TORONTO – With holiday sales of HDTV sets expected to soar, Rogers Cable expects to come out of the Christmas season with far more than the 200,000 high definition television consumers it now supports.
Since November 2005, Rogers’ HD customers have more than doubled, the company said today. And one in three HD customers are also choosing to take a high definition PVR as their set top box of choice.
"HD is the future of television, and if the increase in sales of high definition Sharp AQUOS televisions this holiday season is any indication, there is definitely a growing demand…
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NEW YORK – Rogers Communications founder and CEO Ted Rogers told a pair of investor gatherings in New York this week what he thought of analog cable, how Internet usage metering is coming in 2007 and what succession at the top of his company could look like.
Rogers overviewed his company and its significant successes in 2006 for attendees at the UBS Global Media & Communications Conference and Credit Suisse Media & Telecom Week, both held Tuesday in New York.
Eight billion dollars of revenue and $2.5 billion worth of EBITDA, 10,000 new local phone customers per week, ongoing…
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GATINEAU – As the seventh and final day of the 2006 CRTC TV Policy Review hearing wound down yesterday, a frustrated group got very wound up, and a broadcasting legend weighed in.
In a process that has sometimes gone into excruciating detail about how much more we may pay for our TV universe, how we’ll receive programs, how big a role advertising will play and what we’ll see between the ads – a big problem should have been hard to overlook. But on this day, James Roots, executive director of the Canadian Association of the Deaf, made a passionate…
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TORONTO – Never one for lengthy media sessions, Cogeco CEO Louis Audet practically demanded that reporters ask him about its newest purchase, Portuguese cable and telecom outfit Cabovisao, prior to the cable company’s annual general meeting in Toronto on Tuesday.
So, how is it going there? Audet was typically reserved in his remarks, saying "integration is going well," but his body language conveyed some excitement towards what he sees as a key strategic growth opportunity.
Admitting "not all of our shareholders were enthusiastic about the acquisition," Audet sings the praises of Cabovisao, it’s growth opportunities and employees, noting he…
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TORONTO – The Score has signed a three-season, $3.15 million contract for the exclusive Canadian TV rights to English Premier League soccer.
Broadcasts will start in the fall of 2007.
“We are thrilled to win the rights to such an incredible property, and to be able bring the EPL back to The Score” said John Levy, chairman and CEO of Score Media Inc., in a release. “EPL soccer is a great fit with The Score’s young and increasingly international audience.”
It’s also a blow to Rogers Sportsnet, which has carried the EPL for a number of years, with games…
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TORONTO – The fall 2006 BBM ratings book (officially called S4 2006) came out Monday and one of the more notable stories in Canada’s largest market is the boost in ratings at CHFI to a 9.1 share this fall, compared to an 8.6 in the S3 book and a 9.0 in S4 2005. All numbers are A12+.
The difference between the top line shares between periods isn’t all that large, but the talking point is that the Rogers-owned station is now at the top of the Toronto heap. It jumped over CHUM FM in Toronto, which recorded an S4…
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GATINEAU – Organizations representing many persistent voices opposed to Canada’s 1999 over-the-air television policy – along with a rare cameo by the Ontario Culture Minister – took the stage Monday for Day 6 of the CRTC’s review of this policy.
The unions and guilds appearing for English and French writers and actors, and for English directors and crew, almost all requested a mix of re-regulation and new rules for conventional broadcasters – a distinct contrast to many broadcasters, who last week called for fewer rules and greater access to revenues.
In what was described as the “first appearance in…
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COMPETITION HAS COME to Saskatchewan. The little-big (population-area) province has had competition on the terrestrial video side since 2002 but only recently has a serious voice option come available.
It was quite a lag between the cable companies in the province losing 50,000 video customers and their recent launch of voice over IP. With the largest MSOs in the province: Shaw (Saskatoon, Prince Albert) and Access (Regina and area) now – or about to be – adding VOIP, competition is officially hot.
So how is the provincially-owned telco faring, with still 98% of the local phone lines? President…
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TORONTO – Despite the hue and cry over the supposed nasty effects of new media, radio, a so-called old media, continues to post gains here in Canada.
According to Canadian Broadcast Sales, national radio sales for the first quarter of the 2007 broadcast year (September to November ’07) represent the medium’s highest-ever total revenue quarter as sales rose by 8.2% compared to the same period last year. The Toronto market took 42% of the growth.
CBS is a national sales firm representing approximately 60% of all private Canadian radio stations, a total of 128 markets, with clients including Corus,…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Rogers Media’s $39.6 million purchase of O.K. Radio Group’s Alberta radio stations was approved by the CRTC on Wednesday.
This comes on the heels of the Commission’s approval of the sale of O.K.’s Vancouver Island stations to Jim Pattison Broadcasting.
Rogers new Alberta stations are: CHDI-FM (Radiosonic FM – modern rock) and CKER-FM (World FM – multicultural) in Edmonton, CJOK-FM (Country 93.3); CKYX-FM (A/C) and its transmitter CJOK-FM-1 in Fort McMurray; and CFGP-FM (Sun FM) Grande Prairie and its transmitters CFGP-FM-1 Peace River and CFGP-FM-2 Tumbler Ridge.
O.K. has divested all of its radio assets now as…
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