TORONTO –CTV News announced Tuesday that Paul Rogers, senior vice-president, CTV News, adds editorial responsibilities for CTV’s 21 local stations to his portfolio; Jack Fleischmann, general manager for BNN – Business News Network, adds CTV News Channel to his responsibilities; and David Hughes becomes executive producer CTV National News.
Reporting to Wendy Freeman, president of news, Rogers is now serving as the point person for local CTV station news directors on editorial issues requiring guidance or direction while maintaining his current responsibilities at CTV Toronto. Rogers has been the senior vice-president, CTV News since 2004.
Jack Fleischmann expands his duties…
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TORONTO – BMO Capital Markets has downgraded its investment rating on Shaw Communications from outperform to market perform, based on the growing competitive threat from Telus, which could eventually capture one third of the B.C.-Alberta TV subscription market, says the bank.
“We are growing increasingly concerned with Shaw’s ability to withstand competitive pressures from Telus, specifically its Optik TV service,” writes Tim Casey, cable and media analyst at BMO Capital Markets, in his note to clients.
He cautions that Telus has the financial scale and strategic incentive to remain aggressive with marketing promotions this year and next, particularly since Shaw is…
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EXTON, Pa. and TORONTO – Brent Innes of Rogers Communications is this year’s winner of the SCTE Young Canadian Engineering Professional of the Year Award, the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) proudly announced today.
The Young Canadian Engineering Professional of the Year Award is made possible through the sponsorship of Aurora Networks and the efforts of Cartt.ca and SCTE. Innes will receive his award at SCTE Canadian Summit 2011, which is set for Tuesday through Wednesday, March 8-9 at the Toronto Congress Centre in Toronto.
Innes, 30, of Bolton, Ontario, and an SCTE member since January 2010, is a senior…
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WATERLOO and BARCELONA – RIM announced today support for its new Playbook tablet on two more high speed network standards – HSPA+ and LTE at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday.
The move to offer LTE and HSPA+ versions of its PlayBook guarantees access to all major carriers in North America
The first version of the PlayBook, with WiFi and Bluetooth is set for launch in March and U.S. carrier Sprint Nextel will sell a version for its WiMAX network in the summer.
The WiFi-only version can connect to a user’s existing BlackBerry smartphone to access its data and use its…
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TORONTO – Rogers Sportsnet has a slew of tennis coverage planned after scooping up the rights to the Rogers Cup, the ATP Masters 1000 Series, and the ATP 500 series.
Sportsnet will become the first English network ever to broadcast both the men’s (from Montreal) and women’s matches (from Toronto) simultaneously during Rogers Cup play, from opening day on August 8 to the quarter-finals on August 12, on Sportsnet East, Ontario, West and Pacific regional channels and the nationally distributed Sportsnet One.
It will also offer all nine ATP Masters 1000 tournaments and10 different ATP 500 tournaments. All events, including the…
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GATINEAU – Without indemnifying broadcasters and distributors and limiting their legal liability, ongoing development of a national emergency alerting system may be at risk, the CRTC’s hearing on Pelmorex Communications Inc.’s licence renewal heard this week.
But Commission chair Konrad von Finckenstein (a former judge) suggested that the whole liability issue may in fact be a red herring.
David Townsend, a professor in the Faulty of Law at the University of New Brunswick, who was appearing with the Canadian Association for Public Alerting and Notification (CAPAN), agreed.
“It’s overblown, but when parties are refusing to participate and really help the…
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NOT LONG AGO I ASKED A CRTC senior policy advisor I know how work was going. It was one of those just-making-conversation questions we all ask, but I was a little surprised at his response:
“Livin’ the dream,” he excitedly told me. Now, I’m not sure my facial expression betrayed my wonder at that statement and I don’t remember what I said next, but he continued to add that he found it exciting, interesting and fun to debate and then help craft what would become the “law of the land.”
Upon reflection, it shouldn’t have come as such a shock –…
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EXTON, PA – Tony Werner, EVP and CTO of Comcast, will deliver the keynote address at SCTE Canadian Summit 2011 next month in Toronto.
Werner, one of the global cable industry’s most respected technologists and a former Rogers’ exec, will speak on the topic of ‘Broadband Video: Challenge or Opportunity’ at the conference which is scheduled for March 8 – 9 at the Toronto Congress Centre.
“Such topics as the evolution of next-generation video architectures, the transition to IPv6 and support for business services all are truly global in scope,” said Werner, in a statement. “Forums like SCTE Canadian Summit are…
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GATINEAU – The winds of criticism were blowing Pelmorex Communications’ way during the first day of its licence renewal hearing in Gatineau on Tuesday as CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein and Pelmorex senior VP of regulatory and strategic affairs Paul Temple sparred over aspects of the company’s licence renewal application.
In addition to asking for a seven-year licence renewal, Pelmorex is requesting an extension to the 2009 mandatory order on 9(1)(h) that would keep the Weather Network and MétéoMédia on basic carriage until 2018. The company says that it needs the extension to help offset the costs of operating…
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GATINEAU – After a week of vitriol, legitimate consumer anger and utter political silliness, the CRTC today officially opened up a new review into wholesale broadband usage based billing
“The great concern expressed by Canadians over this issue is telling of how much the Internet has become an integral part of their lives,” said Konrad von Finckenstein, chairman of the CRTC, in a press release.
“Our approach is based on two fundamental principles: as a general rule, ordinary consumers served by Small ISPs should not have to fund the bandwidth used by the heaviest residential Internet consumers; and it is in…
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