“Time to stop being defensive”
TORONTO – Newly designated with permanent residency status, Rogers Communications CEO Guy Laurence has some advice for the federal government as it begins the complex and difficult work of redefining Canada’s cultural policy.
Laurence spoke Wednesday at the Canadian Club in Toronto and said his adopted home faces a “once-in-a-lifetime” position to redefine its brand on a global stage and stake out a leadership position in culture.
Canada doesn’t have the gun culture of the U.S. (nor the ongoing electoral circus), has a stable economy and political infrastructure, fewer terrorism worries than other…
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SAN FRANCISCO – Twitter is offering new live streaming video apps for Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Microsoft's Xbox One users as it continues its foray beyond microblogging.
The company said Wednesday that the free apps will feature all of its available live streaming video (such as NFL Thursday Night Football games and content from MLB Advanced Media and the NBA) plus curated content from Vines and Periscopes. Twitter's Apple TV app will offer side-by-side screens for live video as well as Tweeted video clips.
Anyone with these devices, regardless of whether they have a Twitter account or…
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Without a major regulatory change, the traditional TV industry here faces a chilling future
IF THE CRTC DOESN’T, at long last, review the 1999 New Media Exemption Order, the Canadian TV industry as we know it may well perish in the next five years, at the cost of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs – all while production of Canadian content shrivels to whatever the CBC makes.
Last week, the Federal Communications Commission reached a compromise deal with the subscription TV titans in the States over the American regulator’s so-called push to “unlock the…
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TORONTO – Bell Media’s Investigation Discovery (ID) and Discovery Science will both be opening up for a four week free preview September 22 through October 19.
The timing will coincide with the launch of new ID series Las Vegas Law, Vanishing Women plus new special Adnan Syed: Innocent or Guilty? (pictured), featuring the convicted murderer and subject of the acclaimed Serial podcast. Highlights from Discovery Science include the debut of new series How To Build…Everything and Alaska Mega Machines.
The four-week preview is available through television service providers including Bell and Bell Aliant, Cogeco, Eastlink, MTS, Rogers, SaskTel, Shaw, Shaw Direct, Telus,…
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Says BDUs fight comparison tools
GATINEAU – That some broadcast distributors say their bundling programs are very much like loyalty points is wrong, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) told the CRTC on the second day of a hearing into flexible channel packaging (read our coverage from day one here).
The organization, which filed joint submissions in the proceeding with the Consumers Association of Canada (CAC), argued that because TV providers are treated like common carriers under the BDU regulations, the rules say they can’t unjustly discriminate against a certain class of customers. This is…
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TORONTO – Rogers NHL GameCentre Live is throwing in access to Sportsnet’s coverage of the 2016 World Cup of Hockey on desktop and mobile devices.
The international tournament, taking place September 17 – October 1st in Toronto, will feature teams from Canada, the United States, Russia, Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic, as well as Team North America (the top 23-and-under Canadian and U.S. players) and Team Europe (players from countries not represented by their national teams).
The mobile app is offering early bird subscription rate of $179.99 (a $20 savings) for the 2016-2017 NHL season, and is once again promising over…
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TORONTO and HALIFAX – In the race to keep its cable customers from defecting to over the top providers, Bragg Communications’ Eastlink has announced a new live TV and on demand streaming service easy enough to use that instructions have been reduced to four screen swipes.
In a teleconference from Halifax with reporters on Thursday, CEO Lee Bragg called the new service “a transformative streaming experience, the only one of its kind in Canada.” (The photo is what it looks like on an iPad.)
“We know consumers are watching more video than ever before, discovering and subscribing to that content across…
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GATINEAU – It took more than a few hours but some sparks did fly at the CRTC’s flexible channel packaging hearing on Wednesday when commissioner Christopher MacDonald (right) questioned Bell on the timing of a company press release a day earlier which promised the company would offer Fibe TV service separate from its internet offering.
Cynics might have highlighted the coincidence of a Bell announcement, the day before the hearing kicked off, he noted, asking Bell “why now” when only four months ago the company suggested it was a monumental task to make a basic Fibe…
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TORONTO – Small businesses in Canada today manage approximately five cloud applications to run their business – email, payroll, accounting, scheduling – all at once, says Rogers Communications.
For a small business, this can be a difficult as they often have limited or no dedicated IT staff. So today, Rogers today launched Rogers Business App Market, a new online portal where small businesses can purchase, manage and get tech support to run business applications for their business.
"Many of our customers today are stretched thin, having to spend hours of time managing business applications. We want to make it…
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TORONTO – Rogers is once again taking “Canada's ultimate hockey festival” on the road, unveiling the third Rogers Hometown Hockey Tour that will touch down in 24 new hockey hotbeds throughout the 2016-17 NHL season.
The Rogers Hometown Hockey Tour will roll into a different community with two days of activities and celebrations that include music, NHL alumni, local heroes, and entertainment for families. Each community visited is highlighted on the Rogers Hometown Hockey broadcasts and hosted live onsite by Ron MacLean with co-host Tara Slone, headlined by an NHL game broadcast every Sunday on Sportsnet.
This year’s tour will kick off…
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