Regulatory, Telecom & Media News – Call for sponsors for The Great Canadian Suite

Broadcast Dialogue is issuing a call for sponsors for The Great Canadian Suite, an NAB Las Vegas tradition for most of the last six decades bringing together Canadians from the film, TV, radio, production, and digital sectors, in addition to the vendors that service them. Applied Electronics started the Great Canadian Suite in 1961, which in the early days was located in an actual hotel suite and open daily during the NAB Show. In the 1970s, vendors had substantial equipment demos like large colour studio cameras and reel-to-reel tape machines, so in 1978 the event moved into a small ballroom, growing every year. After a short hiatus, Toronto film and video production company Stonehenge Digital Studios relaunched the Great Canadian Suite, moving it poolside to the Flamingo Las Vegas. Due to a busy production schedule, Stonehenge has passed the organization of the Great Canadian Suite to Broadcast Dialogue, which is now gauging interest in continuing the event. Read more here.

Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidate Erin O’Toole is campaigning on a policy promise to end funding for CBC’s digital news service and privatize its English-language TV operations. O’Toole’s public broadcasting reforms would leave CBC Radio and Radio-Canada as is, but budgets for CBC Television and CBC News Network would be slashed and eventually sold off. The Durham MP says the CBC is in need of modernization and streamlining, comparable to the private sector. His plan would see TV advertising eliminated with a goal to see English TV privatized by the end of a prospective CPC government’s first term. 

TELUS has released unaudited results for Q4 2019. For the quarter, consolidated operating revenue of $3.9 billion increased by 2.5% year-over-year, driven by growth in wireless network revenue and wireline data services revenue. Earnings before EBITDA increased by 10.8% to $1.4 billion, with adjusted EBITDA was up 7.9%. External wireless operating revenue decreased by $11 million or 0.5%, as network revenue growth of 1.5% was offset by a 4.0% decrease to equipment and other service revenues, an atypical decline in wholesale roaming revenue, as well as lower gains on sales of assets. Mobile phone ARPU was $59.29, reflecting a decrease of 1.7%, as the declines in chargeable usage, competitive pressures on base rate plan prices, and impact to wholesale roaming revenue was only partly offset by the aforementioned increased number of customers selecting plans with endless or larger data buckets. Total subscriber net additions were 130,000, compared to 142,000 in the prior year. Mobile phone net additions decreased by 7,000, as higher mobile phone gross additions were offset by higher mobile phone churn. Internet net additions of 28,000 were unchanged over the prior year. TV net additions were 15,000, a decrease of 9,000, mainly due to heightened competitive intensity and the changing landscape of increased streaming services.

TELUS has come out on top of the Speedtest Awards, conducted by Seattle-based Ookla for Q3-Q4 2019. Telus was named Fastest Mobile Network and earned Best Mobile Coverage with a score of 71.67 Mbps, just ahead of Bell’s 70.03. TELUS also scored high in UK-based OpenSignal’s Canada: Mobile Network Experience Report, earning best network in Canada for 4G Availability, Video Experience, Download Speed Experience, Latency Experience, and Upload Speed Experience. Canada as a country placed second in Opensignal’s global ranking of national average download speeds of all countries in the world, behind only South Korea, with a slight difference: 58.7 Mbps and 55.4 Mbps, respectively. 

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