MONTREAL – An American consortium of cable companies which have banded together to let their customers roam freely on each others’ Wi-Fi networks may soon gain a Canadian partner.
Earlier this year (as reported on by Cartt.ca from the Cable Show in Boston), a number of U.S. MSOs forged a new partnership to let their respective customers share 50,000 wireless hotspots for free when they travel. When traveling outside their home markets, high-speed Internet subscribers of the participating companies (Cablevision, Comcast, Cox, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House) will look for the “CableWiFi” network and through…
Continue Reading
MONTRÉAL – Rogers Communications in its $10.3 million proposal for Montréal’s CJNT-TV (Metro 14) says it has found the “optimal solution” that provides the city with a new English-language commercial TV station while also supporting a local plan for a new multilingual station. And even if the CRTC says no, it’s got a back-up plan to loosen CJNT’s current ethnic programming requirements.
Under Rogers’ optimal scenario the new station would be branded Citytv Montreal with programming and conditions of licence similar to the company's other Citytv…
Continue Reading
HAMILTON – The SCTE Ontario Chapter will be holding its Technical Session & Vendor Show on November 13, 2012. This year the event takes place at Carmen’s Banquet Centre located in Hamilton.
The focus of the show is “The Evolution of HFC” and the SCTE is currently looking for presenters. It reminds attendees this is a great way for your employer and yourself to get great exposure from a captive appreciative audience.
Those seeking to present should forward a brief overview of their presenting topic to scte-ontario@rogers.com by Oct 9th.
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Tom Pentefountas, CRTC Vice Chair will provide an update on the commission's activities at his first appearance at the Ontario Association of Broadcasters Fall Conference.
Pentefountas has been with the CRTC since April 2011, and most recently was in Montreal to attend the CRTC’s hearings into Bell’s purchase of Astral Media. With his legal background combined with on-air experience, Pentefountas has a fresh perspective on the ever changing broadcasting industry.
Connection 2012, a one-day conference, will be held on Tuesday, November 6th…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – North American wireless carriers reported strong Q2 margins, with combined wireless EBITDA service margins for Rogers, Telus, Bell, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, LEAP and MetroPCS up 342 basis points and EBITDA growth up 14.5% over the previous year. This according to figures reported in Dvai Ghose’s Canaccord Genuity Daily Letter for September 17.
He says the improved margins were driven by reduced device subsidy pressure. Wireless equipment subsidies dropped an estimated 12% in Q2 due to a “dearth of iconic device launches.” He noted that with the Samsung Galaxy S III and the iPhone 5 recently launched “we…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
