TORONTO — With more and more companies of all stripes shifting their data workloads to the Internet, the outlook for the cloud is sunnier than ever these days. Several key obstacles remain, however, before cloud-based services prevail in all sectors of the economy.
That was the consensus of a breakout session on “Performance Cloud” at the Canadian Telecom Summit here on Monday morning. Three of the four panelists exhorted telecom carriers, cable operators, wireless providers and other telecom service providers to start offering cloud-based services to commercial customers now, if they aren’t doing so already. But they also warned of…
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TORONTO – Easing Canadians’ minds about security concerns over mobile payments continues to be a major challenge for the mobile commerce industry, according to a panel of industry experts who spoke Monday morning at the Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto.
Recent research by credit insurance provider Assurant Solutions indicates 38% of global survey respondents are very concerned about security when conducting financial transactions through a mobile device, said Zack Fuerstenberg, vice-president of product innovation for Assurant Solutions Canada. “About half (of survey respondents) are concerned about people gaining unauthorized access to their bank account details,” he said. Other key concerns…
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TORONTO – Social media has become a business transformation tool that not only helps to engage consumers but also lower customer service costs. That was the underlying message during a panel discussion about social networking on the opening day of the Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto.
“If we do it right, there are cost savings to the company,” said Keith McArthur, vice-president of social media for Rogers Communications. “So we can do something that improves our reputation, improves our customer experience and makes our customers happier, and also lowers our costs. I think that’s a huge win-win.”
McArthur explained that Rogers…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Canada’s 669 commercial radio stations saw 2011 revenues increase by 4%, on par with pre-recession levels, according to data released Monday by the CRTC.
For the broadcast year ending August 31, 2011, total revenues for AM and FM stations increased from $1.55 billion in 2010 to $1.6 billion in 2011, though expenses also rose from $1.21 billion to $1.26 billion during the same period. As a result, profits before interest and taxes (PBIT) climbed from $298.3 million to $311 million, and the PBIT margin went from 19.2% to 19.3%.
AM radio
The number of AM stations in Canada continued to decline from…
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OTTAWA – Canada’s wireless industry generated $43 billion for the Canadian economy in 2010, according to a new report released Monday by the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA).
Conducted by UK-based Ovum Consulting, The Benefit to the Canadian Economy from the Wireless Telecommunications Industries: An Economic Impact Assessment, quantifies the economic impact of Canada’s wireless sector in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), investment and employment.
It determined that the wireless communications services industry directly contributed $18 billion to Canada’s GDP and provided an additional $15.66 billion of economic flow through to contributing suppliers in the supply chain. The sector also generated what’s…
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TORONTO – The sheer numbers some sports produce are staggering – and we’re not talking about the ones you see on the scoreboards in the stadiums or arenas.
When it comes to sports television, the National Football League is the big kahuna. The league’s current $20 billion U.S. broadcast contracts with Fox, CBS, NBC and ESPN end in 2013, and the new deals, worth almost $40 billion over eight years will kick in for 2014.
Speaking at The Cable Show in Boston on May 23rd, NBA Commissioner David Stern told delegates that between the league, its teams and players, the league…
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OTTAWA – Industry veteran Michael Hennessy was named as the new president and CEO of the Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) on Thursday.
Hennessy (pictured) replaces Norm Bolen who announced in February that he would step down from the role that he has held for the past three years.
Most recently the SVP of regulatory and government affairs at Telus, Hennessy has served as president and CEO of the Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association (CCTA) and was also a member of the board and executive committee of the Canadian Television Fund. He is currently a member of the board and…
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TORONTO – Shaw Media will launch two new U.S.-based channels in Canada this fall, plus re-brand its History Television as History to match its American counterpart, the company said Wednesday at its ‘upfront’ presentation in Toronto.
Thanks to the company's partnership with A&E Networks, Canadian viewers will be able to tune in to female-skewing Lifetime, which will take the place of Showcase Diva. With a new logo and tagline – "Your life. Your time.", the channel will premier movies like Liz and Dick starring Lindsay Lohan, and The June Carter Cash Story (wt), starring singer/songwriter Jewel. Other programming will include Dance Moms,…
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OTTAWA – A month after the government announced plans to overhaul Canada's foreign investment review process, it is also making rule changes that could make it easier for Canadian companies to be taken over by foreign corporations.
The government said Friday that in order to ensure that the review process focuses on “the most significant transactions”, the new regulations will gradually raise the review threshold from $330 million in asset value to $1 billion in enterprise value over four years. But that means that only the largest foreign acquisitions will be subject to government scrutiny.
Industry Minister Christian Paradis described foreign investment as…
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RICHARD STURSBERG CAN be a polarizing figure. He knows he rubs some people the wrong way (and I think he kinda likes being the thorn in some sides).
You can read that personality throughout his recent book, Tower of Babble: Sins, Secrets and Successes Inside the CBC. He admits as much on many pages, calling himself “arrogant”, “insouciant” and “insubordinate” and reading through some of what he describes about his time at the Corp., it’s hard not to disagree with his self-assessment.
Stursberg was actually my first interview when I started covering the electronic media industry in…
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