TORONTO – Amidst reports that Rogers and Telus are battling to acquire Mobilicity, the owners and employees of the struggling wireless provider said Monday that have made an offer to Industry Canada and the federal government to acquire Mobilicity’s current subscribers, dealers, and partial infrastructure by setting up a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) relationship with any potential acquirer.
Obelysk Inc., the holding company of Mobilicity founder John Bitove, issued a statement saying that it wants to maintain the Mobilicity brand in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Ottawa where it currently operates, retain its 155,000 subscribers and current dealer network of…
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TORONTO – Former National Post reporter Natalie Alcoba has been named as managing editor of Vice News Canada, the latest Vice territory to establish a dedicated news team following launch of Vice News in the U.S, the U.K, France and Spain.
Alcoba will report for Vice News and oversee the editorial content, managing a team of staff and freelance writers across Canada.
In addition, Allya Davidson was named producer of Vice News Canada. Previously an associate producer at CBC’s The Fifth Estate and film production company Clover Films, she will work closely with the Canadian production and editorial teams to produce original…
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OTTAWA – Despite a drop in prices for many high-volume talk, text and data plans, Canada’s mobile wireless prices once again rank among the highest when compared to other G7 countries and Australia, according to an annual report commissioned by Industry Canada and the CRTC.
Prepared by Ottawa’s Wall Communications, the 2015 edition of Price Comparisons of Wireline, Wireless and Internet Services in Canada and with Foreign Jurisdictions is an annual telecom services price comparison study that combines and averages wireline, mobile wireless, broadband Internet, and mobile Internet service rates, as well as bundles of these services along with basic digital TV…
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TORONTO – In a move that it says comes in response to recent cuts in Italian-language programming on Canadian airwaves (hello, OMNI), TLN said Thursday that it is working on a new daily show for its Mediaset Italia channel.
While the details are still under wraps, TLN said that the show will be an original Italian-language current affairs and news program which it intends to launch this fall. TLN president Aldo Di Felice told Cartt.ca he's hopeful he can collaborate with Rogers on the production and airing of the new show, which is still in the planning stages.
“Mediaset Italia Canada…
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THERE ARE TWO Canadian TV carriers who offer Netflix to their customers directly via their advanced television set top boxes: Cogeco Cable and Telus Optik TV.
After seeing a recent demo of Optik TV’s impressive capabilities and living with the Cogeco TiVo system for several months, it’s become impossible to imagine what all the other carriers could possibly be waiting for. Offering Netflix to existing customers this way is an utter slam dunk.
While my wife was once ambivalent about our cable subscription and asked repeatedly if it was worth what we pay, I’d have to move into my…
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OTTAWA – Rogers Media resolutely defended its decision to cut all news programming from its ethnic OMNI stations and replace it with current affairs shows before a Parliamentary committee on Wednesday.
Speaking before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, Rogers Media president Keith Pelley (pictured on CPAC.ca, which streamed the meeting) said the company really had no choice but to make changes to its programming. With viewer consumption patterns moving to digital platforms, the ongoing piracy problem, the significant drop in advertising revenue, as well as a plethora of ethnic specialty channels launched in recent…
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TORONTO – Rogers Media's TV ratings for the overall NHL Stanley Cup playoff rounds fell this season, compared to the 2014 championship rounds, due in part to Canadians viewing live game action on digital platforms.
Rogers Media, which has just ended the first year of a 12-year, $5.2 billion national broadcast and multimedia contract with the NHL, told Cartt.ca that the overall Stanley Cup playoff round on the flagship Sportsnet channel and CBC Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts pulled in an average audience of 1.5 million viewers, down 2% from the 1.53 million average audience for the 2014…
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OTTAWA – Canada’s wireless carriers are being asked to turn over their Apple iPhone sales records as the Competition Bureau deepens its probe into alleged anti-competitive clauses in Apple Canada sales contracts.
According to a Toronto Star report on Tuesday, the Bureau filed applications with the Federal Court on Monday calling for data from carriers including Rogers, Bell and Telus.
As Cartt.ca reported, the Bureau filed a court application last December requiring Apple Canada Inc. to provide records and written returns of information relevant to the investigation. The Star report quoted an unnamed source that said the Bureau is dissatisfied with the…
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TORONTO – Rogers’-owned weekly news magazine Maclean’s is offering Canadians the first opportunity to hear from all major federal party leaders in a nationally televised debate in the lead up to this fall’s federal election.
Scheduled for August 6 from 8:00 to 10:00 PM ET, the debate will air commercial-free on City, OMNI.1, OMNI.2, and CPAC, with live streaming on Macleans.ca, Citytv.com, CityNews.ca, OMNItv.ca, CPAC.ca, Facebook, and YouTube, according to Monday’s announcement. Rogers Radio news stations will also carry the debate live on 680News.com, 570news.com, 660News.com, 1310News.com, News1130.com, and News957.com. For multilingual audiences, OMNI Television's coverage will be translated into Italian, Mandarin, Cantonese,…
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TORONTO – The emergence of a fourth national wireless player would cause a ripple within the wireless sector in Canada, but the risk to the country’s three incumbents may be overblown, says Canaccord Genuity.
In a report on Monday, research analyst Aravinda Galappatthige proposed and evaluated a potential facilities-based wireless new entrant model based on the combination of Wind Mobile Canada, Mobilicity and Videotron’s spectrum holdings outside of its home province. Dubbed Newco, the fictional wireless provider was assumed to cover British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario, a model which combines Wind and Mobilicity’s existing 3G operations with Videotron’s AWS-1, AWS-3,…
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