GATINEAU – In an unprecedented move, CRTC chair Jean-Pierre Blais used a break in the Basic Service Objective hearing to make a significant point through a personal address to the hearing: we’ve decided already that broadband is essential to Canadians. (The full text of that address can be found here.)
“Overall, in a nutshell, witnesses that appeared so far have agreed to a self-evident truth: today, in Canada, broadband is vital,” he said. “So, unless you disagree with this conclusion, let us not spend more hearing time on this self-evident truth. We have other, more important…
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TORONTO – A weak advertising market combined with restructuring costs at Rogers Communications helped to drive down first quarter profits by 3%, the company announced late Monday.
Operating revenue for the period ended March 31, 2016 totalled $3.23 billion, up 2% from $3.18 billion year-over-year, but net income dropped to $248 million from $255 million in Q1 2015. On an adjusted basis, net income fell 4% from $275 million to $263 million, primarily as a result of higher depreciation and amortization and lower adjusted operating profit, partially offset by lower income taxes. Net income this quarter was also impacted by higher restructuring costs.
The…
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TORONTO – Small businesses in Ontario may now sign on for Rogers Ignite for business Gigabit, allowing them faster Internet speeds and unlimited data usage, the company said Monday.
Priced at $199.99, Rogers said that the faster speeds will allow small businesses to accomplish more tasks in a day and accomplish those tasks quicker so that they can spend more time focusing on their customers.
"Internet connectivity and speeds have a direct impact on the productivity and growth potential of a small business," said Charlie Wade, Rogers’ SVP of enterprise products and solutions, in the news release. "Gigabit speeds will give…
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Chair's comments change the focus of the hearing, puts government, industry, on notice, to get their acts together
GATINEAU – The the second week of the CRTC's basic service objective (BSO) hearing featured a rare moment of reflection from CRTC chairman and CEO Jean-Pierre Blais which will now alter the focus of this hearing. Below are Blais' unedited personal thoughts, made just prior to Monday's lunch break.
Those of you who are familiar with CRTC proceedings will appreciate that it is unusual for Chairs to make formal remarks beyond those made at the beginning of the oral hearing.
But this is an exceptional…
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TORONTO – Bell Media and Rogers Media-owned Dome Production is trialing Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG) as a development format in delivering High Dynamic Range (HDR) content.
HLG, a royalty-free HDR standard proposed by both the BBC and NHK for live productions, is widely considered to be the best method available of delivering high dynamic range images onto legacy high-definition TV sets, reads the news release. The signals can be seamlessly carried via satellite, cable, IP, and other distribution methods.
HLG also presents an SDR backward compatibility that could deliver a single signal/stream solution for both HDR and non-HDR television sets, eliminating…
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GATINEAU – Some 66,000 Canadians, or just 0.5% of Canadian television households, have signed up for the new slimmed down basic TV programming packages five weeks after they debuted, the CRTC said Friday.
The Commission asked ten of the country’s biggest TV service providers – Access Communications, Bell, Cogeco, Eastlink, MTS, Rogers, SaskTel, Shaw, Telus and Vidéotron, to add up subscribers to their new basic television packages. These ‘skinny basic’ packages, priced at $25 or less, debuted March 1st amidst great fanfare touting choice and affordability.
TV service providers also began offering either pick-and-pay for individual channels or small packages of…
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TORONTO – Rogers Media has parted ways with top original programming production executive Carol Commisso, whose resume includes This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Young Drunk Punk, the broadcaster confirmed Friday to Cartt.ca.
A company spokesperson said Commisso is no longer with Rogers Media. Her departure is part of the wider company restructuring unveiled at the end of January. At the time, the TV, radio, digital and magazine publishing company talked about trimming around 200 jobs, or 4% of its workforce.
The cost-cutting at Rogers Media, thought…
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TORONTO – Canada's wireless tower owners are putting too much pressure on tower consulting and construction companies to cut their costs, the inaugural conference of a new industry safety association was told today.
Tom Vardy, president of Fredericton-based Varcon Inc., a tower consulting engineering firm, complained Monday that tower owners are "bashing" suppliers so much he’s concerned worker safety will be affected. "Pressure for unrealistic service provider pricing is getting ridiculous," he said. "That's what got the United States (communications tower industry) in the (safety) hole they were in 10-15 years ago. As a Canadian group…
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OTTAWA – Rogers Communications won't earn much from its program offering low-cost Internet to low-income households, but it’s worth the investment, says Deepak Khandelwal, Rogers’ chief customer officer.
“This is truly an investment that we are making in Canada and our economy,” Khandelwal told Cartt.ca Thursday at an Ottawa event announcing the expansion of its Connected for Success program to everywhere it provides wireline Internet service. “There are some people that are in financial hardship and lower income and we want to make sure that they can get access to it.”
Khandelwal said Rogers signed up 11,000 households during the program’s…
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Sharespace aiming to make Rogers workers, customers, happier
“WE WANT TO WIN!” Guy Laurence says unreservedly, when asked why he and his leadership team have undertaken what must be one of the largest corporate culture makeovers ever seen in Canada.
As employees of Rogers Communications are already well aware, there is massive change going on within the walls (and to the walls, some of which are now gone) of the wireless, cable, television, radio and publishing giant – and Cartt.ca recently got a first hand look at how and why the company is not only blowing up the old way of…
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