TORONTO – Rogers Broadcasting is committed to the Saskatchewan production community, and believes that its yet-to-be-approved purchase of provincial broadcaster Saskatchewan Communications Network (SCN) will help to keep that community “robust”.
Responding to criticism last week that its proposal to buy SCN seeks to spend less on local shows than the station’s previous owners, Rogers Media’s broadcasting president Scott Moore told Cartt.ca that the deal could actually prove to be a boon to local producers by opening up access to national audiences via its stable of stations and networks.
“We’ve asked the CRTC to allow us to do our Canadian programming…
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ON THURSDAY, A PANEL of seven CRTC commissioners and a dozen industry executives took part in a hearing where they all must have asked themselves repeatedly, “Geez, how often have I heard this before?” At least, that’s the question that popped into my head as I listened in.
Bell Media faced off against the Canadian Independent Distributors Group during an expedited hearing concerning the parties’ fight over Bell Media’s 2011 wholesale carriage agreement, as we have already covered extensively. The CIDG (Telus, Cogeco, EastLink, Canadian Cable Systems Alliance and MTS) say the dispute isn’t primarily about…
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TORONTO – Future success in the digital media world isn’t about the gadgets – it’s all about the content and user experience. That was the consensus among a group of industry experts who gathered Wednesday afternoon for a panel discussion during the Digital Media Summit, as part of Slacker Canadian Music Week in Toronto.
“There’s nothing clever technologically about the Apple iPhone, fundamentally,” said James Cridland, radio futurologist and managing director for MediaUK, a media industry information web site. “It’s the user experience that makes that product a brilliant product, in comparison to the old clunky things we used to have…
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TORONTO – Rogers Cable is in the early stages of an aggressive plan to convert the bulk of its hold out analog cable customers to digital.
The cable giant has begun calling and sending letters to its Ontario television customers asking them to either order a free digital adapter for their active cable outlets, or to upgrade to a digital set top box/personal video recorder (PVR) in order to “keep receiving all the channels you do now”.
David Purdy, vice-president of video products, confirmed to Cartt.ca that Rogers is “preparing to harvest” its 13-16 analog Tier 3 cable channels in order to…
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TORONTO – Rogers Broadcasting has bid $3 million for its 100% stake in Saskatchewan Communications Network (SCN) which it is planning to re-launch as Citytv Saskatchewan.
The CRTC has yet to approve the acquisition, but is scheduled to review it during a hearing on May 7 held at the Allstream Centre in Toronto.
Rogers is buying the former Saskatchewan provincial public broadcaster from Bluepoint Investments in a deal that was officially announced in January. Bluepoint paid the Saskatchewan government $350,000 for the station late in 2010 after promising to spend $1.75 million per year on independent Saskatchewan production, and $1 million per year…
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TORONTO – Rogers’ Joel Woods will be off to Harvard in June as this year’s recipient of the CTAM Canada Fellowship Award, also known as CTAM U.
Woods is senior product manager – cable platform within the video product management group at Rogers where he is responsible for overseeing the launch and maintenance of all linear video channels (analog, SD, HD) and all linear channel line-ups; network/spectrum capacity and planning; and network provisioning/integrity. He has also been a member of CTAM Canada for 8 years and has participated in a number of events and committees.
Now in its 15th year, the…
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TORONTO – RTNDA Canada, The Association of Electronic Journalists, has named its Prairie region award winners honouring the best programs, stations and newsgathering organizations in both radio and television.
"These awards are named after some of the pioneers and innovators in our industry, and some of them were the founders of our association fifty years ago," said RTDNA Canada president, Andy LeBlanc, in the announcement. "We're pleased to continue celebrating excellence in electronic journalism. Our founders would be proud of the quality of award winning local news coverage today."
The annual awards will be presented in Winnipeg on April 14, 2012.
The television…
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MONTREAL – In its third major content acquisition in a little over 18 months, BCE Inc. (Bell) announced today the purchase of Astral Media Inc. and all its assets for $3.38 billion. If approved, the deal would dramatically boost Bell’s French language TV viewership in Quebec from 6% to 32%, placing it within striking distance of Quebecor, which reaches about 35% of viewers. But at least one market analyst has questioned the value of the deal and believes Bell should have invested the money in its broadband network.
"Bell is gaining a well-seasoned national Astral management team, dramatically expanding our…
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OTTAWA – Reaction was predictably mixed when Industry Canada Minister Christian Paradis released the 700 MHz spectrum auction policy Wednesday, with some saying that it struck the right balance, while others describing the rules as devastating to new entrants.
Mobilicity, which had asked for the entire 700 MHz band to be set aside for new entrants, still saw the decision as a positive step for competition and support for the upstart wireless companies.
“I think Industry Canada had a tough decision to make and it tried to make all sides happy to some extent. So I thought it was a reasonable compromise,…
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TORONTO – The newly announced rules for the pending 700 MHz wireless spectrum auction and on foreign ownership could damage the credit ratings of the country’s three wireless incumbents, according to Moody's Investors Service.
The ratings agency said Thursday that the government’s new rules are credit-negative for Baa1-rated Bell Canada, Rogers Communications and Telus Corp.
Conversely, those rules are credit-positive for Canada’s five regional service providers and the three wireless-only new entrants.
www.moodys.com
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