The big four have not become the content exporters they were supposed to
LAST WEEK, I RESPONDED to a Scotiabank report which said the success of Netflix in gaining subscribers, along with Google and Facebook’s dominance of the Canadian advertising market, meant a merger of Bell and Corus was a logical market response to ensure we remain competitive.
I question the strategy of further vertical integration in light of its obvious failure. My core argument is VI has failed because it did not properly take into account the competitive advantages of the vertically integrated companies. As their…
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STOCKHOLM – Tech maker Ericsson said Wednesday it has decided to sell 51% of its Media Solutions business to private equity firm One Equity Partners
Last March the company announced it was undertaking a strategic review of Media Solutions and its Red Bee Media division and would consider partnerships, divestments, and a continued in-house development. It has decided to hang on to Red Bee.
“Media Solutions and Red Bee Media are leading providers of media products and services, and with the performance improvements that are currently being implemented, we see future upsides to both businesses. We are confident that the…
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TORONTO – Discovery Velocity has opened up for a month-long national free preview, on now through February 8.
Billed as Canada’s only home for factual turbo programming, Discovery Velocity will serve up live coverage of the most spectacular classic car auction event of the year, Barrett-Jackson Live (pictured, from January 16 – 21), alongside new series Texas Metal (January 12), and the return of Wheeler Dealers on January 22.
The freeview is available through television service providers including Bell, Bell Aliant, Cogeco Connexion, Eastlink, BellMTS, Rogers, SaskTel, Shaw, Shaw Direct, Telus, Videotron, and several CCSA partners including Access…
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MONTREAL — Five years after it finally added the American cable channel to its television service, Vidéotron is dropping AMC, refusing to renew its carriage contract. The channel will disappear on February 12.
"Because we operate in a regional and not national market, it's difficult for Vidéotron to meet the many demands and financial requirements of AMC," reads a statement from Vidéotron. "In addition, according to our observations, viewing of AMC dropped over the last year."
(Ed note: If there was ever a time to pull AMC from the lineup, it’s now, as there is no original first-run programming scheduled until…
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I WAS NOT SURPRISED to learn that one of Jim Shaw’s role models was former U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
In his time, Churchill was considered a political outsider, a brash maverick, seemingly unwavering in his convictions, fiercely loyal to his homeland and someone who inspired similar loyalty in so many others. Along the way of course, Churchill was exactly what his country needed at the time and he found enormous successes – but his sometimes irascible nature also antagonized more than a few.
For those of us who have been in the cable industry for a while, there are many…
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A hard-nosed businessman, he made a brilliant cable territory swap, competed ferociously with Telus and pulled Global television from the Canwest inferno
FEW OCCASIONS BETTER illustrated the cultural divide between the world of the western bottom-up entrepreneur and that of Ottawa’s top-down public service bureaucracy than when Jim Shaw and Konrad von Finckenstein crossed swords in a hearing room.
There, front and centre of the raised platform bearing commissioners, would be the multilingual von Finckenstein, a six-foot-something-awesome lawyer who was chief legal adviser on the original North American Free Trade negotiations, served as head of the Competition Bureau, became a Federal…
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Sells off B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan customer accounts to Telus
MONTREAL and VANCOUVER – Bell has concluded its purchase of Canadian security and monitoring company AlarmForce Industries and will align it with its existing assets in Ontario, Quebec, Atlantic Canada and Manitoba to offer enhanced connected home services in those provinces.
"Bell welcomes AlarmForce as we build on our position as Canada's most trusted name in residential communications with an accelerated focus on Connected Home technology and services," said Bell’s residential and small business president Rizwan Jamal, in Friday’s announcement. "Building on our leadership and scale in broadband networks and residential services…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications vice chair and former CEO Jim Shaw has died at the age of 60, the Shaw family announced today.
“It is with great sadness that the family of James R. Shaw (Jim Shaw) announces his passing on Wednesday, January 3rd, 2018 after a brief illness,” reads a statement from the family.
“A leader and visionary who never stopped caring for others,” says the statement, Jim is survived by his wife Kathryn, his mother Carol, his father JR, his children Haley (Fred), Parker (Megan), Kennedy, Kathryn’s children Monty, Katelyn, Carly, his mother-in-law Janet, his sisters Heather (Jim) and…
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Massive demand for more data, lower prices, as incumbents respond to Freedom with sales of their own and are overwhelmed with response
MILLIONS OF CANADIANS constantly exceed their data limits, so it’s no wonder the wireless carriers’ sale exploded this weekend.
Canadians lined up (in stores, online and on the phones) in droves as thousands of them attempted to opt into a 10Gb for $60/month sale on offer Saturday through Monday from Rogers, Fido, Bell, Virgin, Telus and Koodo in BC, Alberta and Ontario. The sale price was available to existing customers who already have devices.
However, social media was ablaze Sunday…
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CANADIAN CABLE SYSTEMS Alliance CEO Jay Thomson knows Canadian networks and media inside and out. How could he not? Before the CCSA, he worked for the Canadian Cable Television Association, the Canadian Association of Internet Providers, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters and the Canadian Media Producers Association (Telus and the CRTC, too).
The long-time Ottawa executive was hired as CEO of the CCSA in January 2017, replacing Alyson Townsend, who was let go in the summer of 2016. Thomson is steeped in the business and, as importantly, knows government – especially an Ottawa whose politicians and bureaucrats tend to be…
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