FENELON FALLS, Ont. – In surprising a move that is sure to make many raise an eyebrow or two and set some industry tongues wagging, independent cable operator Cable Cable has decided the TV Everywhere video on demand option it will offer its customers is Apple TV.
The company (with about 5,000 cable customers and over 6,000 broadband customers in the Kawartha Lakes region) launched a Christmas promotion this week where triple-play customers (cable, broadband and home phone) can call to receive a free Apple TV box (regular retail price: $109). The company is not walking away from its cable…
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AFTER A LONG CAREER in telecom in Canada, Len Katz calls his time at the CRTC the best years of his career.
The 61-year-old former vice-chairman, telecom (and former Bell Canada and Rogers executive) is spending some time now taking a deep breath, a bit of a break, after seven-plus extraordinarily busy years at the Commission. While he admits some boredom has already set in since leaving last month, he is happy to be able to spend extra time with family before deciding what to do next.
Despite some rumours in the summer, his health is good after recovering from a…
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TORONTO – Rogers Media is partnering with Seneca College to create a four-month internship entitled GenNOW, giving students the unique opportunity to gain real work experience as on-air radio announcers in Canada’s most competitive radio market while also earning a course credit.
Beginning January 2013, select students enrolled in their final year of Seneca College’s Broadcasting – Radio program will each take the helm of the microphone on KiSS 92.5, hosting overnight shifts from the station’s downtown Toronto studio.
“Developing the skills of future on-air talent and giving back to the community are…
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TORONTO – Sixteen Candles, one of the most popular teen movies from famed 1980s movie director the late John Hughes, will be the first movie shown on Rewind, Channel Zero’s latest specialty channel brand, when it launches Saturday.
Replacing Movieola in channel lineups (the short film channel moves to its new online home) Rewind will feature flicks such as The Godfather, Blues Brothers, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Moonstruck, Edward Scissorhands and many others – all targeted towards Generation Xers who came of age in the 70s, 80s and 1990s. In fact, the whole first weekend is being dubbed “High School…
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SEED, THE NEW CITYV SITCOM now shooting in Halifax, will debut in Atlantic Canada, as across the country, early in 2013.
Citytv just won’t simsub the sperm donor comedy in the Maritimes, and local TV viewers will see Citytv Toronto commercials when the series bows. The broadcaster wanted to simsub it, but the CRTC said no to the company’s request last month. That’s a challenge for the braintrust at Rogers Media, where Atlantic Canada remains the one Canadian market where Citytv has no simsub privileges, and so depends on distant-signal carriage via BDUs.
To be sure, John…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications says it has increased its cash prize for the best Canadian film in 2012 to $100,000 to the director chosen by members of the Toronto Film Critics Association (TFCA).
Rogers became the founding sponsor of the TFCA Awards Gala five years ago. "We are pleased to support content creators in this country through this prize," said Phil Lind, Vice Chairman, Rogers Communications. "Canadian film is competing on the world stage and with this extraordinary prize we hope to inspire this community to reach even higher."
"We are enormously grateful to…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications said Wednesday it has signed an agreement with SamKnows Ltd., a well-trusted independent broadband performance testing company, to conduct ongoing measurement of broadband internet speed, based on customer data collected in the home.
SamKnows measures broadband performance around the globe, including measuring for the FCC in the United States, for example. The U.S.-based company also recently completed a small pilot project with the CRTC which used SamKnows to test rural broadband speeds.
"With Internet usage exploding, speed is more important than ever to the customer experience," said John Boynton, Rogers’ EVP and chief marketing officer, in the press…
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WHILE VOICE IS COMMODITIZED and data is monetized as we increasingly move into a smartphone world, wireless pricing plans are undergoing radical changes in lock-step with burgeoning technology and changing consumer habits, according to a new report from BMO Capital Markets.
On November 7th, the Canadian big three national wireless carriers each unveiled new pricing plans within hours of each other. The new, simplified plans boast unlimited talk and text as well as data buckets that can be shared by family members and their varied devices that are all on the same household account. The BMO report says the shift,…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC told Rogers Communications on Tuesday that it won’t have to appear at a hearing in December to explain the apparent non-compliance with the conditions of license of its specialty channel G4TechTV.
Last month, as reported by Cartt.ca, the Regulator called both it and Corus Entertainment’s Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) to a December 11th hearing to explain why the channels are still not complying with their conditions of license.
Thanks to recent action taken by Rogers, however, the Commission has decided G4 can avoid the hearing. In its release Tuesday the Continue Reading
GATINEAU – The small incumbent local telephone companies (SILECs) are urging the CRTC to reject proposals calling for changes to the local subsidy regime for lost telephony customers (lost NAS). They also say a regime that will force them to raise local rates to make up for a shortfall in toll interconnection revenue won’t work.
The large incumbents, as well as Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications, want the Commission to only allow the 50% subsidy rule to apply to lost customers who port their number to a competing carrier. The SILECs counter that this is not what the CRTC had…
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