TORONTO – TLN Media Group (some of you still might readily identify it as Telelatino), is asking its friends and supporters to get behind its petition to cabinet which asks the government to overturn the CRTC’s decision to grant a must-carry ethnic TV channel licence to Rogers Media.
As readers will recall, there was much competition for the 9(1)(h) TV licence which the CRTC decided to grant to Rogers to keep OMNI Television alive. Click here for our extensive prior coverage.
“Recently, the CRTC granted Rogers over 100 million dollars and a monopoly licence to operate a…
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TORONTO – Following this week's announcement by the Federal Elections Debates Commissioner David Johnston on how televised leadership debates will be produced, Rogers’ OMNI Television said it would air and translate them live in Cantonese, Italian, Mandarin, and Punjabi on TV and online.
OMNI is part of the Canadian Debate Production Partnership (CDPP), a consortium coming together to bring Canadians the debates on a wide range of platforms.
The debates will be held during the second week of October (exact dates have not yet been finalized) and the CDPP will promote, produce and distribute the French and English leaders' debates,…
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GATINEAU – Canada’s three largest wireless carriers aren’t going to meekly back away from the CRTC on this issue.
While they often grit their teeth and accept the cards the Commission deals, it seems Rogers, Telus and Bell are going to double down when it comes to 36-month device financing plans.
Friday, the Regulator told the carriers to pull those offers from the market and Rogers and Telus have told us they will comply for now (and also that it’s going to take a couple of days at least to do so). However, they are spoiling for…
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GATINEAU – While saying it acknowledges some Canadian consumers might want to pay for a new smartphone over three years instead of two, making their monthly payments lower, the CRTC told Canadian wireless carriers this afternoon to stop offering 36-month payment plans.
The CRTC today said that the new 36-month device financing plans first launched by Rogers (since followed in a more limited way by Telus and Bell) “may not be compliant with the Wireless Code since customers may have to pay fees to switch service providers, even after 24 months,” reads the CRTC press release today.
“The Wireless Code was…
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LOUISVILLE, Colo. – CableLabs, the cable industry’s standards setting and research and development body, has appointed Mariam Sorond as its new senior vice president and chief research and development officer.
In this role, she will lead R&D, directing the execution and adoption of new technologies for CableLabs’ members and the industry and will help drive technical thought leadership, vision and strategy for the future of connectivity. She will report to president and CEO Phil McKinney
“We’re thrilled to welcome Mariam to CableLabs, bringing her depth of experience and expertise to our members and the industry,” said McKinney. "As we advance…
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TORONTO – Ken Stein, former senior vice-president of corporate and regulatory affairs at Shaw Communications, died last week of cancer. He was 76.
After a career as a senior public servant, where he worked closely with former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney as deputy secretary to the federal cabinet for a stretch, Stein was hired in 1991 as president of the former Canadian Cable Television Association. He then joined Shaw in 1995 and remained a key builder of the company until his retirement in 2011.
He also served on the board of the Shaw Rocket Fund and was the long-time chairman of…
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GATINEAU – All large internet service providers will have to abide by the CRTC’s new Internet Code of conduct as of January 31, 2020.
The new code, which will apply to Bell, Cogeco, Eastlink, Northwestel, Rogers, Shaw, Sasktel, Telus, Vidéotron, and Xplornet has been created to try to ensure consumers receive easier-to-understand contracts, documentation and policies surrounding service calls, outages, security deposits and disconnections, reads the release. It’s worth noting here this new code does not apply to mobile wireless internet providers. (Correction: An earlier version of this story mentioned the code will apply to small…
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NEW AIYANSH, B.C. – Rogers Communications and the Nisga’a Nation today announced they have delivered wireless connectivity to four local communities and 1,200 residents in the Nass Valley.
“We are committed to bringing wireless connectivity to rural, remote and northern parts of Canada,” said Rick Sellers, president of British Columbia, Rogers Communications, in the press release. “We are proud to partner with the Nisga’a Nation to bring wireless service to residents and visitors in the Nass Valley for the first time to help increase economic opportunities for local residents and businesses as well as improve public safety.”
The Nass Valley…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications announced Monday the appointment of Jordan Banks as president of Rogers Media. Rick Brace, who has been in the position since 2015, will retire from the company at the end of the year.
Banks (right), who starts September 9, has more than 20 years of experience in the media, sports, and technology sectors. He was with Facebook and Instagram Canada, where he was managing director for seven years. At Facebook, he also served two years as global head of vertical strategy and prior to that led eBay Canada, was the CEO of JumpTV, and worked…
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GATINEAU – Last summer Cloudwifi, a Kitchener-based ISP that operates mostly in the apartment and condo space, filed an application with the CRTC requesting an order stating Bell Canada can’t interfere with a customer’s use of the inside wire.
The CRTC agreed with the independent ISP but Bell appealed saying because Cloudwifi was not a local exchange carrier (LEC) or a BDU, it had no legal, regulatory, or other rights of use or access to the facilities at issue. On July 17, 2019, the Commission asked interested parties for applications on the review of CRTC decision…
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