HALIFAX – EastLink today continued its consolidation of eastern cable companies by agreeing to purchase RuSh Communications, which owns cable systems in the Annapolis Valley and other rural Nova Scotia regions.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed but the purchase will close on September 1st, 2007, EastLink said today.
"We’re excited about this purchase because it allows us to expand EastLink’s footprint in Nova Scotia and build an even stronger presence," said Lee Bragg, Co-CEO of EastLink. " We look forward to providing our new customers with the communications and entertainment options that have become synonymous with the…
Continue Reading
NEW YORK – Rogers Cable led all cable companies with four first place wins in the NAMIC (National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications) 2007 Excellence in Multi-cultural Marketing Awards (EMMA) competition.
Spotlighting best practices in multicultural marketing, the awards will be presented on Monday, September 17, 2007 during a special session of the 21st Annual NAMIC Conference, Diversity 2.0: The New Protocol. Taking place at the Hilton New York Hotel in Manhattan, the three-day conference is scheduled for September 16-18, 2007.
Recognizing the cable industry’s commitment to developing strategic and creative approaches to ethnic-targeted marketing, entries are judged within…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Rogers Wireless has expanded its much-marketed MY5 service to Canada-wide calling and has also launched a MySpace Mobile subscription service on a selection of its mobile phones.
"We are very excited to work with MySpace, global leader in social networking with 4.1 million users in Canada," said John Boynton, senior vice-president and chief marketing officer, Rogers Wireless. "Back-to-school is a very busy social scene and with MySpace Mobile on wireless phones, customers have even more ways to stay in touch."
MySpace Mobile is a made-for-mobile social networking application which provides Rogers customers the ability to manage the…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Ten-digit dialing will come to the 418 area code on in 13 months, the CRTC announced today.
The transition to 10-digit dialing will be gradually implemented beginning on June 21, 2008, and become mandatory by September 12, 2008.
Also, effective September 19, 2008, a new area code will be introduced in the region currently served by area code 418. Customers seeking new numbers in this area code could be given a number starting with area code 581.
"These measures are being taken to prevent the exhaustion of telephone numbers in the area code 418 region. The Canadian…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Saying that the proposed sale of Alliance Atlantis violates Canadian media foreign ownership rules, the Coalition of Canadian Audio Visual Unions has told the CRTC the deal must be stopped.
CanWest Global Communications and Goldman Sachs agreed in January to acquire specialty broadcaster Alliance Atlantis for $2.3 billion in an unusual deal which will see Goldman provide most of the equity and retain ownership of the CSI TV show franchise while CanWest would get control of the Alliance Atlantis specialty channels. A new company which would contain the CanWest TV assets and those from AA, whose board…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Personnel substitutions are the name of the game this off-season at Canada’s most venerable sports property as new on-air faces and a new executive producer will take Hockey Night In Canada into the 2007-08 National Hockey League Season.
Still-new executive director of CBC Sports, Scott Moore, has wasted little time overhauling parts of the broadcast, and may have rebuilt the on-air duo he once had when he was in charge at Rogers Sportsnet in Jim Hughson and Craig Simpson.
While Hughson was already on board, Simpson – who had been an Edmonton Oilers assistant coach since…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Shaw Cable has received partial approval from the CRTC to air some kinds of commercials on its video on demand service.
The commission has approved Shaw’s application to show programs containing commercial messages when the program has already aired in Canada on a Canadian channel. It’s also allowed to charge a fee to subscribers to watch those programs containing commercials.
But the regulator denied Shaw’s request to show programs with commercials that had already aired in Canada but on a non-Canadian channel that’s on the list of eligible foreign satellite services.
The decision applies to Shaw’s wholly…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Times are very good for Ted Rogers and company and its shareholders. Profits are swelling, the dividend is increasing, and customers are growing to all aspects of the business, except for basic cable.
Rogers Communications Inc.’s consolidated operating profits grew by 20% in the second quarter of 2007, the company announced today.
In the three months ending June 30, adjusted operating profits were $898 million, compared with $746 million in the same quarter in 2006. Consolidated operating revenue rose 16% in Q2 of 2007 to more than $2.5 billion.
The board of directors also more than tripled…
Continue Reading
ALBERTA IS BOOMING, and so are its airwaves. Calgary is getting four new radio stations in the latest licence award by the CRTC. One of the most recent to launch was Fuel 90.3, a second Calgary FM station for Halifax-based Newcap Broadcasting, which has been operating california 103, a smooth jazz/blues station, for five years. Fuel pulled in respectable numbers in its first BBM ratings period, according to the spring book just released.
The aptly named Fuel hopes to cash in on the region’s energy boom with a “Triple A” format—adult album alternative. At the helm is Stephen Peck,…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Rumours in the media that Rogers Communications Inc. is considering merging with Shaw Cable are just that, says RCI president Ted Rogers.
Reporting on the idea is “just plain irresponsible” and “completely theoretical diatribe,” Rogers told analysts today during a company conference call on second quarter earnings.
“We have a lot on our plate,” Rogers said. “We are in as good a shape as we’ve ever been” and the company is focusing on smaller acquisitions and has “no appetite for dilutive transactions.”
“We do not have any active file on Shaw,” Rogers said. “I would be hard-pressed to call…
Continue Reading
