OTTAWA – Canadians’ complaints over their telecom and Internet services fell for the first time in the seven year history of the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS), but Commissioner Howard Maker stopped short of calling it a trend.
“From our examination of other statistics… we are cautiously optimistic that the industry as a whole is becoming more focused on customer issues and on how it addresses customer problems”, Maker wrote in the 2013-2014 annual report, called ‘Driving Positive Change’, released Tuesday.
The CCTS received 11,340 customer complaints in 2013-14, down 17% from 13,692 in 2012-13, and successfully resolved…
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TORONTO – Canada needs an autonomous Internet infrastructure that keeps local web traffic routed within the country’s borders as much as possible, said Jacques Latour, chief technology officer for the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), during a presentation at the Canadian ISP Summit in Toronto on Monday afternoon.
Latour said too much of Canadian Internet traffic flows south of the border through major U.S. cities, such as New York, Chicago and Seattle.
“If for some reason there’s an attack against the U.S., like a cyber-attack, and they decide to shut down the borders, in Canada we’re screwed,” Latour said….
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I FINALLY HAVE A RESPONSE to something CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais asked we reporters – in absentia, mind you – during day eight of September’s Talk TV hearing, the day set aside for accessibility issues.
“I asked others beforehand – now they may be listening elsewhere – but the media table, which was chock-a-block last week, seems to be completely empty now,” chairman Blais said on September 17th. “And I'm struck, because members of the community you serve presumably buy goods and services – goods and services that are made by people that advertise in newspapers and other electronic media.
“Why…
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TORONTO – Customers of Rogers and Shaw will get their first look at subscription streaming service shomi on Tuesday.
While negotiations continue with other Canadian BDUs, shomi, a subscriber-authenticated streaming video service, will only be available in beta first to Rogers and Shaw Internet or cable customers, as the two companies co-own the venture.
Eligible Rogers customers can sign up and begin a 30-day free trial, after which customers can enjoy shomi for only $8.99 per month. The same terms apply to Shaw customers.
As an added benefit to select Rogers customers, shomi will be automatically included for Rogers Hybrid Fibre 50…
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TORONTO – The radio industry, electronic media’s elder statesman, is not in trouble and the sky is not falling, but radio broadcasters need to do a better job at promoting their advertising success stories to keep marketers from becoming too distracted by the “shiny, new toy” (a.k.a. digital audio streaming services).
That was the rallying call delivered by Erica Farber, president and CEO of the U.S.-based Radio Advertising Bureau, during an industry executive town hall session at the Ontario Association of Broadcasters’ Connection 2014 conference, held Thursday in Toronto. “Success stories work,” she said. “We do not do a good…
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TORONTO – Univision Canada launched a high definition version of its signal Friday, becoming the first national all-Spanish language TV channel in the country to do so.
The channel is currently available in over 1.8 million Canadian homes through TV providers including Rogers 780, Bell TV 699, Bell Fibe 867, Shaw 508, Vidéotron 248 and MTS channel 517.
Owned and operated by TLN, Univision Canada’s programming lineup includes daily news, award-winning telenovelas, talk shows, live music specials, and soccer coverage, complemented by made-in-Canada community programming.
www.univisioncanada.ca
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TORONTO – John Bitove will step down as chairman of the board of Sirius XM Canada at its next annual meeting in January, and will be replaced by Tony Viner, current member of the board of directors and audit committee chair, as well as former president of Rogers Media.
The audio entertainment company made the announcement Thursday in conjunction with the release of its fourth quarter and fiscal 2014 year-end results.
"It is hard to believe when we started the process of bringing satellite radio to Canada in 2002 that one day we would grow from zero to 2.6 million subscribers,…
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TORONTO – Rogers is teaming up with digital media company Vice Media to produce and distribute youth-focussed Canadian content for mobiles, tablets, computers and TV screens, here at home and around the world.
The announcement, made Thursday morning in Toronto, said that Vice Canada properties will form part of a $100 million joint venture between the two companies that will include a new multimedia production facility in Toronto, Vice Canada Studio; a dedicated Canadian TV channel called the Vice TV Network that will launch next year; and fresh mobile content, including exclusives for Rogers and Fido customers.
Vice launched in Montreal in 1994 as…
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TORONTO – We don’t know what it is (although there is much speculation in the Twitterverse), but Rogers CEO Guy Laurence will be making a “REALLY BIG ANNOUNCEMENT” in Toronto’s Entertainment District this morning.
We’re told it’s not supposed to be anything that will move the financial markets in any direction and it appears to be an announcement from the Rogers Media division, not Cable or Wireless. Beyond that, we don’t know. The press release promises it will be "ground-breaking", however. We don't think it's shomi-related though, since the launch party for…
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TORONTO – The CBC announced Wednesday it has purchased the broadcast and multiplatform rights to the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang Korea and the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo. However, it won’t be working alone.
The public broadcaster also announced a broad partnership with both Bell Media and Rogers Media to bring “unprecedented” coverage of the Games to Canadians on all platforms.
While financial details of the rights purchase were not announced, the deal was termed an “extension” of the existing deal the CBC signed for the 2014 and 2016 Games. “We gave an offer…
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