TORONTO – On Saturday, Citytv plans to bring Canadians together and thank those risking their lives to help others in a one-hour live special The Heroes of Covid, airing Saturday, April 18 at 7 p.m. on Citytv and Citytv.com, right before the global One World: Together At Home concert.
Hosted by Breakfast Television’s Devo Brown and CityNews’ Lindsay Dunn, The Heroes of Covid special offers a heartfelt collection of tributes from real people across Canada and features the profiles of individual efforts of those on the frontlines, reads the Citytv press release.
It will showcase, through local CityNews segments, the…
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By Greg O’Brien
TORONTO – With all pro and amateur sports currently shelved due to the Covid-19 crisis, TSN and Sportsnet programmers have been pulling out all the stops to try and keep fans happy.
They have scrambled and continue to work hard to fill hundreds of hours of airtime with older, or “classic” games, recorded best-of or blooper shows, previously unaired programming like strongman competitions, esports, some experiments in new programming and talk shows and other regular programming now done at hosts homes (Ed note: We enjoyed the 1980 NHL All-Star game – Wayne Gretzky’s first and…
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TORONTO – Corus Entertainment and Rogers Media are joining Bell Media to broadcast the worldwide TV and streaming special One World: Together At Home, in support of the fight against Covid-19.
Airing Saturday, April 18 at 8 p.m. ET, the special will be available on Bell Media channels CTV, CTV2, TSN, CP24, MUCH, MTV, and in French on VRAK; on Corus channels Global, National Geographic, and ABC Spark; and on Rogers Media’s Citytv.
UPDATE: CBC, TLN Media’s Univision and Sirius XM Radio have also announced they will be broadcasting the event, too.
The special will also be streamed live on the…
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Incumbents say claim they disadvantage resellers on tech work is false
By Ahmad Hathout
GATINEAU – Despite an ongoing judicial review of lower wholesale rates the CRTC set last summer, the Regulator’s ability to set new emergency rates is unaffected by the case and the Commission should install new, lower fees for resellers, ISP TekSavvy is arguing.
On Monday, TekSavvy said in a press release the CRTC should consider emergency measures to reimpose lower rates which third party internet access providers like itself pay the incumbents to use network space. The Federal Court of Appeal is currently scheduled to hear…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications announced today it is extending the removal of internet data caps, Canada-wide long distance, free access to content and flexible payment options until June 30th, in response to the Covid-19 health crisis.
Calling the program ForwardTogether, these measures will support Canadians and keep them connected – while ensuring the health and well-being of its customers and employees.
“As this public health situation continues to evolve, we’re focused on keeping our customers connected to what matters most to them,” said Joe Natale, president and CEO. “Whether that’s staying in touch with loved ones, being connected for digital learning,…
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OTTAWA — The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), ACORN Canada and the National Pensioners Federation (NPF) jointly called Tuesday for more Covid-19 relief for low-income consumers in the form of unlimited Internet access for at least the next six months and low-income Internet and wireless plans to help all Canadians stay connected while isolating at home during the coronavirus pandemic and possibly beyond.
The consumer groups addressed their demands to not only the federal government and the CRTC but also Canada’s Internet and wireless service providers.
“The Canadian government has told Canadians to stay at home which we are doing,” said…
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GATINEAU — In a procedural letter dated April 3, the CRTC informed Bell and Rogers it was extending the deadline for Bell to comply with the Commission’s December 2019 decision that directed Bell to deploy one-way toll trunks to connect to Rogers switches in the Bell operating territories in which Rogers also provides service, which was supposed to resolve the two companies’ dispute over toll-free call routing.
In the letter, the Commission says it considers the Covid-19 pandemic to be “an unprecedented force majeure situation during which it would not be appropriate for the Commission to expect Bell…
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TORONTO — Microsoft is partnering with global carriers, including Rogers, to enable new 5G customer scenarios with its new Azure Edge Zones and Azure Private Edge Zones. Azure is Microsoft’s cloud computing platform.
Building on its previous work with AT&T, Microsoft announced last week the preview of Azure Edge Zones with carriers, connecting Azure services directly to 5G networks in the carrier’s data centre, explains the news release. With Azure Edge Zones, developers will be able to build optimized and scalable applications for commercial clients using Azure and directly connected to 5G networks, taking advantage of consistent Azure APIs…
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Quarterly results reporting begins this week
By Greg O’Brien
TORONTO – Both Cogeco Inc. and Shaw Communications will release their fiscal 2020 second quarter results this week, but since their quarters ended February 29th, those numbers will resemble more of a time capsule than an account of what is going on in the market right now and the real news will be what the companies have to say about what’s happened since with the Covid-19 crisis.
“We believe Canadian telcos and cablecos remain structurally sound and even after our target price revisions, we believe the sector will provide investors attractive potential total…
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TORONTO – Canada’s marketing and research association dedicated to television, thinktv, confirmed what we wrote about earlier this week: As Canadians shelter at home in greater numbers due to the Covid-19 crisis, television audiences are growing.
In a communique to members Thursday, thinktv noted average daily television viewing has increased by 12% for A25-54 and 14% for A18-34 YOY (Total Canada) with growth across almost every daypart, while time spent has grown from 23 to 25.7 hours/week (2+).
Increases are even higher when sports networks (which have seen large drops in viewers) are left out of the calculations.
News has seen…
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