CAIRO/LONDON – Despite an uncertain future, Wind Mobile continues to add subscribers in good sized chunks, adding 38,875 net new customers in the quarter ended June 30th – according to the financial results of its parent company Global Telecom Holdings (part of the VimpelCom empire).
To put it into perspective that’s more net new subs than Vidéotron (one of Wind’s apparent suitors) and equal to the net new wireless postpaid subs which Rogers attracted in the second quarter.
As of the end of June, Wind Canada had 741,000 customers (20% more than the end of the second…
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TORONTO – “Contemporary lifestyle network” FYI will take the place of Twist TV as of September 1st, Shaw Media confirmed today.
As we reported in June, the new channel is geared towards “reflecting how people actually live their lives today,” says the company’s press release this morning. “Adding FYI to our portfolio cements Shaw Media’s stronghold on female viewers, especially those captivated by contemporary lifestyle programming,” said Barbara Williams, senior vice president of content, Shaw Media. “With its non-prescriptive and social format, FYI brings viewers big personalities and buzzed about series, a perfect blend for exciting on-air entertainment and engaging…
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MONTREAL – Though Quebecor’s Thursday morning conference call with financial analysts was ostensibly about its solid second quarter financial results, the biggest chunk of the hour on the phone was spent talking about what it would take for the company to take wireless national and when it might make a decision. Here are the main points we took away.
1. If Videotron (or some other brand) is going to go national, it likely won’t be going it alone. Company CEO Pierre Dion and CFO Jean-Francois Pruneau were pretty clear about that. The value the company brings…
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GATINEAU – Rogers has been left quite a regulatory pile of laundry to sort through with its license renewals announced Thursday. And, the company was told "no" a lot.
The CRTC has renewed the licences of most Rogers-owned television services until 2016, but though it’s a short-term renewal (at Rogers’ request, so it lines up with the licence terms of the other major English-language broadcasters), the decision makes a lot of changes to how Rogers will operate, particularly in light of its $5.2-billion deal for rights to National Hockey League games.
The biggest change in the decision is that Rogers’s services…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC today announced it is prohibiting exclusivity provisions in all roaming agreements between Canadian wireless service providers, saying it has found clear instances of unjust discrimination by Rogers Communications.
In December 2013, the CRTC launched a public proceeding to look at whether wireless service providers were subjecting smaller Canadian competitors to unjustly discriminatory roaming rates, terms and conditions – and it found some.
“Rogers has imposed exclusivity clauses in roaming agreements that prohibited smaller service providers from using networks from any other carrier. Additionally, they charged some new Canadian service providers significantly higher roaming rates compared to rates…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications and WWE today announced a 10-year broadcast and multimedia agreement, making Rogers the exclusive distributor of WWE's flagship programming in Canada through 2024.
Financial terms were not disclosed but the deal extends WWE's current programming on Sportsnet 360 (formerly The Score) and includes the right to distribute WWE Network as a premium linear channel, with a preview beginning August 12, according to the press release.
Rogers will be the exclusive distribution partner of all WWE pay-per-view events throughout Canada and will sponsor an application to the CRTC to bring the popular WWE Network to Canada as a…
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HALIFAX – Eastlink Wireless customers can talk, surf and text in more places down east than ever before, thanks to a “unique network partner approach to supplement its own network coverage,” the company announced Thursday afternoon.
The Bragg family-owned cable and wireless company says that its customers now have the most coverage of any carrier in Atlantic Canada (see map, pictured).
“We’re unable to name the partner we have added and we have excellent coverage here in Atlantic Canada but there were places – whether it was a cottage or a golf course or so on where customers might have been…
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GATINEAU – Local TV is struggling mightily. Ad revenue is down and showing no signs of growth, while the ever growing lineup of new specialty channels and the rapid rise of Internet-based alternatives are blasting away at what has always been the bedrock of the television system in Canada.
Some are telling the CRTC that it’s time to adopt a radically different approach for local TV, one that would bolster the revenue side of the ledger while also helping to encourage the development of compelling Canadian content.
For example, Bell Canada and CBC/Radio-Canada suggest shutting down over the air infrastructure completely…
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OTTAWA – With a healthy set-aside for operating newcomers (read: wireless companies which are serving Canadians and who aren’t Rogers, Bell or Telus), the federal government opened its public consultation on the AWS-3 auction it plans to hold in March of 2015 – one month prior to the long-planned 2500 MHz auction.
AWS-3 spectrum is in the 1755-1780 and 2155-2180 MHz bands and 30 of the 50 MHz on offer will be solely for the likes of Videotron, Wind, EastLink, and Mobilicity (or whomever is left standing in eight months…). In order to be eligible to bid on the set-aside,…
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TORONTO and BURNABY, B.C. – Rogers Communications and Glentel today announced Monday they will extend their multi-year agreement for the retailer to offer Rogers products and services in Glentel's 485 retail locations across Canada, such as WIRELESSWAVE, Tbooth wireless, WIRELESS etc., Target Mobile and others.
"With Glentel stores in every part of the country, Rogers products and services will continue to be available to people wherever they shop, from department stores to plazas and all the key shopping malls,” said Rob Bruce, president of Rogers Communications' consumer business unit.
"For more than 25 years, Rogers has contributed to Glentel's significant profitable…
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