By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers is asking for the CRTC’s assistance in breaking an impasse in which the cable company and the city of Ottawa cannot come to an agreement on certain terms for a new municipal access agreement (MAA).
The parties have been working since their previous 10-year MAA expired at the end of 2020 to resolve particular issues related to matters primarily centered on the cost of relocation.
Rogers writes in its Part 1 application, made public on Friday, that the parties have agreed on many terms of the new MAA, including that relocation costs – with some exceptions – should…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Telus reported Friday a 3.4-per-cent decline over the year in mobile wireless average revenue per user (ARPU) in the second quarter, which executives said they are clearly not pleased about but said there are ways to improve outcomes.
For the three months that ended on June 30, the Vancouver-based telecom reported total mobile ARPU per month of $58.49 compared to the $60.56 in the same period last year.
“This was a result of continued intense promotional market activity and heightened competition,” Telus president and CEO Darren Entwistle said on the company’s second-quarter conference call Friday. “Notwithstanding the competitive pressure,…
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By Len St-Aubin, a policy consultant who has worked for clients including Netflix, and was a member of the policy teams that developed the 1991 Broadcasting Act and the 1993 Telecommunications Act
Online streaming has been the goose that laid the golden egg for original Canadian made-for-TV drama, comedy and documentaries, increasing production and budgets and winning global audiences.
Now the government and regulator are out to kill the goose. With the Online Streaming Act (Bill C-11) and the CRTC’s June 4 policy decision 2024-121, they are determined to apply to online streaming outdated and intrusive regulation that risks undermining CanCon’s…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Bell CEO Mirko Bibic said Thursday that 41 per cent of the company’s new internet subscribers in the second quarter also purchased a wireless plan, which is a testament, he said, to the attraction of the telecom’s fibre product.
Compared to last year’s second quarter, the company also saw an 18-per-cent increase in households bundling wireless and internet bundles where the company has fibre.
“We’re seeing very good bundling success, and that’s adding to the lifetime value of customers,” Bibic said. “Fibre continues to be the growth engine of Bell on the wireline side, and frankly, if you look…
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The CRTC in a decision last week denied an April 2023 application from a group of six public interest organizations asking the commission to accelerate the payment of tangible benefits allocated to the Broadcasting Participation Fund (BPF) as part of the CRTC’s March 2022 approval of Rogers’s acquisition of Shaw’s broadcasting assets.
The group behind the application included the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, the Forum for Research and Policy in Communications, the Consumers’ Association of Canada (Manitoba), the Consumers Council of Canada, Option Consommateurs, and the Union des Consommateurs.
In its Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers has filed an application to the CRTC requesting that its latest gigabit internet speeds be temporarily exempt from speed matching requirements, which would otherwise provide wholesale-based competitors with the same speeds once its rates are approved.
The cable giant launched new gigabit speed packages this month, including symmetrical 1 Gig download and upload speeds, and 2 Gig download speeds with a choice of 1 Gig and 200 Mbps upload configurations. The new speeds will be over its older hybrid fibre-coax facilities which, unlike its last-mile fibre network, is subject to mandatory wholesaling.
The CRTC has a long-standing rule…
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Rogers announced Wednesday it has become the presenting sponsor of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) as well as the TIFF People’s Choice Awards.
To kick off the 49th edition of the festival, TIFF and Rogers will host a VIP event celebrating TIFF’s origins in Toronto’s Yorkville district at the Four Seasons Hotel on Tuesday, Sept. 3. TIFF runs from Sept. 5 to 15.
“Rogers and TIFF share more than deep roots in our home city — we share a commitment to building a rich legacy in Canadian culture and entertainment, which we’re thrilled to celebrate as…
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Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) has published the provisional results of its 2024 auction of residual spectrum licences, which raised $5.61 million.
Bell was awarded the most licences in this auction, successfully bidding $3.08 million for 18 licences, followed by ABC Internet Inc., which is acquiring 12 licences for $83,060, and Netfox Communications Corporation, which is acquiring eight licences for nearly $1.7 million.
Other successful bidders include 5by5 Communications Limited ($126,000 for four licences), Norway House Cree Nation ($593,000 for four), Ecotel Inc. ($16,110 for three), Karrier One Inc. ($20,000 for two),…
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U.K.-based start-up Lower Street announced Monday it has acquired Canadian podcast producer Pacific Content from Rogers Sports and Media.
Cartt sister publication Broadcast Dialogue reported in May Rogers Sports and Media was shuttering its branded podcast division, which it acquired in May 2019.
Lower Street is a full-service podcast production agency that works with such brands as Adobe, Pepsico and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. It was founded in 2017 in Somerset, England, by Harry Morton.
“When I founded Lower Street I looked up to one company in particular, Pacific Content,” Morton said in a statement….
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By Connie Thiessen
Music Canada, which represents the interests of Canada’s major record labels, says the CRTC’s move to impose mandatory contributions on the biggest music streamers, could amount to a “cultural policy disaster.”
In June, the commission announced that online streaming services not affiliated with a Canadian broadcaster that make $25 million or more in Canada, must contribute five per cent of their Canadian revenues to support the Canadian broadcasting system under the Online Streaming Act. Starting in the 2024-25 broadcast year, the funds will be directed to areas of immediate need, including local radio and television…
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