TORONTO – The 2007 Canadian Digital Broadcasting Summit will be held January 29th and 30th at the Toronto Marriott Downtown Eaton Centre.
On the agenda are topics such as IP delivery of broadcasting, HD studio conversion, how the last mile (consumer premises) affects HD rollout, broadcast delivery capacity, IT infrastructure, subscriber rates and the recent trend towards the consumer as broadcaster.
Canadian comic Ron James will entertain at dinner on day one of the conference, which is organized every year by the Canadian Satellite Users Association. Cartt.ca is a media sponsor of the event.
Other speakers include: Paul Bush, Telesat;…
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TORONTO – A well-attended networking "President’s Reception" kicked off the new year in style for CTAM Canada at Flow Restaurant in Toronto Wednesday evening.
Over 70 CTAM Canada members were in attendance, including the folks in the pictures below.
CTV Specialty’s Ben Keyes and Insight Sports’ Sean Luxton.
Astral Media’s Mark Waschulzik and Alliance Atlantis’ Drew Robinson.
Mountain Cablevision’s John Piercy.
Rogers Cable’s Mark Lethbridge in the crowd.
Turner’s Matt Tolleson and Speed Channel’s Hawley Chester.
The Weather Network’s Paul Temple and High Fidelity…
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MONTREAL – With Shaw and now Videotron having stopped payment on their monthly cheques to the Canadian Television Fund, the CTF board of directors said late Wednesday it has retained legal counsel and warned the TV production community of a problematic year.
As the largest TV distributor, Shaw (which also owns Star Choice) is the largest private contributor to the CTF while Videotron would be the fourth-largest. Together, their contributions make up almost half of the $150 million contributed by the industry each year to the $250 million fund. The rest comes from the federal government.
Numbers two and…
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TORONTO – The CTAM Canada President’s Reception is taking place tomorrow, January 24th, in Toronto’s tony Yorkville District.
The event is from 6 to 8 p.m. at Flow Restaurant and Lounge at 133 Yorkville Ave. Admission to the networking event with cocktails, hors d’ouvres and prizes is free. www.flowrestaurant.com
RSVP today by e-mailing organizer Andrea Gagliardi at andrea.gagliardi@rci.rogers.com.
On March 1st, the next CTAM TeleSeminar will focus on the customer experience and is entitled: Hot Ideas to Keep your Customers Cool. It will take place from noon to 1:30 p.m. ET and will be delivered via satellite…
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THE SMALL AND MEDIUM-sized business market has become a crowded place.
All of the big companies have said in the past months they see this market as a place to find big growth. Rogers, Bell, Shaw, Cogeco, Telus et al – all have talked about how well they hope to do in the SME space.
So is there room for small startups like Syntagma Network Services? CEO Theresa Carbonneau thinks so. The company’s small business plan offers a full suite of voice over IP-delivered services including broadband connectivity, voice services, e-mail and web hosting, exchange server hosting, virus scanning…
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DEREGULATING LOCAL PHONE in major urban centres in 2007 seems to me to be the right thing to do.
"The idea that somehow the cable guys are at a disadvantage to the telcos has not been proven so far in the entry of the cable industry in local voice," Lawson Hunter, Bell’s chief corporate officer said to me Wednesday. I agree with him. To a point.
Setting aside the unprecedented use of the provision in the Telecom Act that let’s the government issue policy directives to the CRTC (until 2006, it just hadn’t been done), it’s time to…
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MONTREAL – The Quebec language group which took Rogers Cable to task this week for its distribution and placement of French-language channels in Ontario “unfortunately made inaccurate assumptions”, a Rogers official says.
“I think the group didn’t take things in context,” Rogers communications vice-president Taanta Gupta said. “We’ve done a major re-alignment of channels, but we make these changes so that they disrupt the least number of people as possible. We’ve also moved some English-language channels .”
On Tuesday, the group, Impératif français, complained to the federal government that the carrier is demonstrating “contempt” for the province’s French…
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BARRIE – The Ontario Chapter of the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) has put together a line-up of speakers with real-world experience for its next professional development conference in Barrie on Feb. 8th.
On the agenda: Basic design and performance considerations for HFC plant, with Rogers Cable’s Bob Beaver; an in-depth look at ways to maximize return plant robustness while minimizing operational costs, led by Clearcable’s Jason Lowe; and the implications of having more and more utilities constructing underground, with Eric Goulden of Telonix.
In response to many requests, Rick Haub of PPC will lead a session on…
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MONTREAL – The Quebec language group Impératif français has complained to the federal government about the manner in which Rogers Cable handles French-language TV channels in Ontario, saying the carrier is demonstrating “contempt” for the province’s French speakers.
In a letter to federal Public Works Minister Michael Fortier, the group calls on the federal government to respond, by not renewing its cellular service contracts with Rogers Wireless.
It says Rogers no longer offers the Radio-Canada arts channel ARTV as part of its basic service, even though it says the station is made available at no cost to distributors in…
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A SINGLE ELEMENT ON DAY ONE of the new Sportsnet Connected typified the new programming focus of the Rogers Media-owned regional sports network.
It was Wade Belak.
It wasn’t so much the new set with its BAM ("big-ass-monitor", says Connected’s show manager Mike English) 103-inch plasma TV, lack of a traditional sports desk or that the anchors and reporters are more casual in their presentation and attire (some more comfortable than others) that hit hardest. It was Belak, and only figuratively, thank goodness.
The Toronto Maple Leafs enforcer showed up in a long-sleeved camouflage shirt and jeans. Great for…
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