TORONTO – Rogers Sportsnet has signed a new four-year agreement for the rights to Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) television events in Canada.
Sportsnet said that it will have a consistent schedule of UFC programming including preliminary fights of UFC pay-per-view events and UFC Fight Night events, and has established the home sports position for the 10 p.m. (ET) timeslot for The Ultimate Fighter series. In addition, it will provide UFC content on a non-exclusive basis across other platforms.
“This deal cements our commitment to bring fans the best UFC coverage in Canada,” said Scott Moore, president of Rogers Broadcasting, in the announcement….
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“WE’RE AT SUCH A significant spectrum disadvantage, we think government should level the playing field,” says Globalive CEO Tony Lacavera about the wireless auction of 700 MHz spectrum, expected in late 2012.
So significant is that disadvantage, the federal government should set aside all of the spectrum and bar any wireless company which holds 800 MHz spectrum (each of the big incumbents, that is) from participating in the 700 auction.
“We know we’re making a pretty significant ask here, but on the other hand, the incumbents have incredible swaths of spectrum,” added Lacavera (whose wireless company operates as Wind, of course)…
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OTTAWA – Let’s not get lost in the weeds, Canadian broadcasters have told the CRTC.
With respect to calls for more specific Canadian content spending requirements suggested by some parties to the group-based licence renewals of the private broadcasters, broad and flexible rules will do a much better job than micro-managing the broadcasters’ Cancon spending obligations – and any requirements to spend additional money on Canadian content should be rejected, say those broadcasters.
CTVglobemedia, Rogers Media, Shaw Media and Corus Entertainment argue that many, particularly those from the creative sector, are trying to re-write the rules by requiring specific spending obligations…
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TORONTO – The value-for-signal issue may not be a fait accompli just yet.
Cartt.ca has learned that Rogers plans to appeal Monday’s Federal Court decision which confirmed that the CRTC does have the authority to permit broadcasters to negotiate a fee from BDUs for their off-air signals.
The appeal would head to to the Supreme Court, if the court chooses to hear it. No word yet if any other BDUs will jump on board, but stay tuned.
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UTICA, Ont. – Another independent cable company, this time Compton Communications, which serves about 5,500 basic cable subscribers in and around Port Perry, Ont., has been purchased by Rogers Cable, the companies announced late Tuesday evening.
The purchase of Compton Communications augments Rogers’ cable footprint in an adjacent and growing Ontario region, says the company.
Compton has been a leader in Canadian cable, despite its size. It boasts north of 75% digital cable penetration, was a very early adopter of video on demand and was the first cable company in Canada to offer a high definition digital video recorder in 2003….
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OTTAWA – The incumbent wireless operators want a straight-up winner-take-all auction (mostly).
Those newer to the wireless game want some protective rules in place. They say some restrictions (set asides, caps) are needed in order for them to be able grab a slice from the lucrative, high quality, 700 MHz wireless spectrum to go on auction likely in 2012 or 2013.
In November, Industry Canada launched a consultation on a technical framework to auction spectrum in the band 698-806 MHz (also known as the 700 MHz band). Comments were sought on general policy considerations related to commercial mobile broadband spectrum…
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OTTAWA – TV and film production stakeholders are urging the CRTC to not lose sight of its Canadian programming expenditure (CPE) benchmarks when considering the group-based licence renewals of the large, vertically integrated, broadcasters.
The Canadian Media Production Association tells the Commission that it shouldn’t acquiesce to any demands to deviate from its proposed 30% CPE requirement and argues that the CRTC should reject outright broadcasters’ demands to have CPE requirements lower than 30%.
“Since the broadcaster groups all compete for the same types of programming (both Canadian and foreign) and for the same advertisers, they should all be…
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OTTAWA and TORONTO – Another complaint from an unhappy Rogers Internet customer prompted the CRTC to question the company’s Internet traffic management practices (ITMPs), the third time in as many months.
In a letter dated February 23rd, the Commission asked Rogers to respond to a customer’s allegation that its “ITMP incorrectly identifies time sensitive traffic generated by inter-active games as P2P traffic, subjecting such traffic to the ITMP and rendering the games unusable”. Section 2009-657 of the Telecommunication Act dictates that ITMPs that result in a noticeable degradation of time sensitive audio or video traffic require prior Commission approval.
When contacted by…
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TORONTO – On Monday, Rogers Cable subscribers will be able to turn their TVs up to 208 and watch chicken cook.
As part of a new multi-faceted ad campaign with Swiss Chalet, the big MSO will air non-stop SD video (and audio) of the fast food chain’s rotisserie chicken cooking for 13 weeks in an unending loop beginning February 28. We hope the chicken isn’t too dry by the end of its oven run.
Some electronic program guide ads, potential couponing and calls to action such as visiting the Swiss Chalet Facebook page for offers and information, as well as…
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TORONTO – Former CEO of Rogers Media Television, Leslie Sole, has left the company, Cartt.ca has learned.
Sole had his operational role at Rogers Media altered in the past number of months. He had been in charge of the TV broadcasting arm of the company (OMNI and Citytv) for a number of years but in November, new Rogers Media president and CEO Keith Pelley made Scott Moore president of the broadcasting arm and Sole was made chief content officer, He was to be responsible for the creation and execution of the Rogers Media content strategy.
At the time, the press…
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