DESPITE THE OPPOSITION to its planned purchase of Astral Media, Bell Canada remains steadfast that this deal is good for Canada and Quebec – and will foster innovation and competition to the benefit of Canadian media consumers.
In its reply comments submitted to the CRTC last week (the final paper stage before the public hearing in Montreal starting September 10th, Bell takes a hard line especially against those standing utterly opposed to its $3.4 billion purchase of the company which owns such brands as The Movie Network, Super Écran, HBO Canada, Family Channel, Virgin Radio, NRJ Radio, Rouge FM and…
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QUISPAMSIS – The Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (CCSA) has added its voice to those speaking out against the proposed merger of Bell and Astral.
Describing the matter as “profoundly a consumer issue”, CCSA president Alyson Townsend said that should the deal be approved, Canadian TV viewers will continue to be denied the ability to buy and pay for only the channels they really want. In addition, small cable and telephone TV distributors presently serving rural and remote communities in Canada would most likely be put out of business or gobbled up by Bell.
Citing her organization’s experience as a member of the…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC has green-lit the sale of sports channels owned by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) to a company co-owned by Rogers and BCE, effectively closing the $1.32 billion transaction that will see the two communication companies take a majority stake in the sports and entertainment giant.
While the transaction involved several sports-related properties including the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Raptors, the CRTC's review was limited to the five television services owned by MLSE – Leafs TV, Gol TV and NBA TV Canada, as well as un-launched services Mainstream Sports and Live Music Channel.
"When deciding…
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SO IT?S NOT JUST Quebecor, Cogeco and EastLink demanding the CRTC say no to Bell Canada'?s $3.38 billion purchase of Astral Media after all. Telus, Rogers, MTS Allstream, the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and others want this latest edition of the ongoing vertical integration story erased.
(An earlier version of this story said Friends of Canadian Broadcasting were also opposed to the merger. That us not the case and Cartt.ca regrets the error.)
Still, other groups such as ACTRA, the Writers Guild, the CMPA and Directors Guild, while not ultimately opposing the…
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WHILE LISTENING, PERPLEXED, to Tuesday’s “Say No To Bell” press conference led by Quebecor Inc. Cogeco Inc. and Bragg Communications, I tweeted “Horse is out of the barn, is lost in the woods and the barn is on fire.”
Many of us are fond of using the “horse is out of the barn” cliché when it comes to big media mergers, noting it’s far too late now to close the door on any of it. That is undeniable, and the proposed Bell Media purchase of Astral Media is just about the last of them. The Canadian barn…
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TORONTO – Asian Television Network (ATN) has launched Movies OK, a 24 hour Bollywood movie channel from News Corp's STAR Network, boosting its Hindi cinema-entertainment offerings in Canada.
The family-friendly channel offers a range of titles including blockbusters, modern classics and contemporary cinema through its affiliation with STAR and through the movie library acquired from Viacom.
The channel is currently offered by Rogers, Bell and Telus.
www.asiantelevision.com
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TORONTO – It’s not just about choice, it’s about how that choice is defined.
According to the Canadian Independent Distributors Group (CIDG), which lost its final offer arbitration dispute against Bell Media just over a week ago, the CRTC appeared to agree with the communication giant’s definition of choice which, simply put, is the more television channels that Canadian viewers can buy, the better.
But is choice about volume, or is it the ability to pick only the channels that viewers actually want to watch?
According to the CIDG, made up of Cogeco, MTS and the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (CCSA), their consumers…
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OTTAWA – While Friday’s CRTC rulings may indeed eventually pave the way towards more choice for consumers in the selection of TV channels, what remains unclear is whether that “choice” will truly be driven by Canadian viewers or continue to be shaped by the country’s biggest broadcasters and television service providers.
Friday’s CRTC decision, which chose Bell Media’s final offer over the one presented by the Canadian Independent Distributors Group (CIDG), noted that “both parties’ offers moved in the direction of providing more consumer choice”, plus contained “incentives to provide a wide choice of programming in the broadcasting system, and…
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OTTAWA – The Supreme Court sided with the likes of Bell, Rogers, Shaw, Telus, and Apple Thursday in a number of copyright cases related to the use of music on the Internet.
In the first case, the court determined that Internet service providers (ISPs) and other digital providers that offer music services should not have to pay copyright fees when music is downloaded, but that artists should be compensated when their music is streamed online.
In another case, broadcasters, TV service providers and movie theatres won’t have to pay fees for the music used in a film or a television show that they air. That’s…
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OTTAWA – As could be expected, no one is completely satisfied with Industry Canada’s proposed 700 MHz auction rules, which were unveiled in April.
Some are suggesting a complete format change, while others are requesting modifications to specific aspects of the combinatorial clock auction (CCA). Still some say in comments to the department’s consultation it must consider a number of elements in the proposed auction framework under a single lens. Rogers Communications Inc. and Bell Canada are two who share this view, but for different reasons.
Rogers, while satisfied with the proposal to use a CCA format,…
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