GATINEAU – Barring a last-minute agreement, Torstar and Rogers Communications will ask the CRTC to finally settle the dispute between the two companies over the carriage of Torstar shopping channel ShopTV.
Earlier this year, Torstar applied for dispute resolution under Section 12 of the BDU Regulations, claiming Rogers was refusing to come to a fair agreement over the carriage of ShopTV by Rogers Cable.
Because Rogers owns The Shopping Channel (TSC) and offers it system-wide, Torstar says it has to be carried across all Rogers Cable systems due to the Commission’s 1:1 regulation which says for each BDU-owned channel carried,…
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TORONTO – While Rogers Communications’ Q2 2010 financial results are expected to be pretty good when they are released on Tuesday, at least one industry analyst is expecting to see some competitive impact on the wireless side.
Canaccord Genuity analyst Dvai Ghose told investors last week he expects RCI will report consolidated revenue of $3.026 billion or 4.7% year-over-year growth. He pins his adjusted EBITDA estimate at $1.172 billion, “slightly above consensus of $1.163 billion,” meaning a solid YOY increase of 8.2%.
However, strong wireless margins are due to weak subscriber growth. “We only expect 90,000 Q2/10 wireless net additions, compared…
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TORONTO – While its primary channel was a very popular destination for those wanting to watch some of the World Cup soccer games in Italian, for example, another arm of Telelatino was busily launching a pair of new specialties.
Released with little fanfare last month on Rogers Cable, the channels are EuroWorld Sport and Mediaset Italia (watch for the fanfare to come soon, however). Rogers also added TLN en Espanol to its line-up last month (which was already carried by Bell TV and Shaw).
“They are truly amazing channels,” said TLN president Aldo Di Felice.
EuroWorld Sport is a predominantly English language…
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GATINEAU – The squeaky wheel gets the, well, the expanded regulatory proceeding.
Today the CRTC said it would restart its look at regulatory symmetry in the telecom world when it comes to the handling of customer cancellations and transfers (BTNC 2010-406) so that it will include wireless as well.
As reported by Cartt.ca here and here, Rogers Communications repeatedly asked for the Commission to expand the scope of the proceeding, arguing it didn’t make any sense to examine how the transfer of TV, land-line telephony and internet customers from one company to another is handled, but to exclude…
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TORONTO – Rogers has lowered the GB limits on some of its Internet plans, a move that has sparked speculation about whether it may be linked to the pending arrival of U.S. on-line video service Netflix, or the rumours about Hulu coming to Canada this year.
The new lower limits, which came in to effect last week, apply to new customers only. Customers who signed up for the company’s ‘Extreme’ package after July 21 are allowed 80 gigabytes of monthly usage, down from 90 for those who were already customers. Those going for the ‘Lite’ service will now get 15 GB, versus…
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INDUSTRY JOURNALIST, Cartt.ca contributor and our friend, Norma Reveler died Thursday night after a long battle with cancer. She was 46.
Norma was well known among cable, radio, television and telecom industry folks as a determined, hard working journalist who knew this industry as well as anyone.
“Norma was a terrific reporter and very committed to her craft,” said Greg O’Brien, editor and publisher of Cartt.ca. “And she loved this industry. She worked as long as she could, covering last month’s Banff TV Fest for us. She was so hopeful that she even accepted another assignment from me for next month.”
“Norma contributed…
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TORONTO – Production facilities provider Dome Productions has finalized an agreement with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd. as the exclusive television mobile production facility for all Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors, Toronto FC and Toronto Marlies home games.
The deal, which took effect July 1, 2010, also provides Dome Productions with exclusivity for visiting NHL and NBA teams. The company previously provided mobile production services to MLSE from 1995 through 2007.
“As MLSE’s facilities partner, we understand the importance of not only meeting the technical specifications mandated by the sports leagues, but to continue to explore and support new initiatives…
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TORONTO – Rogers has postponed the launch of its new wireless brand Chatr, according to a report in the Financial Post.
The story says that Rogers may be having second thoughts about rolling out its lower cost talk and text brand after a warning from Mobilicity chairman John Bitove that his company will file an anti-competitive complaint with the Competition Bureau.
A Rogers spokesperson told Cartt.ca that Chatr will launch “later this summer”.
www.rogers.com
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ATLANTA – Although early consumer demand for TV Everywhere services seems promising, the lack of technical standards and the difficulties of encoding programs for multiple video platforms may trip up the multi-screen video drive, according to a group of industry experts.
Speaking on a multi-platform TV panel at a Light Reading conference in Atlanta late last month, the experts said they worry that the explosive growth of different video platforms, devices, and formats could make it nearly impossible for content and service providers to keep up. They also worry that, without common tech standards and specs, programmers will have to…
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GATINEAU – After having been told by CRTC staff on Friday that the Regulator would not consider adding wireless to its look at regulatory symmetry in the telecom world when it comes to the handling of customer cancellations and transfers, Rogers Communications has again pushed the issue back into the lap of the Commission.
In a story on Cartt.ca last week, we told you Rogers wrote the Commission saying it didn’t make any sense to be looking into so-called regulatory symmetry for broadcasting, telecom and Internet while skipping wireless – and that the communications giant wants the notice of…
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