MONTREAL – With Industry Canada preparing to auction off new wireless frequencies in the new year (and nearing the announcement of the rules surrounding that auction), Videotron is keeping up the pressure so it can too can get a piece of the action, more cheaply than in a wide open auction.
In a speech to the Metropolitan Montreal Board of Trade Thursday, Videotron president and CEO Robert Dépatie relaunched his company’s attack against the three existing wireless carriers, saying they’re afraid to see “real competitors who’ll offer better prices and will force them to reduce their own rates.”
At…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications’ third quarter results released this morning show strong results right across the board.
Consolidated revenue grew 13% to $2.6 billion, operating profit increased 23% to $984 million, and net income ballooned 75% to $269 million.
On the wireless side, subscribers now number more than seven million with net additions up 20% year-over-year (195,100 vs. 171,200 in Q3 ’06), while wireless postpaid ARPU grew 7% to $75.15 (driven by a 53% growth in data revenue to $183 million) and postpaid churn fell to 1.12%.
Data revenue now represents 13.6% of network revenue with monthly data ARPU…
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TORONTO – Ted Rogers said today that he and fellow Toronto billionaire Larry Tanenbaum have an agreement to pursue a National Football League team together, should they ever decide to go down that road.
Tanenbaum is chairman of Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment (and is the man primarily in charge of the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs and NBA’s Toronto Raptors). Rogers Communications, of course, owns the Rogers Centre and its primary tenant, the Toronto Blue Jays.
The difference with the NFL, however, is that the league does not let corporations own its teams, so any new team couldn’t be…
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WINNIPEG – Manitoba Telecom Services posted a 13.2% increase in “growth services” revenues and a 17.7% increase in EPS from continuing operations in its third quarter report issued today.
Growth services are considered to be wireless, broadband and MTS TV. The company’s traditional land line service continues to see decline.
"MTS continued to build strong and sustainable momentum in the third quarter," said Pierre Blouin, CEO, in the press release. "Results are in line with our business plan at all levels as we continue to capitalize on strong customer relationships and our ability to bring innovative new services to…
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TORONTO – Back in January 2004, Rogers Cable signed a multi-year agreement with Yahoo! to offer cable’s high-speed Internet access subscribers a co-branded broadband experience.
Rogers Cable and its broadband customers received Yahoo!’s e-mail functionality; hosting and storage; security, pop-up blocking and parental control tools; digital photo tools; online music and game services; and an array of content in a personalized user environment.
Under the agreement, Rogers paid portal fees to Yahoo! for these services on a per subscriber basis.
Yesterday, however, Rogers and Yahoo! entered into a renegotiated agreement effective January 1, 2008 under which the two companies…
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TORONTO – TSN’s vice-president of programming and production Rick Chisholm has been named vice-president of broadcasting for the CTV/Rogers Olympic consortium.
The two companies are working together to broadcast the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and the 2012 Summer Games in London.
Also hired today was Alon Marcovici as vice-president of digital media and research. Both will report to Keith Pelley, president of the consortium. Chisholm and Marcovici represent the first two additions to Pelley’s Olympic broadcast team.
Chisholm is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the pre-Olympic and Olympic on-air broadcasts on all platforms, including television, radio, online…
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WITH THE GROWING PROLIFERATION of so-called “free-to-air” satellite receivers – and the outright theft of both Bell ExpressVu and Dish Network signals with those falsely-named decoders – the Canadian video distribution industry is looking to re-launch the Coalition Against Satellite Signal Theft.
Representatives from Rogers Cable, Bell and others held a meeting this week to discuss reforming the group or something like it. However, no decision has been made yet to move forward, a source told Cartt.ca.
The hope is that if the legitimate Canadian video distributors can organize, the issue can be pushed back onto the federal government’s…
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TORONTO – The $375 million transaction to purchase the five Citytv conventional television stations by Rogers Media closed earlier today. it received CRTC approval last month.
The stations acquired from CTVglobemedia were under the control of Mr. John D. McKellar, C.M., Q.C., trustee under a voting trust agreement in respect of CHUM Limited. The Citytv network includes Citytv Toronto (CITY-TV), Citytv Winnipeg (CHMI-TV), Citytv Edmonton (CKEM-TV), Citytv Calgary (CKAL-TV) and Citytv Vancouver (CKVU-TV).
In light of this announcement, Rogers Broadcasting, a Rogers Media subsidiary, takes immediate control of the Citytv operations under the direction of Leslie Sole, CEO of Television…
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WITH THE CLOSING OF the Persona purchase by Bragg Communications (owners of EastLink) last last month, the Canadian cable industry lost one of its leading champions – and true characters.
Dean MacDonald worked his way up through the industry beginning at Avalon Cable in Newfoundland 25 years ago, evenutally rising to president of Danny Williams’ Cable Atlantic. The exploits of Dean and Danny are part of industry lore and this reporter once published a photo of the both of them dressed as Carmen Miranda, giant fruity headresses and all.
When Cable Atlantic was sold to Rogers Cable in 1999…
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OTTAWA – The 81st annual Canadian Association of Broadcasters convention kicks off this Sunday in Ottawa and runs through Tuesday, November 6th.
(Cartt.ca, which is a media sponsor, will be there with a team of reporters covering the sessions – and will also produce a printed show daily on-site.)
The 2007 convention theme, Broadcasting, Redefined, “targets issues of fundamental importance to the broadcasting and distribution industries: new technologies and platforms, new business models and partnerships, and new policies and regulations that will allow Canada’s private broadcasters to thrive in an increasingly complex global business environment,“ says the CAB.
There…
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