TORONTO – Rogers Media announced today it will sell two multi-faith stations, commonly known as OMNI 10 and 11 to S-VOX, the owner of multi-faith and multicultural broadcaster VisionTV.
The deal provides that S-VOX Trust will purchase all of the assets of the CHNU-TV and CIIT-TV stations, operating in Vancouver and Winnipeg respectively. Rogers had agreed to sell the stations as part of its purchase of five CityTV stations. The transaction is subject to CRTC approval.
“This is a momentous event in our 20-year history as a Canadian independent broadcaster,” said S-VOX President and CEO Bill Roberts. “The addition…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Amid strains of Canadian folk singer Stan Rogers and images of our melting north, Canadian Association of Broadcasters president and CEO Glenn O’Farrell strode onto the stage at the Westin Hotel in Ottawa this morning and began to spin an interesting – if unusual – metaphor.
The CAB CEO drew parallels between the warming that is happening in the Arctic with the massive changes staring Canadian media companies in the face at this moment in time.
Not long ago, scientists thought that the fabled Northwest Passage, for so long locked in by ice, might be navigable –…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – CityTV’s Breakfast Television officially became part of the Rogers broadcasting family last week and on Monday began sharing live Toronto traffic reports with 680 News.
680News Traffic Reporter Eva Fragiskatos will be with Breakfast Television’s Kevin Frankish and Dina Pugliese every weekday morning from 6 to 9 am.
“This is just the beginning of a very exciting relationship for CityNews and 680News,” said Steve Hurlbut, CityTV’s National Vice President of News and Local Information Programming. “Both our newsrooms are all about serving Toronto and together the city will truly be our newsroom.”
680News Vice President and General…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein set conference delegates straight on a couple of things today at the Canadian Association of Broadcasters annual convention here at the Westin Hotel in Ottawa before juggling the 2008 regulatory calendar a little bit (See related story).
We’re not an expert judge of people’s overall moods, but he seemed a shade on the grumpy side when addressing the Commission’s need for additional resources as it struggles with regulating broadcasting and all that encompasses nowadays.
First he made it clear that recent comments made during a speech on new media does not…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
