TORONTO – Nascent FX Canada kicked off a free long-weekend preview Thursday through Monday for Rogers, EastLink, Cable Cable and Telus’ Optik TV customers. MTS and SaskTel subscribers continue their two-month free preview of the channel through May 31st.
The Rogers-owned specialty channel, which launched last October, will offer “marathon programming” of Wilfred (season one), The Ultimate Fighter Live and Sons of Anarchy (season two).
www.fxcanada.ca
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TORONTO – Rogers’ LTE network is now live in Calgary and Halifax, meaning that almost 12 million Canadians now have access to the new wireless network service.
Rogers said that it is planning to launch LTE in Edmonton in the coming months, and has plans to cover almost 60% of Canada’s population by the end of the year. In addition, it will begin offering the first Windows LTE smart phone, the Nokia Lumia 900, later this month.
"We're thrilled to offer our LTE network to even more Canadians in the east and the west," said John Boynton, EVP and chief marketing officer, in…
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IT’S PRETTY UNUSUAL for dropped cellular phone calls to be mentioned in a Speech from the Throne.
But, that’s exactly what happened last fall when Saskatchewan Lieutenant-Governor Gordon Barnhart said in that speech that “improving digital and electronic infrastructure is essential to the new economy,” and that “(d)ropped cell phone calls are still a problem, despite an increased investment in SaskTel’s 4G network of $170 million in my government’s first term.”
SaskTel’s ownership – the taxpayers of Saskatchewan – is a holdover of the past, when many telcos were government-owned. While its competitors feel competing against the government is unfair, the…
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TORONTO – Delighted with their early business successes, major cable operators are stepping up their efforts to capture sizable chunks of the commercial telecom services market and recruit larger companies.
Appearing at the SCTE Canadian Summit here earlier this week, top engineering executives of four leading Canadian and U.S. MSOs said they will keep pouring resources into business services initiatives in 2012, after experiencing strong growth over the last few years. In particular, they are investing more heavily in technologies, equipment, products and services for mid-sized and larger companies after making great headway with smaller firms.
For example, Comcast has just…
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TORONTO – Sportsnet has all the bases covered this season when it comes to MLB’s Toronto Blue Jays.
In addition to airing all 162 of the team’s games on Sportsnet and radio station Sportsnet 590 The Fan, Rogers cable customers in Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland who subscribe to Sportsnet and Sportsnet One can stream all the action live on RogersAnyplaceTV.com.
Rogers wireless customers across the country will see every pitch when they subscribe to the Rogers Live Mobile app, available for mobile devices through the Apple App Store, Google Play and Blackberry App World. The app’s subscription is $5 per…
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TORONTO – Layoffs have hit the management level of Rogers Communications.
The company confirmed Thursday that it has let go approximately 300 people, spread amongst its cable, wireless and media divisions.
“There’s no particular focus on any one part of the business,” said Rogers spokesperson Patricia Trott to Cartt.ca “There’s a focus in terms of positions of management and head office positions but it is across the country and not concentrated on any specific division.
“We’re always looking to streamline operations and make sure we're focusing our resources on delivering value to our customers, that we improve productivity and efficiency and reduce…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications is creating a new advertising marketplace for its on-demand content using a system from BlackArrow, the companies announced Thursday.
BlackArrow’s Advanced Advertising System provides cable system operators and programmers with the real-time, multiplatform advertising management and decision solutions to offer timely and relevant ads in on demand sessions. Rogers has already begun dynamically inserting pre-, post-, and mid-roll ads into its on demand programming, and the BlackArrow technology is scheduled to be in place across all of its cable markets by the end of this year.
“The introduction of dynamically-inserted advertising solutions within on-demand TV can significantly…
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TORONTO – Now that they have started to embrace IP video technology, cable engineers are busily figuring out the best way to make the big transition to all-IP service delivery.
Speaking at the SCTE Canadian Summit here earlier this week, MSO technologists spelled out various ways that they could use bonded DOCSIS 3.0 broadband channels to transmit IP video signals to customers’ homes.
“We see the future as getting IP content to the home,” said Dermot O’Carroll, senior vice president of access networks for Rogers Communications. “In a cable company, getting IP to the home means using DOCSIS.”
In a short…
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TORONTO – Although they’re seeking to upgrade to IP video as quickly as possible, four of North America’s largest cable operators don’t expect legacy video services and devices to disappear from the landscape for many years..
Speaking at the fourth annual SCTE Canadian Summit here earlier this week, top engineering executives from Rogers Communications, Comcast Cable, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks said they view IP video as the best way to deliver more advanced features and applications to subscribers, such as multi-screen services, network DVRs, interactive TV applications and converged services. In a wide-ranging session moderated by Cartt.ca…
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TORONTO – It should come as little surprise Bell Media’s recent $3.4 billion bid for Astral Media was top-of-mind for radio industry executives at last week’s Radio Interactive conference, held as part of Slacker Canadian Music Week in Toronto.
Radio presidents from Bell Media Radio, Corus Radio and Rogers Radio took part in a super session moderated by Ross Davies, director of member engagement for the radio group at BBM Canada. Also represented on the panel were U.K. broadcaster Absolute Radio and U.S. radio station operator Cumulus Media.
Corus Radio president Chris Pandoff said the BCE-Astral Media…
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