TORONTO – Deep within the Rogers Communications first quarter report to shareholders was confirmation of a number that had been circulating on the rumour mill ever since the company purchased Compton Cable on March 1st, as Cartt.ca reported.
The big red machine purchased the 6,000-subscriber (5,000 digital cable, 4,000 Internet and 4,000 cable phone subs) independent cableco for $40 million, the company reported Monday, a healthy $6,667 per basic subscriber.
The Utica, Ont.-based independent system served a lucrative and growing area just outside of Toronto (Port Perry) and was one of the most technologically advanced small systems in North…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications delivered a bit of a surprise to Bay Street late Monday afternoon with more positive first quarter results than some were predicting.
Revenue in the quarter ended March 31, 2011 increased 4%, compared to Q1 2010, to $3 billion, wireless net post-paid additions came in at 45,000 and a record number of new smartphones (534,000, compared to 348,000 in Q1 ’10) were added to its grid via new smartphone customers and others upgrading their handsets. Wireless data revenue growth also stayed strong at 30% ($542 million) and margins were 49%.
The company also noted that wireless data…
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WASHINGTON – CTV British Columbia, CBNT St. John’s, NL, 680News Toronto and CHYM-FM/CKGL-AM Kitchener, ON all received awards for ‘Overall Excellence’ at the 2011 Edward R. Murrow Awards for excellence in electronic journalism.
This year, Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) judges awarded 600 regional awards in 14 categories, including Overall Excellence, Breaking News, Investigative Reporting, and Website. Awards are broken up by medium (radio, television, on-line) and by market size (small and large.) Regional winners automatically become eligible for the national awards competition, which will be judged in June and presented in October at the RTDNA Awards Dinner in New…
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OTTAWA – Nearly 7,000 Canadians have told the CRTC that television commercials are too loud, and, that they want the Regulator to do something about it.
The Commission got an earful after asking for comments back in February on measures to control the loudness of commercial messages. It launched the public consultation after receiving hundreds of complaints, and comments were due last week.
“It is highly annoying the number of times we need to adjust the volume from commercials back to programming”, wrote Mark Dostie from Richmond, B.C., in his submission to the CRTC. “In fact we will often ‘pause’…
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TORONTO – CTAM Canada members won’t want to miss the opportunity to hear from Sam Schwartz, president and a founding managing partner of Comcast Interactive Capital, a $350 million venture capital fund affiliated with Comcast Corporation.
Schwartz, who is also EVP of strategy and development at Comcast Interactive Media, will share his experiences and insights regarding Comcast’s evolution in IP video at a members-only event on May 4 at the Velma Rogers Theatre at Rogers Communications, located at 333 Bloor Street East in Toronto.
Registration begins at 3:30 pm, the presentation will run from 4 – 5:30, and be followed by…
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TORONTO – Rogers Sportsnet has rolled out an app for the new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet that it describes as hockey fans’ “ultimate digital companion”.
The Hockeycentral App, available now at BlackBerry App World, provides scores, stats and breaking news from the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“As a frontrunner in the digital world, Rogers Sportsnet is always looking to better engage our hockey fans more closely with the game”, said Scott Moore, president of Rogers Broadcasting, in the press release. “Our Hockeycentral App for the BlackBerry PlayBook will enhance the viewer’s experience with a premiere resource for NHL news, stats and informative opinions…
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TORONTO – RTNDA Canada, The Association of Electronic Journalists, has named its British Columbia region award winners honouring the best programs, stations and newsgathering organizations in both radio and television.
The annual awards will be presented in Vancouver on May 28, 2011.
The Television winners are:
Trina McQueen Award – News Information Program• CTV British Columbia for Black Blood
Charlie Edwards Award – Spot News• /A\ Vancouver Island for Migrant Ship Approaches
Hugh Haugland Award – Creative Use of Video• CTV British Columbia for Irish Pride
Ron Laidlaw Award – Continuing Coverage• Global BC for Surrey Six
Dave…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has given its thumbs up to a new TV service provider that wants to serve the greater Toronto area plus Kitchener-Waterloo.
The Commission announced Tuesday that 2251723 Ontario Inc. has received Class 1 terrestrial BDU status through August 31, 2017. The company is wholly owned by Content Media Rights Inc. and equally controlled by Alexei Tchernobrivets, Vadim Sloutsky and Ivan Smirnov.
After some prompting from incumbent Rogers, the applicant confirmed that it would comply with all requirements relating to distribution and linkage, priority carriage and access, as well as distribute all ‘must-carry’ services and over-the-air priority signals.
No…
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GATINEAU – There were some pretty big surprises as Canada’s large broadcast groups took the stand one last time during the CRTC’s group licensing proceeding in Gatineau last week.
While it should come as no shock that Bell Media maintained its position on symmetrical regulation of Canadian content spending requirements – 30% on Canadian production expenditure (CPE) and 5% programs of national interest (PNI) – Rogers Media shocked commissioners when it asked to be excluded from the group licensing regime.
For Bell, complying with the new group licensing approach is simple: all large broadcast groups should follow the same…
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OTTAWA – The country’s free cell phone recycling program is encouraging Canadians to recycle their old cell phones and accessories during Earth Week 2011 via its free ‘Recycle My Cell’ program.
Run by the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) in conjunction with cell phone carriers and handset manufacturers, the goal of the program is to keep handsets and accessories from entering Canada’s landfills. Proceeds from the recycled devices are donated to charity, and close to $1 million has been raised since the program launched two years ago.
A visit to the bilingual website allows consumers to enter their postal code to locate the…
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