OTTAWA – Depending on how you look at it, the CRTC sided with both Torstar and Rogers Communications over the carriage dispute of Torstar shopping channel ShopTV. Or neither.
After a public hearing on the matter last month, the Commission offered concessions to both parties in a decision Wednesday. It supported Torstar’s claim that Rogers is offside on the Commission’s 1:1 regulation which says for each BDU-owned channel carried, there must be a similar unaffiliated channel also offered.
“…the Commission determines that where Rogers is counting the House of Commons programming service as a third-party exempt service in order to…
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FINALLY, A CANADIAN, PUBLICLY traded wireline telco has made a real commitment to the future, despite what the country’s financial community thinks.
MTS Allstream has been absolutely crucified in the markets this month for daring to cut its quarterly dividend in order to try to properly prepare the company for what’s next by launching a $125 million fibre to the home overhaul. Good for Pierre Blouin and his team for deciding that if the company is to continue in the wired communications game and gain a real competitive advantage in its service areas, it had to make the fibre-to-the-home switch,…
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TORONTO – Keith Pelley has been hired as president of Rogers Media, the company announced this morning.
He will succeed Tony Viner, who in May announced his plan to retire, beginning September 7.
Pelley, 46, will report to Rogers Communications president and CEO Nadir Mohamed and will have overall responsibility for Rogers Media properties including Rogers Broadcasting, Rogers Publishing, Rogers Digital Media, Rogers Sportsnet, the Shopping Channel, the Toronto Blue Jays and Rogers Centre.
He was most recently executive vice-president of strategic planning at CTV and president of Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium (however, with Rogers as a main partner in…
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OTTAWA – New media broadcasting undertakings affiliated with Canadian broadcasters must begin to report financial information to the CRTC starting next year.
After calling for comments on reporting requirements for new media broadcasting undertakings (NMBUs) back in February, the Commission said Friday that revenues and expenditures from NMBUs that are affiliates of licensed broadcasting undertakings will be sent out in the first quarter of 2011 for the 2009 broadcasting year, and will be required on an annual basis going forward.
An example of an affiliated NMBU would be Rogers On Demand Online, a broadband service in which Rogers Cable…
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TORONTO – Rogers has priced an $800 million senior notes offering.
The senior notes were priced at $999.04 per $1,000 principal amount, for an effective yield of 6.117% per annum if held to maturity. They will mature on August 25, 2040.
The net proceeds from the offering of approximately $794 million are intended to be used to help fund redemptions scheduled to come due in 2011. Closing of the offering is expected to occur on or about August 25, 2010.
www.rogers.com
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TORONTO – New sports channel Rogers Sportsnet One will kicks off its inaugural week of programming on August 14 with three live-events in high definition.
First up is a Barclays Premier League match between defending champion Chelsea and West Brom at 12 p.m. (ET)/9 a.m. (PT), followed by two MLB games – San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants at 4 p.m. (ET)/1 p.m. (PT), and the Toronto Blue Jays versus the Los Angeles Angels at 8:30 p.m. (ET)/5:30 p.m. (PT).
Rogers Sportsnet One will feature over 800 hours of live-event programming. At launch, it will be available only on Rogers Cable.
In…
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EXTON, PA – Tony Faccia, vice president of wireline access networks at Rogers Cable, has been elected to represent Canada on the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) board of directors for 2010.
Faccia, who takes over from Rogers’ Dermot O’Carroll, will begin his two-year terms on October 19 in conjunction with the SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2010 set for October 20 – 22 in New Orleans.
www.scte.org
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has extended various Canadian broadcasting licenses in order to carry them through next year’s digital transition deadline.
CBC, Canwest, CTV, and Rogers received license extensions for their respective conventional, over-the-air stations from September 1, 2010 through March 31, 2011 so that they may be considered as trial markets for the upcoming transition.
Many category 1 and 2 specialty stations and radio networks were renewed through August 31, 2011, while others – such as The Score, ATN, Teletoon and some pay TV channels – received an extension through August 31, 2012.
“The Commission intends to administratively renew the…
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TORONTO – Rogers Sportsnet has inked a 10-year partnership with Alberta’s two National Hockey League teams which will see the network be the clubs’ official television broadcaster and provider of digital media content through 2020.
Beginning with the upcoming 2010-11 NHL season, Rogers Sportsnet West and Rogers Sportsnet One (scheduled to launch August 14), will combine to televise at least 58 Calgary Flames and 58 Edmonton Oilers games every year for 10 seasons within the Oilers and Flames regional territory, which includes Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
"Sportsnet has been a partner of both the Flames and Oilers since we…
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OTTAWA – Rogers Communications must make its share of payments in to the Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF), the CRTC has ruled.
After sending preliminary invoices to Rogers that excluded its regionally licensed systems with fewer than 20,000 subscribers, the LPIF administrator sent a revised invoice to Rogers on April 1, 2010 that included those systems. Rogers refused to pay the contributions for the regionally licensed systems with fewer than 20,000 subscribers, arguing that it met the exception for contributions, and asked for a Commission decision on the issue.
The CRTC determined that payment exceptions provided applied only at the licensee…
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