TORONTO – MTS has become the latest telco to offer their customers the option to pay for purchases with a tap of their mobile device.
According to EnStream, a mobile commerce joint venture company owned by Bell Mobility, Rogers and Telus, mobile payments are now supported by Bell, Rogers, Telus, MTS and SaskTel, who collectively provide service to over 94% of Canada's wireless subscribers. EnStream's platform acts as a hub, connecting multiple Canadian banks and mobile network operators, while securely delivering the credit, debit and pre-paid cards offered by financial institutions to wireless handsets, all while preserving each bank's direct relationship…
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TORONTO – Rogers has renewed its sponsorship agreement with Tennis Canada for the Rogers Cup tournament in Toronto and Montreal for another five years.
The new deal sees Rogers as the title sponsor of the event through 2020, with Sportsnet renewing broadcast rights with expanded coverage for all rounds of the tournament in English and French beginning in 2016. Sportsnet’s renewed broadcast agreement includes multimedia rights, including television, online and mobile.
As part of the partnership, Rogers and Tennis Canada will work together on grassroots initiatives to help build the game in Canada. Details on this and a full tournament broadcast…
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OTTAWA – Wind Mobile’s hopes of securing spectrum in the 2500 MHz band to add to its meager holdings have been dashed, while Telus Corp. was able to secure 40 MHz of the valuable bandwidth in all regions of the country, according to results of the Industry Canada spectrum auction released on Tuesday.
The auction, which had officially ended on May 5, netted federal government coffers more than $755 million. There were 11 companies to begin the auction with nine of them winning licences. Of the 318 licences available, 302 of them were sold. In addition to Wind,…
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TORONTO – Rogers and Shaw have named David Asch as senior vice president and general manager of their jointly owned streaming service shomi, effective immediately.
Asch, (pictured), comes to shomi with extensive expertise in content licensing, acquisition and development; and a proven track record of negotiating and implementing content agreements with movie studios, television networks, sports leagues, event promoters, and music distributors for television, DVD, and digital platform distribution, reads Tuesday’s announcement. His most recent role was SVP content, at Redbox Automated Retail, where he led all content, development, licensing, and acquisition activities for the U.S. renter of DVD content….
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GATINEAU – The Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) is again fighting wholesale service rates of the established telecom and cable companies. The group of independent ISPs is now telling the CRTC that it must make interim all usage sensitive rates from these companies until more fulsome analyses are done.
Bell Aliant, Bell Canada, Cogeco Cable, Rogers Communications, SaskTel, Shaw Cablesystems, Telus Communications, and Vidéotron are all party to the application.
In an application filed on April 29, CNOC argues that evidence has now come to light that demonstrates existing usage sensitive rates are too high. It points to a recent…
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CANADIAN BROADCASTERS HEADED to the Los Angeles Screenings this week will be buying rookie U.S. shows much as they have in the past: By choosing possible primetime hits via output and multiyear deals with Hollywood studio suppliers.
But in among the horse-trading for new American dramas and comedies this year will be a new battlefield for Canadian networks needing new revenue streams to outrun falling conventional TV ad sales: the fight for digital platform rights.
And even before top players like Bell Media, Shaw Media and Rogers Media do their studio rounds this week to view new pilots on offer, there's…
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EDMONTON – After cancelling its Citytv Breakfast Television show in Edmonton last week, Rogers is inviting viewers in that city to dig in to a new show called Dinner Television.
Billed as a local, entertaining, and interactive prime-time series, Dinner Television will debut May 19 and will air on City Edmonton every day from 5:00 to 7:00 PM MT and live online at Citytv.com/Edmonton It will air in an encore presentation each weekday morning from 5:30 AM to 9:00 AM, with updated local news, traffic, and weather in an L-screen format.
Hosted by NHL veteran Jason Strudwick, Dinner Television…
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MARKHAM, ON – Canadian Broadcast Sales president Patrick Grierson will receive the 2015 Hall of Fame Award from the Ontario Association of Broadcasters at the organization’s fall conference in November.
A Board nominated honour, the OAB Hall of Fame is presented to individuals who have spent most of their careers working for private broadcasters and demonstrated a commitment to the highest standards of broadcast excellence.
Grierson was born in Cape Town, South Africa and completed his education in Great Britain. In London, England, he joined Rediffusion Television and worked in a number of areas in television production, including camera operating and…
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TORONTO – Citing a huge difference between the cost of newsgathering versus the revenue being earned by its multicultural OMNI stations during those programs, Rogers Media today eliminated all of its third-language newscasts on its various OMNI stations.
That decision, which will see the company’s Citytv and OMNI operations combined as well, came at the cost of 110 jobs, spread across the OMNI stations. Most of the losses came from positions such as editor, shooter, field technicians, ENG crews and producers.
As of Monday, May 11, OMNI’s Punjabi, Cantonese and Mandarin newscasts will be replaced by local current affairs shows in…
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MONTREAL – Quebecor CEO Pierre Dion says the company is keeping its options open about the idea of becoming a national wireless player after this week’s CRTC decision on wholesale roaming.
In a press conference after the company’s annual general meeting in Montreal on Thursday, Dion said “we will continue to use a very, very disciplined process” in evaluating whether to make use of its spectrum licenses in English Canada to expand its wireless services to other provinces, or come to agreements with other players.
He said “we think that the CRTC is taking a step in the right direction” with…
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