CEO Laurence talks cable, wireless, media, and hockey, at AGM
TORONTO – Rogers Communications will launch its IPTV service at the end of the year, CEO Guy Laurence told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting in Toronto on Tuesday, which "will take your TV viewing to a whole new level."
Meeting later with reporters, he refused to go into more details other than to say "It looks great, I'm excited about it."
But he also said IPTV wraps into the company's recent efforts in upgrading its cable network to offer 1 Gbps Internet speeds to every home and small business in…
Continue Reading
LAS VEGAS – The North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) and the Digital Production Partnership (DPP) unveiled two new technical specifications for the delivery of finished air-ready programs for North America.
Nine major North American broadcasters – including Bell Media, CBC/Radio-Canada, ABC/Disney, Fox, HBO, NBCUniversal, PBS, TimeWarner and Turner, have agreed on a common file format, structure and wrapper based on the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) AS-11 UK DPP specification implemented in the UK in 2014.
“The announcement of these new specifications represents notice to the industry that will enable production and post-production companies and equipment manufacturers to ready themselves for…
Continue Reading
BANFF – Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages Mélanie Joly will deliver a keynote presentation on Sunday June 12, 2016 to open the 37th annual Banff World Media Festival.
"I am pleased to be taking part in my first Banff World Media Festival as Minister of Canadian Heritage," said Minister Joly, in a statement. "I am eager to share my vision for the future of Canadian arts and culture with industry leaders. It will be a time for productive discussions about the new realities of Canada's content industry."
The Banff World Media Festival is recognized globally as a business market for…
Continue Reading
Chair's comments change the focus of the hearing, puts government, industry, on notice, to get their acts together
GATINEAU – The the second week of the CRTC's basic service objective (BSO) hearing featured a rare moment of reflection from CRTC chairman and CEO Jean-Pierre Blais which will now alter the focus of this hearing. Below are Blais' unedited personal thoughts, made just prior to Monday's lunch break.
Those of you who are familiar with CRTC proceedings will appreciate that it is unusual for Chairs to make formal remarks beyond those made at the beginning of the oral hearing.
But this is an exceptional…
Continue Reading
MISSISSAUGA – CommTech East wrapped up Wednesday after more than 500 attendees from the cable, wireless, ISP and related ICT industries packed the two-day event in Mississauga.
Now in its third year, the confab offered topical seminars and a trade show with over 125 exhibiting companies and distributors. Highlights included a splicing workshop, new product demonstrations at select exhibitor booths, and an opening day welcome reception during the exhibitor forum. Predominant themes this year included DOCSIS 3.0, FTTX and 4K, among others.
Communications wholesale distributor Power & Tel signed on once again as the platinum sponsor for both this show and…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – Including broadband in a redefined basic service objective (BSO) is an absolute requirement, the Nunavut Broadband Development Corp. (NBDC) and SSi Group of Companies told the CRTC on the second day of its basic service obligation hearing. The problem in getting good broadband in the Far North, they say, is the lack of adequate backbone infrastructure.
“The bottleneck for Nunavut is backbone and that cannot be solved with a fragmented approach where services for consumers are supported separately from services for business or government. All Nunavut users rely on the same upstream services delivered over the same inadequate…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – A dozen female professionals/entrepreneurs were partnered with men and women mentors drawn from the ICT sector at the end of the first training day of the Women in IT Mentorship Project.
The mentor group, made up of successful entrepreneurs and well-known executives, will support their mentee over a period of 12 months, says a press release. This crucial step will serve to validate the preparatory work initiated in May 2015. The 12 are preparing to discuss specific issues such as leadership, networking, work/family life/education balance, and the creation of a long-term professional vision.
The objective of the…
Continue Reading
MISSISSAUGA – After a successful 50-years, the Canadian Suite organizing committee has announced the Canadian Suite at the 2016 NAB Show has been cancelled due to a reduced level of sponsorship that is well below the point of event viability.
The Canadian Suite was a unique, long-standing tradition that brought the best of Canada’s media industry together in a relaxed atmosphere for three evenings during the National Association of Broadcasters Show in Las Vegas.
Created by Michael Stechly, founder of Applied Electronics (the company which ran it well for all these years), it began as a small social gathering of a…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Quebecor Media's TVA Group today launched Molto, a new digital newsstand that gives users full, unlimited access to the content of all its magazines on their tablets and smartphones.
"The magazine industry is changing fast," said Lucie Dumas, vice-president group publisher, magazine division, in the company’s press release. "We are launching Molto to stay ahead of consumer adoption of multiple content delivery methods.” It offers readers of magazines such as Canadian Living, 7 Jours, La Semaine, Elle Québec, Elle Canada, and TV Hebdo a 24-hour newsstand for $8.49/month.
Molto is a user-friendly app with a simple, intuitive…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Canada's wireless tower owners are putting too much pressure on tower consulting and construction companies to cut their costs, the inaugural conference of a new industry safety association was told today.
Tom Vardy, president of Fredericton-based Varcon Inc., a tower consulting engineering firm, complained Monday that tower owners are "bashing" suppliers so much he’s concerned worker safety will be affected. "Pressure for unrealistic service provider pricing is getting ridiculous," he said. "That's what got the United States (communications tower industry) in the (safety) hole they were in 10-15 years ago. As a Canadian group…
Continue Reading
