Canadian Heritage committee  Local television remains the most effective way to reach a mass audience. It's where Canadians turn first for information about what is going on in their community, and it is the place where viewers expect to find the biggest shows, whether that's popular dramas, tent-pole events

Canadian Heritage committee  In light of our comments, we make the following recommendations for this committee's consideration. First, as we proposed in our submission to the CRTC, there must be a redirection of existing funds in the system to specifically support local news. Second, given that local tele

Canadian Heritage committee  I'll try to answer the question. It's a bit outside the scope of the area we operate in on the media side. I think, though, that the MTS transaction is obviously a very important transaction to Bell. It's important in terms of our overall broadband strategy, and we think it's an

Canadian Heritage committee  I have no specific information, no.

Canadian Heritage committee  I can't speak to anything other than what was publicly said yesterday.

Canadian Heritage committee  Again, from the media perspective, it's hard for me to comment on that. The only thing I will say in terms of what was discussed yesterday, both publicly and in terms of internal policy, is that right now the situation from a wireless perspective in Manitoba is that you have tw

Canadian Heritage committee  I think it's going to improve overall connectivity speeds for Manitobans. I'm not sure of the specifics as to the rollout plan. I'm sorry.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm sorry. We're here to focus on the specific issues of local news and media concentration and that—

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm sorry for that. The only thing I would say on that is that the transaction in question is largely a telecom transaction and is not one overly focused on the media space, other than the small level of BDU subscribers. Obviously, the broadband acquisition side of it is very imp

Canadian Heritage committee  I think the main one is the structural set-up of over-the-air television, and its being an advertising-only medium. The other types of services that the CRTC licenses, whether it be a specialty service or a pay channel, have access to a subscription revenue stream, including ou

Canadian Heritage committee  In terms of the CBC and the investment, I think we'll have to see how those dollars are used in terms of whether or not they'll have an impact. I think the CBC is an important cultural institution. For us, it is a challenge. Essentially, you could argue that CBC gets two revenu

Canadian Heritage committee  I think ultimately every business division needs to stand on its own. I think historically in the media division the specialty and pay operations helped to prop up conventional television. The situation we're discussing today isn't something that has emerged over the last 18 mont

Canadian Heritage committee  I wish I could. I think you're referring to our appearance at the basic telecommunications services hearing. As I indicated on an earlier question from one of your colleagues, this is the media group. I run the regulatory group for media and for Bell TV. I'm not as familiar with

Canadian Heritage committee  That hearing, I know, and I think what you're referring to is the local news fund that we proposed at the CRTC's recent hearing on local TV and community television. What we proposed is that certain of the funding that the broadcast distributors put into their community channels,

Canadian Heritage committee  I think the two best ones would be, first, a secondary revenue stream for local television, whether that's a fund or it takes the form of a value for signal fee-for-carriage regime, like they have in the U.S., where local television stations are thriving, while the second one wou