TORONTO – Principal photography of original limited event series Bad Blood has wrapped and the series will make its world-wide debut on City and FX this fall, followed by a Radio-Canada broadcast in French, Rogers Media said.
Inspired by true events, the six-part, 60-minute scripted series follows the life and death of notorious underworld figure Vito Rizzuto. Based on the best-selling book ‘Business or Blood: Mafia Boss Vito Rizzuto's Last War’, Bad Blood is a story of family, loyalty, deceit, power, greed and ultimately revenge.
The series stars Anthony LaPaglia (Without a Trace) as Montreal crime boss Vito Rizzuto, Kim Coates (Sons of Anarchy)…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Inc. is actively looking at more acquisitions in cable companies in the United States, but has ruled out acquisitions in the data services sector over the next year after a 2016 in which “our results have been disappointing” at subsidiary Peer 1, president Louis Audet said on Thursday at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Montreal.
The company’s year-end financial results were mostly positive, with earnings increasing and a higher dividend to shareholders, both from Cogeco Inc. and subsidiary Cogeco Communications Inc. But a $450-million writedown at Peer 1 technically put the company in the red…
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CALGARY – The demise of streaming service shomi weighed heavily on first quarter profits at Shaw Communications, which saw net income plunge by almost 60%.
For the three month period ended November 30, 2016, Shaw posted net income of $89 million, well below the $218 million reported in Q1 2016, due to a $107 million charge from the wind down of shomi, its joint venture with Rogers Communications. Net income this quarter also reflects a decrease in income from discontinued operations, net of tax, in the amount of $80 million due to the sale of its Corus Media division last…
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X1-powered, voice-controlled
CALGARY – Shaw Communications upped the ante in Canada’s television and broadband market Wednesday, launching a new voice-controlled platform it has dubbed BlueSky TV.
Using Comcast’s X1 platform, Shaw BlueSky TV includes a remote that follows viewers’ voice prompts to access content, whether live, recorded on their DVR, available on-demand or offered through an over-the-top service. Customers may also use the voice remote to search for content by actor, genre, or a famous movie quote, or may ask "what's trending?" to activate its database of popular selections and what's trending on social media.
Comcast's intuitive, user-friendly platform is quickly Continue Reading
TORONTO – An uptick in Sportsnet’s television, radio and digital audiences make 2016 as the best year in the brand's history, Rogers said Friday.
Sportsnet reached 30 million Canadians, with an average weekly reach of 12 million, the company said citing data from Numeris.
Highlights from the year include:
– For the period January 1 to December 31, 2016, Sportsnet networks delivered a 5.7 audience share and an average minute audience of 232,000, marking 10% and 7% increases, respectively, over last year;
– A total of 127 Sportsnet broadcasts surpassed the 1 million viewer mark in 2016, with two surpassing 4 million viewers, and five…
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OTTAWA – A radio host’s comments called a contest’s random selection process in to question, and a violent movie should have been delayed until after 9:00 PM, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) has ruled in two separate decisions.
The CBSC investigated a complaint made by a listener of Rogers-owned CISS-FM (KiSS FM, Ottawa) in March 2016. The complaint concerned a contest segment called “Big Bag of Cash” where listeners had to listen for a cue-to-text and then send a text message to the station for a chance to play a game on air to win money.
Each contestant was to be…
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GATINEU – The CRTC today declared that broadband access is now considered a basic telecommunications service for all Canadians, that it is setting new speed targets while also creating a new fund that will invest up to $750 million over and above existing government programs.
Further to its legislative mandate, the Commission has set the following targets for the basic telecommunications services that Canadians need to participate in the digital economy:
speeds of 50 megabits per second (Mbps) download/10 Mbps upload for fixed broadband Internet access services. In 2015, 82% of Canadians already had access to speeds of 50 Mbps download/10…
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Carriers shouldn’t be forced to hold customer data
OTTAWA – Communications service providers shouldn’t be forced to hold onto subscriber metadata for police access for lengthy periods of time, Rogers Communications has told the federal government.
The company made that submission last week to Public Safety Canada’s public consultation on creating a new national security framework, which is looking at a number of issues sensitive to police including mandatory rules for data retention and installing interception gear to help investigations, help with unscrambling encrypted communications and giving police more power to access basic subscriber information.
Also meeting the December 15th deadline…
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TORONTO – Canadian Broadcast Sales founder and president Patrick Grierson will retire from the national radio sales organization on May 31, 2017. Details on his successor will be announced in the coming months.
Grierson has been at the helm of CBS for the past 23 years after founding the organization in 1993. Following his retirement, he will remain part of the CBS family in an advisory role until May 2018.
Jointly owned by Rogers Broadcasting and Corus Entertainment, CBS is Canada's largest radio representation company, representing 43 broadcasters and more than 400 radio stations (including repeaters) in 221 Canadian markets.
"A true…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications said Monday that it is expanding its Roam Like Home wireless travel plan to 800,000 additional postpaid wireless consumers.
Rogers customers can use the data bucket, and talk and text included in their plan in the U.S. for $5 per day and in over 100 global destinations for $10 per day. Customers will only be charged for a maximum of 10 days on each monthly bill or $50 in the U.S. and $100 in eligible international destinations. No long distance charges apply to calls and texts to local numbers in the destination they're visiting or back to Canada.
“Customers told…
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