TORONTO – Noting that its customers sent and received over 1.2 billion text messages in January 2009 alone, Rogers Wireless is rolling out three quick messaging phones for “text-happy” customers.
Designed for simple text or picture messaging, instant messaging or mobile email, the Samsung Propel, Samsung Gravity and LG Neon will be exclusive to the Canadian market, according to the press release.
"Rogers is thrilled to bring these exclusive quick messaging handsets to the Canadian market to better serve the needs of our customers who are heavy texters," said John Boynton, senior vice president and CMO, in the release….
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MONTREAL – Bell Canada is buying national consumer electronics retailer The Source, the companies announced Monday.
While the purchase price was not released, Bell said it would be "materially less" than the $335 million paid for the chain by Circuit City in 2004. (The Source was once Radio Shack in Canada but was forced to drop the name in a branding dispute prior to its sale to the now-bankrupt Circuit City.)
The 750 Source stores will offer the full array of Bell consumer services – including Bell home phone products, Bell Mobility, Solo Mobile, potentially Virgin Mobile wireless products and services, Bell…
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OTTAWA – Rogers Broadcasting has asked to amend the broadcasting license of its specialty channel Outdoor Life Network, adding comedy, animated programming, and perhaps even some professional sports to its lineup.
The revisions will “allow for a more well-rounded programming offering that responds to the expectations of its viewers,” read Rogers’ application to the CRTC.
The application seeks to add ongoing comedy series (sitcom), animated television programs and films, programs of comedy sketches, improvisation, unscripted works, and stand-up comedy, to the list of categories from which it may draw programming.
Rogers also asked to be able to devote up to 15%…
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A GROWING SENTIMENT AMONG many industry folks is that the carefully (and sometimes not-so-carefully) constructed, heavily regulated, TV system we have built here in Canada can not withstand the global media environment of the 21st century.
So, is it time to completely de-regulate television in Canada? Do we need to re-write the Broadcasting Act and just blow it all up?
Yesterday I talked with two people with long histories in Canadian television with diametrically opposed points of view. I think they’re both right about a number of things and if they are, our regulatory system is in for some…
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TORONTO – Tony Burman, managing director of Al-Jazeera’s English language channel – and former head of CBC News – was in Toronto this week to say that Canadians should be allowed to choose whether or not to get his channel in their homes.
Al-Jazeera the news organization has been a hot potato of a media outlet in the past. It’s Arabic language channels have aired some incredibly objectionable content in the past where virulently anti-Semitic viewpoints have made it to broadcast.
Because of that history and the resultant lobbying in Canada earlier this decade, the Arabic channel can’t really…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications says the economic downturn was a key factor that lead to a fourth quarter loss of $138 million.
The company took a “non-cash impairment loss” totaling $294 million on its conventional television business “to adjust its carrying value to reflect a lower assessment of fair value amidst recent recessionary declines in advertising revenues,” said the press release announcing the company’s financial results.
For the full year ending December 31, 2008, Rogers reported its operating revenues rose 12% to $11.3 billion, operating profits increased 32% to $4.1 billion and net income was up 57% to just over $1…
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TORONTO – The Fan Radio Network is airing a daily feature called ‘Up Close and Personal,’ billed as the “untold stories of Canadian Olympic” athletes as they prepare for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic games.
The features are running numerous times each day on 35 Rogers and non-Rogers radio stations across the country, including 10 "official" Vancouver 2010 radio stations. The feature will continue airing daily until the start of the Games on February 12, 2010.
“Every Canadian Olympic athlete has a compelling and inspiring story to share about their personal journey and drive to compete at the Olympic level. These features will…
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TORONTO – Canadians are getting an up-close and personal look at their Olympic athletes thanks to a promotional campaign called ‘Get To Know Your Canadian Athletes’ launched by the Canadian broadcast consortium for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games late last week.
Complementing the group’s ‘Believe’ campaign which launched last month, the vignettes will air nationally in English and French through February 2010 on the Consortium’s television assets and promotional partners, as well as on the websites CTVOlympics.ca and RDSolympiques.ca.
Twenty five English and French Olympians are profiled five different ways, for a total of 125 vignettes, which reveal “surprising” details…
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BACK IN NOVEMBER, on a regulatory panel at the Canadian Association of Broadcasters final convention, I said then that the broadcasting in new media hearing, which is beginning this Tuesday in Gatineau, was a waste of time.
I qualified it, of course. I do think it’s a good idea that the Commission gather information on what new media is and what it’s doing to the regulated system – and generally be aware of what’s up, on line. But I stand by what I said, especially after seeing some of the submissions.
A hearing by a regulator into something that…
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A YEAR IS A LONG time. Or not – depending on how much you need to get done in 365 days.
As of today, Keith Pelley, the hyper-energetic president of the Canadian broadcast consortium for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, has but one year left to make ready “the biggest media event in Canadian history,” he says. He and his team have a lot to get done and just one little year to do it.
Hundreds of people are involved in broadcasting (including 140 on-air folks) those 16 days in February of 2010 in Vancouver, Whistler and…
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