TORONTO — This year’s regulatory blockbuster panel at the Canadian Telecom Summit on Tuesday turned into a bit of a public hearing on wholesale telecom rates as the Big Three carriers’ pricing structures came under fire from TekSavvy and Wind Mobile.
Calling wholesale network access rates “crazy”, Bram Abramson, TekSavvy’s chief legal and regulatory officer, said wholesale prices can vary among telecom providers by as much as 700%. With the current pricing schemes of the large, vertically integrated incumbents, TekSavvy is unable to offer higher-speed services to its customers because it couldn’t be price competitive, Abramson said.
“TekSavvy is not the…
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TORONTO – Journalists treated to a showcase of City's 2015-16 Upfront programming Tuesday morning were shown a 45-minute video about Rogers Media's varied media platforms that climaxed with a 10 minute-plus reel of Vice Media's digital content.
The takeaway: Rogers Media wants to offer ad agencies and brand marketers dazzled by Google and Facebook an equally effective way to target ad dollars to young audiences increasingly migrating from traditional TV to new digital platforms. "The longest video was from Vice Media, which is a good exclamation mark for how the industry is changing," Rogers Media president Keith Pelley told Cartt.ca….
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OTTAWA – The Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage has decided to invite representatives from Rogers Media to explain recent cutbacks made to the news programming at its multicultural OMNI TV stations.
According to the minutes of Monday’s committee meeting which were made public today, the committee will “invite representatives from OMNI to discuss their recent programming changes, specifically as they relate to local news coverage in Punjabi, Cantonese, Mandarin and Italian; and that the meeting take place prior to Thursday, June 18, 2015, and that the meeting be scheduled for 2 hours.”
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TORONTO – Calling ongoing discussions on net neutrality a “distraction”, John Lawford, executive director and general counsel for the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) said the bigger issues needing to be examined currently are vertical integration and competition law in Canada. Lawford spoke during a panel discussion Monday on “Competition in Telecom: Net Neutrality and Innovation” at the Canadian Telecom Summit being held this week in Toronto.
“Net neutrality is done,” Lawford said, with the CRTC’s acceptance in 2009 that the Telecom Act’s non-discrimination provision (Section 27(2)) applies to Internet services in Canada.
“The real work is at the…
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TORONTO – Despite the prevalence of online shopping, the in-store experience and sales representative interaction are still the key drivers of an outstanding wireless purchase experience, according to a new J.D. Power report.
The 2015 Canadian Wireless Purchase Experience Study examined wireless carriers’ performance across sales-related activities in-store, over the phone and online. Satisfaction is measured in six factors: store representative; online purchase; phone purchase; facility; offerings and promotions; and cost of service. Overall wireless purchase experience satisfaction is 752 on a 1,000-point scale.
An outstanding in-store experience is one in which sales representatives display knowledge, professionalism and genuine concern for…
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TORONTO -Last year, while still president of Cisco Canada, “I spoke here about the opportunity to drive innovation through collaboration and improved productivity,” said Nitin Kawale, now president of Rogers Enterprise Business division, to delegates at the first day of the Canadian Telecom Summit.
“In one year, not much has changed.”
He pointed to a Conference Board of Canada study that showed Canada ranking 13th in a list of 16 peer countries when it comes to innovation. Clearly, that’s lousy.
When it comes to the consumer side of the information, communications and technology revolution, Canadians are in step with the rest of…
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TORONTO – To stretch its programming dollars, the CBC has acquired a raft of UK and Australian dramas and comedies and aims to profit from upcoming Toronto Pan-Am games coverage during the rest of 2015. Despite huge, well-documented challenges, the creative minds at the CBC aren't ready to wave the broadcast white flag just yet.
The CBC, previewing its fall 2015 season at its Toronto headquarters Thursday, unveiled 11 new original and acquired series and renewed another 14. That output comes in the face of the public broadcaster, already beset by budget cuts, this past season losing due…
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OTTAWA – The iconic American talk show Late Show with David Letterman may have wrapped up last week, but it’s still top of mind with some angry Canadian viewers, and the CRTC.
The Commission has fired off letters to Rogers Media, Rogers Communications, and Shaw Communications over alleged simultaneous substitution errors made by the companies during the show’s much-hyped finale on May 20. According to the letters, dated May 27, the Commission has received “several complaints regarding improperly executed simultaneous substitutions” that took place near the end of the show.
Referencing Broadcasting Regulatory Policy 2015-25, where the CRTC…
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THIS MONTH’S CRTC DECISION TO regulate wholesale wireless roaming rates is just the latest in a long line of seminal processes and decisions which have come under the tenure of chairman Jean-Pierre Blais.
Just about 60% the way through his five-year term, Blais has had to digest major developments in the industry, technology, and political environment—which is pushing for more competition and consumer rights – while dealing with an often-cranky TV and telecom executives trying to steer their ships through the same choppy waters.
Here are many of the key CRTC developments since Blais, a lawyer and lifelong bureaucrat, was named the…
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TORONTO – Heads up binge watchers, here comes shomi. The streaming service said Wednesday that it will be made available to all Canadian Internet users this summer, whether or not they have a paid subscription to a TV service provider.
For $8.99 per month, shomi can be streamed on tablet, mobile, online, and to TV screens via Xbox 360, Apple TV and Chromecast. It's also available on the set-top boxes of Rogers' and Shaw's TV subscribers. New users get one month free when they subscribe, the announcement said.
In addition to Canadian content like Vikings, Rookie Blue, and Mr. D, shomi’s Canadian exclusives…
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