CANADA’S ILEC’s SURE hope so. They need it to be.
Every quarter, when telco CEOs face industry analysts, one or more of them invariably ask whether the telcos’ rebuild strategy of only bringing fibre to a neighbourhood node, within a kilometre or so of a group of homes, will provide enough bandwidth to make them competitive in the broadband video world.
They also invariably point to U.S. telco Verizon, which is building fibre to the home (or curb or the premises, whatever you’d like to call it) so that it can deliver on its aggressive rollout plans for its…
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TORONTO – The fourth quarter of 2006 was "one of the best quarters this company has ever had," Rogers Communications founder and CEO Ted Rogers said Thursday.
Consolidated revenue grew 14.4% to $2.4 billion and consolidated operating profit jumped 46.3% to $752 million in the quarter ended December 31, 2006.
On the subscriber side, wireless Postpaid ARPU (average revenue per unit/subscriber) increased 6.1% while postpaid churn fell to 1.24% in the quarter. Cable and telecom residential and business local telephony lines surpassed 920,500, and solid growth in cable and high-speed Internet subscribers continues.
Despite the good news, Rogers cast…
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I’LL MISS STUART LANGFORD if he departs the Commission this fall when his current term is scheduled to expire.
We media types love a good quote and while I’ve never met the man, I’ve read enough of the CRTC commissioner’s sometimes entertaining dissents from certain decisions that I will miss his take on things if he goes. (Here are a couple of examples.)
While Drew Craig sounded a little uncomfortable with Langford’s line of questioning Wednesday morning in Calgary during the Commission’s hearings there, the commissioner’s oddball analogies drew some guffaws audible even on the webcast we listened in…
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MONTREAL – Quebec’s film and television producers’ association today lambasted Quebecor’s proposal to re-direct its television program development money from the Canadian Television Fund (CTF) to its own self-directed Fonds Quebecor.
Claire Samson, president of the APFTQ, told a news conference Tuesday that the plan, outlined Monday by Quebecor president and CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau, is unacceptable in every regard and should be firmly rejected.
“Quebecor has clearly shown its intentions to reserve its new fund exclusively for its own broadcast properties,” she said, which goes against the whole idea behind the CTF’s creation.
Péladeau’s plan, she said, is…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications-owned Star Choice issued a press release this morning entitled " Star Choice Customers Denied NHL Hockey" and said that due to a Rogers Sportsnet court order, the DTH company had to now black out certain hockey games on the sports channel’s regional networks.
"Star Choice had stopped conducting blackouts in an effort to address subscriber frustration and confusion resulting from Sportsnet’s frequent blackouts of NHL games," reads the press release from Star Choice.
"Sportsnet blackouts make it impossible for Star Choice subscribers to see games of the Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames, Edmonton…
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GATINEAU – Quebecor Media’s Sun TV has asked the Commission for permission to build transmitters in both London and Ottawa.
The move would dramatically expand the channel’s coverage area, making it a basic cable must carry across most of the province- and Sun TV would then be far more competitive in the lucrative Southern Ontario TV market.
Expect the existing broadcasters in the region, from CTV to Global to the CBC to Rogers to CTS to whomever ends up owning the A-Channels (London, Wingham, Barrie and Ottawa) after the CTV-CHUM purchase, to vehemently oppose any further market additions, just…
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TORONTO – If you’ve watched TV in Toronto recently, you’ve probably seen the Rogers Cable HD PVR ad where Dad watches a hockey game (while fast-forwarding and rewinding, of course) with his young son who can’t sleep.
In the background is a distinctive vocal track by new artist Brett Dennen.
According to Rogers, the spot has been quite popular and "we get daily requests from customers for the name of the artist and the song playing in the background," says spokesperson Nancy Cottenden.
Since the Rogers ad (click here for a look), which began its run in December,…
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GATINEAU – As long as it’s a point-to-point transmission and the wireless carriers first have permission from TV companies to carry their signal(s), mobile TV will not be regulated like cable television.
A new exemption order issued Wednesday by the CRTC, which was kicked off by a public notice in April of 2006, allows services like MobiTV continue (even if those types of services, carried by Bell Mobility, Telus and Rogers Wireless, haven’t seen much traction yet).
Click here for the full Commission order.
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TORONTO – Terry Snazel, vice-president technology at Bell ExpressVu, was this year’s CSUA Outstanding Service Award winner.
In making the presentation at the association’s recent annual conference held last week in Toronto, Corus Entertainment’s Gordon Lee, vice-chair of CSUA said: “Persistent and provocative perhaps, but always inquisitive and always on the leading edge of the technical assessment of the issues. Terry has shared his experiences with his peers and we have all learned from him. Terry you have made a difference in CSUA and you have made a difference in the Canadian broadcasting industry.”
Snazel began his career in…
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TORONTO – Top line results of a Super Bowl Sunday survey done by Solutions Research Group show good things for most advertisers – but not for the Conservative Party.
Of the 400+ Canadians surveyed immediately after the big game, 22% of those who were watching spent the whole four hours with the game and 63% watched at least half.
Sixty-eight percent of viewers watched the half-time show and 78% watched the game with someone else while 20% were watching with more than five people
Viewers were also connecting in other ways. One-in-ten were instant messaging others watching elsewhere as…
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