WITH THE CLOSING CEREMONIES of the Paralympic Games September 9th, the Olympic flame was officially doused until Sochi, Russia in 2014.
When that happened, a group of hardworking, unknown, largely underappreciated broadcasters were able to put out the flames in their backs, wrists, eyes and shoulders after working long, demanding hours spread through this summer.
We’re talking about the closed captioners, the people (mostly women) who type all those words you see when your TV is muted, or when you’re at the gym on a treadmill. It’s a vital service for the hundreds of thousands of Canadians who are deaf or…
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TORONTO – Astral’s re-branded classic movie channels, The Movie Network Encore and The Movie Network Encore 2, launch today across Eastern Canada.
Formerly known as Mpix and MorePix, the re-branded channels have a new look and feel that more closely aligns graphically with The Movie Network, the primary brand and channel in the suite of pay services it offers says Astral. All TMN Encore and TMN Encore 2 titles are available on the SVOD service TMN Encore OnDemand, and on TMN Encore OnLine, an Internet-based content streaming service.
“By visually aligning TMN Encore and The Movie Network we are…
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MONTREAL – It was almost a game of regulatory Call Of Duty for Bell Canada on Friday as company executives brandished figurative pistols to whack as many of its enemies claims as it could while defending its position on its deal to buy Astral Media for $3.38 billion.
While the company recommitted itself to providing everything it promised earlier in the week, and reiterated how the combined company’s level of ownership and audience share would not “come anywhere close to any reasonable or customary assessment of dominance in any developed country,” said…
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OTTAWA – Innovation, investment and infrastructure will be the key themes at the 11th Annual International Institute of Communications (IIC) 2012 Canada Conference at the Ottawa Convention Centre, October 29-30.
The conference will explore the questions around where network pressure will emerge, what engineering or other 'physics' solutions exist to stay ahead of that demand curve, where the financing will come from to maintain infrastructure at a necessary level to meet those pressures, and what the corollary impact will be on the ability of government to achieve policy goals.
Pre-registration is mandatory and space is limited. Registrations will be…
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MONTREAL – It's not flying cars and holographic displays (at least not yet), but Rogers Communications CEO Nadir Mohamed set a more attainable, near-term vision for a technological future in a speech to the Canadian Club in Montreal on Monday. It's a vision in which mobile service providers like Rogers play a key role.
Mohamed (pictured below) laid out three technological innovations during a 20-minute speech, in which he noted how odd it was that he was standing in front of a large Bell logo (Bell is the principal sponsor of the Canadian Club's CEO speech program):
1. Digital wallets
"There is…
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OTTAWA – The Competition Bureau announced Friday it’s launching a $31 million lawsuit against Bell Canada, Rogers Communications and Telus Corporation and the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA). The Bureau alleges that the telcos promoted premium texting services while giving the impression that they were free. It’s also demanding that they cease the misleading advertising and provide full refunds to customers.
The lawsuit, which seeks penalties of $10 million from each telco, and $1 million from the CWTA, follows a five-month investigation. It concluded that Bell, Rogers and Telus, in conjunction with the CWTA, “facilitated the sale to their own…
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VANCOUVER – Rogers and Wavefront, a non-profit business incubator, have announced that the Rogers Wireless Innovation Centre in Vancouver is now open to business customers and developers. Located within Wavefront's national centre of excellence for wireless commercialization, the centre’s mission is to accelerate the development of machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions by helping technology innovators develop products and bring them to market faster.
"Rogers is passionate about fostering growth in M2M and strengthening the wireless developer ecosystem in Canada through simplifying the development and go-to-market journey," said Mansell Nelson, Vice-President, Advanced Business Solutions, Rogers Communications in a release.
"We are thrilled to…
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MONTREAL – “If we had realized last year how Bell would behave once it acquired CTV, we would have opposed that application and proposed even stronger safeguards in the Vertical Integration proceeding,” said Rogers vice-president of regulatory affairs Pam Dinsmore in kicking off Rogers Communications’ opposition to the Bell-Astral merger on Wednesday morning.
“However, we know the Commission cannot turn back the clock back on the CTV transaction now. That ship has sailed.”
The RCI presentation told a tale of how CTV has changed since being acquired by Bell Canada, a story where multiplatform rights are routinely held back and that…
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MONTREAL – Telus is another in the line of companies who want the purchase of Astral Media by Bell Canada killed.
But, if it is approved, the industry needs better rules to govern the behaviour of it and other vertically integrated companies (but especially Bell…), Telus told the CRTC Thursday morning in Montreal.
The best example of Bell’s intransigence, said Telus executives, is its dealings on multiplatform content. “It has been mentioned by many parties in this proceeding that Olympic coverage on mobile was only available to Bell Mobility subscribers,” said Telus director of broadcast regulation and corporate affairs, Ann Mainville-Neeson….
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MONTREAL – Sometimes it’s hard to put a finger on the reasons why we decide to pull something out of the tens of thousands of words spoken at CRTC hearings and turn it into a story.
Other times, such as Cogeco Cable CEO Louis Audet’s focused, furious appearance Wednesday, it’s easy to figure out why we cover some submissions instead of others…
We know everyone works hard on their presentations and the job they all do is commendable. However, as I often tell people, we can’t write about everyone. That said, there are frequent portions in every CRTC hearing that stick…
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