fixing – or trying to solve some where none exist? Yes, and yes, certainly.
This is a hearing about all things English Television, or English language video. Yes I know it’s supposed to be about all things television in Canada, but let’s be honest here;…
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VANCOUVER – Telus Health has acquired electronic-prescription technology ZRx Prescriber from Quebec-based ZoomMed, making it the first Canadian healthcare technology company to offer insurance coverage validation nationally at the moment of prescription.
ZRx Prescriber is an intuitive web-based prescriber that allows physicians to use a mobile device to quickly and accurately write and deliver prescriptions for patients while accessing the patient's insurance coverage information directly at the moment of prescription. The technology will also allow physicians to prescribe within the patient's plan parameters when possible, speeding up the insurance claim and improving the patient's experience during the dispensing process.
This agreement,…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The federal government said that it will force the communication industry to abandon paper bill charges after the country’s biggest companies failed to commit to doing so at Thursday’s CRTC review into the practice.
Industry Minister James Moore said Friday that charging extra fees to customers who receive paper copies of their bills, a practice known as pay-to-pay billing, was “unfair”, and promised that the government would introduce legislation to end it in the telecommunications sector. He did not say when such legislation would be tabled.
"More and more Canadians are finding a new charge appearing on their monthly…
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TORONTO – Telus has launched a new cloud-based mobile device management (MDM) solution to help Canadian businesses keep their mobile devices secure and embrace the growing Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend.
MDM Made Easy leverages industry-leading technology and services from AirWatch and Vox Mobile to create a turn-key MDM solution that drastically simplifies the support and enhances the security of mobile devices for Canadian businesses, reads the company’s news release.
Built to be customized, MDM Made Easy allows businesses to quickly deploy a feature-rich MDM solution without investing in infrastructure. This cloud-based solution eliminates the need for on-premise hardware, while…
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