CALGARY – “Put yourself into my shoes,” CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein asked Shaw Cable’s executives.
The chair made the plea during an exchange Monday morning at the Airport Four Points Sheraton in Calgary during the day-long hearing into the western cableco’s applications to renew most of its cable licenses.
Due to a number of regulatory transgressions and questions over the years, (especially concerning advertising messages on some of its community channels that were contrary to the regulations, and treatment of some specialty channels), Shaw was granted only a short term license renewal by the CRTC back in 2008…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications executives told the CRTC today that it has no plans to hoard all of its content when it gains control of Canwest Global – and that when it comes to the digital transition, it would rather upgrade all of its transmitters, not just the ones in mandatory markets.
Commissioners were happily caught off-guard by the some of the commitments the big MSO/ISP/home phone/future wireless provider made this morning in Calgary.
When asked by CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein what the company planned to do in the unregulated spaces of mobile and broadband and how much content it…
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OTTAWA – Former Telus and CCTA executive Janet Yale is the new executive commissioner and chief executive of Scouts Canada.
After trying her hand in politics last summer, Yale assumes the new role on Monday with the goal of doubling the organization’s numbers from 75,000 children and 25,000 adult volunteers to 200,000 overall.
While the organization began including girls in 1998, its membership has reportedly been in a steady decline for some years.
“They have shaken themselves up, and they need a leader who can help them get to where they are going,” Yale said in a report. “They knew they…
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CALGARY – When the CRTC dives into the proposed purchase of Canwest Global’s TV assets by Shaw Communications next week, many industry stakeholders are asking for asking for safeguards and urging the Commission to be prudent.
(Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien will be in Calgary next week covering the hearing. For live updates, follow him on Twitter via @gregobr and surf back to Cartt.ca regularly.)
The $2 billion deal, which would make Shaw the largest vertically integrated media company in Canada, for now, appears to have the cautious support of many, as long as certain conditions – often described as “competitive safeguards” – are attached.
Shaw’s primary…
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CANADIAN WIRELESS CUSTOMERS ARE hungry for a deal. According to brand new research, they are seeing the big ad campaigns and know they can shop around more than they ever have – and they’ll take their business to the best rate.
While all the wireless providers, new or incumbent, talk a great game about providing the best customer service, the highest speeds, the greatest apps and handsets, and the strongest, most reliable network – all lovely marketing bullet points – they only work to a degree.
Exclusive research from Toronto’s Solutions Research Group and Cartt.ca shows that when it comes to…
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TORONTO – Bell and Telus could be the winners when the 700 MHz wireless spectrum hits the auction block, predicts one industry analyst.
Responding to Cartt.ca’s report that Industry Minister Clement may accelerate the 700 MHz mobile spectrum auction in Canada, Canaccord Genuity managing director and head of Canadian research, Dvai Ghose, told investors Monday that the two big telcos appear to have an advantage over Rogers because they share spectrum, while Rogers does not have a national spectrum sharing partner.
“We also believe that the 700 MHz auction poses a key risk to cash flow and dividend growth for…
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TORONTO – Bell Canada’s announcement this morning that it will spend $1.3 billion for all of CTV looks like a bid to protect and power a lot of its asset engines with a lot of superb oil and fuel.
The deal comes with $1.7 billion in debt, and factoring in Bell’s 15% ownership of CTVglobemedia, places a total value of $3.2 billion on CTV. The Globe and Mail newspaper has been carved out, as the Thomson family will take majority ownership of the paper.
If approved (and this doesn’t look to ring any Regulatory warning bells) the new company will…
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GATINEAU – Canada’s major cable companies and telcos are squaring off against MTS Allstream and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre over the CRTC’s authority to mandate broadband as an essential service.
Comments filed with the CRTC in late August show that Bell Canada, Telus and all of the large cablecos are, not surprisingly, opposed to any Commission intervention on this matter, while PIAC and MTS firmly believe that the CRTC can make broadband essential.
The issue has become a central theme in an ongoing proceeding on a broad variety of telecom matters, generally referred to as the obligation to…
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As the dust begins to settle after Tuesday’s deferral accounts decision, opinions from industry stakeholders run the gamut from “disappointing” to "harmful" to “reasonable”.
Barrett Xplore Inc., Canada’s largest provider of rural broadband services, described the decision as anti-competitive and an ineffective use of monies.
“We’re obviously disappointed that the CRTC chose to proceed as they did, using technology that is not the least-cost solution for rural Canada”, its chief legal officer, C.J. Prudham, told Cartt.ca. “We’re also disappointed that they did not take in to consideration the expansion by other companies, including us, into those areas. Essentially they’re…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Canada’s largest telephone companies must rebate $310.8 million to their urban home telephone customers plus bring broadband Internet to 287 rural and remote communities across the country, the CRTC said Tuesday.
Widely referred to as the deferral accounts decision, the CRTC has ordered that the initiatives be funded using the deferral accounts of Bell Canada, Bell Aliant, Telus and MTS Allstream, which, as of May 31, 2010, held $770 million (including interest). Of this amount, $310.8 million will be rebated to customers, while $421.9 million will be spent on broadband services in communities across five provinces by 2014. The…
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