Search Results for: rogers

Radio / Television News

City adds hockey, only four new shows to 2014-15 schedule

TORONTO – With Rogers’ ‘upfront’ Tuesday seemingly dominated by its pending NHL coverage, City unveiled just four new series for its fall schedule – two new dramas, one new comedy series, and one reality program. The new programming includes dramas Scorpion, about Homeland Security's new think tank who comprise the last line of defense against complex, high-tech threats, and the comic crime procedural Backstrom which will debut mid-season.  Scripted comedy series Black-ish, (pictured) starring Anthony Anderson and Laurence Fishburne, is about a black family in the suburbs that attempts to establish a sense of cultural identity that honours their past… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

Sports Rights: New NHL contract sets stage for wholesale sports channel fees to soar again

TORONTO – Given the pile of money Rogers Communications paid for the rights to the National Hockey League games for the next 12 years, look for the wholesale fees paid for sports by BDUs – and their customers – to shoot up. A research report recently published by Scotia Capital analyst Jeff Fan says that if you think sports makes up a big portion of BDUs’ programming costs now, just wait. When the sports genre was deregulated by the CRTC back in 2010, CTV/Bell Media served notice that rates for TSN (which had been the same for more than a… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Rogers, Vodafone sign Partner Market agreement in Canada

TORONTO – Vodafone and Rogers jointly announced a new Partner Market agreement Tuesday that includes a commitment by the two companies to offer customers 4G roaming services and other products and services. Under the non-equity agreement, Rogers becomes Vodafone's exclusive partner in Canada.  According to the announcement, multinational customers of Vodafone Global Enterprise will benefit from the addition of Canada to their existing contracts for international managed services. In addition, Rogers will be able to draw on Vodafone's expertise in building and developing 4G mobile broadband networks, working with leading global equipment providers. "We're focused on significantly improving our customers' experience… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

All seven Sportsnets available online with Sportsnet NOW

TORONTO – Canadians with a Sportsnet subscription will soon be able to access all seven Sportsnet channels, online, on any device they own. Rogers customers can get access today in a free preview. For no extra charge, customers can get 24/7 live streaming of all games, events, news and programming, available on all devices and computers through Sportsnet NOW (what, not “Go”?!) All TV programming live will be available online – Blue Jays, NHL, NFL, NBA, MLB, curling, Tour de France and much more – from anywhere in Canada, on all seven Sportsnet channels: Sportsnet Ontario, East, West and Pacific, Sportsnet… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Consumer groups demand feds overturn CRTC decision on prepaid wireless service cards

ELLIOT LAKE, ON – The DiversityCanada Foundation wants the Governor in Council to quash a section of the Wireless Code of Conduct regarding prepaid wireless service cards, after the CRTC declined to do so. The Foundation and the National Pensioners Federation submitted a joint petition Monday seeking to overturn a provision in the Code that they say “permits Bell, Rogers, Telus and other wireless providers to place expiry dates on cash held in the accounts of 3.7 million prepaid wireless consumers”.  The petition claims that the CRTC breached its duty of procedural fairness by ignoring evidence that prepaid wireless accounts hold… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Rogers fires back at Wind over domestic roaming comments

TORONTO – “It was not a take or leave it situation,” Ken Engelhart, senior VP of regulatory at Rogers Communications Inc., says of the roaming agreement the company signed with new entrant Wind Mobile. In an interview with Cartt.ca Wednesday, he rebutted a number of the points that Simon Lockie, chief regulatory officer at Wind, made during an appearance before the Standing Senate Committee on Transportation and Communications on Tuesday. It’s simply not true that Wind had no choice but to accept the agreement it did, Engelhart says. “I disagree very strongly with the notion that this… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

Rogers, Scotiabank ink six-year NHL media sponsorship agreement

TORONTO – Rogers has drafted Scotiabank as the first major sponsor of its mammoth $5.2 billion NHL rights deal. Financial terms of the deal, which begins with the 2014-15 season and runs through 2019-20, were not disclosed.  The agreement includes Scotiabank as title sponsor of Scotiabank Wednesday Night Hockey on Sportsnet; a presenting sponsor of Sunday Night Hockey on City; title sponsor of Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada; presence during the Stanley Cup Playoffs and Stanley Cup Final; plus an opportunity for Scotiabank-sponsored minor hockey teams to introduce Hockey Night in Canada every Saturday night. As part of the deal, Scotiabank and Rogers… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Wind’s Lockie lambastes Rogers in front of Senate committee

OTTAWA – “A suitable framework” and “a good interim measure” were the words Simon Lockie, chief regulatory officer at Wind Mobile, used to describe the federal government’s domestic wireless roaming plan as proposed in amendments to the Telecommunications Act during an appearance before a Senate committee on Tuesday. In his opening remarks to the Standing Senate Committee on Transportation and Communications, Lockie launched a scathing indictment of not only the negotiations it held with its roaming partner, Rogers Communications, but also the terms of the roaming agreement. He described talks with Rogers as “an artifice of negotiations” that “were… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

Guy Laurence, Rogers’ man with the plan aims to make beautiful music, and better spaghetti…

FRIDAY WAS DAY ONE of what looks to be a lengthy upgrade for the company founded by legendary entrepreneur Ted Rogers. New CEO Guy Laurence is the first outside boss to come in as CEO of Rogers Communications Inc. He is someone who never knew Ted before his death in late 2008, never worked for the man whose name is on so many buildings and brands and still casts a long shadow within RCI. The former Vodafone executive is a CEO with an international resume who will bring new, fresh ideas to Rogers, a company many… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

Cope says Bell near an announcement on 700 MHz rollout plans

MONTREAL — Bell Canada has begun the rollout of its 700 MHz wireless services across the country and will announce “in the next month or so” the communities across Canada, representing 96 or 97% of the population that will be able to use it by the end of 2015, BCE president and CEO George Cope said Monday. The network upgrade, which will make use of the $565 million worth of spectrum Bell bought in this year’s auction, is just one of many improvements to the company’s services that Cope spoke confidently about in a speech to the Canadian Club of… Continue Reading