OTTAWA – At its annual board meeting, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters board of directors has given its new chair, independent radio broadcaster Elmer Hildebrand of Golden West Broadcasting, 45 days to come up with a new strategy for the group.
When contacted by Cartt.ca on Wednesday, Hildebrand asked for patience as he meets with various member companies to sort out next steps. However, several sources with both large and small broadcasters who spoke to Cartt.ca on condition of anonymity said the Association is almost certainly finished as an association representing TV broadcasters.
Simply put, Canwest and CTV too often want…
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EDMONTON – The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Edmonton will be the place to be for future Alberta sports broadcasters this Saturday morning for the seventh annual Rogers Sportsnet Sports Broadcasting Seminar.
The all-day seminar will feature guest speakers from Sportsnet such as hosts Martine Gaillard and Jamie Campbell, reporter Roger Millions and sportsnet.ca columnist Mark Spector.
The seminars will cover topics such as the Olympics, behind-the-scenes of a live event telecast, and what skills and strategies are needed to cover sports on television, while interactive sessions will allow students to audition, and to receive tips on how to break in to…
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TORONTO – Rogers officially dedicated its new broadcast centre in downtown Toronto in honour of its founder Ted Rogers on Wednesday, the first anniversary of his passing.
The ceremony, which aired live on Rogers-owned Citytv, also included the unveiling of a portrait of Rogers and a plaque in his honour which will hang in the building’s foyer. The ribbon was cut by Ted Rogers’ wife Loretta Rogers; Toronto City Councillor Kyle Rae; Rogers Media president Tony Viner; and Rogers Media Television CEO Leslie Sole.
"Housing two iconic Canadian television brands, OMNI Television and Citytv, in one landmark broadcast facility fulfills a commitment Ted Rogers made when…
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VANCOUVER – Rogers Wireless has slapped rival Bell Mobility with a lawsuit over its claims that it operates “Canada’s most reliable network”, just days after Rogers itself was forced by Telus to stop claiming the same thing.
In court documents filed Tuesday in Vancouver, Rogers said that Bell’s claim that it’s new HSPA/HSPA + network is “the largest, fastest and most reliable network in Canada” is false and misleading because there are virtually no customers on the new network, and it has not conducted adequate testing.
Bell launched a national advertising campaign with that claim on November 4, 2009, in conjunction…
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TORONTO – The Movie Network launched two additional high-definition channels on Wednesday, MExcess HD and MFun! HD.
Available free of charge to TMN subscribers, the new channels will mirror the programming available on MExcess and MFun!’s respective standard-definition channels.
“With the addition of these new channels, The Movie Network and its classic movie service, Mpix, have five HD channels collectively and boast the most HD movies of any network in Canada,” said Domenic Vivolo, SVP of marketing and sales for Astral, in the announcement.
The channels are available on Rogers and Cogeco Cable immediately. They will launch with Bell TV next week, and…
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TORONTO – WOWtv, billed as Canada’s first 24/7 HD digital channel in Chinese, launched on Rogers Cable Wednesday.
“This milestone marks the beginning of a major chapter in the history of overseas Chinese technological broadcast innovation, and it is made possible by WOWtv, which is a branch of the Canadian Chinese Media Network (CCMN), and Rogers Cable TV,” reads the company’s press release.
The new specialty airs news and entertainment programs and had launched as an SD channel in May.
www.wow1.tv
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VANCOUVER – Rogers must stop referring to itself as “Canada’s most reliable network” by the end of this week, said Justice Christopher Grauer in a written order.
As reported by Cartt.ca, after launching its own HSPA wireless network in partnership with Bell last month, Telus filed a lawsuit to halt the use of Rogers’ marketing claims of being the fastest and most reliable network.
While Rogers has already dropped the “fastest” claim, it steadfastly held on to the “most reliable” title in its advertising. But Justice Grauer has ordered Rogers to drop the reference from its website and all other Internet advertising immediately, and has…
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By Christopher Maule, Professor Emeritus, Carleton University
THE BATTLE BETWEEN CANADIAN BROADCASTERS and cable companies taking place before the CRTC is about the past and the disappearing present and not about the future of traditional television and other forms of video.
If the protagonists and the Commission are to consider the public interest as reflected by how consumers spend their money and time, they need to look for ways to profit from what consumers want instead of struggling over what consumers have been forced to take.
Today, consumers use their Kindle and computers to read books and view pictures, use their iPhones…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications will purchase 1.35 million of its outstanding Class B non-voting shares for cancellation at an aggregate purchase price of approximately $39.5 million.
This represents approximately 0.28% of the Class B shares outstanding at November 30, 2009.
The private purchase was made under an issuer bid exemption order issued by theOntario Securities Commission.
www.rogers.com
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TORONTO – Rogers officially announced their broadband portal on Monday, with the public unveiling of Rogers On Demand On-line.
As Cartt.ca reported last week, any customer with a Rogers account can register to receive select content free of charge via any streaming Internet connection within Canada.
The initial BETA roll out will feature more than 1000 hours of aggregated content from 17 broadcast and production partners and 30 channels. Rogers Cable customers with matching cable TV subscriptions will also be able to access on-line a selection of their own specialty TV programming that they subscribe to at home.
"Rogers On Demand…
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