The old adage in real estate that it only takes one buyer held true in the Canadian 700 MHz spectrum auction. After potential new entrants such as Verizon declined to enter the Canadian market and Wind Mobile dropped out of the bidding at the last minute, many declared the spectrum auction a failure. Industry Minister James Moore and the government got the last laugh, however, with the auction generating $5.3 billion and the emergence of potential new national wireless player – Videotron (parent company is Quebecor). There had been some speculation that Quebecor might make a move outside of Quebec (Nowak, Corcoran) and seeing the company scoop up prime spectrum in Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia offers renewed hope for a more competitive environment.
Post Tagged with: "quebecor"
Canadian Broadcasters and BDUs: Can They Compete With “Free”?
While the dispute is now before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission – Quebecor claims Bell is violating the legal requirement against “undue preferences”- more interesting is Bell’s claim about the value of Sun News Network signal.
According to Mirko Bibic, senior vice-president of regulatory affairs at Bell Canada, the market value of Sun News Network is zero because Quebecor makes the signal available free over-the-air in Toronto and is currently streaming it free on the Internet. Given the free access, Bell maintains that the signal no longer has a market value.
My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes Bibic’s comment may be posturing for negotiation purposes, but it highlights the larger problem for Canadian broadcasters and broadcast distributors such as cable and satellite providers.
CRTC New Media Hearings – Day Ten: Quebecor, MTS Allstream, CAIP, RipNet, Barrett, Bell, and Telus
The final day of the CRTC New Media hearings featured more discussion from ISPs, including Quebecor, MTS Allstream, CAIP, RipNet, Barrett Xplore, Bell, and Telus. Due to some scheduling difficulties, we are only able to provide a link to the CRTC transcript of the hearing.
Update: Greg O'Brien, the publisher and editor of the terrific Cartt.ca, has kindly offered to have his coverage of the day posted here. Thanks Greg.
Quebecor Opens Door to Canadian Three Strikes Policy
The CRTC's net neutrality hearing submissions have generated several comments that link net neutrality with copyright. As noted yesterday, CIRPA believes that content blocking of P2P sites should be considered. Quebecor, which owns Videotron, a leading Quebec ISP, goes even further. While ISPs in countries such as New Zealand are […]
TVA’s Freelance Contract Generates Criticism
Steve Proulx (via Fagstein and Creators' Copyright) points to Quebecor's new agreement for magazine freelancers that not only demands exclusive rights, but retroactive rights to any previously submitted work. It is worth repeating that it is contract, not copyright law, that frequently presents the bigger problem for creators.
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