THE CANADIAN CREATIVE community (by which I mean writers, actors, directors and other makers of television) is up in arms over the CRTC’s recent decision to harmonize a floor for spending by Canadian broadcasters on programming of national interest at 5%.
Historically speaking, the guilds, unions and associations have every right to fear any reduction in the Cancon spend mandated by the CRTC. Our broadcasters do not exactly have a stellar record of treating the production and airing of Canadian content (except for news and sports) as anything but a tax on their operations that they…
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DARTMOUTH – Vancouver listeners will soon have a new sports radio station after the CRTC approved the sale of Newcap-owned CISL 650 to Rogers Media.
As Cartt.ca reported in April, Rogers said that it plans to turn the AM station into an all-sports format, under the Sportsnet brand, as early as this fall.
The deal is expected to close within 90 days.
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LONDON – As expected, Rogers Communications brought its Connected for Success program to London Thursday, offering its inexpensive Internet service to approximately 3,200 subsidized London & Middlesex Housing Corporation (LMHC) tenants.
The service, available for $9.99 per month, includes speeds of up to 10 Mbps download and up to 1 Mbps upload and requires no contract or credit checks upon sign up.
Since launching the service in 2013, Rogers has partnered with 160 housing providers across Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland. Its goal is to connect approximately 150,000 low income households located across its cable footprint.
“In this ever-evolving connected world, we…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications is not allowed to demand a fee from copyright owners who ask the giant ISP to help track down individual suspected movie and TV pirates, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled earlier this month – a decision which will directly impact all Canadian Internet service providers.
While the Copyright Act and the Copyright Modernization Act protects copyright owners from having their wares digitally taken and shared without compensation, everyone knows this is a common occurrence and so movie studios and others try to work with ISPs to limit…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications made some waves in the gamer community Wednesday with the announcement of a new content deal bringing exclusive esports to TV on Sportsnet Now and Sportsnet 360, while announcing on the network side new peering arrangements which will make game play faster and more seamless.
On the content side, Rogers Media has secured a new deal with ESL, the world’s largest esports league, by acquiring the exclusive rights to its esportsTV, the first global 24/7 esports television channel.
“Sportsnet prides itself on being on the cutting edge of industry trends so we can continue to deliver premier…
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LONDON, ON – Rogers Communications is planning to extend its Connected for Success program to London.
At an event scheduled for Thursday afternoon, Rogers is expected to announce a partnership with London & Middlesex Housing Corporation (LMHC) to offer its inexpensive Internet service to individuals living in subsidized housing.
According to Rogers’ website, the company has partnered with some 160 non-profit housing providers since launching the service in 2013, and over 14,000 participants have signed on.
www.rogers.com
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TORONTO – The Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC) took a little more time to review last week’s CRTC’s broadcast policy changes and licence renewals before joining its fellow associations in denouncing the move to allow broadcasters to spend less on Canadian Programs of National Interest (PNI).
DOC said Tuesday that it applauds the extra credits offered for programs produced by Indigenous producers and producers from official language minority communities, and “fully supports” the convening of an event on increasing women’s access to key creative and production positions.
Executive director Pepita Ferrari said that DOC is pleased that the CRTC plans…
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HAMILTON – Like many community cable channels, Cable 14 has been airing bingo for some time. Half a century, in fact.
To some, that may sound like something from a quaint, bygone era we’ve forgotten about where your grandma would the only one who would still care to watch and play along. However, it’s the second-most popular piece of programming on the channel’s schedule (behind the OHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs games), and it’s not just for the blue-hair set.
“You see people watching it in bars and restaurants now. They’re tuning it in and they’re selling bingo cards there. There are bingo…
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Momentum building as company concentrates on connectivity
CALGARY – If you say “Yo, Adrian” to Shaw’s new Blue Sky TV voice-activated remote, every Rocky movie the system can find will be displayed on your TV – along with some suggestions of other titles you might like, alongside their Rotten Tomato scores.
It’s hard not to be impressed with such a neat trick, and it’s one which any Shaw Blue Sky TV customer can do in their homes, right now, thanks to the years and millions of hours of work done by thousands of Comcast Corp. developers. To this eye (or ear),…
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TORONTO – Canada’s media unions and associations were united in their criticisms of the CRTC’s broadcast policy changes and licence renewals announced Monday.
Unifor, which represents 12,000 journalists and media workers in television, newspapers, magazines, news websites and film production, said that the decision will allow major broadcasters to make further cuts to local news programming, and called on the federal government to intervene.
"The time for fine speeches from Jean-Pierre Blais about big media's corporate responsibility is over”, said Unifor media director Howard Law, in a statement. “A cabinet directive is needed to do for local TV…
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