GATINEAU – The CRTC is holding a public hearing on November 7, 2012, to consider three applications:
• Rogers Broadcasting's application to acquire the assets of the Montreal-based television station CJNT
• An application to operate a new over-the-air television station in Montreal that would be called International Channel/Canal International (ICI)
• CHMZ-FM Radio Limited's application to acquire the assets of the radio station CHMZ-FM Tofino. The Commission says it will also address past and current compliance of CHMZ-FM with respect to its regulations.
The hearing will be held in the Conference…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications will be offering its fastest Internet speeds yet, up to 150 Mbps download speeds, through a DOCSIS 3.0 technology upgrade they call “re-speeding.”
"As part of our commitment to providing customers with what's next in online experiences, we've increased our internet speeds again," said John Boynton, executive vice-president marketing, chief marketing officer, Rogers Communications. "Canadians love the internet and spend more time online than any other country in the world. We continue to make significant network investments to deliver the fastest internet speeds available to the most homes."
Rogers says the…
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TORONTO – The Ontario Association of Broadcasters will be inducting two of the great entrepreneurs in Canadian history, Peter and Tony Viner, into the OAB Hall of Fame tomorrow at the Gala Awards Dinner following the Connections 2012 fall conference.
Peter, 67, helped the late Izzy Asper build Canwest Global into a multi-billion-dollar international media powerhouse before the company fell on hard, debt-burdened, times. Tony, 65, built Rogers Media from two Toronto radio stations (Ted Rogers’ famous first media asset, CHFI-FM, and CFTR-AM, now 680News) when he came on board in 1982 to a billion-dollar…
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TORONTO – Walletless transactions will become a reality in Canada in two weeks with CIBC and Rogers unveiling their digital transaction solution that turns smartphones into mobile credit cards. The joint mobile payment solution offers an app that will allow customers with NFC-enabled smartphones to tap them at checkouts to pay for purchases using the secure SIM card inside.
Forecasts for mobile commerce suggest that it will become a significant method of payment in just the next few years. By 2016, Technology Strategy International forecasts that almost 80% of the smartphones in Canada will be…
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OTTAWA – Bell is falling far behind schedule in rolling out broadband services to rural communities using public funds and will only have 12 Commission-approved communities completed by year’s end, not the 49 communities it forecast says the CRTC. The regulator is now demanding that Bell Canada and Bell Aliant submit quarterly reports on the status of their deferral account project to ensure it gets back on schedule in order to be completed as agreed by August, 2014.
In an August, 2010 decision regarding how Bell should dispose of the funds remaining in its deferral account the…
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OTTAWA – Does the “Made in Canada” brand matter to Canadians when it comes to their television and film content? Does it matter internationally? If so, how can the industry better promote it to make it matter?
Those were some of the questions discussed Monday during the pre-conference symposium on the promotion of Canadian film and TV content held in conjunction with the International Institute of Communications annual Canadian conference here in Ottawa. Sponsored by Telefilm Canada, the Canada Media Fund and the CRTC, the symposium delegates tried to come up with ways of better-promoting Canadian film and TV in…
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MONTREAL – BCE Inc. reports profits slipped 12% in the third quarter to $569 million compared with $642 million a year earlier, but is still on track to meet the 2012 financial guidance it issued in August. It attributed the drop “mainly due to lower income tax expense in Q3 2011 from the favourable resolution of tax matters.” Revenue increased 1.8% to $4.3-billion, while operating revenue rose 1.5% to $4.98 billion. Bell EBITDA was up 5.2% in Q3 on growth of 15.2% at Bell Wireless and 92.6% at Bell Media, partly offset by a 6.2% decline at Bell…
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TORONTO – Launching today with a three-month free preview, Videotron subscribers in Quebec will get unlimited access to FX Canada. Programming includes American Horror Story: Asylum, Sons of Anarchy, Louie and The League, as well as late-night shows Brand X with Russell Brand and Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell. FX Canada is available to Videotron subscribers in SD on channel 210 and in HD on channel 810.
“There is a high demand for FX’s premium content across Canada, and Rogers is excited to bring this award-winning programming to the Quebec market, “ said Scott…
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TORONTO – The Pet Network is re-launching November 12th with “refreshed branding, a vibrant new on-air look and a revitalized program schedule," the channel announced Wednesday.
The updated look and feel is designed to present a brighter, cleaner and more playful identity that will work across all platforms and resonate with the station’s adult 25-54 audience says the press release. The new creative was developed by Alisa Kerr, creative director of Victoria, B.C.-based HIDEF Productions Inc.
“This repackaging communicates the strength of The Pet Network’s program offering and reinforces our commitment to the brand…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is ending the 5% limitation on the carry-over of Canadian programming over-expenditures and the obligation to use them in the subsequent broadcast year, but broadcasters currently subject to it will have to apply to have it removed.
The CRTC’s decision follows previous filings by both Rogers and Bell that argued the 5% cap limited their flexibility. Rogers submitted that the cap reduced its ability to operate its Citytv conventional television stations and that some of its Canadian programming expenditures (CPE) were already committed to large budget productions during the first broadcast year…
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