TORONTO – Though he was just coming off an announcement of hundreds of management layoffs, and numbers showing a 24% drop in net income, fewer cable TV subscribers and flat revenue, Rogers CEO Guy Laurence put an optimistic face on his company’s financial outlook on Thursday.
Wireless, by far the biggest contributor to Rogers’s bottom line, saw a 1% drop in revenue, which the company attributed largely to its new simplified plans (bundling in fees like voicemail and caller ID) and changes like lower-priced roaming plans (as it did three months ago). But the drop in…
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TORONTO – Rogers’ second quarter profits fell 24% while revenues for the period were virtually unchanged from last year, the company announced Thursday.
For the quarter ended June 30, 2014, Rogers posted consolidated net income of $405 million, well below $532 million in the same period last year, on operating revenue of $3.21 billion, which was flat from the second quarter of 2013. Adjusted net income was $432 million, a 13% drop from $497 million last year.
Rogers said that Wireless network revenue of $1.8 billion dipped 1% year-over-year due in part to the less expensive roaming plans introduced over the past…
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GATINEAU – It will surprise no one that the cost of sports television are front and centre for so many of the submissions to the CRTC’s TV Policy Review
Telus, for example, called the amount of cash being sent to various leagues and teams for the rights to live games “irrational” and has requested the CRTC address the soaring price of sports services and eliminate penetration-based rate cards in sports packaging.
Lined up on the side of Telus, are Shaw Communications, Cogeco and Canadian Cable Systems Alliance members, distributors who own no sports channels. While vertically integrated companies like Rogers and…
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TORONTO – CEO Guy Laurence continues his work of “untangling the spaghetti” that is Rogers Communications. The company announced “several hundred” middle managers and some vice-presidents were let go Monday as part of the work of rebuilding the company’s customer service image and making it work more efficiently.
In late May, Laurence laid out a new plan for the company – calling it Rogers 3.0 – and noted then that job cuts would be in the offing once the new corporate structure, (also announced in May), began to reform the company and…
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TORONTO – After its first ever Transparency Report revealed that it received nearly 175,000 requests for customer data from federal agencies in 2013, Rogers said Wednesday that it is changing the way that it shares its customers’ private information and will require a court order before giving any information to the police or other government investigators.
In a post on its official blog RedBoard, Rogers said that the change comes in response to customer concerns and after further review of a Supreme Court ruling from last month. (Both Telus and TekSavvy have already said they will now require court…
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GATINEAU – Independent broadcasters are telling the CRTC that they will lose their spots on the broadcast dial if the Commission decides to eliminate genre protection rules and access rights for certain types of programming because the big Vertically Integrated (VI) media and carriage companies have the incentive to muscle their way in with copycat channels, causing “significant harm to the system.”
Genre protection has been a staple of the Canadian broadcasting system for many years, giving niche services the opportunity a protected space in which to build audience share along with a stable source of subscriber revenue, but also…
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TORONTO – Primus Telecommunications Canada unveiled its new leadership team under CEO Michael Nowlan, as the alternative telecommunications service provider undergoes a self-described “transformation”.
Nowlan, who joined Primus in January after 12 years as president and CEO of Marketwired, said that new team “will fundamentally change the way Primus goes to market and does business”.
That team includes:
– Walter Andri, senior vice-president, Sales: Andri is an experienced senior sales leader and business transformation specialist with a proven track record of leading global B2C and B2B businesses in the technology, telecommunications, retail and food and drug sectors. Prior to joining Primus,…
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GATINEAU – The quest of both the CRTC and the federal government to ensure consumers have more choice in their TV packages is running into some difficult headwinds. Vertically integrated broadcast distributors as well as content developers acknowledge that Canadians do say they want more channel flexibility, but they don’t want a so-called “skinny basic” tier of TV channels.
In the official TV Policy Review Notice of Consultation (2014-190), the Commission has proposed a basic cable package that only includes local Canadian TV stations, the 9(1)(h) must-carry channels, provincial educational services if they exist, and in some cases, the community…
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GATINEAU – Canadian prices for wireline, wireless and Internet services are generally competitive when compared to other G7 countries and Australia, with the exception of entry level mobile wireless service and high-speed Internet, according to an annual report commissioned by Industry Canada and the CRTC.
Prepared by Ottawa’s Wall Communications, the 2014 update Price Comparisons of Wireline, Wireless and Internet Services in Canada and with Foreign Jurisdictions is an annual telecom services price comparison study that combines and averages wireline, mobile wireless, broadband Internet, and mobile Internet service rates, as well as bundles of these services along with basic digital TV…
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HAMILTON – Hamilton, Ontario residents who are former Shaw customers are saying that the switchover to Rogers has left them with spotty Internet and cable service.
According to a report in the Hamilton Spectator, Rogers is undertaking a node-by-node switchover of the network after purchasing Shaw Communication's Mountain Cablevision for $400 million last year.
A Rogers spokesperson quoted in the report acknowledged that some customers had experienced technical issues, but the company has brought more staff into the call centre to handle complaints and now have extra technicians on the road.
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