TORONTO – There’s still more than a month to go before the puck drops on the 2014-2015 NHL season, but the sports networks were buzzing this week about the plethora of games that they’ll offer fans.
Courtesy of its mammoth $5.2 billion deal with the NHL, Rogers will deliver 350 national regular season NHL games across nine networks, including CBC, City, Sportsnet (East, Ontario, West, and Pacific), Sportsnet One, Sportsnet 360 and FX Canada (the first 200 of which were announced in June). In addition, the company locked up exclusive Canadian broadcast coverage of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Stanley Cup…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Canadian television personality and financial expert Kevin O’Leary is leaving the CBC to become an on-air contributor at Bell Media starting next month.
O’Leary first joined CBC News Network in August of 2009, joining his long-time BNN co-host Amanda Lang to launch The Lang & O'Leary Exchange. He is also well known for his role on Dragons’ Den and its American version Shark Tank. In addition, he leads a group of financial companies, is chairman of O’Leary Funds, the founder of O’Leary Fine Wines and a bestselling author for his Cold Hard Truth series of books promoting financial literacy for…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – CBC Radio has launched a new afternoon drive radio program to serve the northern Ontario region.
Up North, hosted by Jason Turnbull, airs weekdays at 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM EST and replaces CBC Thunder Bay's current afternoon show Voyage North, as well as CBC Sudbury's Points North. The new program debuted Monday and promises to explore what Northern Ontario communities have in common and what makes them unique, and include Canadian and Northern Ontario music.
"It's a new program with a regional focus, broadcasting out of CBC Sudbury," said Susan Marjetti, senior managing director of Ontario, in…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Bell Mobility continues to lead the Canadian wireless industry in EBITDA and ARPU growth, as shown through its second quarter results released this morning.
"Rapid expansion of our mobile 4G LTE network, including to hundreds of small towns and rural communities across Canada, is promoting smartphone use and growing Bell's lead in mobile TV and other data services,” said George Cope, president and CEO of BCE and Bell Canada, in the company’s press release. “Our strategy of leading investment in Canada's communications infrastructure and new customer service initiatives delivered a quarter of strong financial and operating results. We…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – Rogers has been left quite a regulatory pile of laundry to sort through with its license renewals announced Thursday. And, the company was told "no" a lot.
The CRTC has renewed the licences of most Rogers-owned television services until 2016, but though it’s a short-term renewal (at Rogers’ request, so it lines up with the licence terms of the other major English-language broadcasters), the decision makes a lot of changes to how Rogers will operate, particularly in light of its $5.2-billion deal for rights to National Hockey League games.
The biggest change in the decision is that Rogers’s services…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Starting next week Canada will play host to the top 16 under-20 women’s teams at FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Canada 2014 and CBC and Sportsnet World will carry all the action on TV and online.
CBC-TV will have exclusive coverage of all of Canada’s matches while cbcsports.ca will stream every match from the entire tournament. Sportsnet World will provide coverage of eight additional group stage matches not involving Canada. The networks will combine to provide coverage of the quarter-final and semi-final rounds while CBC-TV will have exclusive coverage of the third place and championship matches.
“The players we’ll…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – CBC News Network, the world’s third-oldest and Canada’s first news channel, celebrates its 25th anniversary on July 31st.
First established in 1989 as CBC Newsworld and re-branded as CBC News Network in 2009, it has grown into Canada’s most popular news channel, says the release it issued today. Check out some early video here.
“For the past 25 years, CBC News Network has been the destination Canadians turn to when news breaks and major events unfold,” said Jennifer McGuire, general manager and editor-in-chief, CBC news and centres. “It’s an integral part of CBC’s future, and…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – CBC announced Monday the appointment of Munro Cullen as the new senior creative director of CBC’s communications, marketing and brand department.
Cullen joins CBC with more than ten years’ experience building brands and prominent marketing campaigns. In his most recent position as senior copywriter at Shaw Media, he was integral to the creative direction of off-air print, radio and online advertising for more than 18 brands.
He was also the head writer for the Shaw Media upfronts, with the scope of his work including corporate brand-building. Prior to Shaw, Cullen worked at Alliance Atlantis, first as a promo producer;…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – Local TV is struggling mightily. Ad revenue is down and showing no signs of growth, while the ever growing lineup of new specialty channels and the rapid rise of Internet-based alternatives are blasting away at what has always been the bedrock of the television system in Canada.
Some are telling the CRTC that it’s time to adopt a radically different approach for local TV, one that would bolster the revenue side of the ledger while also helping to encourage the development of compelling Canadian content.
For example, Bell Canada and CBC/Radio-Canada suggest shutting down over the air infrastructure completely…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Quebec customers of Telus’ Optik TV can now access the CBC’s French language video portal Tou.tv directly on their televisions.
"What our customers want is more flexibility. They want to watch their favorite shows at the time and with the device of their choice, said Clément Audet, vice president, consumer market Telus Québec, in a French-language press release.
The Tou.tv application is integrated directly within the Optik TV service via the customers’ set top boxes. Subscribers can then get quick access to nearly 1,200 titles in French, of which 300 are renewed each month, and they don’t need a…
Continue Reading
