GATINEAU – The NHL season was barely under way when Bell Canada filed a complaint with the CRTC over how Rogers is keeping an exclusive lid on some of the content for which it paid $5.2 billion.
In an application filed October 10th and just made public Tuesday on the CRTC web site, Bell says Rogers’ new digital services which extend the NHL experience online and on mobile, GameCentre and GamePlus, violate sections 3 and 5 of the Exemption Order for Digital Media Broadcasting Undertakings by giving the company an “anticompetitive advantage.” Rogers bought the NHL rights for 12 years from…
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TORONTO – Proving yet again that television can make for strange bedfellows, soon to launch Canadian streaming service shomi and Rogers-owned City are partnering with Netflix on a new original drama series called Between.
Dubbed the first partnership of its kind in Canada, Between will debut with six, one-hour episodes that will premiere on City and shomi in Canada, and on Netflix outside of Canada where the service is available. The series will join Netflix Canada’s library one year following its initial premiere.
Created by Canadian writer/director Michael McGowan (Still Mine, One Week, Saint Ralph) and produced by Toronto-based Don Carmody…
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TORONTO – Rogers has recruited former Cisco Canada president Nitin Kawale to become president of its enterprise business unit effective December 1.
Kawale joins Rogers from Cisco Systems Canada where he has held the position of president since 2008 with responsibility for all aspects of the Canadian operation including sales, marketing, finance, distribution and services. He joined Cisco in 1995 and has served in a variety of domestic and international roles.
As Rogers enterprise business unit president, Kawale will be responsible for the delivery of the company's enterprise business strategy and commercial plan covering small and medium business, enterprise and public sector…
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TORONTO – Cisco Canada has promoted Bernadette Wightman to president, replacing the departing Nitin Kawale.
A 15-year Cisco veteran, Wightman most recently served as the general manager for Cisco in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and the other Commonwealth of Independent State countries, where she led the team in a challenging geo-political landscape and built a trusted business platform for the future. She brings extensive experience in customer, partner and service provider organizations to the Cisco Canada team, the announcement continued.
“Cisco is extremely proud of the accomplishments of our Canadian operations,” said Cisco SVP Americas Alison Gleeson. “Canada continues to…
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WHILE HBO CEO RICHARD Plepler said Wednesday the premium pay TV service will offer an over-the-top version of itself in 2015 to customers who aren’t traditional subscription TV customers, don’t look for it to come to Canada any time soon.
Both Bell Media and Corus Entertainment recently signed long term multiplatform deals with HBO which will allow the companies to control original and library content from the U.S. pay service likely until at least 2018. The deals with Bell (which operates TMN multiplex HBO Canada in the eastern half of the country and) and Corus (which…
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TORONTO – Hockey Night in Canada set a record for audience reach on the opening Saturday in October of the 2014-15 NHL season.
Rogers said that 9.8 million Canadians tuned into some or all of the new look Hockey Night in Canada broadcast, while the debut of Rogers Hometown Hockey (Toronto @ New York Rangers) Sunday on City averaged an audience of 1.07 million viewers, the third most-watched Sunday broadcast in City history.
Saturday’s Game One average audience (7 PM ET / 4 PM PT) (Pittsburgh @ Toronto; Montreal @ Philadelphia; Ottawa @ Tampa Bay; Calgary @ St. Louis; Washington @…
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TORONTO – Former Google exec Jacob Glick is taking on the newly created position of Rogers’ chief corporate affairs officer.
Glick joins Rogers from Google Inc., where he has held a number of leadership positions including head of the global central public policy and government relations team and Google Canada's public policy and government relations team. Before Google, he was general counsel, director of policy development and corporate secretary with the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) and a litigator with McCarthy Tétrault.
As Rogers’ chief corporate affairs officer, Glick will be responsible for leading one integrated corporate affairs team including regulatory…
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OTTAWA – Spectrum set asides, eligibility to purchase set-aside spectrum, and the band plan remain the primary sticking points for Canada’s wireless service providers in reply comments to Industry Canada’s consultation on the AWS-3 spectrum auction framework.
The country’s large wireless operators have panned many aspects of the department’s proposed approach to the AWS-3 auction. A 30 MHz set-aside that includes spectrum contiguous to previously auctioned AWS-1 spectrum gives new entrants a considerable leg up, they argue. Not only do they believe that the set aside is the wrong approach, they think if the department does indeed set…
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TORONTO – As the puck officially dropped Wednesday night, some 55,000 hockey fans live streamed their favourite teams online using Rogers’ new NHL GameCentre LIVE app, the company said Thursday.
Rogers NHL GameCentre LIVE is a mobile app that offers English and French online streaming rights to a range of live national NHL games as well as 800 classic games from the NHL Vault. Fans with a regional Sportsnet subscription with a participating BDU can live stream their local team's regional games. The app also includes GamePlus, which offers viewers a second screen experience replete with new camera angles and replays.
Some…
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TORONTO – Asian Television Network International’s newest station ATN Channel V launched this week on Rogers Cable and Bell Fibe.
ATN Channel V offers a mix of entertainment that reflects the tastes, preferences and platforms of Indian youth. Reaching out to almost 50 million viewers every week in India, Channel V is owned by Star TV and Fox International Channels, fully owned subsidiaries of 21st Century Fox.
"We are excited to launch this new general interest channel specifically for our younger audience who are a big part of our total audience and overall business plan," said ATN president and CEO Dr….
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