GATINEAU – Although the CRTC proceeding on lower-cost data-only plans or skinny wireless was not supposed to be targeted towards a means-tested subset of low-income households, the deaf, deaf-blind or hard of hearing Canadians (DDBHH), seem to have scored a victory.
In its final reply, Bell Mobility (BCE) indicated that they would extend an existing promotion for people with disability. “In order to ensure that new lower-cost data-only plans accommodate the needs of persons with disabilities, we would extend our 2 GB data add-on to our customers with disabilities in conjunction with our proposed plans. This means that persons with…
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TORONTO – As widely expected, Corus Entertainment today slashed its dividend as part of a plan to reduce debt and re-invest in its core business as it struggles to compete with Facebook, Google, OTT providers, internet radio and global change in content consumption.
Corus is cutting its annual dividend by 79% to $0.24 per share for Class B shares (to take effect Sept. 1, 2018). It also announced a quarterly loss of $935.9 million tied to its devaluation of its broadcast licenses. The loss includes a $1.01-billion non-cash impairment charge related to broadcast licences and goodwill.
Television business revenue fell 5%…
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GATINEAU – Christa Dickenson is the new executive director of Telefilm Canada for a five year term effective July 30, Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly announced Tuesday.
Dickenson (pictured) is the president and CEO of Interactive Ontario, and has also worked at Rogers Communications, CPAC and CTV. She has more than two decades of experience leveraging strategic partnerships and helping generate revenue, sponsorship and fundraising opportunities in her industry, reads the announcement.
She succeeds Carolle Brabant who retired from the role in March after eight years.
Telefilm Canada acts as one of the Canadian government's principal instruments for providing strategic leverage to the private…
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HAMILTON – The Clearcable Summit organizers never shy away from presenting disruptive, sometimes opposing, ideas.
This year it was opener Edo Kweldam of Netherlands independent carrier CAI Harderwijk, whose 40 minute presentation sang the praises of structural separation for network operators. (He is pictured at left with Clearcable president Rob McCann)
His company is one of the few Netherlands cable operations which wasn’t sold to a larger provider. Back in 1995, he said, the country had approximately 300 independent cablecos but now there are just a few large ones, providing all the same services we here in Canada would recognize…
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TORONTO – Can cord cutting in Canada be halted, or at least slowed, by solving the country’s “drama problem”?
Veteran lawyer and engineer Peter Miller and Ken Engelhart, former SVP regulatory and chief privacy officer of Rogers Communications, think so. Speaking Wednesday at the CTAM Canada Leadership Forum in Toronto, the duo drove home some key points from their recent report Strengthening Canadian Television Content: Creation, Discovery and Export in a Digital World, penned with Lawson Hunter for the C.D Howe Institute.
The “drama problem”, according to Engelhart, is the dearth of big budget, well-produced, made-in-Canada dramas that would conceivably…
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Flagship daily show The Big Story delves deep into day’s “critical story”
TORONTO – Rogers Radio launched a new podcast network Monday, complete with a daily show known as The Big Story.
The Big Story, available on Apple Podcasts and Google Play weekdays at 6:00 AM ET, breaks down one critical story every day – anything from politics and entertainment, to sports, technology and human interest – all in 15 minutes. Frequency Podcast Network will be home to all Rogers Media podcasts, including Sportsnet's A Swing and a Belt and 31 Thoughts.
Rogers Media’s director of digital radio and audio Jordan Heath-Rawlings is…
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TORONTO – EnStream and digital identity authentication company Payfone are teaming up to stamp out passwords with a new global mobile-based federated digital identity platform.
The new Mobile ID service, to be available initially in Canada, will allow consumers to log into accounts or verify transactions with any participating online service using a single mobile app on their phone. Backed by participating mobile network operators, the service will bring together EnStream's Mobile Connect solution with Payfone's Trust Score identity and fraud analytics solution, which is currently used by Fortune 100 banks, retailers, and health insurance companies, among others.
According to…
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TORONTO – Sportsnet will produce and televise over 150 English-language national hockey games throughout the 2018-19 NHL season across Hockey Night in Canada on Saturdays, Rogers Hometown Hockey on Sundays and Scotiabank Wednesday Night Hockey on Wednesdays.
The network is also the exclusive English-language Canadian home of the Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic on January 1, 2019, the 2019 NHL All-Star Skills Competition and NHL All-Star Game on January 25 and 26, and the Coors Light NHL Stadium Series on February 23. Sportsnet’s national schedule also includes the 19th annual Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada on February 9, the 2019 Stanley…
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GATINEAU – The communications needs of most Canadians are met with land-line telephones (still) and wireless plans. But if you’re a deaf, deaf-blind or hard of hearing Canadian (DDBHH), wireless video is essential. It offers mobility and efficiency, but of course video consumes a lot more data than voice.
So, when the CRTC determined the gap in the wireless service market was low-cost data-only service, or skinny wireless, and asked the big wireless companies to file new prices and capacities, the deaf community paid attention.
First, for them, the voice portion of any package is hardly useful, neither is voicemail service….
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TORONTO – Canadian 9-1-1 experts met at the end of May as the community continues to move forward towards the June 2020 deadline to transition to Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1).
Hosted by Rogers in downtown Toronto, the three-day meeting of the Emergency Services Working Group (ESWG) featured highly technical discussions around standards and operational best practices. Approximately 80 experts from across the country attended the meeting in person, with more joining by phone. Coincidentally, the ESWG meeting followed on the heels of an important CRTC Decision.
In Telecom Decision CRTC 2018-188, the Commission varied an earlier…
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