TORONTO – As it threatened weeks ago, Unifor, the union which represents journalists and television employees at Rogers’ OMNI TV, has filed a complaint with the CRTC over the broadcaster’s decision to hire Fairchild TV to create its Chinese news broadcasts.
The union believes that violates its CRTC licence.
“The CRTC gave Rogers a special licence with guaranteed income to bring back the Chinese language daily news for the nation’s largest immigrant community,” said Unifor media director Howard Law, in a press release. “Instead of producing the show themselves and adding to the…
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AU QUEBEC, LA CLASSE POLITIQUE et culturelle a décidément mal avalé la politique culturelle récemment dévoilée par la ministre du patrimoine canadien, Mélanie Joly. Le centriste Parti Libéral du Québec a été aussi véhément dans sa dénonciation de la politique que le Parti Québécois et la formation souverainiste de gauche Québec Solidaire.
Le Devoir, un quotidien montréalais de gauche, a accusé le fédéral dans un éditorial de vouloir “cautionner l’injustice». Pour sa part, le chroniqueur souverainiste de droite Mathieu Bock-Côté, toujours sceptique à l’endroit du gouvernement Trudeau, a reproché le gouvernement et le ministère “d’abandonne les forces vives de…
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IN QUEBEC, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S cultural policy announcement has landed with a decisive thud. The province’s governing Liberals were as scathing in their denunciation of the “Creative Canada” policy as the sovereigntist Parti Québécois and the left-wing party Québec Solidaire. Highbrow left-wing daily Le Devoir accused the federal government of nothing less than “excusing injustice,” while right-wing sovereigntist columnist Mathieu Bock-Côté, writing in the Journal de Montréal, accused Canadian Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly of “dereliction of duty.”
The opinion pages of the centre-right tabloids Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, usually skeptical of all things Trudeau, lit…
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MONTREAL – After getting into wireless last year with the purchase of Wind (now Freedom) Mobile, many expect Shaw to soon start offering wireline/wireless bundles in the west just as Telus, its biggest competitor, already offers.
But the telco isn’t worried, Stephen Lewis, Telus’ senior vice-president and treasurer, told a CIBC investor conference on Wednesday. “We’ve seen this coming for a number of quarters and we are very confident in the preparation we’ve done for when they do bring the Shaw wireless brand to market,” he said.
He cited the “robustness” of Telus’ Internet and OptikTV offering and its continuing installation of…
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OTTAWA – In a speech today at an Economic Club of Canada event, Minister of Canadian Heritage Melanie Joly officially unveiled the federal government’s long awaited digital content strategy. Dubbed 'Creative Canada', the plan has angered some and sated others and calls for increased investments to support both domestic production as well as the promotion of Canadian content abroad.
The release of the strategy comes a day after news leaked that the federal government had inked an agreement with Netflix that would see the online broadcaster and distributor invest a minimum of $500 million in Canadian productions over the next…
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WINNIPEG – Rogers is working to improve its wireless service and network in Manitoba.
The company said Thursday that it has increased its LTE coverage in downtown Winnipeg at Main and Broadway, and that the improved coverage also extends to adjacent commercial businesses and residents in this bustling area of the city. Construction is also underway on a new cellular tower in the community of Sage Creek in Winnipeg.
Earlier this year, Rogers placed new wireless sites in service in Winnipeg including Riverview, Ridgewood, Inkster Industrial Park, McPhillips Ave, and Unicity, as well as in Brandon North Hill.
"Our customers want wireless…
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MONTREAL – Groupe V Media has named Sébastien Cassagnes to the position of senior director, multi-market sales.
Effective October 2, Cassagnes (pictured) will lead the local and regional sales teams in all markets served by Groupe V Média plus take part in business development activities and client follow-up.
Cassagnes was most recently director of national sales at La Presse, and prior to that, was national director, Eastern Canada, innovations and sales at Rogers Media.
“It is with a great deal of enthusiasm that we welcome Sébastien to Groupe V Média”, said vice-president and chief revenue officer Marc Giguère, in the announcement. “His extensive experience in…
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MONTREAL – When a U.S. branch of Montreal-based Cogeco Communications paid US$1.4 billion for the rest of the MetroCast cable network this year, onlookers wondered how big the company wants to grow down south.
Pretty big, CEO Louis Audet suggested Wednesday at an investor conference in Montreal run by CIBC. “We have the potential for our U.S. operations to become bigger one day than our Canadian operations” in Quebec and Ontario, he said. “There is sufficient acquisition potential for that to occur … Now you need to work hard and be a bit lucky.”
Cogeco’s first…
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HALIFAX – Rogers Communications will provide all connectivity infrastructure for the new Nova Centre development in downtown Halifax, making it one of the most technologically connected commercial hubs in Atlantic Canada.
As part of the agreement, Rogers has laid network fibre in the one million square foot building, ensuring private, secure and dedicated network fibre for all tenants, including banks and financial services, the Halifax Convention Centre, restaurants and all future businesses that move into the building. In addition to Wi-Fi for tenants, this investment will allow more than 10,000 people inside the Convention Centre, and 3,000 in common…
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TORONTO – Rogers is introducing a new feature to its Share Everything customers that provides them with another way to maximize the use of their data within a family plan.
Stream Saver allows the data manager (which could be mom or dad, for example) to change video streaming settings from high definition to standard definition using their MyRogers app, giving any line on their plan the ability to watch more video. According to Rogers’ example, a customer can watch up to 18 minutes of standard definition video on YouTube compared to 6 minutes in high definition, all while using the same…
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