Search Results for: rogers

Radio / Television News

GlassBOX’s AUX launching on Rogers

TORONTO – GlassBOX Television will launch its cross-platform AUX music channel as a new digital channel on Rogers Cable beginning this Fall. AUX, which calls itself “Canada’s music discovery destination”, launched last November as a video-rich web destination. The carriage deal will allow its music-themed journalism, current affairs, news, charts, videos, films and documentaries to come to television. "We are delighted to be launching AUX on Rogers as a key next step in our strategy to bring our unique brand of music television to audiences across Canada," said Raja Khanna, Co-CEO of GlassBOX and founder and president of AUX, in the… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

UPDATE: Super Channel files for creditor protection owing $139 million; takes square aim at Rogers

EDMONTON – Allarco Entertainment, owners of Canadian pay-TV service Super Channel, filed for protection from its creditors under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act on Tuesday, Cartt.ca has learned. According to documents filed with the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta, the company has liabilities of $139 million and assets of $68 million. In those documents – as well as a letter sent to its affected program suppliers – Allarco president and COO Malcolm Knox said the company plans to reorganize and continue broadcasting. He blamed the poor economy and a lack of BDU promotion follow-through for the young broadcaster’s… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

CTS 2009: Wireless newcomers push back launches but see plenty of opportunity

TORONTO – New wireless entrants are most likely to fail if they “look and smell like an incumbent,” one of the new Advanced Wireless Services spectrum licensees warned his fellow competitors during the final panel session at the Canadian Telecom Summit on Wednesday afternoon. Top executives from Globalive Communications, DAVE Wireless and Public Mobile came together for a discussion about the challenges they will face as their companies prepare to launch new wireless offerings by the end of 2009 or early in 2010. Although not as volatile as the incumbent-heavy “regulatory blockbuster” session held on Tuesday, the AWS session… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

CTS 2009: The time is now for mobile marketing, say ad industry experts

TORONTO – Mobile advertising should be part of marketers’ media buy now – “not next year, not in six months, the opportunity is now” – said Phil Barrett, vice-president of digital and mobile for Toronto-based marketing communications agency B-Street Communications. Barrett made his comments during a panel discussion on mobile marketing, advertising and commerce at the Canadian Telecom Summit on Tuesday afternoon. “We’re not suggesting you forget about online and TV and other media, but our point of view is that mobile is now about 10% of our marketing business… and we’re seeing great click-through rates on mobile advertising,”… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

CTS 2009: From decoding Swedish to exabytes of traffic, RIM’s Lazaridis dives into his history

TORONTO – On the day his Research In Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie had his NHL franchise bid rejected, RIM president and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis was waxing nostalgic about the company’s humble beginnings 25 years ago, during a keynote address at the Canadian Telecom Summit on Monday. Founded in 1984 when Lazaridis was still a university student, RIM recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of its Blackberry device (and then about eight hours later, unveiled the latest BlackBerry, the Tour) “What seems to really register with me is this industry has been around for quite a while,” Lazaridis said. “We’ve been… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

CTS 2009: LTE is still a few years out, says RCI’s Mohamed

TORONTO – Perhaps befitting an acronym that doesn’t refer to any actual technology, but more a state of mind, LTE is still a good two years away from deployment, Rogers Communications CEO Nadir Mohamed said Monday morning. In the opening keynote speech to delegates of the Canadian Telecom Summit, Mohamed noted that early LTE adopter Verizon is making noises about delaying its push to the fourth generation assumed wireless standard, which simply means: “long-term-evolution”. “We need faster speeds over HSPA,” (high speed packet access) added the CEO, noting there is still plenty of work to do with the existing… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

CTS 2009: Programmers “tyranny” coming to an end, says Rogers exec

TORONTO – It isn’t too often you hear a cableco or telco admit to using a heavy fist when it comes to protecting and maintaining their walled gardens, but at least one cable executive offered up a sort-of “mea culpa” during a session on new media and convergence at the Canadian Telecom Summit held today at the Toronto Congress Centre. “We’re really moving from a tyranny of broadcasters to a republic of users where people will decide when they want to watch their content, and ultimately, where they want to watch their content,” said David Purdy, vice-president and general… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Mobile commerce coming to cell phones

TORONTO – Canadians may soon be able to send and receive money using their mobile phone, thanks to a new application called Zoompass. Launched Monday by mobile commerce company EnStream, Zoompass allows customers to link their personal bank account or credit card to load and transfer money via a secure account, much like PayPal does. This will allow users to conduct everyday transactions such as splitting a lunch bill, requesting money from parents, or even pay a babysitter, directly from a mobile phone.  The service also has the ability for customers to make purchases in stores and on the Internet using… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

IPTV: Rural telecom co-ops finding success with digital television

MILVERTON, Ont. – When we writers offer up a dateline, or placeline to begin a story, like the one here that denotes the little town west of Kitchener I visited last fall, often it comes without naming the province of origin. The theory is that most people know where Toronto, or Vancouver, or Montreal or Calgary is. There’s no need to add, Ont., or B.C., or Que., or Alta. to the town name. But when it comes to places like Milverton, Zurich, Kirkton, Kippen, Inwood, or Ripley, we just have to add the “Ont.” tag to them. Now, that’s… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

BANFF 2009: Awards aplenty

BANFF – Home Box Office’s (HBO) John Adams was the big winner on Monday as it picked up the Grand Jury Prize as the best of the best – as well as the best drama award at the Banff World Television Awards, or Rockies, ceremony. “OMFG. We got the big one,” said David Baldwin, executive vice-president of programming planning at HBO, in accepting the Grand Jury Prize. “John Adams was a special project for HBO.” The U.S. mini-series about U.S. president John Adams also has Emmy and Golden Globe wins. The Rockie for best Canadian program went to Passage,… Continue Reading