TORONTO – Operating revenue increased 29% for the quarter ended June 30th at Rogers Communications Inc., with all three operating companies contributing to the year-over-year growth, including 47% growth at Wireless, 5.3% growth at Cable and 27.1% growth at Media.
Consolidated quarterly operating profit grew 26.9% year-over-year, with 47.6% growth at Wireless (to $364.8 million compared to June 30 2004) and 13.9% growth at Media (to $44.2 million), offset by a 1% decline at Cable (to $171.6 million). The company passed the one million high speed Internet subscriber mark during the quarter.
Wireless ended the quarter with a total…
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OTTAWA – As first reported by www.cartt.ca, the Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association has asked the CRTC for permission to drop local radio signals from cable license requirements.
Today, the Commission sent out a call for public comments on the cable industry’s request to repeal the section of the broadcast distribution regulations which requires cable companies to carry every local FM signal in their cable regions.
The CCTA says that so few customers (4%) actually listen to the radio on cable that it’s a waste of bandwidth that could be put to better use.
“As we move to into…
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GATINEAU – Le Reseau des sports (RDS) was granted a category two digital specialty service license for Le Reseau Grand Air.
The French-language specialty service will be devoted exclusively to recreation, outdoor activity, adventure and conservation. No launch date has been set.
Click here to see the full approval.
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OTTAWA – Due to the “complete absence of Canadian conventional high definition services on StarChoice/Cancom,” the Canadian Association of Broadcasters has urged the CRTC to take action against the DTH company and to finally come up with an HD policy when it comes to satellite providers.
As reported by www.cartt.ca, the CRTC issued a decision on May 12 upholding a complaint made against Star Choice by CTV. Broadcasters said that the DTH company’s past practice of excerpting HD content (mostly U.S. content) and compiling it on omnibus HD channels contravened distribution regulations.
The Commission agreed and told Star…
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GATINEAU – With the Alberta oil sands development driving more and more growth in Fort McMurray, it’s no surprise someone has applied for a new radio station there.
The CRTC announced Friday that it received an application for a new radio station licence to serve the northern Alberta town.
As is its policy, the Commission is now calling for applications from other parties wishing to obtain a broadcasting licence (or licences) to operate a radio programming undertaking to serve this area. The deadline is September 20th, 2005.
Fort McMurray – part of the regional municipality of Wood Buffalo – has…
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GATINEAU – While the CRTC hears applications for new pay TV licenses in Canada in October, it will also consider an application from Newcap for a new station in Lac La Biche, Alberta.
If approved, the English-language station would operate at 103.5 FM at 1,900 watts and have a country format.
Lac La Biche is about 220 kms north of Edmonton and the province of Alberta web site says the town and the immediate region’s surrounding population is about 10,000.
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THE WIRELESS INDUSTRY AND broadcasters look to be readying themselves for a regulatory scuffle over the delivery of television to mobile phone handsets.
The wireless companies say that since the video signal they plan to make available to cell phone customers is delivered via IP, (over the Internet), that it therefore falls under the CRTC’s 1999 new media exemption order and should not be subject to regulation. Period. That order said the CRTC would stay out of regulating the Internet – a decision which was made when the web was still just a toddler, however.
The broadcasters say that television…
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TORONTO – Four new pay television license applications are set to be made public today, one of which tugs on the Commission’s Cancon heartstrings – and if approved, would yank open the existing pay TV channels’ purse strings.
New pay television applications from Allarco Entertainment, Groupe Archambeault, Spotlight Television and Channel Zero will be made public at 11 a.m. this morning, www.cartt.ca has learned.
The Allarco application is backed by Dr. Charles Allard and his family, who used to own WIC and Superchannel and who still own several smaller broadcasting assets in radio in western Canada. Groupe Archambeault is…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Coming up short in its required Canadian content caused the CRTC to issue a shorter than normal license term to Quinte Broadcasting’s CJBQ Belleville.
The license renewal announced today is for a four-year term rather than the full seven. After Quinte and the CRTC reviewed logger tapes from the week of March 9th, “the Commission determined that the licensee had devoted 33.5% of its programming to Canadian musical selections.”
According to the radio regulations, the full complement of required Cancon is 35%.
While this was a first offense and that Quinte had already taken steps to make…
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THERE IS ALMOST NO WAY for an independent Canadian artist to get airplay on radio in this country, says Gregg Terrence, president of Indie Pool.
And even for some signed national artists, finding space in the playlists is very difficult. Artist development in Canada, is stalled.
The reason for this is the Canadian content (Cancon) rules for commercial radio in this country no longer work for those artists. While the rules for radio say that of the total music playlist, at least 35% must be Canadian – which is great, says Terrence – most of that space is taken…
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