TORONTO and MONTREAL – The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has approved the sale of Look Communications’ spectrum and broadcast licence to Bell Canada and Rogers Communications, through their joint venture Inukshuk Wireless Partnership.
Under the agreement, Inukshuk will pay Look $80 million in cash for its 92 MHz of spectrum, which is equivalent to coverage of approximately 1.8 billion MHz/Pops, and its mobile broadcast license which has been renewed by the CRTC through August 2011.
As part of the agreement, Look and Bell Canada have also resolved all outstanding litigation, and Look’s parent company Unique Broadband Systems settled its…
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TORONTO – Rogers has launched the first Canadian all news radio Blackberry application offering headline news, weather, and live traffic updates for the Greater Toronto Area provided by its radio station 680News.
The 680News Blackberry application can be downloaded for free at http://www.680news.com/mobile or directly from the mobile browser at www.680news.mobi. On-demand business and traffic audio reports are also featured on the Blackberry Bold, and Blackberry Curve 8890.
"680News on Blackberry is a natural extension for Toronto’s only all news radio station," said Claude Galipeau, senior vice president of digital media for Rogers Media, in…
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OTTAWA – CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein is pushing CTVglobemedia and the CBC to reach an agreement allowing the CBC to broadcast the 2010 Olympics on its French-language television service.
During an address to the Standing Committee on Official Languages in Ottawa on Tuesday, von Finckenstein said that while the CTV/Rogers Olympic broadcast media consortium intends to make French broadcasters TQS, RDS and RIS available free of charge to cable companies offering digital TV in markets with an English-speaking majority, this will still leave some francophones who rely on over-the-air television signals, or who subscribe to analog cable, without…
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GATINEAU – Final replies by broadcasters to the many, many, many things which were uttered over two-and-a-half weeks of the conventional TV license renewal hearing were due into the Commission Wednesday and to no one’s surprise, no minds have been changed.
We’ve been told by two sources with knowledge of the timing that the Commission will issue a decision on its 1:1 idea on Friday (tomorrow) – just as Canada’s broadcasters are headed to Los Angeles to buy American programming for next fall’s TV schedule.
One of the key “broader policy” questions the Regulator put to the industry was…
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TORONTO and MONTREAL – As it awaits Court approval on the sale of its spectrum and broadcast license to Inuksuk, Look Communications is still searching for a buyer for its remaining three assets.
On the block are roughly 25,000 video and Internet subscribers; approximately $300 million in tax “attributes” (losses); plus Look’s network consisting of its two operating centers in Toronto and Montreal, 26 one-way broadcast sites and 10 two-way broadcast sites.
"We believe there could be a number of parties interested in our remaining assets, from the new entrants in the mobile business looking for network infrastructure to any…
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TORONTO – When we talked to David Purdy about two weeks ago, Rogers still hadn’t quite settled on a brand name for the broadband video portal it will launch this year.
It probably won’t be called the “Purdy Portal” as CRTC commissioners dubbed it back in March during the Regulator’s New Media Hearing. We’re betting the name of the company founder will be in there somewhere, but the impromptu working title is an apt one for now since Purdy, RCI’s vice-president of video product management (yes, he’s in charge of video distribution across all platforms), has been the…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – May 7, 2009 – Is Cancon a cost centre or a break-even proposition for Canada’s over-the-air broadcasters? Among all the issues raised Thursday by independent producers, writers and directors at the CRTC’s licence renewal hearings for conventional ‘casters, this subject accounted for the most words per intervention.
The groups representing much of the Anglophone creative contingent brought forward a study concluding Canadian programming need no longer be seen, automatically, as a loss leader, a necessary evil, a perennial balance sheet pariah. The success of this hypothesis depends in large measure, however, on whether broadcasting ownership groups would…
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TORONTO – Rogers Wireless will be the first Canadian carrier to launch the HTC Dream and HTC Magic smart phones, the first cell phones powered by Google Inc’s Android platform.
Allowing for access to a range of Google mobile services, including Google Search, Google Maps, and Gmail, Rogers said the launch is scheduled take place in June.
"Who else but Rogers would be the first carrier to offer Canadians the first chance to join the mobile revolution with a choice of not one, but two, handsets powered by the Android platform?", said John Boynton, senior vice president and CMO,…
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CTAM Canada is inviting members and potential new members to the Rogers Centre to see MLB’s the Toronto Blue Jays host the New York Yankees on May 12, 2009.
CTAM National President Char Beales will speak before the game about consumer trends to watch, lessons from the U.S. broadcast digital transition and new research on multi-platform video viewing behaviors. This will be followed by the game, drinks, food and great networking opportunities with colleagues. Advance registration by May 8, 2009 is required. For more information or to register, click here.
www.ctam.ca
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TORONTO – S-VOX COO Peter Miller is leaving the multi-faith and multicultural television broadcaster, after only one year on the job, to pursue other opportunities.
Miller, a broadcasting professional with 20 years of industry experience, led the integration of the former Rogers OMNI over-the air television stations in Vancouver and Winnipeg (now known as Joytv), as well as internal restructuring efforts at the company.
In announcing Miller’s departure, president and CEO Bill Roberts also announced interim changes to the organization’s executive management team as follows:
– Mark Prasuhn, S-VOX’s chief content officer, will serve as COO while maintaining his…
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