TORONTO – Wireless, digital cable, high speed Internet and cable telephony customers all saw growth slip in the fourth quarter, ended December 31st, reported Rogers Communications today.
While the company announced a doubling of its annual dividend, the authorization for a share repurchase program, and full year 2008 guidance ranges, the fourth quarter subscriber numbers it released shows a slowdown in growth in the quarter, compared to Q4 2006, perhaps reflecting the marketing onslaught from all video and telephony carriers and the uncertain nature of the economy going into the new year.
Gross postpaid additions on the wireless side…
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HAMILTON – The next SCTE Ontario Chapter general meeting will be held Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 in Hamilton, with the theme of Fiber to the Premise/Home/etc. – otherwise known as FTTX.
The group is asking for technical papers for the session. The possible topics of interest relating to FTTX are suggested as follows:
* FTTX topologies * FTTX technologies * FTTX advanced services/content to be delivered * FTTX cost models * FTTX challenges in deployment * FTTX state of the industry, current and future deployments
The presentation of the papers at the meeting are generally 45 minutes in duration…
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TORONTO – Paul Ski was hired away from CHUM Radio by Rogers Broadcasting, his new company announced today.
Ski, who will be CEO of Rogers Radio, has a long and successful career in radio broadcasting spending over 30 years with the CHUM radio group, most recently as its president.
He will replace Gary Miles who is retiring after 20 years of service with Rogers. “Under Miles’ leadership, Rogers’ radio division grew from two stations to an industry leading group of 51 stations today,” reads the press release.
"We are thrilled that Paul will be joining Rogers", said Rael Merson,…
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OTTAWA – Right now, we would just call it “rumoured rumblings,” so one can never tell the veracity of the statements, but sources tell Cartt.ca they believe a decision from the CRTC on the CanWest Global purchase of Alliance Atlantis could come as early as Thursday.
What we do know is that CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein was pushing staff to get the decision done and released prior to the end of 2007 – and the timing of a release this week would place it right in the range of other 2007 broadcasting acquisition decisions. For example, the regulator…
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TORONTO – There are two large cable operators based in the province of Quebec, but each have their own different ideas of where growth will come from.
One, Videotron, envisions building itself into an important wireless player. The other, Cogeco Cable, has so far shunned wireless investments in favor of pursuing growth outside of North America.
Its 2006 acquisition of Cabovisao, which now serves over 300,000 customers in Portugal has been nothing but positive for the company as revenue and margins have risen throughout 2007. The integration of the new division is now complete.
The company launched digital cable…
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TORONTO – Long-time sales executive Dan Hamilton is leaving Citytv, the Rogers TV Sales Group announced today. His last day will be February 15th, 2008.
“It has been a pleasure and an honour working with our agencies and clients over the past 24 years on behalf of Citytv and the former CHUM Television brands,” said Hamilton, in a release. “I look forward to seeing great developments on this remarkable Citytv brand under Rogers leadership.”
His future plans were not announced.
“We are extremely grateful for Dan’s numerous years of excellent service and professionalism,” expressed Mitch Dent, executive vice-president, sales,…
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IN 2003, WHEN THE HOUSE of Commons Heritage Committee issued the “Our Cultural Sovereignty” report (better known as the Lincoln Report) it recommended that “the existing foreign ownership limits for broadcasting and telecommunications be maintained a current levels.”
At that time, the then Canadian Alliance Party, whose leader was Stephen Harper, put out the following dissenting opinion: “The Canadian Alliance disagrees with (this recommendation). The Canadian Alliance supports relaxing foreign ownership rules on Canadian industry, including telecommunications and broadcast distribution. We suggest conducting an immediate review to determine whether to reduce or completely remove these rules.” Those very same…
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TORONTO – Programming from CTV and its specialty channels The Comedy Network and MTV are now available for sale on the iTunes Store in Canada (www.itunes.ca).
The addition of Canadian TV shows to the iTunes Canada lineup comes two years after such programming has been available in the U.S. and U.K. It’s been on so long Stateside, that NBC has decided making its shows available on iTunes is not for them and they have pulled their programming from the Apple service.
iTunes becomes the latest digital platform for CTV’s Canadian series, in addition to The CTV Broadband Network and…
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TORONTO – Just a few weeks after a contract kerfuffle saw popular sportscaster Kathryn Humphreys leave her post at Citytv Toronto, Rogers Media, the new owners of the station, announced late Monday that she is joining the company in a newly expanded role.
Beginning Monday, viewers can enjoy Humphreys unique reporting style on everything from little league heroes to the pros on both the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. Citytv’s CityNews, where she had previously been. But the old job won’t be the limit for Humphreys (pictured), who will now be contributing to a number of…
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TORONTO – If you’re a hockey fan with a high definition television set, you want to see as many games as possible in crisp, clear HD.
And if your favorite regional National Hockey League team is playing on Rogers Sportsnet, you don’t want to hear the technical and league reasons why there is poker on Sportsnet HD (shot in standard definition) while the game (shot in HD) appears in fuzzier analog on the SD Sportsnet channel.
The reasons why that was, was confusing enough for those of us in the industry, let alone a regular hockey fan.
Years ago,…
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