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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FEE-FOR-CARRIAGE will happen.
There. I said it. I don’t like it and sure don’t want to pay it, but I’ve come to believe – thanks to my talks and travels this year with folks from all sides of the issue – that in some form, the CRTC is going to grant the conventional broadcasters’ demand for more money from Canadians as additional compensation for the content they deliver.
"On the face of it, it’s a bizarre idea," Rogers vice-chairman Phil Lind told me recently. "(Consumers) get nothing extra, they just have to pay five dollars more."
True enough, but…
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THE CRTC’s TELEVISION POLICY Review hearing, which gets under way this morning with the CBC facing the commissioners, will have everyone involved in the Canadian TV industry on tenterhooks for months (like it hasn’t already!).
The Ceeb will be followed today by TQS, then CanWest Global and CTV.
While fee-for-carriage will overshadow much of the discussion over the next week-and-a-half or so, of course we at Cartt.ca know there’s far more to this hearing than that. The overall effects of new media will be a dominant topic, as will important issues like advertising flexibility, high definition transition solutions, what…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Jim Pattison Broadcast Group’s $15.75 million purchase of O.K. Radio’s Vancouver Island stations was approved by the CRTC today.
As first reported in May by Cartt.ca, O.K.’s owners, Rogers Charest and Stu Morton, are looking to retire – and are also awaiting CRTC approval for the sale of the company’s Alberta stations to Rogers Media.
Pattison has purchased from O.K. 100.3 The Q! The Island’s Rock (CKKQ-FM, playing classic and new rock) and The Zone @ 91.3 (CJZN-FM, with a modern rock format) as well as their retransmitters and transitional digital radio licenses.
The purchase is…
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FORMER CABLE ATLANTIC OWNER, and current Newfoundland & Labrador premier Danny Williams is ticked off these days.
His government is getting strafed by daily opposition fire over the recently announced deal to bring another undersea fibre link from the mainland to The Rock. The $52-million project is backed with $15 million in provincial government money and will be built by a consortium of Persona Communications, Rogers Communications and MTS Allstream.
From what’s been published in the press out east, the opposition Liberals don’t seem to care about the project’s potential benefits – which are likely many –…
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WINNIPEG – Canada’s largest ISPs have joined forces with Cybertip.ca, Canada’s child sexual exploitation tip line, to launch a new voluntary initiative to help in the battle against online child sexual abuse.
The new initiative, named "Project Cleanfeed Canada", is the latest contribution from the multi-stakeholder Canadian Coalition Against Internet Child Exploitation (C-CAICE). It’s intended to make the Internet safer for Canadians and their families by reducing their chances of coming across images of child sexual exploitation on the Internet.
The participating ISPs – which so far include Bell Aliant, Bell Canada, MTS Allstream, Rogers, SaskTel, Shaw Communications Inc.,…
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TORONTO – If Rogers and Bell are on the same side of an issue – working together even – you know they see a threat.
Today, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telus, Sask Tel, MTS Allstream, and the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance released a research report saying 81% of Canadians do not want to pay a new fee for conventional broadcast stations.
As has been reported repeatedly by Cartt.ca the concept of fee for carriage has been pushed by Canadian broadcasters and will be front and centre at the upcoming CRTC Television Policy Review beginning Monday, November 27th in Hull….
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has added six new foreign ethnic channels have been added to the eligible satellite list.
All were sponsored by Rogers Cable and they are:
* Aaj Tak Channel is a 24/7 Hindi-language programming service providing news and information on world events, current affairs and financial developments. None of the programming offered on the service is accompanied by English- or French-language subtitles or secondary audio programming
* De Pelicula Channel is a niche service featuring Spanish-language films of different genres and epochs. Its programming includes contemporary and classic Spanish-language movies from all eras, including films from…
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