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TORONTO (Reuters) - Bell Canada's parent has agreed to buy Astral Media, its largest content provider, in a C$3 billion ($3.02 billion) deal to lock up more of the programming carried over its media platforms and expand its presence in French-speaking Quebec.

Complementing BCE Inc's C$1.3 billion acquisition of CTV last year, the deal announced on Friday highlights the company's drive to control the costs of the content distributed through its cable, internet and telecom properties.

BCE's strategy is part of a global trend - the growing popularity of tablet computers and smartphones as platforms to view content has blurred the lines separating telecom carriers, media and cable companies. That has forced providers to venture outside their traditional domains to boost revenues and win a competitive edge.

"All telephone companies are trying to reinvent themselves," said Macquarie analyst Greg MacDonald. "Carriers, cable and telephone companies are buying content providers, and even going so far as to buy the content itself."

BCE, already Canada's largest telecom provider, will acquire more than 20 television services operated by Astral, including HBO Canada, the Movie Network, Canal Vie and Disney Junior. In radio, the deal gives BCE 80 stations, including Virgin Radio, EZ Rock and Boom.

In an important aspect of the deal, Astral positions BCE to compete more effectively against Quebecor Inc, which owns a rich array of French-language content and rival telecom company Videotron that operates in the province of Quebec.

Astral - based in Montreal along with Quebecor - has a strong presence in Quebec, Canada's francophone heartland. Its assets will enable BCE to raise its profile in one of Canada's biggest media markets and broaden out its national footprint.

"Bell's acquisition of Astral firmly establishes our company as Qubec's media leader," said BCE Chief Executive George Cope. "The acquisition also represents content cost certainty for Bell, as Astral represents Bell's single largest content cost in our TV business today."

Astral also owns digital media assets and nearly 10,000 outdoor advertising signage locations spread across Qubec, Ontario and British Columbia. It employs about 2,800 people across Canada, with about half of them located in Qubec.

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Canada's BCE to acquire Astral Media for C$3 billion

14-03-2012 05:51 Journalism is not restricted to just writing or blogging. It has become an integral part of our existence. But sometimes information on the media get out of control and that's when governments try to shut it down.

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The Faisal Qureshi Show - Pakistan mein media ka kirdaar - Video

One of the biggest modular synthesizers on the planet lurks in the halls of MIT.

Photo: Brian Mayton

Now, anyone can play one of the biggest modular synthesizers in the world, thanks to a new project, code-named PatchWerk. With PatchWerks simple web interface, users around the world can control the colossal rig in real time, from its current home at the MIT Museum.

This is the Paradiso Synthesizer, named for its creator, Joe Paradiso an associate professor at the MIT Media Lab, who built and fine-tuned the synth over the course of nearly four decades. The massive analog synth, which contains nearly 200 homemade modules, looks like something out of a vintage sci-fi film. Custom-built cabinets encase dozens of custom-designed circuits; a riot of red and blue patch cables conceals row upon row of mysterious knobs, switches, and buttons.

The synth might look intimidating, but the sounds that come out of it can be positively peaceful. Listeners can follow the synth on Twitter for poetic updates on its latest sounds, which make reference to legendary composer Terry Riley, Japanese bliss-rockers Boredoms, and 70s French band Heldon. The synthesizer burbles with new music 24 hours a day (you can listen to the synth at any time, day or night.)

By manipulating various toggles on the web interface, users around the world can turn on a sweeping oscillator sound, activate the chaotic sequencer, turn on drum machines and a growling speech synthesizer sound, control frequency and tempo, and much more. Letting anyone play the synth in real time could potentially lead to chaos, but the current design of PatchWerk which has a small group of users experiment with sounds while other users wait a queue is meant to help control for that. I tend to think about the synth as running in its own space, where I adjust everything meticulously to give the effect and balance that I want, said Paradiso in an e-mail exchange with Wired. All of the previous patches that I have posted off the site are of this ilk. My students Gershon Dublon, Brian Mayton, and Nick Joliat, the designers of the PatchWerk module, convinced me to try letting people over the net interact.

In the era of glossy iPad apps and slick soft synths, there is something strangely romantic about being able to work remotely with a hulking mass of analog hardware, which weighs hundreds of pounds and fills up an entire room. People have been finding some beautiful spots in it, and also many garish ones but its never boring now, because theres always somebody somewhere in the world trying something different on it, said Paradiso.

With PatchWerk named, of course, in homage to Kraftwerk everyone can fulfill the dream that Paradiso had as an undergraduate at Tufts University in the 1970s. I always wanted [a synthesizer] as long as I can remember and they were too expensive, so I needed to build one, said Paradiso. As a kid motivated by electronics, science, and music growing up in the 60s and early 70s, the modular synths had a strong allure. They still do.

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Control a Giant Modular Synthesizer From the Comfort of Your Home

Law enforcement agencies are looking for ways to mine social media to look for threats, but those speaking at a conference on Wednesday suggested that an equally important issue might be trying to control authorities who are causing problems by their use of Twitter, Facebook and other such applications.

Those public safety groups that have started trying to tap social media to do their jobs haven't yet figured out how to sift through the massive amounts of data they collect, said speakers at the Microsoft Public Safety Symposium, held at the software giant's Redmond, Washington, headquarters.

For instance, in preparation for the Rugby World Cup, New Zealand police set up a system that scrapes YouTube, Twitter and Flickr, plotting the message, photo and video uploads on a map. Hovering over an icon with a mouse let an officer see the tweet, photo or still image from the video.

Officers could filter results to look for items posted from homes of known "folks who want to take out your mum," said Neil Macrae, senior sergeant with the New Zealand Police.

The system offered time stamps for when the tweets were made with a high granularity for where they were issued, he said. YouTube had the least accurate location information, he said.

But over the six weeks of the World Cup, the system collected 20 million tweets. "You need to start with a target. With 20 million tweets, it's pretty hard to scroll through," he said.

One person the authorities appeared to target was an "ambassador from a prominent country" who was tweeting his location after a match. Macrae didn't say which country the ambassador was from but implied the U.S. by noting that the game happened to occur on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York. "It was a bit of a security risk that he was doing that. His security detail was a bit apprehensive when we alerted them," Macrae said.

Matching location with social media information can be both a blessing and a curse. There is an acceptance that geolocation can be a positive aspect of social media, but for people in mission-critical roles, it can backfire, said Tim Pippard, director of defense, security and risk consulting for IHS Consulting.

For instance, in 2007 soldiers in Iraq took photos of a new fleet of Apache helicopters that just arrived. Adversaries in Iraq found the photos online and were able to discover the location. A month later, the base, which had been at a secret location, was bombed, he said.

Just last week the U.S. Army released a directive warning personnel about the potential danger in geotagging photos.

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Public safety sees opportunity, pitfalls in social media

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

QuickPlay Media, Inc., the leading provider of managed solutions for the distribution of premium video to IP-connected devices, today announced that CEO Wayne Purboo will present a session detailing how mobile and TV service providers can compete with Over-The-Top (OTT) offerings at the third annual Over-The-Top TV Conference (OTTCON) being held March 20-21, 2012 in Santa Clara, CA.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012 Over-the-Top-TV Conference

OTTCON 2012, Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, CA

Meeting Room 3

For more information on the event, visit: http://www.QuickPlay.com/ottcon2012

About QuickPlay Media

QuickPlay Media is the leading provider of managed solutions for the distribution of premium video to IP-connected devices. Successfully used by the worlds largest communications and media companies, QuickPlays OpenVideo platform provides the most scalable and secure way for companies to deliver engaging multiscreen entertainment experiences. For more information, please follow QuickPlay Media on Twitter at @quickplaymedia. Interested parties can also follow QuickPlay on Facebook at facebook.com/quickplaymedia.

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QuickPlay Media Shares Lessons Learned on how TV Service Providers can Better Compete with Over-The-Top TV Offerings ...