MONT TREMBLANT – Cogeco CEO Louis Audet said Thursday he thought it pretty improbably that Rogers Cable would want to overbuild his company’s regions of Halton, Oakville and Burlington.
He was responding to a question at the CIBC Institutional Investor Conference at the Fairmont Mont Tremblant, Quebec.
Cartt.ca broke the story last week that Rogers had applied to the CRTC to expand its cable licensed territories to include the large piece of Cogeco’s Ontario territory as well as that of Aurora Cable.
Audet doesn’t figure Rogers has any plans to completely overbuild, as it would be far too costly….
Continue Reading
OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC today approved Rogers Media’s $375 million purchase of Citytv as well as Astral Media’s Standard Broadcasting buy. A decision that took about than a month from the end of the hearings.
Rogers had proposed the acquisition of the Citytv stations in Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver, which the Commission wouldn’t let CTV have when it bought the stations’ former owner, CHUM Ltd.
In its decision, the Commission is also requiring that Rogers Media sell, within the next 12 months, its two religious stations, CHNU-TV Fraser Valley and CIIT-TV Winnipeg, since maintaining these two stations would…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – On Monday, Teletoon Retro will launch to the largest audience a digital specialty ever has – as it will be available to all Bell ExpressVu and Rogers Digital Cable subscribers.
As we originally reported on earlier this month, the launch the channel will feature classic cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny, The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo and The Jetsons. Offering a nostalgic throwback to timeless cartoons, the new channel delivers fresh laughs with familiar friends like Fat Albert, Tom & Jerry, Rocky and Bullwinkle and Superfriends to adults aged 25 to 49
"It’s phenomenal to be in so many homes…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Newstalk 1010 CFRB has announced that all four Ontario political party leaders will host their own one-hour talk show on CFRB and simulcast on CKTB in St. Catharines and CJBK in London.
Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty, PC Leader John Tory, NDP Leader Howard Hampton and Green Party Leader Frank de Jong will each host a talk show on different days from noon to one p.m., and take calls from listeners in Toronto, across Niagara and London.
The Green Party’s Frank de Jong will be the first to appear, on Thursday, Sept. 27. On Wednesday, Oct. 3, it…
Continue Reading
By Greg O’Brien
THE CANADIAN CABLE Systems Alliance annual general meeting is always a great time. Compared to some of the other events I attend through the year, it’s tiny. But it’s very useful and always well organized. I always come away from it having learned a lot – and finally having had some face-to-face time with people I normally only chat with via e-mail.
The “learnings” (not really a word, but it’s one everyone uses) this year were plentiful. From new technologies and services to future-gazing and concrete advice on how to approach video on demand.
But there was a bit…
Continue Reading
MONT TREMBLANT – When Cogeco Cable began rolling out video on demand about five years ago, “we thought we were building a virtual video store,” says the company’s director of affiliate relations JP Caveen.
Not any more, of course. VOD has moved leaps and bounds away from that.
Caveen was part of a video on demand panel organized by CTAM Canada held Monday afternoon during the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance 14th annual general meeting that included a programmer, an aggregator and three operators.
They were there to share their success stories and challenges with the independent cable companies who…
Continue Reading
ROGERS BELIEVES Bell Canada is less than two months away from launching its IPTV service in Toronto, beginning in the Yonge-Bloor region, according to David Purdy, Rogers Cable’s VP and GM television.
********** WTBS will change its name to PeachtreeTV as of October 1st, said Turner’s Matt Tolleson. The programming will remain much the same, however. Also – with CNN HD having launched in the States on September 1st – Tolleson says he wants to see that feed in Canada soon.
********** And speaking of HD, Speed is readying its high definition version, which it will have ready to…
Continue Reading
MONT TREMBLANT – Dean Prevost wasn’t speaking in front of the Canadian Club or the Empire Club like Ted Rogers and Pierre Karl Peladeau did last week, but his message today at the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance AGM followed the squabbling script:
Industry Canada’s advanced wireless spectrum auction rules have to favour newcomers somehow, so that Prevost’s company, MTS Allstream (like Peladeau’s Videotron), can become a national wireless provider.
Prevost, the chief corporate officer of the company, talked about wireless in other parts of the world, adding: “What’s different about the Canadian experience is the price is really,…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – If it can’t buy ’em, it looks like Rogers might overbuild ’em.
Rogers Cable has applied to the CRTC to extend its cable territories in Ontario to include a chunk of Cogeco Cable’s Ontario wheelhouse: Oakville, Burlington, Milton and Halton Hills, as well as into tiny Aurora Cable’s market in Aurora, just north of Toronto.
A move like this may signal a stark departure from the historically collegial cable industry where each company kept to its own territory and expanded by purchasing other cable companies. (Aurora and Cogeco are both known not to be for sale, however.)
In…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC today denied Shaw Communications’ request to add USA Network to the list of eligible foreign satellite services for digital distribution.
Shaw asked for the new addition in January, saying the general interest cable channel available to 90 million in the States, would be attractive to customers.
Shaw also wanted Commission to alter its approach to adding non-Canadian services to the digital lists. The company wants the Commission to automatically approve the addition of all general interest non-Canadian services, and that it permit broadcasting distribution undertakings (BDUs) to distribute services on the eligible lists on…
Continue Reading
