TORONTO – With the London 2012 Olympic Games set to open in just over a month, Canada’s Olympic broadcast media consortium has committed to more than 5,500 hours of coverage – the equivalent of more than 229 days of content, or close to two thirds of a year.
In order to offer Canadian viewers as many options as possible, the Consortium said that its plan includes 2,000+ hours of television coverage in 11 different languages and 3,500+ hours of digital coverage as follows:
– English coverage on CTV, TSN, Sportsnet, and OLN: 1,114 hours;
– French coverage on RDS and V: 704…
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OTTAWA – Add law professor Michael Geist to the list of stakeholders who support relaxing foreign ownership restrictions in the Canadian telecom market.
In his appearance Tuesday before the Senate Committee on Transport and Communications as part of its pre-study on the changes to the Telecommunications Act contained in Bill C-38, Geist, who is also Canada Research Chair in Internet law and e-commerce, called Canadian rules on telecom foreign ownership “the most restrictive in the developed economy world”.
Citing a recent OECD study that ranked Canada the second most restrictive market for both communications and mobile telecom behind only China, Geist…
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TORONTO – Incumbent telcos Bell and Telus have proven that cable's "big pipe advantage”, is in fact, overrated, according to Canaccord Genuity telecom analyst Dvai Ghose.
In a research note to clients this week entitled ‘Revenge of the Telcos’, Ghose said that Telus and Bell continue to take TV and broadband share from the likes of Rogers and Shaw, at the same time as cable telephony has matured. Part of this shift can be attributed to the telcos’ Mediaroom platform which offers desirable features such as whole home and remote PVR, a superior interactive guide and social media interoperability. While next generation cable boxes…
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TORONTO – “With legal and regulatory certainty, the time for Wind on the defence is at an end. The big three no longer have the luxury of a distracted and artificially crippled new competitor,” Globalive chairman and CEO Anthony Lacavera said on the final day of the Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto. “The time for Wind on offence has arrived.”
But it isn’t only the big three incumbents – Rogers, Bell and Telus – that Wind Mobile is suiting up to take on. Wind is also looking to differentiate itself from its fellow new entrants by shifting its marketing and…
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TORONTO – The emerging era of multi-screen video offers both great opportunities and daunting challenges to traditional media players and equipment suppliers, according to a panel of industry experts who spoke at the Canadian Telecom Summit here late Tuesday afternoon.
With consumer adoption of smartphones, tablets, game consoles and other web-enabled devices exploding, the four panelists agreed consumers will increasingly use three, four or more screens to view video content whenever and wherever they want.
In fact, smartphones accounted for a whopping 80% of all handsets shipped in the Canadian market in the first quarter, said Paul Bannon, vice-president of the…
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TORONTO – Chris O’Neill believes that Canadians worry too much about failing.
O’Neill, managing director of Google Canada, said failed high-tech ventures are actually a badge of honor in Silicon Valley, where Google is headquartered. Speaking in Toronto at the Canadian Telecom Summit late Monday afternoon, the native Canadian and Western University grad argued that failed ventures by entrepreneurs increase their odds of succeeding the next time around.
“Canadians view failure as something to be ashamed of,” he said. “That’s not true.”
Concerned that Canada won’t take steps to create a lasting digital economy, O’Neill rattled off statistics about the rapid growth…
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TORONTO – Telus and Rogers Communications may disagree on many things. But they both strongly favor a national consumer protection code for the telecom industry.
Echoing the call by Rogers communications divisional president Rob Bruce on Monday, Robert McFarlane, executive vice president and CFO of Telus, urged the federal government to adopt a national regulatory standard for protecting mobile phone customers. In Tuesday’s opening keynote at the Canadian Telecom Summit here, McFarlane argued that the country needs a single national code rather than “a patchwork of provincial rules” covering wireless contracts and services.
“It has been 20…
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TORONTO – Machine to machine communications, the mobile wallet and mobile video (mmmm…) are the three most exciting opportunities on the immediate horizon for the Canadian wireless industry, but only if we get a few things done first, Rogers' communications division president Rob Bruce told the Canadian Telecom Summit this morning.
Bruce explained in his opening keynote how machine to machine (M2M) technology is transforming health care, security, government and energy, among other things. He predicted the Canadian M2M market would be providing $400 million in network revenue by 2015.
The mobile wallet, on the other hand, will alter the way…
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TORONTO – Easing Canadians’ minds about security concerns over mobile payments continues to be a major challenge for the mobile commerce industry, according to a panel of industry experts who spoke Monday morning at the Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto.
Recent research by credit insurance provider Assurant Solutions indicates 38% of global survey respondents are very concerned about security when conducting financial transactions through a mobile device, said Zack Fuerstenberg, vice-president of product innovation for Assurant Solutions Canada. “About half (of survey respondents) are concerned about people gaining unauthorized access to their bank account details,” he said. Other key concerns…
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TORONTO – Social media has become a business transformation tool that not only helps to engage consumers but also lower customer service costs. That was the underlying message during a panel discussion about social networking on the opening day of the Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto.
“If we do it right, there are cost savings to the company,” said Keith McArthur, vice-president of social media for Rogers Communications. “So we can do something that improves our reputation, improves our customer experience and makes our customers happier, and also lowers our costs. I think that’s a huge win-win.”
McArthur explained that Rogers…
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