TORONTO – The OMNI brand will live on in Vancouver after all. Rogers Media announced today that it will buy the city’s multicultural station, Channel M, from Multivan.
The acquisition of Channel M will significantly expand Rogers’ ethnic television operations into the rather diverse lower Vancouver mainland and Vancouver Island markets, which are home to three million residents.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The station will copy Rogers’ successful multicultural stations in Toronto, branded OMNI. Once the deal is done, Channel M will become OMNI. Right now, Rogers owns an OMNI-branded station in Vancouver, but it…
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OTTAWA – CanWest Media Works Inc. is arguing CRTC approval of its $2.3 billion acquisition of Alliance Atlantis Communications would “create a viable and healthy competitor for CTVglobemedia in the domestic broadcasting television sector.”
The Winnipeg-based broadcaster also tells the CRTC to view the purchase as “both a reflection of, and response to, changing dynamics, trends and technologies in the domestic and international media industry (esp. a rapidly fractured media landscape; changing viewing patterns and erosion of media boundaries).”
The comments were made in CanWest’s application seeking CRTC approval of the acquisition. The documents were made public Friday, when…
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TORONTO – While cable companies in Canada will have to convince the Regulator first, the changing experience Stateside when it comes to video on demand shows the platform is growing beyond its premium movie transactional business model into an ad-supported, free-to-consumer channel as well.
In a two-hour session put together last week for Rogers employees, the company’s programming partners and CTAM Canada members, Rogers Cable vice-president, television, David Purdy outlined some of the successes his company has had in the VOD space, from the TMN SVOD model where 50% of TMN viewing by Rogers customers is now done on…
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TORONTO – On Canada Day (a day the company is fond of doing big things) Rogers Communications successfully completed the intracompany amalgamation of RCI and its wholly owned subsidiaries Rogers Cable and Rogers Wireless that was announced on May 14, 2007.
The amalgamated entity continues as RCI, and Cable and Wireless are no longer separate corporate entities and have ceased to be reporting issuers, says the company.
The amalgamation does not impact the consolidated results previously reported by RCI. In addition, the operating subsidiaries of Cable and Wireless are not part of and are not impacted by the…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – In its application to purchase the five Citytv broadcast stations, Rogers Communications has told the CRTC it will voluntarily divest its two Christian OMNI stations in Winnipeg and Vancouver.
As readers will recall, Rogers emerged as the buyer for Citytv Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Toronto after the Commission told CTVglobemedia that it could purchase CHUM Ltd., but not the five local TV stations.
Rogers’ two English language stations, although niche religious stations, do violate the Commission’s one-station-per-market policy, which is the reason why the regulator wouldn’t let CTV own the Citytvs. Rogers’ ethnic broadcasters, OMNI.1 and…
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FAIR IS FAIR, RIGHT? On Tuesday, Cartt.ca presented one side of the advanced wireless auction debate through an interview with Videotron CEO Robert Dépatie.
On Wednesday, Rogers Wireless president Rob Bruce (pictured below) sat down – along with RCI vice-president, regulatory, Ken Englehart – with Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien to swing back, so to speak, and talk about RCI’s reply comments to Industry Canada on the potential for new rules on this auction and what they hope will happen.
What follows is an edited transcript.
Greg O’Brien: Well, let’s start with today’s filing. What does it say…
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THE ARGUMENTS FILED yesterday with Industry Canada on each side of the advanced wireless spectrum auction debate haven’t changed in a month, but circumstances have.
Reply comments on the spectrum auction framework were due into the ministry yesterday. As most will recall, the established players want an unfettered auction for new spectrum that will enable all sorts of new applications and services beyond just voice while potential newcomers want it good and fettered. The fight is still the same.
The three incumbents, Bell Canada, Rogers Communications and Telus, all argue the same thing as they did 36 days…
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TORONTO – Business continues to boom for private radio in terms of national ad sales, which rose 6.1% in the third quarter of this fiscal compared with the same time last year, according to figures from Canadian Broadcast Sales.
CBS says that bookings for the fourth quarter of the broadcast year are on track to climb 9.9% from Q4 last year, with even bigger gains predicted for the first quarter next year. “In the near term, radio will continue to enjoy the positive momentum of the past several years. The early revenue pacing for the first quarter of 2008…
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THOSE IN FAVOUR OF an advance wireless spectrum auction that imposes limits on the big incumbent wireless operators were given a huge gift last week when word leaked out that Telus would make a bid to buy Bell Canada.
After weeks of pounding away at a message that said any auction which placed spectrum caps or set aside some spectrum for newcomers was an unconscionable subsidy for large corporations that Canadians would ultimately pay for, Telus dramatically changed tactics once the news broke about its involvement with Bell.
Suddenly Telus CEO Darren Entwistle and his senior executives said they…
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VANCOUVER – The best of 2006 were honoured over the weekend in Vancouver as the association of electronic journalists, RTNDA Canada, gathered to present and receive its annual awards.
This year RTNDA Canada created five new award categories to recognize outstanding videography, use of sound, new media, information programming and diversity.
The RTNDA "Diversity Tool Kit" which was released across the country in January offers practical solutions to bring diversity to our stories and to our newsrooms. To acknowledge those accomplishments RTNDA created a new Diversity Award.
Global Calgary, CBC Radio 99.1 Toronto, CBC National Radio News and The…
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