OTTAWA – Personalized media will take centre stage at next month’s Canadian Association of Broadcasters annual convention in Winnipeg, November 6 to 8.
This year’s plenary sessions examine the industry’s “big picture” issues, including the prospects for regulation in a broadband universe, and the future of advertising in a digital environment.
The concurrent sessions tackle such hot-button issues as the impact of new personal media devices; the prospects for Canadian HDTV; the new marketing imperative for broadcasters; the upcoming CRTC review of the Canadian radio industry; and the future of news.
On Tuesday November 8th, the ever-popular closing plenary…
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OTTAWA – Not every intervention filed with the CRTC over the four new pay TV license applicants were negative. Many were overwhelmingly supportive.
As reported previously, four groups are vying for new must-carry pay TV licenses from the Commission and will face a hearing on October 24th.
The applicants are: Spotlight TV, a bid led by former Alliance Atlantis executive George Burger (backed by Insight Media and now Bell ExpressVu); One from Allarco (backed by the Allard family, the former owners of WIC Broadcasting); another from a division of Quebecor Media for BOOM TV, and a unique…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian cultural and broadcasting communities say that the new wireless video services now in the market from Rogers Wireless, Bell Mobility and Telus are certainly a form of broadcasting and as such, should be subject to regulation under the Broadcasting Act.
Phase I and II comments were filed recently with the CRTC by all parties and while the wireless providers insist that the service falls under the CRTC’s 1999 New Media Exemption Order, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, its members, and cultural groups like SOCAN, CIRPA and even the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union all say…
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VANCOUVER – Telus and the Telecommunications Workers Union announced this evening that they have reached a settlement agreement, ending a strike that began July 21st.
The “memorandum of settlement” contains the terms of the five-year collective agreement that will now be submitted to TWU members for ratification. The TWU is recommending its members accept the agreement. Details of the deal were not released.
“Subject to ratification, this memorandum of settlement concludes the five-year process of merging six separate collective agreements into one,” says the press release.
“The tentative contract covers a national bargaining unit of approximately 14,000 employees, predominantly…
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VANCOUVER – The B.C. Teachers’ Federation has joined CUPE and the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union in disconnecting their Telus service.
"We want to demonstrate our solidarity with the Telus workers who have been struggling for the past five years to achieve a fair collective agreement," said BCTF President Jinny Sims in a release today.
"It’s shameful that thousands of people have been locked out since July and subjected to very heavy-handed tactics since then."
Ed note: The labour dispute here, however, is not a lockout. The Telecommunications Workers Union went on strike after Telus imposed its…
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TORONTO – Canadian cable companies can look forward to adding millions of voice customers says a report out today from Convergence Consulting Group.
According to the company’s oft-cited and comprehensive Battle for the North American Couch Potato: Bundling, Internet, TV, Telephone report, by year-end 2007 Canadian cable companies will have 16% of residential telephone subscribers (or 2.1 million – of which 70% will be VOIP). By the end of 2009, MSOs will have 27% (3.8 million). This is up from the end of this year, where the report says cable will have 6.5% or the telco market, or 850,000…
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BURNABY – Small teams of Telus management negotiators and Telecommunications Workers Union members will meet tomorrow to re-start negotiations aimed at ending the two-month-old strike.
Darren Entwistle, president and CEO of Telus and Bruce Bell, president of the TWU made a joint announcement today saying the two sides are getting back together.
Entwistle “will be personally engaged in these discussions,” says a press release.
And, the two sides also agreed to a communications embargo.
“Further communications related to this latest attempt to reach a negotiated settlement will be forthcoming as appropriate,” concluded the release.
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VANCOUVER – The B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union (BCGEU) is stepping up its support for locked-out members of the Telecommunications Workers’ Union (TWU) by urging its members who are Telus customers to switch internet providers.
“This is a warning to Telus that this lockout is more than just an attack on TWU members. It’s an attack on all working people,” said George Heyman, BCGEU president, in a release. “We are mobilizing our 57,000 members to send a strong message to Telus: get back to the bargaining table and negotiate fairly with your employees or you will risk your…
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THE CABLE INDUSTRY MIGHT not like reading this, heading into the local forbearance hearings next week, but residential phone choice seems pretty real to me.
If there was any doubt about it, my local newspaper, The Hamilton Spectator, delivered ample evidence last Wednesday. In the mess of inserts I curse about that usually flutter out of the thing, three glossy direct marketing pieces caught my eye: One from Primus; another from Rogers; and the third from Direct Energy.
Primus was a pure low-cost sell. “Get TalkBroadband and save big on your home phone service,” it said, beside a garish…
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BURNABY B.C. – Telus is suing the Telecommunication Workers Union (TWU) for allegedly infringing on its copyrighted trademark “the future is friendly”; and has fired 14 staffers in B.C. and Alberta for going against Telus’ code of conduct.
Drew McArthur, Telus vice-president of corporate services says recent TWU radio advertisements malign their copyrighted trademark: the future is friendly.
The ads, which begin as an on the spot report, “Live on the line,” call upon the public to “Give Telus a wake up call” by canceling telephone calling features (such as call waiting, call display, etc…). Ads include four Telus…
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