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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ST. JOHN’S – Competition in Newfoundland’s wireless market may be heating up with the pending arrival of Eastlink.
According to a Chronicle Herald report, Eastlink has applied to build two wireless towers in St. John’s plus another in nearby Paradise and plans to launch next year. Rogers Communications also has an application before the City of St. John’s to build its own cellphone tower to augment service there.
Bell Aliant is currently a dominant player in Newfoundland’s wireless market.
“Bell’s LTE wireless network is ranked as best in Canada and we’ve been the fastest-growing wireless company in the country in…
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TORONTO – The CRTC has corrected a portion of its controversial Certified Independent Production Funds (CIPFs) policy framework decision after being called out on a misattributed quote by the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) early Thursday.
In a statement entitled “CRTC Gets the Facts Wrong”, WGC publicly questioned “the rigour” of the CRTC process that erroneously claimed that the Canadian Media Fund (CMF) argued in favour of reducing the points needed for Canadian productions to receive funding from the CIPFs to six.
“In fact, the CMF didn’t say any of that”, said the WGC. “Documents on the public record…
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