VERNON, BC – The Jim Pattison Broadcast Group has agreed to buy the FM radio station CKIZ-FM (KISS-FM) that services this community located north of Kelowna, BC from Rogers Broadcasting. Financial details of the transaction, which is still subject to CRTC approval, were not released.
“We are great believers in the growth of prospects of BC’s interior, especially in the Okanagan Valley,” said Jim Pattison Broadcast Group President Rick Arnish. “We consider this to be an important acquisition – one that expands our presence in the north Okanagan and will complement our two radio stations located in Kelowna and…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is asking if it should eliminate winback rules for incumbent cablecos with 6,000 or more subscribers serving multiple-unit dwellings (MUD).
Broadcasting Public Notice 2007-48 was issued Tuesday following a request last month from Rogers Cable Communications Inc. for the elimination of the remaining winback restrictions. The cableco argued the imposition of winback rules on the cable industry creates an asymmetry in the broadcasting system that protects telephone companies entering the TV distribution business and the country’s two satellite TV distributors from the normal workings of a competitive market.
Rogers noted that a similar winback restriction…
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HALIFAX – If you thought Bragg Communications, parent company of EastLink, was content with being the dominant cable operator in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island – not to mention a painful, persistent competitive thorn in Bell Aliant’s side, you’d be wrong.
On Friday, Bragg more than doubled its size by announcing it has signed a purchase agreement with Persona Communications. The combined company – when you add in its impending purchase of Amtelecom – will have close to half a million basic cable subscribers (260,000 from Persona added to EastLink’s approximate 230,000).
The agreement to purchase the shares…
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TORONTO – Most Rogers Wireless customers still on its old TDMA/analogue network have already made the upgrade to a new handset and are now on the company’s GSM net, the company announced today. But there are still a few stragglers.
Rogers issued a release to remind the rest that their old phones won’t work come June 1.
On January 10, 2007, Rogers announced that it would be "turning down" its older TDMA and analog networks effective May 31, 2007 and move the remaining customers on these older networks onto its advanced GSM network.
TDMA and analogue customers can keep…
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GATINEAU – Hockey and regulation, two things Canadians are well known for, thoroughly revealed their influence in statistics released today by the CRTC.
The headline, of course, was the massive revenue line. Revenues earned by Canadian specialty services, pay-TV channels and video on demand license holders surpassed $2.5 billion in the 2006 broadcast year, ended August 31, 2006, says the Commission data on the industry released today.
During the last year, this part of the electronic media industry saw the highest growth in its revenues as they rose by 12.4% as compared to 2005.
However, profits before interest and…
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TORONTO – After spending $7 billion over two decades to build what’s become the largest wireless company in Canada, Rogers Communications CEO Ted Rogers said he is more than a little miffed at the lobbying tactics being deployed by one of his business partners.
After noting on a conference call with financial analysts on Tuesday afternoon that Rogers Wireless has had in its 20 years, "losses for 19 and profits for one," the company founder set out in no uncertain terms how he feels about lobbying spearheaded by Videotron to decrease the Quebec media company’s cost of entry to…
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TORONTO – First quarter revenue at Rogers Media jumped 10.8% to $266 million, driven by a range of factors.
The division (which owns such assets as Rogers Sportsnet, OMNI, The Shopping Channel, 46 radio stations and a magazine group that publishes Maclean’s, Chatelaine and many others) also saw its expenses climb by 9.7% in the quarter to $249 million. Operating profit however, still jumped 30.8% to $17 million.
The increase in this division’s revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2007 over the corresponding period in 2006 reflects growth across all of media’s divisions as well as the…
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TORONTO – Revenue, operating profit and subscriber levels increased across the board at Rogers Communications in the first quarter of 2007, ended March 31st.
Consolidated revenue grew 15.8% to $2.3 billion while consolidated operating profit rose 34.3% to $798 million.
Wireless postpaid ARPU (average revenue per user per month) jumped 8.7% year-over-year to $67.64, while postpaid churn fell to under 1.2%. Postpaid subscriber net additions grew 5.5% in Q1, while quarterly net additions of basic cable, digital cable, high-speed Internet and cable telephony subscribers all increased versus first quarter 2006.
"I think it’s thrilling when all three of our…
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By Laurel Hyatt
GATINEAU – The Citytv stations are “failing” and need CTV’s injection of cash to stay afloat, so the CRTC should make an exception to its ban on owning two conventional TV stations in a market, says Ivan Fecan, president and CEO of CTVglobemedia.
Allowing CTV to keep City stations in Toronto/Hamilton, Vancouver/Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, and Winnipeg is in the public interest because “the City stations are teetering at the financial edge,” Fecan told commissioners Monday at the start of a two-day hearing into the $1.365 billion CTV buyout of CHUM Limited.
The CRTC’s…
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TORONTO – A new committee aimed at addressing the various journalistic ethics questions reporters face every day has been struck by RTNDA Canada, the association of electronic journalists.
The president of RTNDA Canada, Bob McLaughlin, says this new Media Ethics and Communications Committee will provide expertise on broad journalistic questions as they arise.
"RTNDA needs to provide leadership and be responsive to issues, which confront working journalists in this country. These issues can range from cameras in our courtrooms to questions of journalistic independence," said McLaughlin. "This committee will assist the executive of RTNDA Canada in developing a response…
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