OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The stroller and drool set may soon have a high definition home of their own.
The CRTC Thursday granted a category two digital specialty service license for a channel called BabyHD to High Fidelity HDTV.
HiFi HDTV owns and operates all HD channels Rush HD, Equator HD, Treasure HD and Oasis HD.
The commercial-free service will feature educational and entertainment programming targeted to infants and toddlers younger than three years of age. Programs would also provide expert advice or information regarding infants and toddlers, targeted to parents and caregivers of infants and toddlers, says the decision.
As…
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GATINEAU – If the CCTA was still around, it wouldn’t have been able to find consensus among its members for the CRTC’s TV Policy Review either.
While the schisms among the Canadian Association of Broadcasters members meant that association was unable to come up with a submission containing any consensus among its members, some of whom want large carriage fees for broadcasters, some who want small ones and some who oppose them altogether, fractures of opinion exist in the distributor world, too.
Two of the former Canadian Cable Television Association‘s largest members faced the Commission yesterday with diametrically…
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GATINEAU – As the so-called softer side of the industry comes to the fore over the next few, final days of the CRTC TV Policy Review hearing, groups like producers, actors, documentary makers and unions are just hoping the Commission pays more attention to them than the consumer media.
Reporters had elbows up in a crowd most of the week as the likes of CTV, Rogers, Shaw, Bell and Global Television faced the Commission – and then the microphones and notebooks right after.
No such problem Thursday afternoon and Friday.
At one point Friday morning we counted 13 people…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Rogers Media has to provide the Rogers Sportsnet signals to Bell Canada under the same terms it gives to Rogers Cable, the CRTC said today.
Bell Canada had filed for dispute resolution with the Commission, complaining how it was being treated in negotiations to carry the regional sports service. Specifically, it was being told by Sportsnet that Bell’s new terrestrial digital TV service can’t offer Sportsnet on basic.
(Bell filed the complaint on September 27th and said, interestingly, according to today’s decision, that it planned to launch the new terrestrial service in mid-November 2006. Bell’s IPTV service…
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MONTREAL – Canadians do have a sense of wireless manners after all, says a study commissioned by Fido.
Canadians who use wireless devices often opt to converse via text messaging as a more convenient – and polite – way to communicate, says the research, one of many findings in a national Fido-Léger wireless messaging survey report made public today.
Among the top reasons for choosing texting, or short message services (SMS), is the perception that it is more suitable (46%) and discreet (38%) than calling in certain situations. Most respondents consider it more acceptable to send or receive a…
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TORONTO – It looks as though having the anchors ditch their ties is not the only changes planned for Rogers Sportsnet’s nightly news programs.
On January 8, Sportsnet Connected hits the airwaves, "providing viewers with a fresh, innovative, informative and entertaining approach to delivering sports news and information," says today’s press release.
“Sports fans are looking for a new dynamic approach,” said Dave Akande, vice-president content, Rogers Sportsnet. “By injecting a new level of entertainment which includes a new set, new music and graphics in a fast-paced, fun and informative package Sportsnet Connected delivers.”
Sportsnet Connected replaces Sportsnetnews as…
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TORONTO – Three months after cancelling the long-running 11:30 p.m. sports highlights show Sportsline (I mean, Global Sports) Global News Ontario has decided to eliminate its sports division altogether.
In its place, Global will deliver live nightly segments from Rogers Sportsnet, beginning in 2007. Three full time positions and some part time staff will lose their jobs in the new year, Ron Waksman, News Director, Global News Ontario, told Cartt.ca on Wednesday.
The move is part cost-cutting, part broadcast improvement, he added. The new collaboration is a sign of the times because Sportsnet, a 24-hour all-sports channel brings "the…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The idea that Canada’s signal distributors should pay conventional broadcasters fees to carry their signals is “trash” according to Rogers Communications CEO Ted Rogers.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday following his company’s appearance before the CRTC on day three of its over-the-air TV review hearings, Rogers countered the many broadcaster arguments in favour of such charges, known as fee-for-carriage (FFC), made over the hearing’s first two days. He said broadcasters should look to new technologies – not new regulations – for new revenues. “These guys should get back to high def and keep up with the new stuff.”…
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MONTREAL – Today, wireless phone brand Fido is celebrating its 10th year of service.
With its award-winning, pooch-focused TV commercials and simple pricing, Fido "changed the Canadian wireless landscape and continues to do so 10 years later by providing Canadians with innovative pricing, per-second billing, and friendly and accessible customer service," says the press release. (According to accepted wisdom, one human year is approximately seven dog years.)
Fido, which began as a Montreal-based independent but is now owned by Rogers after a $1.4 billion purchase in 2004, is unique for a number of reasons, says the release, "namely a…
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OTTAWA – Satellite radio has another distribution platform, if they want it.
A Commission decision today that will surely be copied by other broadcast distribution undertakings said that Rogers Cable can add satellite radio stations to their cable channel lineups.
Bell ExpressVu recently asked the Commission for permission to add the satellite radio signals to its service offering but were refused, as the CRTC told the DTH company it needed a license amendment, which is what was granted to Rogers today. Cogeco Cable has also submitted a similar request for a license amendment.
There are conditions to the rule,…
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