TORONTO – While Rogers Cable has no issue with people petitioning the company to carry certain channels, it strenuously objected to the tactics deployed by Bridges TV last week, as reported by Cartt.ca.
The English language Muslim-focused channel challenged Rogers on a number of fronts, accusing the cable company of discriminating against the Muslim community in an egregiously worded press release.
Rogers spokesperson Taanta Gupta said the decision to keep Bridges on the sidelines has nothing to do with the channel’s content and everything to do with their contract demands. "They want to be paid a fee for every single…
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IN THE FIRST PART OF Cartt.ca’s exclusive, wide-ranging interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CEO, Robert Rabinovitch talked about stable funding, the TV Policy Review, The One, CBC radio and SRC, among other topics.
Click here to read Part I of the story from last week.
In the second part of our chat, Rabinovitch goes over on demand strategies, HD, CBC Sports (the interview was prior to Nancy Lee’s departure), local news and the residual effects of the 2005 lockout. What follows is an edited transcript.
Greg O’Brien: Let’s switch back to English TV – but actually this question…
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VANCOUVER – The Jack-FM brand is moving to the U.K.
SparkNet Communications, owner of the radio brand which "plays what we want", is taking Jack-FM, which Rogers Radiohas used extensively across Canada, international. Ofcom, the U.K.’s communications regulator, recently announced that Absolute Radio International (ARI), who launched their radio station bid with the Jack-FM format, successfully won the new FM radio license for Oxford and the surrounding South Oxfordshire area.
This step is the first step in Jack’s international expansion. As in North America, Jack-FM will be programmed locally and "will bring its unique musical variety and irreverent attitude…
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TORONTO – G4techTV Canada announced Monday that digital cable and satellite subscribers will get to see its high-tech and gaming programming through the month of November at no charge.
As well, the Rogers-controlled digital specialty service is offering viewers a chance to win a five day trip for four to Honolulu, Hawaii and tickets to the NFL Pro Bowl football game in February 2007.
The winner will also receive four passes to the Madden Championship online football gaming tournament being held in Hawaii.
Participating BDUs include: Bell ExpressVu, Rogers, Cogeco, Videotron, Persona, Access, Telus, MTS, Mountain Cable, Source, and…
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VANCOUVER – Last week Telus turned on the first five of seven new cellular sites which are providing voice and data service to a 25 kilometre stretch of Highway 1 between Revelstoke and Golden, B.C. known as Rogers Pass. The remaining two sites are planned for later in the year.
The $7 million project is part of the company’s ongoing investment to improve existing cell service along the highway and throughout British Columbia’s interior.
“We recognize cellular service along this corridor is particularly important for people living in the area and travellers, and are doing what we can to…
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OTTAWA – Rogers Communications chairman Alan Horn has been elected to the board of directors of March Networks.
The election took place at the company’s annual general meeting on October 3, 2006.
Horn is currently chairman of the board of directors of Rogers Communications Inc. and is president and CEO of Rogers Telecommunications. Previously, he was RCI’s CFO.
"Alan brings to our board an extensive amount of experience from a well established and world-class technology organization. I am confident that Alan will make a significant contribution to the March Networks board," said Peter Strom, March Networks’ president and CEO, and…
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TORONTO – The owners of Bridges TV took their fight for carriage on Rogers Cable to the media late on Wednesday.
An incendiary press release from the English-language Muslim specialty service obviously meant as an unvarnished public attempt to bully the cable company into capitulation, says that by not letting Bridges TV into its channel lineup Rogers is ignoring and discriminating against the Muslim community, is censoring Islam and disrupting dialog between the Muslim community and all Canadians.
By not adding American-owned Bridges TV, Rogers may even be at fault for the fact Muslims in Canada "continue to bear…
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WHEN NBTEL FIRST CAME to market in 1998 with a digital TV product serving customers in Moncton and Saint John, N.B., the cable industry laughed.
Sure, it was all-digital television, but each TV needed its own set top box, channel-changing latency was a problem and due to the limitations of the early ADSL technology it used, all the TVs in the house had to be tuned to the same channel. Fine for homes without a second TV, but not so much for most folks.
At the time, NBTel (which is now Aliant) was the North American leader on the…
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TORONTO – Six people were inducted into the Canadian Telecom Hall of Fame at a gala dinner at The Carlu in Toronto Monday evening.
The event drew a large number of senior telecom folks and other key industry figures such as Industry Canada’s Michael Binder, the CRTC’s Len Katz, Nortel board member and former Industry Canada Minister John Manley, Persona Communications president and CEO Dean MacDonald, former New Brunswick premier Frank McKenna, and assorted others.
Inducted were Rogers Communications CEO Edward S. "Ted" Rogers (accepting on-screen in the photo below) and his pioneering father E.S. Rogers Sr., telecom lawyer…
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TORONTO – Nancy Lee will get to oversee the broadcast of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics after all.
The executive director of CBC Sports told staff today she is stepping down from her position after 20 years with the CBC. She has been hired by the International Olympic Committee as COO of Olympic Broadcast Services Vancouver.
CBC was out-bid for the 2010 Olympics by a CTV/TSN/Rogers Sportsnet consortium, an important programming loss for the Ceeb’s sports section.
David Masse will be acting executive director of CBC Sports while a search for a permanent replacement is launched.
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