OTTAWA – The death of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters appears to have been greatly exaggerated.
Months after the 84-year-old private broadcasters’ lobbying group announced plans to close up shop, it decided instead upon a major restructuring which resulted in a smaller board with a fresh mandate to focus solely on matters of collective importance for the entire broadcasting industry.
“The CAB never closed its doors," newly appointed chair Sylvie Courtemanche, who is also the VP of government relations at Corus, told Cartt.ca. “There was a thought that we were going to proceed towards a wind up, but when we started looking at the activities of…
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OTTAWA – Not only is the NDP taking the credit for Rogers’ decision to begin unlocking its customer’s mobile phones, it’s now calling on Bell and Telus to keep up with both its competitor “and the rest of the world”.
NDP MP Bruce Hyer (Thunder Bay-Superior North) called Rogers’ decision a “major reversal of policy” and credited the move to public pressure created from his private member’s bill known as the Cellphone Freedom Act introduced in June. The bill calls for telecom companies to ‘unlock’ fully purchased phones free of charge at a customer’s request, and unlock subsidized phones…
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KEITH PELLEY DOESN’T DO caffeine. He’s already wired.
“Can’t drink caffeine,” he says. “I don’t need the energy.”
Late this past summer, the unfailingly exuberant Pelley made the surprising leap from CTV to Rogers Media, jumping from the country’s biggest TV company, the highest rated national TV network and owner of TSN, the top-rated sports channel where Pelley began his TV career, to a far smaller TV business.
At the time, many considered Pelley the odds-on favourite to replace CTV CEO Ivan Fecan. Now, whether Pelley knew for sure the Bell folks were coming in and unlikely to give him the…
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OTTAWA – Despite the availability of new ways to acquire video content, there is not yet any sign of co-called “cord-cutting” among Canadians who continue to subscribe to Canadian television service providers such as cable, satellite, and telephone companies, according to new research.
In fact, the new study from Ottawa’s Boon Dog Professional Services shows that Canadian BDUs are actually continuing to add subscribers.
The number of Canadian households subscribing to a traditional TV service such as cable or satellite increased by about 29,000 (less than 1%) in the second quarter of 2010 to top an estimated 11.3 million, according to…
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TORONTO – The Movie Network has signed a multi-year, multi-platform deal for Showtime’s acclaimed lineup of original dramas, comedies and documentaries.
The long-term deal (terms of which were not disclosed) allows the pay television service to offer popular series like Californication, Dexter and United States of Tara on-demand and on-line, in addition to on-air, exclusively, while the content is in the pay-TV window.
"Showtime’s original programming is among the most cutting-edge and acclaimed content out there and is exactly the sort of premium experience that makes The Movie Network such a unique entertainment and value proposition," said Kevin Wright, SVP of…
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MONTREAL – Following in Rogers’ footsteps, Cogeco has rolled out the Galaxie Music video-on-demand service free of charge to its digital TV subscribers in Ontario and Quebec.
The service allows viewers to select their choice of music videos, or choose from pre-programmed playlists created by a team of music professionals. The lineup currently features 12 playlists and 100 individual songs, and will be updated regularly.
"Beefing up Cogeco Cable’s Video On Demand offering is just one of the many initiatives Cogeco constantly deploys to bring its digital cable TV subscribers an entertaining line-up that’s always fresh”, said Ron Perrotta, VP of marketing…
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NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ont. – Long-time head of the Canadian Cable Television Association, Michael Hind-Smith, died December 3rd from complications due to cancer. He was 80.
Hind-Smith was the longest-serving CCTA president and CEO and oversaw a period of massive growth and change in the cable business during his 15 years (1975-1990) heading the now defunct organization.
“He was such a good representative for the cable industry,” Rogers Communications vice-chairman Phil Lind told Cartt.ca in an interview. “He had some terrific battles with the CRTC (pay-TV, specialty channels, “6 and 5”, pole access) but he kept the association together for a long time….
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MONTREAL – The Galaxie on-line music player has joined Rogers’ On Demand Online service.
Rogers’ customers can now stream their choice of the same 40 Galaxie channels available on Rogers digital cable. By selecting ‘Galaxie’ in the list of available channels, users may also browse the channels, see the album cover art of the current, next and previously played songs, and consult a complete list of the songs played in the past 24 hours.
“The popularity and appreciation of the Galaxie music service continues to grow, and loyal users of Galaxie are asking for access to the service on the Internet,” said…
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TORONTO – Rogers-owned easy-listening pop music station CHFI-FM held on to top spot in the Toronto radio market with a 12.4 share, according to the Fall portable people meter (PPM) reports by BBM Canada.
For the 13 weeks from August 30 through November 28, Toronto’s second spot went to CTVglobemedia’s CHUM FM with a 10.1% share, which was down slightly from 10.5 over the summer.
Elsewhere, Corus’ news talk CKNW continued to lead the Vancouver market with a 12.0 share, followed by CTVglobemedia’s CFBT FM with 9.3. In Calgary CHQR was tops with a 10.2 share, while Astral’s news talk…
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TORONTO – Rogers has agreed to purchase for cancellation 3,100,000 of its outstanding Class B non-voting shares for an aggregate purchase price of $100,270,740, which it says is at a discount to the current market price of the Class B shares.
The transaction represents approximately 0.69% of the Class B shares outstanding at November 30, 2010. Rogers already agreed to buy back an additional 1.2 million Class B shares late last month.
Pursuant to a private agreement between Rogers and an arm’s-length third party seller, the purchase was made under an issuer bid exemption order issued by the Ontario…
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