TORONTO – Sportsnet has nailed down the Canadian television, online and mobile rights to the more than 250 soccer matches leading up to the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil.
Sportsnet’s coverage, which kicks off June 8, will include qualifiers and friendlies between teams from Canada, Spain, Germany, France, Netherlands, Portugal, England, Croatia, Italy, Greece and the Czech Republic.
“Sportsnet is committed to fueling fans with premium soccer content across multiple platforms,” said Navaid Mansuri, VP of finance and sports programming for Rogers Media, in Monday’s announcement. “We are thrilled to be leading Canadians down the exciting road to the 2014 FIFA…
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TORONTO – CBC/Radio-Canada, Rogers Media and Shaw Media are teaming up on a new venture that allows advertisers to bid for space on their respective digital advertising inventory in real-time.
Called the Canadian Premium Audience Exchange (CPAX), the gateway allows access to over 100 domains in both English and French, reaching an audience of more than 15 million Canadians. Scheduled to launch on May 16, CPAX allows advertisers one-stop shopping to reach a targeted audience, while users receive advertisements that are most relevant and of interest to them.
The three media companies will direct a portion of their inventory into CPAX but…
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by Steve Faguy
GATINEAU – It's the most important decision about private French-language television in Canada in years, but the CRTC's renewal of licenses for major broadcasters contained few surprises.
On Thursday, the CRTC renewed broadcasting licenses for Quebecor's Groupe TVA, Astral Media and the independent specialty channel Canal Évasion. The Commission also reviewed the licenses of the V network (formerly TQS), which was given exceptional relief from its regulatory obligations in 2008 when purchased by its current ownership while in bankruptcy. For the most part, the decisions were based on proposals made during discussions at the hearings in Montreal in…
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TORONTO – Independent producers who attended a special Banff Media Festival preview event and reception in Toronto on Wednesday were likely very encouraged to hear top Canadian media executives speak about the value they place on high-quality original programming.
During a special media leader panel discussion, David Purdy, senior vice-president of content for Rogers Communications, cited several examples of successful TV channels – all of which feature a high percentage of original TV series content in their daily broadcast schedules. “If you look at A&E, they used to carry Murder She Wrote and CSI,” Purdy said. “A&E is now going…
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TORONTO – Just in time for the NBA playoffs, Rogers Digital Media has finalized a two-year deal extension with NBA.com as the exclusive Canadian representative for its online advertising.
Rogers Digital Media has been representing NBA.com in Canada since 2010. The new deal, which runs through September 2014, allows Rogers the ability to offer clients customized integrated business solutions designed to meet their brand objectives, and advertisers the opportunity to align their business with the NBA brand.
As the official online destination for the National Basketball Association (NBA) and its 30 teams, NBA.com has an average of more than 40 million…
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OTTAWA – If you ask anyone on the regulatory side of this industry, they’ll tell you that Bob Buchan and Peter Grant are two of the most admired legal minds in the country.
Together, Buchan, of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin and Grant, of McCarthy Tetrault, created and organized the Law Society of Upper Canada’s New Developments in Communications Law and Policy Conference, held every two years in Ottawa. It’s a must-attend for those working the regulatory trenches in Ottawa.
As stewardship of the conference has been handed over to co-chairs Grant Buchanan of McCarthy Tetrault and Laurence Dunbar of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin,…
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TORONTO – After less than stellar first quarter financial results, Rogers’ president and CEO Nadir Mohamed refused to rule out the possibility of more staff layoffs.
At the company’s annual general meeting with shareholders in Toronto on Wednesday, Mohamed said that he expects 2012 to continue as a year of “competitive intensity”, making cost management “absolutely imperative”.
“We have a disciplined plan of action”, he said. “In the short term, this means more aggressively managing our costs. It also means remaining absolutely focused on our strategic game plan. This includes strengthening our core business, generating new streams of revenue growth, and…
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TORONTO – Rogers blamed “highly competitive markets” for first quarter declines in both revenue and profits.
Consolidated financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2012 saw revenue dip 1% to $2.95 billion from $2.99 billion in same period last year, while adjusted profits fell 16% to $356 million from $423 million.
Despite a 16% increase in wireless data revenue and the second highest number of smart phone activations in any quarter in its history, Rogers Wireless network revenue was virtually flat as customers opted for cheaper “entry level” data pricing plans and new outbound data roaming packages.
Wireless activated and…
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OTTAWA – Industry Canada is proposing to switch from a single licence auction format to one where bidders would place a single bid on a package of licences. The department released its proposed 700 MHz licensing framework on Wednesday afternoon.
This new format, called a combinatorial clock auction (CCA), would enable a bidder to bid on a specific set of licences, or a package. This is different from the previously used simultaneous multiple round ascending (SMRA) auction where each bidder had to place bids on all the individual licences it wanted.
There are a number of benefits…
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OTTAWA – Small local telephone companies operating in rural regions of Ontario and Quebec have enjoyed special protection from competition for long enough and now is the time to open up their markets to cable competitors, its competitors and potential competitors have told the Governor-in-Council.
The Ontario Telecommunications Association (OTA) and the Association des Compagnies de Téléphone du Québec Inc. (ACTQ) fear that if their markets are fully opened to competition, they will suffer severe financial impacts that could put them out of business (as they have noted on Cartt.ca). They are urging the Governor-in-Council to…
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