TORONTO – Rogers Communications announced today that new programming from MGM, Corus Entertainment and E1 Entertainment is coming to the Rogers On Demand Online Beta.
Over the coming weeks through these partnerships, Rogers On Demand Online will feature a wide selection of programming ranging from lifestyle favourites to popular (if somewhat elderly) TV series and feature films which should attract even more visitors than the initial strong count.
New on Rogers On Demand Online from MGM will be 75 features including Rob Roy, UHF and RoboCop, and 10 popular TV series such as The Addams Family, American Gladiators and Fame….
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TORONTO – Cogeco Cable’s Chris Macfarlane, Telonix’s Eric Goulden and Jason Lowe of Clearcable are the three newest additions to the board of directors of the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers Ontario chapter.
They were the top three candidates after chapter members’ recent vote.
They join TVC Canada’s Bill McMillan, Rogers Cable’s James Myles, and Cogeco’s Daniel Sacolle on the board of directors and will assume their roles starting February 1,2010.
Boris Eventov (Cogeco), Rob McCann (Clearcable) and Bruce Marshall (Mountain Cablevision/Shaw) will be retiring from the board, after having served their term.
www.scte-ontario.com
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DALLAS – AT&T announced Monday it has enhanced its wireless priority service to operate when roaming in Canada within the Rogers Wireless coverage area in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
This enhancement is made possible by AT&T’s cross-border roaming relationship with Rogers Wireless.
The AT&T wireless priority service is an add-on feature subscribed on a per-month, per user basis for qualified United States government customers. AT&T plans to introduce new pricing for this service in February 2010, which will eliminate the activation fee and lower the monthly recurring charges. Other charges, taxes and fees, including roaming charges when…
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TORONTO – The primary headline will be the $40 million raised by Canada’s broadcasters via a pair of telethons on Friday (one in Toronto and another in French in Montreal), but there are a lot of other stories out there of companies from our industry rallying their employees or their customers to the cause.
Canada For Haiti, Friday’s one-hour, commercial-free special produced collaboratively between CBC Television, CTV and Global Television and also aired on Citytv, has raised more than $13.5 million to date for relief efforts in Haiti, it was confirmed today. (Citytv also aired its own “Help for Haiti”…
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ALMOST 60 PEOPLE working for Citytv across Canada lost their jobs last week as two news shows were cancelled.
It’s not something Leslie Sole, president of Rogers Media Television, had envisioned doing when Rogers Communications bought the five Citytv stations in 2007.
He and the company had envisioned taking Citytv back to its “fiercely local” roots, he told Cartt.ca on Monday in an exclusive interview. The company’s leadership was hopeful back then that the CRTC would reduce or eliminate its priority drama obligations so that the broadcaster could concentrate on local news in the cities it operates. Sole launched Citytv’s five…
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TORONTO – Coast to coast, the cable, radio, television and telecom industries are raising millions to help those people devastated by the earthquake which has destroyed Port Au Prince, Haiti, killed tens of thousands and left hundreds of thousands injured and homeless.
Besides these many examples of help already happened/happening, the aid continues with efforts below.
Rawlco radio stations News Talk 980 CJME (Regina) and News Talk 650 CKOM (Saskatoon) Wednesday raised $620,000 during the company’s “Day of Caring for Haiti”, which was matched dollar-for-dollar by the federal government, which announced early on it would…
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TORONTO – Reduced CRTC requirements and the recession are the real reasons behind the program cuts and layoffs at Citytv in Toronto, says the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP).
Canada’s largest media union confirmed that Rogers Television handed out layoff notices to 36 full-time employees and seven part-time employees at the Citytv flagship station in Toronto on Tuesday. Additional program cuts were also made at Citytv stations in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton.
"Citytv viewers will notice a big difference", said Bob Huget, VP of CEP’s Ontario chapter, in a statement. "The CRTC has permitted major market television stations to reduce local programming…
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TORONTO – TVO has added an educational iPhone App, iTunes downloads and video on demand to its efforts to broaden its educational reach for kids.
Geared towards early learners, Melvin’s Marvellous Words is an interactive literacy game for pre-schoolers based on Ontario’s Kindergarten curriculum. It is available now via Apple’s App Store.
Parents can also download to own songs and music videos from some of TVO’s programming through iTunes via the TVO-iTunes partnership that encompasses international contracts in North America, Japan, Europe and Australia-New Zealand.
Ontario’s public educational media organization has also contributed programming to Rogers’ broadband portal Rogers On Demand Online.
"Parents can…
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HALIFAX – Just three months after his departure from EastLink, Dan McKeen’s career will continue in the same East Coast city in which it began.
The former co-CEO at Bragg Communications-owned EastLink was recently named senior vice-president of customer solutions at Bell Aliant. He left EastLink October 27, 2009 and begins his new job next Thursday.
In an interview with Cartt.ca, McKeen (who spent 24 years first at Halifax Cable, right out of university, which later was purchased by Bragg) is happy to be staying put, while looking forward to moving on. “This lets me work in the industry…
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TORONTO – Rogers-owned Citytv shook up its television operations Tuesday, cutting staff and local news shows in four of its five markets.
A Rogers spokesperson confirmed to Cartt.ca that the restructuring affected 6% of the Citytv workforce across Canada. A Toronto-based blog reports that 35 full time staff were let go from Citytv Toronto, including long time on-air personalities Anne Mroczkowski and Laura DiBattista.
Rogers blamed the move on the economy and “shifting viewer patterns”.
"Today’s changes, although difficult, are necessary to align our operations with the economic and regulatory realities of our industry," said Leslie Sole, CEO of Rogers Media Television, in a statement. "We are…
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