Quebecor Inc. has announced a 22.2 per cent increase in its quarterly dividend for the first quarter of 2017. Revenues were $996.4 million, up $21.0 million (2.2 per cent) from the same period in 2016. Telecommunications grew its revenues by $27.4 million (3.5 per cent) and its adjusted operating income by $18.4 million (5.1 per cent) in Q1. Videotron Ltd. significantly increased its quarterly revenues from mobile telephony ($26.5 million or 22.8 per cent), Internet access ($8.8 million or 3.6 per cent), business solutions ($5.8 million or 22.7 per cent), and the Club illico over-the-top video service ($1.3 million or 16.9 per cent). There was a net increase of 30,000 revenue-generating units (0.5 per cent) in the quarter, including 27,000 connections to the mobile telephony service, 15,300 subscriptions to cable Internet service and 9,800 memberships in Club illico.
CBC/Radio-Canada will begin mass digitization of the public broadcaster’s audiovisual archive collection, starting in winter 2018. CBC will digitise 720,000 physical media assets (audio and video) while Radio-Canada will digitise more than 650,000 assets that include audio, video and film. In addition to making the material more accessible, the CBC says the move is necessary to address the deterioration of physical recording media, equipment obsolescence and the increasing cost to production staff and media librarians of maintaining playback devices. At least 20 new positions will be created internally to support the project which will take at least five years.
Bell is apologizing to its customers after 1.9 million email addresses and approximately 1,700 names and active phone numbers were stolen from a company database. In a statement Bell said there was no indication that any financial, password or other sensitive personal information was accessed and that the incident wasn’t connected to the recent, global WannaCry malware attacks. The company said it was working closely with the RCMP cyber crime unit in its investigation and has informed the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
Freedom Mobile has announced the expansion of its LTE network into Calgary and Edmonton. Having first launched in Toronto, Vancouver and surrounding areas in Nov. 2016, Freedom Mobile says it’s moving forward with planned updates for a complete LTE rollout by the end of 2017.
The Association of Central Canada Broadcast Engineers (CCBE) Conference is set for Sept. 28 – Oct. 1 at the Kingbridge Conference Centre in King City, ON. Michael McEwen, director general of the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) will deliver the keynote address. You can find the conference agenda here.
The 70th Annual British Columbia Association of Broadcasters Conference is underway in Osoyoos, BC. The event’s social program kicked off Tuesday with 18 holes at the Osoyoos Golf Club. Conference highlights included Thursday morning’s Industry Leaders Panel, moderated by Paul Ski, special advisor to the president, Media, for Rogers; as well as keynote speaker Roger Haskett on The Power of Play.
