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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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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