VANCOUVER – Stephen Armstrong didn’t exactly have the easiest of tasks in front of him yesterday: Explain all new and developing media trends in 75 minutes.
The massive shifts in media consumption is keyed off of one major growth product: broadband. Quoting research, Armstrong said that by 2010, 422 million homes around the world will have broadband access. That works out to about 18.5% of all the world’s households, he calculated.
In Canada, 51% of us have broadband in our homes and growth continues. Plus, "it’s no longer the exclusive preserve of wireline carriers," he added, pointing to developments…
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TORONTO – Brand new research from CTAM Canada says that while Canadian consumers are buying high definition television sets by the thousands, they need more and better information on how to maximize what should be an incredible new picture.
A survey conducted this summer says Canadians are not fully aware of what they need – beyond their new TV – to truly see television in high definition.
According to the research, conducted exclusively for CTAM Canada members, while 22% and 21% of Canadian digital cable and satellite customers (respectively) own an HD set, only 14% have the requisite set…
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MONTREAL – Part product launch, part regulatory complaint, Videotron announced the official expansion of its high definition lineup today while re-sending a message Ottawa’s way about cable regulation.
As of Saturday, Videotron’s illico digital television customers in Montreal and area will gain access to Astral Media’s HD channels: Super Écran HD, Canal D HD, Ztélé HD and Canal Vie HD. This will bring to 20 the number of channels broadcast by Videotron in high def.
"Our goal and strategy were always very clear, we want to ensure a long term vision for our programming and our broadcasting grid to…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC told Bell ExpressVu today that it can’t add XM Radio Canada or Sirius Canada to its entertainment lineup without first getting a license amendment.
Specifically, "the Commission finds that satellite subscription radio (SSR) undertakings are not programming undertakings and that the licensees of direct-to-home broadcasting distribution undertakings, in the absence of a specific condition of licence allowing such distribution, do not have authority under section 39 of the Broadcasting Distribution Regulations to distribute the programming of SSR undertakings," says the decision.
Mainly, XM and Sirius aren’t like Galaxie or MaxTrax, is what it means.
The…
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PUBLICLY CALLING OUT SOMEONE as a bigot is generally considered a poor way to build a business relationship with them.
However, the folks at English language Muslim channel Bridges TV, for whatever reason, believe this is their best chance at gaining carriage in Canada. And, not only have supporters of the channel labeled Rogers Communications, its founder Ted Rogers, and TV vice-president David Purdy as Islamophobic hate-mongers – claims that are wholly absurd – they’re also playing fast and loose with the facts.
Following up on a screed released October 18th, several Canadian Muslim groups said that a…
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TORONTO – Saying it makes the company the fastest wireless carrier in Canada, Rogers Wireless today launched high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) technology – its next generation voice and data network.
Available for now throughout Ontario’s "Golden Horseshoe", the debut of HSDPA places the company among the first operators in the world to deploy this latest evolution of GSM, the dominant global standard for mobile wireless communications with over two billion users worldwide, says the company.
HSDPA is a 3.5G protocol for mobile data transmission that, says the release, "significantly improves data transfer rates, enabling network users to download…
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ST. JOHN’s – A recent fire that knocked out all phone service for about 150,000 Newfoundland homes for about five hours drove home the point to residents of Canada’s easternmost province that they need another telecom option.
Today, the province (whose premier is former Cable Atlantic owner Danny Williams) announced it will spend $15 million on a new fully redundant fibre optic cable link from St. John’s to Halifax, N.S.
The provincial government won’t be the only one spending. A consortium consisting of Persona Communications, a national rural cable operator based in St. John’s that provides video and data…
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OTTAWA – Just like Proctor and Gamble pays Loblaws for a front-and-centre placement in the laundry detergent aisle for Bounce dryer sheets, so should companies like Google or Apple or Amazon have to pay ISPs like Videotron for transmitting their goods to consumers along the Internet backbone.
In a speech Tuesday at the Fourth Annual Telecommunications Forum in Ottawa, Dépatie’s speech just might rip the lid off the so-called "net neutrality" debate in Canada. On one side we have sectors of consumers fearing their unfettered access to the Internet will be disrupted (or unduly influenced by who pays the…
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TORONTO – The radio, TV, publishing and baseball division of Rogers Communications can get a little lost in the much larger cable, Internet, telecom and wireless assets, but Rogers Media is pulling its weight, too, the company said today.
In the third quarter, ended September 30th, operating revenue was up 12.2% to $319.3 million while operating profit jumped 17.1% to $39 million.
The increases in Media revenues… reflect growth across all of Media’s divisions," says the press release. "These increases include higher advertising revenue in Publishing and Radio, and at Sportsnet where the Toronto Blue Jays games and World…
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TORONTO – Net income tripled, revenue climbed 15%, operating profit jumped 33%, subscribers in all segments are up – these are heady days for Rogers Communications.
Consolidated revenue grew to $2.35 billion in the third quarter, ended September 30th, while consolidated operating profit rose to $784 million driving operating profit margin up 460 basis points. Net income in the quarter was $154 million, up from $48.9 million in Q3 2005.
For the first nine months, revenue increased 23.4% to $6.6 billion, OP went up 30.2% to $2.1 billion and net income went from $22.1 million over the first three…
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