WE JOURNALISTS JUST love our year-end lists, don’t we? They are everywhere. However, we don’t do predictions here. They only thing I have found to be certain when trying to predict the future is that nearly all the time, the predictions are wrong.
So instead, here’s our list of 10 open questions heading into 2011.
1. How much market share will the Telus and Bell Canada IPTV services take from incumbent cable companies? The user experience of the Microsoft Mediaroom-driven Optik TV and Fibe TV is just so darn good and so darn integrated (I’d switch just for the whole-home PVR…
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TORONTO – The first ever 3D broadcast of CBC’s Hockey Night In Canada is coming to TV screens across the country.
Viewers with a 3D-ready television, along with the associated pair of glasses, will be able to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs take on the Montreal Canadiens at 7 p.m. ET/ 4 p.m. PT on December 11. The broadcast will be available free to Bell TV subscribers on channel 1933 (satellite TV) and 1208 (Fibe TV); Shaw Direct subscribers on channel 233/333 (Classic/Advanced); Telus Optik TV subscribers on channel 656 and Telus satellite TV subscribers on channel 1933; and to Vidéotron…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has completed its review of the large incumbent local exchange carriers’ support structure service rates.
The ILECs’ support structure services are tariffed wholesale services that make poles, strands, and conduits available to third parties for use as an input to provide competitive retail services. In a decision on Thursday, the Commission approved revised rates for the wholesale support structure services of Bell Aliant, Bell Canada, MTS Allstream, Telus and Télébec, effective 21 July 2009.
It also initiated a follow-up proceeding regarding service pole rates and a possible markup on Phase II support structure costs.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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TORONTO – When it comes to content and its distribution, what’s open and what’s closed off can be difficult to define – and what’s freely available to all and what’s behind a walled garden can both work as business plans.
That was part of the messages Monday morning during a session at Toronto’s NextMedia entitled: “Open vs. Closed, Content in the Digital Age”.
While many folks often talk about the preservation of the wide open internet and how individual business interests are interrupting that, those same people freely play inside such closed environments as iTunes, Netflix and Facebook, noted Michael…
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OTTAWA – Should there be spectrum caps for incumbents? Set asides for smaller companies? If so, what should they be? Should we align our bandwidth plan with the United States? Should we hold the 2500 MHz auction at the same time as the 700 MHz spectrum auction? How much spectrum should be set aside for public safety agencies? Does there need to be government intervention in rural regions? How will any new foreign investment rules affect the auction?
These are just some of the questions Industry Canada has asked the Canadian wireless industry in the paper it released late Tuesday:…
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TORONTO – A 13.5% increase in self-paying subscribers contributed to XM Canada’s “sound” financial performance for fiscal 2010.
Self-paying subscribers totaled 432,200 as of August 31, 2010, up from 380,900 in the same period last year.
Average monthly subscription revenue per subscriber (ARPU) was $11.28 and $11.74 for the fourth quarters of 2010 and 2009, respectively, and $11.21 and $11.88 for fiscal 2010 and 2009, respectively. The company said that ARPU declined in the fourth quarter of 2010 and in fiscal 2010 due primarily to an increase in automotive self-paying subscribers which have a lower ARPU, an increase in subscribers committing…
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OTTAWA – Calling the wireless contracts from Rogers, Bell and Telus “anti-consumer”, Mobilicity has launched a national push for new laws that would make some of the contract terms offered by wireless carriers illegal.
Such a law already limiting wireless contracts exists in Quebec (although it’s really a larger consumer protection law that doesn’t target cell phones) and a private members’ bill on the same topic is now before the Ontario legislature.
In letters to Industry Minister Tony Clement as well as to the B.C., Alberta and Ontario provincial governments – the other provinces where Mobilicity has spectrum (consumer…
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OTTAWA – The Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage begins its study of “the impacts of private television ownership changes and the move towards new viewing platforms,” today in Ottawa and will hear first from CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein and a group of independent Canadian broadcasters this afternoon.
Watch for the CRTC chairman (who will be joined by acting vice-chair, broadcasting, Rita Cugini and executive director, broadcasting, Scott Hutton) to speak to the recent merger announcements as well as the proceeding just called into the very same topic about which MPs will be grilling the Regulator’s representatives this afternoon.
As for…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) has named Jay Thomson as its new VP of broadcasting policy and regulatory affairs, and Katie Jeffs as its director of member development and outreach.
As a former senior executive with the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, Telus Communications and the Canadian Association of Internet Providers, Thomson has extensive experience in regulatory law and policy, association management and special expertise in Internet, broadcasting and copyright issues. He replaces Mario Mota who left the organization last week.
Jeffs has more than 11 years of experience in domestic and international broadcasting and production, most recently as…
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TORONTO – Bell Canada CEO George Cope couldn’t have been more blunt or matter of fact when asked about what the auction of 700 MHz wireless spectrum, which is expected in 2012. “It has to be a wide open auction,” he said. “There can be no discussion on this.”
Cope was speaking Tuesday afternoon at the Scotia Capital 2010 Telecom and Technology conference in downtown Toronto.
Cope spoke just after both Globalive (Wind Mobile) chairman Anthony Lacavera and Public Mobile CFO Jim Hardy had addressed the very same issue – albeit with different opinions than Cope, or earlier in the…
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