TORONTO – At his company’s Wednesday morning executive briefing to kick off its upfront presentations, Shaw Media president Paul Robertson told TV writers that the company’s near total lack of sports content doesn’t concern him a bit.
When compared to Rogers Media (owners of the Sportsnet brands, The Toronto Blue Jays, NFL games on Citytv and some others) and Bell Media (TSN brands, RDS, NFL games on CTV and soon, co-ownership of Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment with Rogers), Shaw has almost no sports – save some professional golf on Global on the weekends.
No biggie, though, said Robertson. “You…
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TORONTO – The sheer numbers some sports produce are staggering – and we’re not talking about the ones you see on the scoreboards in the stadiums or arenas.
When it comes to sports television, the National Football League is the big kahuna. The league’s current $20 billion U.S. broadcast contracts with Fox, CBS, NBC and ESPN end in 2013, and the new deals, worth almost $40 billion over eight years will kick in for 2014.
Speaking at The Cable Show in Boston on May 23rd, NBA Commissioner David Stern told delegates that between the league, its teams and players, the league…
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TORONTO – CTV executive Phil King may be in charge of programming for the country’s largest conventional network, but it’s clear that sports are as big a part of that as are the slate of new fall shows that the network announced Thursday.
Speaking with Cartt.ca prior to Bell Media’s ‘upfront’ event, King, who broke in to the business at TSN before that network was acquired by CTV, admitted that the next round of NHL hockey and Olympic broadcast rights are never far from his mind.
“The (Canadian NHL) rights discussion is still two years away, but I find it…
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VANCOUVER – Rogers opened two of its new interactive retail stores Wednesday in Vancouver.
The stores, located at 1295 Davie Street (and Jervis) and in North Vancouver at 1617 Lonsdale Avenue, are designed to support customer engagement and build a community centered on education, reads the company's announcement. Featuring a new modern design, personalized service, and learning sessions, many stores will also offer free Wi-Fi, a charging bar, toys for children, and a selection of Rogers’ magazines.
"The Vancouver store opening is part of a larger retail transformation to enhance how we service and sell to our customers”, said retail VP…
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TORONTO – Rogers-owned Citytv is banking on “LOL funny” to attract even more viewers this fall.
The network was the first to stage its ‘upfront’ presentation this week, unveiling its newly minted 2012-13 fall and mid-season prime-time schedule on Tuesday. Shaw Media and Bell Media are slated to hold their events on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
The schedule includes nine new comedies, including two originals set to debut mid-season, four new dramas, and the first Canadian version of reality series The Bachelor. In addition, Citytv said that 67% of its programs are returning from last year (the most of any Canadian network, it claims), noting…
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TORONTO – This is the last chance to register for the CTAM panel ‘Sports Television: Will the Goose Stop Laying it’s Golden Eggs’ taking place on Tuesday, May 29 at the CBC building in Toronto.
Moderated by Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien, the lively discussion will feature John Levy, chairman and CEO of The Score; Jeffrey Orridge, executive director of sports properties for CBC; David Purdy, SVP of content for Rogers Communications, and Sean Riley, SVP of Fox Networks as they share their thoughts on whether the rights to live sports and league content will continue to drive the TV business or whether…
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RICHARD STURSBERG CAN be a polarizing figure. He knows he rubs some people the wrong way (and I think he kinda likes being the thorn in some sides).
You can read that personality throughout his recent book, Tower of Babble: Sins, Secrets and Successes Inside the CBC. He admits as much on many pages, calling himself “arrogant”, “insouciant” and “insubordinate” and reading through some of what he describes about his time at the Corp., it’s hard not to disagree with his self-assessment.
Stursberg was actually my first interview when I started covering the electronic media industry in…
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BOSTON – In its younger days, the cable industry moved, for the times, at a pretty good speed on the technical front. While operators in the 1970s, ’80s and early ’90s concentrated on signing up subscribers, delivering clear signals, and then launching an ever-increasing number of new channels, they were heavily reliant on just a couple of big suppliers and their engineers for their most important network systems.
General Instrument (Jerrold before that and now known as Google-owned Motorola) and Scientific-Atlanta (now Cisco) were the two dominant players for ages. There were lots of other suppliers of many other things,…
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TORONTO – Rogers says that it will be business as usual next month if some 600 of its contracted telephone and television technicians in Ontario walk off the job as their union has threatened.
As Cartt.ca reported late last week, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) said that negotiations for a collective agreement with two of the four contractors who employ the technicians have stalled. A strike deadline has been set for June 15, 2012.
When contacted by Cartt.ca, a Rogers spokesperson stressed that the company is not involved in the labour negotiations, and that these technicians are…
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OTTAWA – Lower wireless infrastructure investments could be the result of Industry Canada’s proposals to adopt indefinite roaming and eliminating the difference between in-territory and out-of-territory roaming, warn some mobile carriers.
The cautionary notes come from Bell Canada, SaskTel and Telus Corp. in comments to the department’s consultation on changes to mandated roaming and tower site sharing. They urge Industry Canada to think hard before making these changes because they could have the unintended consequence of decreasing overall wireless network investment in both urban and rural areas across the country.
SaskTel is particularly concerned that if the…
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