TORONTO – Rogers Media is officially out of the magazine publishing business after announcing Wednesday that it is selling all seven of its consumer print and digital magazine brands to St. Joseph Communications (SJC).
The deal includes Maclean’s, Chatelaine (English and French), Today’s Parent, Hello! Canada, as well as digital publications Flare and Canadian Business, plus its custom content business. Financial terms of the acquisition, which is scheduled to close next month, were not publicly disclosed.
All current Rogers Media Publishing employees will be offered employment through the deal.
“It was a difficult decision, but one we believe is right as we…
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WE’VE ALL HEARD THE conventional wisdom which says live sports is one of the last remaining mass audience attractions for linear TV – and that it will help retain a large chunk Canadian households opting for a subscription TV service.
Indeed, according to a new report from Winnipeg’s Communications Management Inc., TV companies and some streamers believe this in their bones, as evidenced by massive increases in spending on sports rights the past few years.
In fact, with the myriad ways sports is delivered, “the many emerging options for the delivery of video programming to consumers has also increased demand, with…
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TORONTO – CTV2, Citytv, and Crave will stage a multi-network super-simulcast of Grammy Award-winning Canadian singer, songwriter, actor, and record producer Michael Bublé this Wednesday at 10:00 PM ET.
Accompanied by a 36-piece orchestra, Bublé! is a one-hour television event featuring a performance of classic songs that inspired the Canadian crooner’s early career, several of his original songs, plus six songs from his new album love, including a duet with guest artist Cécile McLorin Salvant on “La Vie en Rose”.
Following its broadcast, Bublé! will be available on CTV.ca and the CTV app, and on Citytv.com, Rogers on…
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OTTAWA – A former director-general of spectrum management at Innovation, Science and Economic Development who allegedly accepted a lucrative consulting role with BCE may have violated the Feds’ postemployment conflict-of-interest rules.
According to a report in the Globe and Mail (subscription required), Peter Hill played a key role in Ottawa’s wireless strategy for years, including in the eventual sale of wireless startup Mobilicity – and most of its spectrum – to Rogers in 2015. He also signed a February, 2017, letter approving a transfer involved in BCE’s takeover of Manitoba Telecom Services Inc., according to documents obtained in an…
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VICTORIA – Bell and Telus are tied for their ability to offer a consistent quality across their national networks, edging out Rogers by 10%, says a new report from Canadian independent mobile network data company Tutela.
The report, Canada: State of Mobile Networks, March 2019, used over 1.8 billion measurements taken between August 1, 2018 and January 31, 2019, including 13.4 million speed tests and 153 million latency tests collected from more than 1 million mobile devices. Tutela said that while fast top speeds are indicative of a strong network, it believes that reliable network quality is equally, if…
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TORONTO – Sportsnet and APTN are teaming up on the NHL’s first ever broadcast in Plains Cree next weekend.
The historic broadcast is scheduled for Sunday, March 24, when the Montreal Canadiens meet the Carolina Hurricanes on Rogers Hometown Hockey in Cree on APTN at 7:00 PM ET / 4:00 PM PT. Sportsnet will handle the production, while APTN will air the matchup with exclusive Cree-language commentary and analysis. Broadcaster Clarence Iron, recognized within the Indigenous hockey community as one of the “Cree Voices of Hockey”, will handle the play-by-play call for APTN, while Juno Award-winning musician Earl Wood…
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CANOE VENTURES IS hoping 2019 is the year where it begins to help build video on demand advertising together with BDUs and broadcasters into a $200 million marketplace.
The U.S. company (which is co-owned by MSOs Comcast, Cox Communications and Charter Communications) has been the driver behind huge success Stateside, where the VOD ad business is already a US$1 billion market. Canoe alone delivered 26 billion ad impressions in 2018 on 7,476 ad campaigns. It delivers VOD ads to 36 million American households for broadcast clients such as ABC, A+E, AMC, CBS, Discovery, MTV, NBC, Showtime, Univision and others.
Now,…
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VANCOUVER – Rogers Communications pledged to double its investments in British Columbia this year to expand its LTE network, boost and densify its fibre-powered network in Vancouver, and to lay the groundwork for 5G in the province.
“Our new fibre build will further connect thousands more businesses, as well as local governments, giving them more choice in the province,” said Rogers for Business president Dean Prevost, in Tuesday’s news release. “More fibre allows Rogers to enable even more underserved businesses in the province, with reliable connectivity and flexibility for future growth as we go live with 5G.”
The news comes on…
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BIDDING IS SET TO GET underway in Canada’s much anticipated 600 MHz spectrum auction. The 12 qualified bidders are Bell Mobility, Bragg Communications, Freedom Mobile, Iris Technologies, Novus Entertainment, Rogers Communications, Saskatchewan Telecommunications, SSi Micro – Consortium, TBayTel, TELUS Communications, Vidéotron and Xplornet Communications.
The 600 MHz band is designated for flexible use for mobile, fixed and broadcasting services. Canada has adopted the same band plan as the U.S., which began to auction off that band more than two years ago. The low-band spectrum is ideally suited for offering mobile services and it is one of…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is calling for comments on an application by three of the country’s big broadcasters seeking to amend their condition of licence requiring that all of their prime time programming be broadcast with described video by September 1st.
Described video is a narrated description of a program’s main visual elements, such as setting, costumes and body language, that helps to make television programming accessible for people with visual disabilities by allowing them to better understand what is occurring on the screen. The Commission has incrementally increased the availability of programming with described video in the Canadian broadcasting…
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