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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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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