By Connie Thiessen
Bell Media has secured a major content and licensing agreement with NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution that will bring the USA Network and Oxygen True Crime cable channels to Canada for the first time.
Starting Jan. 1, existing specialty channels Animal Planet, Discovery Science, and Discovery Velocity, will be rebranded as CTV Wild, CTV Nature, and CTV Speed, respectively.
The moves follow the loss of the Canadian brand and content licensing rights for Warner Bros. Discovery specialty channels to Rogers. Programming from all five rebranded specialty channels is set to be available on linear television, and on demand on CTV.ca, the CTV app, and Bell Media’s Crave streaming service.
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By Ahmad Hathout
Internet service provider Fibernetics is accusing Rogers of undue preference by allegedly refusing to allow the independent telecom to use a third party transport service at the same building it already uses Rogers facilities to haul leased internet traffic back to its own office.
For years, the Cambridge, Ont.-based telecom said it has been leasing, via the third party internet access (TPIA) regime, capacity from Shaw, which was gobbled up by Rogers last year. In that configuration, the telecom hauls the internet traffic using Rogers’s ethernet transport mile to its own Calgary office.
But in a Part 1 application…
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Telecom also wants high court to revisit bias allegations against former chair Scott
By Ahmad Hathout
TekSavvy is asking the Supreme Court of Canada this month to help define the meaning of the terms “method or technique” that were at the centre of a decision by the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) to side with the CRTC in its 2021 determination to quash lower wholesale access rates proposed two years prior.
In simple terms, this is a case about whether the CRTC must follow the rigidness of an established costing methodology to set and justify the rates competitors pay to lease internet…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) regime, once confined to individual consumers and small businesses, has been expanded to include internet of things (IoT) and enterprise customers now that the CRTC on Wednesday ordered the large telecoms to modify their tariffs to enable competitors to wholesale network space to serve those particlar clients.
The regulator affirmed Wednesday its preliminary view that the IoT segment, which includes the machine-to-machine market, and the enterprise market, defined as companies with 100 or more paid employees, see similar market dynamics as the rest of the segments under regulation –…
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Cartt obtained WBD’s filing in non-compete case
By Ahmad Hathout
Bell announced Tuesday it has ended its legal battle with Warner Bros. Discovery, which was accused of violating non-compete covenants when it signed a multi-year deal with Rogers for the rights to the U.S. company’s brands and trademarks.
Simultaneously, Bell announced that the two companies have agreed to “expand” their partnership in Canada by extending Bell’s rights on Crave to HBO and Max Originals – which are not part of the Discovery portfolio Rogers purchased – and inking a new agreement on a co-production commitment to original Canadian content “with global appeal,…
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The CRTC is asking the big three telecoms to outline the “concrete steps” they are taking to address what it found to be unacceptably high international roaming charges and less choice than their peers in other countries.
Over a year ago, the regulator confirmed that it was studying international roaming prices after a letter from the innovation minister asked the CRTC to look into the matter. The letter and the CRTC’s confirmation came in the same month that Bell and Telus raised their U.S. and international roaming rates.
On Monday, the CRTC found both that “Canadians lack choice…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Carriers will have to come to an agreement over the wholesale rate charged for domestic roaming, with the CRTC only acting as the decider of last resort, the regulator announced Monday.
The announcement means the CRTC is moving away from what is called “Phase II” costing methodology, which involves the national carriers submitting cost studies, typically for a five-year forward-looking period, so all regional competitors are paying the same rate.
This time, the commission is choosing to go the commercial negotiation route guided by rate benchmarks it will publish on an annual basis, which it said will include weighted…
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The CRTC is asking the country’s largest telecoms to answer questions as to how the decommissioning of their 3G networks will impact those still on the legacy wireless technology.
In a letter Tuesday, the commission is asking Rogers, Bell, Telus, Quebecor, SaskTel, Iristel, and TBayTel to answer a few questions by November 1.
Those questions include whether the telecoms and their flankers still operate a 3G network and whether they have 3G-only plans available in the market; whether they plan to decommission the 3G network in the next three years and, if so, when that will happen, what will happen to…
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The chief technology and information officer (CTIO) for Rogers has retired from the company late this summer, Rogers confirmed.
Ron McKenzie was brought on in July 2022 as the cable giant’s CTO to replace Jorge Fernandes in the wake of the Rogers network outage that knocked out services for millions of Canadians, which prompted a regulatory study and the company announcing billions of dollars in network resiliency initiatives.
“Being the CTIO of Rogers has been an incredible honour with such a long history of innovation,” McKenzie said in a LinkedIn post. “Leading the best Technology team in the…
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By Connie Thiessen
Anthem Sports & Entertainment has reached an agreement to acquire Hollywood Suite, the owner and operator of four linear TV channels and accompanying digital on-demand service, pending CRTC approval.
Launched in 2011, Hollywood Suite is the largest pure-play movie service in Canada, with its film-focused 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s channels available in over 10 million homes via Rogers, Bell, Telus, Amazon Prime Video, Cogeco, Eastlink, and Freedom Mobile, among other cable providers.
Anthem – which has offices and studios in Toronto, Los Angeles, Denver, Nashville, New York, and Cleveland – says Hollywood Suite’s ability to satisfy both traditional linear viewers and on-demand focused digital…
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