THE 10 COMPANIES vying for beachfront spectrum in Industry Canada’s 700 MHz auction set to begin Tuesday will have to navigate a complicated format that moves through various stages from interest in spectrum blocks to packages of licences and ultimately to specific frequencies.
During an Industry Canada technical briefing on the auction on Monday, a senior official with the department noted that this format, called a combinatorial clock auction (CCA), is now commonly used around the world. It’s used “because it features package bidding and eliminates what is known as exposure risk, which in layman’s terms is getting some but…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications has launched baseball channel MLB Network as part of an extension of its partnership with Major League Baseball (MLB) that also includes an eight-year multiplatform broadcast rights extension with MLB, MLB Advanced Media and Sportsnet through 2021.
MLB Network, the 24-hour network dedicated to all things baseball, launched Wednesday on Rogers’ Ontario-based digital cable systems. It is available on channel 415 to customers who subscribe to its Digital VIP package, and will appear in free preview through the end of April. The channel’s year-round programming includes live games, news, highlights, and analysis.
The new agreement between MLB,…
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SEVERAL SOURCES have told Cartt.ca over the past number of weeks that Rogers Communications has grabbed the over-the-top bull by the horns and has been signing a massive number of content deals and at least one significant partnership agreement (if not more) in an effort to battle back against Netflix in Canada by launching a new, national, OTT video portal.
Our multiple sources (all of whom requested anonymity for business reasons) have told Cartt.ca that Rogers is spending over $100 million buying all the video content windows available from as many rights holders (such as Disney/ABC, Warner Bros., 20th Century…
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TORONTO – Bell Media announced Monday it has hired Lucy Collin as vice-president, marketing and innovation – integrated sales for English Canada. Reporting to Luc Sabbatini, president, Bell Media Sales, Collin (a former Rogers executive, most recently as the former publisher of Marketing Magazine), will oversee the marketing strategy for Bell Media Sales, as well as advise on Bell Media Sales’ brand execution, the company said.
“Marketing and innovation are at the core of our integrated sales team’s strategy, and having a highly skilled professional like Lucy join our ranks will help solidify our business vision,” said Sabbatini. “Her great…
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MONTREAL – CTAM Canada’s newly elected board of directors for 2014 includes a number of familiar names and faces.
The executive committee is:
– Gary Pelletier from Stingray Digital as President;
– Drew Robinson from Shaw Media as Vice-President;
– Jennifer Salmon from CCSA as Secretary; and
– Jeff Taylor from Rogers Communications as Treasurer.
The newly elected 2014 board selected the new chapter executive along with committee chairperson assignments, following the last meeting of the 2013 board on December 10th.
Joining the organization are Valerie Heroux from Videotron, Anne Lavigueur from Cogeco, Lisa Purdy from BBC Kids, Andy Garrett from Eastlink, Leanne Shearer from Bell…
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By Greg O’Brien
AS A YOUNG CANADIAN growing up in Timmins (hometown of NHL legends Frank and Peter Mahovlich, among several others) Saturday night hockey on TV was as regular, or normal, or expected, as church on Sunday. As reliable and loved as our family’s dog.
Hockey Night in Canada wasn’t just a staple. It was as much a part of life as eggs and cereal for breakfast or snow on the ground in the winter. We had a single-dial television in the mid-1970s that caught the few stations we had off-air. I was my dad’s remote control, standing by the…
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TORONTO – Wednesday’s announcement by the federal government to curb domestic wholesale roaming rates was welcomed by at least one new wireless entrant, but panned by an industry analyst who described the move as “too little, too late”.
Wind Mobile chief regulatory officer Simon Lockie said that the decision makes it clear that the government “is taking the realistic and committed actions necessary to create a level playing field for competition in the wireless space”.
“Today's announcement shows that Prime Minister Harper's Government is serious about competition and serious about consumers”, he said in an emailed statement. “Minister Moore has said this…
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TORONTO – An international alliance of mobile operators has unveiled a plan to simplify and promote the adoption of machine-to-machine (M2M) communications worldwide.
The M2M World Alliance, which is comprised of Rogers, Etisalat, KPN, NTT DOCOMO, SingTel, Telefonica, Telstra and VimpelCom, said Tuesday that it will leverage the operators' combined global presence to benefit customers who are looking for regional or global M2M deployments. The solution also enables companies to enjoy connectivity throughout the Alliance coverage area with in-market rates; easier compliance with local market regulations; and the potential for multinationals to provide global technical support from a single market.
M2M communications…
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FOR A YEAR NOW, Sam Norouzi has been working tirelessly toward getting a new conventional television station on the air.
It's not something you see much these days. Unlike specialty channels, where applications come in by the bucketload (but are launched by the thimbleful…), the number of conventional television stations has only shrunk over the past decade. In 2006, there were 101 private commercial stations in Canada, according to the CRTC. By 2012, after the bottom had fallen out of the advertising market, that had dropped to 91.
Even tougher for Norouzi, his station, dubbed ICI, is an ethnic station –…
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TORONTO – Rogers’ recent $5.2 billion deal for Canadian broadcast and digital rights to NHL games over the next 12 years could be penalized by regulators should they perceive content distribution plans as working against the Canadian consumer, through either restricted access or high price, says Moody's Investors Service.
Although the plans for distribution are presently unknown, “commercial logic calls for both wide and proprietary distribution”, reads a new report from Moody’s called ‘Rogers' NHL Deal: Uncharted Territory for Content Distribution and Monetization’.
The report says that if Rogers were either a traditional national over-the-air television broadcaster or an approved specialty…
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