WHEN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT relaxes foreign investment regulations for the telecom sector and sets out the rules for the 700 MHz wireless spectrum auction (there’s widespread hope Industry Minister Christian Paradis will say something about both next week), there aren’t many scenarios that present a rosy future for the newest Canadian wireless companies, according to research by Scotia Capital telecom analyst Jeff Fan.
Former Industry Minister Tony Clement said prior to the last election that when the 700 MHz auction rules are set out, the plan was to also address the limits we in Canada have on foreign investment in…
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TORONTO – Sportsnet has signed a two-year broadcast agreement with FIS (International Ski Federation) for Alpine skiing events including 25 World Cup races each season.
The races will air on Sportsnet One every weekend throughout the season and will include slalom, giant slalom, downhill and super-combined races. Complementing the race coverage will be 30-minute magazine shows on news and stories from snowboard and freestyle skiing.
“With this new agreement we have created destination viewing every weekend for Alpine skiing," said Navaid Mansuri, VP of finance and sports programming for Rogers Media, in Wednesday’s announcement. “Our viewers now have a home for…
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TORONTO – With subscriber additions at Wind Mobile, Public Mobile and Mobilicity well below what many had hoped, is the model failing?
That’s what Canaccord Genuity telecom analyst Dvai Ghose asked on Monday in a research note to clients. Noting the departure of Mobilicity CEO Dave Dobbin is the second new entrant CEO to leave over the past six months, Ghose wrote what many have been saying for some time now: This isn’t how is was supposed to be.
“Independent new entrant subscriber growth has been weak — WIND only added 41k net subscribers in Q3/11, down from 45k…
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TORONTO – Rogers is moving its new Toronto-focused station CityNews Channel to digital channel 15 in the Greater Toronto Area starting Tuesday.
The 24-hour HD all-news channel, which launched October 3, was previously located on Rogers' channel one. With a busy screen reminiscent of its competitor, Bell Media-owned CP24, the channel uses rotating hosts on an hourly basis and has live cameras in all Rogers Media newsrooms.
"CityNews Channel continues to evolve with each headline, bringing viewers multiplatform, HD coverage of news stories as they break," said Tina Cortese, VP news and GM Citytv Toronto at Rogers Media, in Monday’s announcement. “With a new home on Rogers digital…
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TORONTO – Rogers-owned news talk station 680News is ringing in the holidays with ‘All Christmas News’.
Beginning Monday, the Toronto-based radio station will air a holiday-themed news story at 25 minutes past the hour, every hour. The stories will focus on different aspects of the holiday season, such as products, traditions, customs and holiday treats.
The on-air stories will be complemented with a special sub-page on the station’s website, allowing listeners to hear the stories again and share their own.
“Music stations tend to ‘own’ Christmas, but we feel there is a strong interest from listeners to hear about all the wonderful and compelling Christmas…
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THE REACTION TO THE CRTC’s decision to quash usage-based Internet billing in favour of a couple of other options (complete with set rates) has been all over the map, with several hailing it as a win for consumers while others predict broadband rates will only rise because of it. Then again, there are also some in the middle taking a wait and see approach.
Dennis Beland, senior director regulatory affairs, Quebecor:
“The decision is a victory for artificial competition. We’ve always been defenders of facilities-based competition and if you take a step back and look at the…
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TORONTO – Kids who can’t get enough of music and pop stars can quench their thirst with Juicebox, Bell Media’s new commercial-free, music video channel devoted to pre-teens that launched Thursday.
A rebrand of music video channel PunchMuch, Juicebox features videos from stars like Selena Gomez and the Scene’s “Who Says”, Justin Bieber feat. Ludacris “Baby”, and Cody Simpson’s “On My Mind”. The channel’s music programming is vetted by a committee of parents to ensure that it provides an age-appropriate environment for kids to enjoy their favourite music.
“With Juicebox, we have created a dedicated destination for kids who love music, a…
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LAST YEAR AT THIS time, Kevin Crull was into week three of his transition from long-time telecom executive to the leader of the largest Canadian broadcasting company.
Now president of Bell Media, the company which owns the CTV and CTV2 conventional TV networks, 29 specialty channels including market leader TSN, 33 radio stations and the Sympatico.ca portal, Crull came over from Bell Canada’s telco side, having run Bell Residential Services for five years. For a decade prior to that he was a senior executive with AT&T and US West.
One of his final projects at Bell Canada was writing the business…
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WHILE WE’VE YET TO hear back from the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Bell Canada or Telus – and Industry Canada hasn’t yet responded to our request for a better answer to our original question, Canada’s two largest cable companies have responded to our plea that our country come up with a plan to get broadband Internet access to low-income families.
As we reported, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission along with many cable companies and other contributors, have devised a program to offer broadband connectivity to low-income families for…
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GATINEAU – Rather than picking one system over another, the CRTC has chosen to give the large Internet providers the choice in how they charge small competitors who use their networks. The commission has, however, rejected Bell’s bid to charge on an aggregated volume basis, instead opting for a capacity-based approach.
In its much-anticipated usage based billing decision, the Commission chose capacity as the proxy over an aggregated volume method. Bell Canada and Rogers Communications Inc. advocated for the latter approach.
Bell suggested during the hearing that a capacity-based approach would result in independent ISPs keeping traffic volumes high resulting in…
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