TORONTO – Bloomberg News is reporting that Rogers Communications has launched a lawsuit against Shaw Communications seeking to prevent the latter from purchasing Mountain Cablevision.
According to the story, which is available here, Rogers contended in a hearing yesterday that it has a pre-existing arrangement with the Calgary-based Shaw that neither would infringe on the others’ territories when it comes to expansion in cable.
It wants the $300-million deal stopped so a trial over the Roger-Shaw non compete agreement can happen and lawyers in court yesterday suggested that this is just a first step for Shaw back into Eastern Canada.
More…
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GATINEAU – While a CRTC hearing into the levels of foreign ownership in new wireless entrant Globalive is set to begin on the 23rd of this month, Rogers Communications this week sent a letter to the Regulator asking for the same treatment of two other newcomers, Public Mobile and Dave Wireless.
“Since the 2008 AWS auction, many questions have arisen regarding the ownership and control of several of the successful bidders,” reads the Rogers letter to CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein. “Many of the auction’s participants included foreign partners in order to raise the necessary capital. These concerns were directed…
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EVERY YEAR AT THIS TIME, both because it’s fun and because we want the weekend off… we re-publish the top 25 stories from the last 12 months.
The other reason why we do it now and not in January is that September, just after Labour Day, is the “new year” for broadcasters. The new fall shows are coming out and speaking from a regulatory perspective, too, the 2009 broadcast year ended August 31st and we are into a new year.
After spending hours pouring over our analytics to identify the top stories, I can say it has been a very busy…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC will require the owners of Canada’s biggest distributors and broadcasters to publicly disclose aggregate financial data.
Ownership groups such as Astral Media, BCE, Bragg Communications, CBC, Canwest Media, Cogeco, Corus Entertainment, CTVglobemedia, Newcap, Quebecor Media, Remstar Broadcasting, Rogers and Shaw, must file confidential and public aggregated annual return forms with the Commission by November 30 of each year. The filing requirement for the aggregated annual returns, which will begin with the 2007-2008 broadcast year, are due by September 14, 2009.
The public data will be posted on the Commission’s website. The Commission announced in April that the…
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TORONTO – Cable giants south of the border (Comcast and Time Warner) are pushing their TV Everywhere concept hard and Canadians, according to new data from Solutions Research Group, like the idea, even though Canadian cablers haven’t yet launched anything (but one is close).
Nearly 7-in-10 Canadian TV viewers say being able to access their cable channels on the web or mobile is an “excellent” (26%) or “good” (41%) idea, says SRG, with a younger demographic liking it even more.
Among the key findings of SRG’s Digital Life Canada research:* Web TV may be an important tool to stay…
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FIVE OF Canada’s biggest cable companies have complained to the CRTC for extending a filing deadline – two days after the deadline had already passed.
Calling it “both unprecedented and unacceptable”, the heads of regulatory affairs from Bragg Communications, Cogeco Cable, Rogers Communications, Shaw Communications and Quebecor Media on behalf of Videotron, (collectively, the Cable Carriers), sent a sternly worded letter to CRTC Secretary General Robert Morin on Thursday expressing their collective “deep frustration” with Telecom Notice of Consultation CRTC 2009-261-4.
“…The Cable Carriers want the Commission to understand the deep frustration that the companies feel at having made…
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TORONTO – CTV has developed a “strategic retention strategy” with Rogers Cable that will see 17 of its hit programs become available on a new, CTV-branded channel on Rogers On Demand.
Beginning Wednesday, the CTV content will be available to consumers on Rogers’ channel 100 following their original television broadcast. The deal allows viewers the opportunity to catch up on last week’s missed episode, before next week’s new episode airs on CTV or its /A\ channel’s.
"Almost all of the programs we’ve targeted for the service are serialized, which are often challenging to keep up with in today’s busy world,”…
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CALGARY – Rogers Wireless is partnering with local technology companies to help employers keep their lone workers safe and comply with new provincial legislation mandating that employers must be in constant contact with employees working alone.
The company is offering portable wireless safety communication products such as the tiny ‘Loner’ by Blackline GPS which provides its GPS location and includes a panic button for emergencies and a motion detector that tracks lack of motion which can indicate a worker in distress.
For oil and gas workers who may be traveling alone in their vehicles, NelTrak, an Alberta-based wireless solutions provider, has developed a GPS unit…
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OTTAWA – Canadian Wireless Telecommunications (CWTA) members have created a new code of conduct to underscore their commitment to high standards of service and support to their customers.
The new code will “safeguard the rights of consumers”, and serve as a resource in the complaint resolution process by Canada’s Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS). Unlike other jurisdictions that have developed wireless carrier conduct guidelines, such as in the U.S. where the code is strictly voluntary, the Canadian code will be backstopped by the third-party and independent CCTS, the announcement detailed.
“This new Code will ensure that customers have the…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications Inc. has agreed to purchase for cancellation 1.8 million its outstanding Class B non-voting shares for $49,381,920 pursuant to a private agreement between it and an arm’s-length third party seller.
The shares represent approximately 0.36% of the Class B shares outstanding at August 31, 2009. The private purchase was made under an issuer bid exemption order issued by the Ontario Securities Commission.
The Class B shares purchased under the private purchase will be included in calculating the number of Class B shares that Rogers may purchase through its outstanding normal course issuer bid.
All of the 22,029,900 Class…
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