TORONTO – It’s a stunning deal in its breadth and depth. Rogers Communications and the National Hockey League today announced a 12-year $5.2 billion broadcast and multimedia agreement that includes all national rights to NHL games on all platforms in all languages.
The agreement, the largest media rights deal in league history, begins with the 2014-15 season and continues through the 2025-26 season. This marks the first time a premium North American-wide sports league has granted all of its national (Canadian) rights to one company on a long-term basis, says the press release.
Rogers also announced today it picked CBC…
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TORONTO – According to, well, “TSN hockey insider” Bob McKenzie, the National Hockey League will announce on Tuesday that the CBC and Rogers Media have teamed up to grab the national television rights to NHL hockey games in Canada.
While we don’t know the details at this point, another source with knowledge of the talks said it’s expected that Hockey Night In Canada will continue on the CBC for the length of the deal (which is not yet known) and that Rogers Sportsnet will become the home of NHL hockey for the foreseeable future (its regional networks have local rights…
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TORONTO – Most Canadians value their television subscriptions, including the channels and packages available to them, but want the opportunity to further customize those packages, according to a Harris/Decima poll conducted on behalf of Rogers Communications.
Of those Canadians surveyed in the poll, 78% said they subscribe to TV services from a cable or satellite provider. Other highlights from the survey include:
Remote control reigns – Canadian viewers still enjoy surfing a wide-range of channels:Over 70% of the TV customers' surveyed claim their subscription is important for their household's entertainment needs, and the same percentage reported being happy with the…
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TORONTO – Call this a case of bad news, good news.
The bad news is that TV Everywhere still faces some serious hurdles before it can really take off for cable operators, telcos and other video service providers. The good news is that video-on-demand (VOD) may be on the cusp of reaping significant ad revenues for Canadian pay TV providers.
These twin assessments of the market for advanced video services emerged from the packed CTAM Canada Broadcaster Forum held Wednesday at Toronto’s Westin Harbour Castle Hotel. In back-to-back panel sessions, cable operators, programmers, equipment vendors, online experts, audience measurement specialists and…
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TORONTO – Rogers Media wants to get music fans primed for the 56th Annual Grammy Awards with Thursday’s launch of GRAMMYs.ca, a new digital hub available on desktop, tablet, and all mobile devices.
Billed as Canada’s premier destination for all things Grammy-related, the site integrates content from Rogers Media’s television, radio, and publishing brands to offer videos, photos, and stories on the latest music news and artists. Content on the portal also includes performances and interviews with music’s hottest names from City and Rogers Radio stations, profiles on celebrity trend-setters from Flare magazine, in addition…
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TORONTO – Rogers is launching a new marketing campaign in support of its LTE network accompanied by the tagline Get Blown Away by Rogers LTE.
The campaign includes a direct-to-consumer challenge, the Rogers Blown Away Speed Challenge, where Canadians are encouraged to test Rogers LTE experience against other carriers using devices like the Samsung Galaxy S4 and LG G2. Activated at select Cineplex and Rogers retail stores nationally, the speed challenge aims to create a tangible network experience where customers can experience the LTE speeds for themselves.
To support the launch, Rogers has developed a speed challenge video…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications has created a new operating unit called Rogers Data Centres and will open a new flagship data centre in Calgary early next year.
The company said Wednesday that its Calgary facility will open in January, 2014 with 80,000 square feet of raised space, state-of-the-art and highly efficient cooling systems, world-class security measures, 24/7 support, and will meet Uptime Institute's Tier III standards. Rogers also said that it has expanded its Edmonton facility with approximately 6,000 square feet of newly-constructed raised floor space.
Earlier this year, Rogers bought Blackiron Data, Pivot Data Centres…
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TORONTO – What is the best way to offer choice to your customers when the very act of choosing is personal and subjective?
That was the basis of a panel entitled ‘Packaging Flexibility: Customer Choice vs. Brand Investment’ at the CTAM Canada Broadcaster Forum held Wednesday in downtown Toronto. And that panel, a mix of broadcasters and distributors moderated by Rogers’ senior vice-president of content David Purdy, all agreed that Canadians’ ability to choose their own television channels was inevitable, whether mandated by the government, the Regulator, or driven by consumer demand.
“This…
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CALGARY – Rogers cable customers can get the ‘plane’ truth with the launch of the WestJet Channel on channel 206.
From now through February 2nd, viewers will be enticed to fly to some of the company’s sunny destination including Grand Cayman, Bermuda, Puerto Plata, Holguin and St. Martin-St. Maarten. Cameras will also capture ground crews preparing the airline's 737 aircraft for take-off as they load baggage and push the aircraft back prior to taxiing to the runway.
Over the course of the channel's 13-week run, viewers will have the opportunity to participate in Twitter…
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DID THAT HEADLINE get your attention? I can already hear irritated e-mails disputing that claim being tapped out in response, but bear with us for a few paragraphs.
“What!?” some of those running popular specialty video brands might be asking, “Isn’t Galaxie just that group of sleepy music channels which are a throw-in with everyone’s digital cable box?” Well, they may be a value-add which come automatically with most digital TV subscriptions, but some comprehensive recent measurement shows the suite of music channels (anywhere from 40 to 100, depending on the BDU) is anything but sleepy. This is…
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