VANCOUVER — Rogers Communications announced today its Rogers for Business division has expanded its cellular network to connect more rural communities in British Columbia.
The network expansion is leveraging financial support from the provincially funded Connecting British Columbia program, administered by Northern Development Initiative Trust, to provide broadband services to underserved Indigenous, remote and rural communities in B.C., says Rogers in a press release.
Last April, Northern Development Initiative Trust launched the provincially funded Covid-19 Response Intake program which provides grants of up to $50,000 to quickly boost community connectivity. Leveraging the funding, 29 existing cellular towers have been…
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TORONTO and MONTREAL — Although Canada’s annual professional tennis tournament will no longer be called the Rogers Cup, Sportsnet and Tennis Canada announced today the Rogers Sports and Media-owned network will continue to be the exclusive English-language broadcaster for the tourney, which has been renamed the National Bank Open presented by Rogers.
As part of a new multi-year domestic media rights extension agreement announced today, Sportsnet will serve up the action at the National Bank Open starting in August 2021. The ATP men’s tournament is scheduled to take place in Toronto from August 7 to 15, while the WTA women’s…
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MONTREAL — TVA Group’s Incendo and Screentime New Zealand today announced they have started principal photography on a new TV movie, Love Knots, which will air as part of Citytv’s Fall in Love Fridays lineup.
Being shot on location in New Zealand, Love Knots is written by John Banas and directed by Josh Frizzell (Together Forever Tea, Ablaze, Fresh Eggs). The movie is being produced in association with Rogers Sports and Media’s Citytv channel. Samantha Ellison, Bridget Bourke and Tina McLaren will produce the film. Jean Bureau, Ian Whitehead and Philly de Lacey are executive producers.
The movie stars New Zealand…
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TORONTO – On the good news side, Rogers Communications’ fourth quarter results showed an addition of 114,000 new postpaid wireless subscribers while churn improved.
As for the bad, the Covid crisis continues to impact the company’s operations as full year revenue (for the period ended December 31, 2020) dropped 8% to $13.92 billion and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization declined 5%, compared to the same period of 2019 to $5.86 billion.
On the cable side, service revenue rose by 3% to just over $1 billion in the quarter as the company added 19,000 internet subscribers and 71,000 Ignite…
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SSi Micro says northern broadband won’t grow if everything is given to incumbents
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Last week, outgoing Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai said a chunk of the United States’ historic C-band spectrum proceeds should go toward a fund intended to help bring basic telecommunications services to all Americans.
North of the border, NDP Member of Parliament Brian Masse (and many others) has long been calling for spectrum proceeds to fund rural broadband investments — even creating a proposal to connect the entirety of the country to universal objective speeds (50 Mbps download/10 Mbps upload) much sooner than…
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More virtual buyers briefings slots opening up on Thursday
OTTAWA — Prime Time Online starts this week, and the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) announced today delegates can now book virtual meetings with Global Affairs Canada trade commissioners to discuss projects with international appeal and export potential.
The trade commissioners taking part in the Prime Time Pitch Market’s Trade Commissioner Service Export Café are:
Jeffrey Crossman – Ontario
Allison Goodings – UK
Constance Richard – France
Catherine Scheinman – New York City
In addition, due to popular demand, CMPA announced it is adding a limited number of Buyers Briefings slots which will…
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TORONTO — Hollywood Suite this morning announced two internal staff promotions. Sharon Stevens (above, left) has been promoted to vice-president of programming, and Julie Kumaria (right) is now senior vice-president of marketing and content distribution.
As director of programming from 2017 to 2020, Stevens “took Hollywood Suite’s schedules to new heights of creativity and viewer engagement”, says the press release announcing the promotions. Since early 2020, Stevens has led the programming team as they curate, commission and schedule Hollywood Suite’s movie channels, along the way garnering audience accolades such as “tell your curatorial staff they are f**king geniuses”, says the…
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TORONTO – The Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University announced last week the launch of a new independent, three-year, research study on Canadian sports fan, in partnership with Sportsnet and in collaboration with the Future of Sport Lab (FSL).
Said to be the first-of-its-kind academic study, the “Canadian Sport Fan Index will provide key insights on the attitudes, behaviors and trends of sport fans across Canada,” said the press release. “The research will focus on the post-Covid era examining how fans are engaging with professional sports teams and leagues as they deal with limited access to live events,…
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TORONTO – Long-time Sportsnet personality Sid Seixeiro announced last week he is leaving Sportsnet’s and 590 The Fan’s Tim & Sid to join Citytv’s Breakfast Television as its new co-host.
Beginning March 10, Seixeiro will join Dina Pugliese to talk about a lot more than sports.
“It’s been a dream to work 20 years in the sports industry, especially alongside Tim Micallef, and express my passion and love for sports on a daily basis,” said Seixeiro in the Rogers Sports and Media press release.
“However, I’ve always been curious to explore other areas of the business and this was a unique opportunity…
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Advanced service joins all-in-one-video push
By Greg O’Brien
MONTREAL – This week, Cogeco Connexion became the latest company to tell consumers if they want all of their video in one place, epico is the best place to find it.
After an extended trial period with employees (1,200 of the company’s 2,000 Canadian employees have it in their homes) and a handful of customers (over 12,000 customers now have epico), the company took the wrapper off the newest, and for now the most advanced, pay-TV system in Canada. We’re calling it that because its Android TV operator tier operating system from MediaKind gives…
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