OTTAWA – Shaw Communications has sold its interests in digital specialty services Biography Channel and G4TechTV to Rogers Communications.
The CRTC approved both transactions on Monday. Rogers Broadcasting is already the operator of both Canadian channels.
Rogers paid Shaw $1 million for its 33.3% stake in G4 and now owns two-thirds of the channel along with Comcast, the parent company of the U.S. channel.
Rogers paid $5 million combined for Shaw’s 40% stake in Biography and A&E Television Networks’ 20% ownership, to take 100% of the service. AETN owns Biography Channel, Stateside.
Rogers has agreed to pay out 10%…
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VANCOUVER – Shaw Cable has added Italian channel RAI International to its digital cable lineup in Vancouver.
"Customers who currently subscribe to Telelatino will have the option of subscribing to RAI International and expanding their Italian programming choices," says the press release. RAI International is the international service of Italy’s largest television broadcaster, and had to battle Telelatino in order to gain access to the eligible satellite list in Canada.
Click here for a little background.
RAI International will be available on Shaw Digital channel 127 until September 15, 2006 at no cost for all Shaw digital cable…
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TORONTO – Keying off an internal CableLabs research paper, a Wall Street Journal report said yesterday that cable operators may need to spend billions on more rounds of network upgrades.
The newspaper story (subscription required) quoted the leaked document from Cable Television Laboratories – the cable industry’s R&D and specifications arm – saying that broadband video growth at places such as Google and YouTube, coupled with the multibillion-dollar spend by Verizon to get fibre to the premises and roll out digital television, will require CableLabs members to dig into their wallets for yet another rebuild.
The story also…
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TORONTO – Residents in communities across Ontario including: Belleville, Chatham, Dundas, Ancaster, Welland, Milton, Georgetown, Tecumseh and Trenton can now get local telephony from Rogers Communications (and none of those towns are Rogers Cable areas).
Rogers Home Phone celebrated its first anniversary on July 1, 2006 with nearly 550,000 customers.
"Communities across Ontario can now benefit from the choice provided by Rogers Home Phone service," said Phil Hartling, vice-president and general manager, Rogers Home Phone. "Consumers who choose to switch to Rogers Home Phone service can keep their same phone and phone number, all while receiving a better service…
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SIGNIFICANT. MARKET. POWER.
Those three words appear all through the Telecom Policy Review Report, which Cartt.ca has covered at length. According to my search of that document, the three words appear together 62 times, and a further 65 as its SMP acronym.
When reading that huge report, it’s easy to see how SMP was and is a very big deal to its authors. The Telecom Policy Review Panel was very conscious of the concept and how the companies with SMP might still have to be watched. It’s a key concept of the report.
But you wouldn’t know it from…
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TORONTO – MTV’s Laguna Beach can be seen everywhere this fall as it launches on a total of six platforms, specialty, broadband, VOD, mobile, conventional TV, and live.
"Our audience is constantly demanding more. More content. More places. More access – and when it comes to Laguna Beach, more drama," said Brad Schwartz, senior vice-president and general manager, MTV. "Canadians are grabbing the entertainment they want on whatever device they want and MTV will be there to deliver that all-important Laguna-fix. The new media model is to be ‘everywhere at once’ and Laguna Beach is the ultimate example of…
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THE FOOD INDUSTRY WAS never this exciting, says Videotron president and CEO Robert Dépatie.
In the 1990s, he was in charge of the Planters brand in Quebec and prior to that, held positions with Heinz. The sheer volume of food processing technology was nothing then as compared to what his cable company faces today. The acronyms are endless: VOIP, VOD, HDTV, iTV, IPTV, DOCSIS and so on.
Last week, the MSO launched its own branded wireless service, riding on the Rogers Wireless backbone, giving it a fourth valuable service option and allowing a family’s entire telecom bill, beginning to…
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TORONTO – Rogers Sportsnet’s Hockeycentral team will start lunching downtown next month.
Rogers’ all-sports station The Fan 590 and Sportsnet announced Friday the addition of Hockeycentral At Noon to each of the properties lineups starting Monday September 11th at noon.
The one-hour show features host Daren Millard and co-host Nick Kypreos discussing all the latest news from the hockey world.
The show will take place from The Fan 590 studios and simulcast on Rogers Sportsnet Ontario, "continuing the on-going synergy between the two media partners," says the press release. The Fan’s Prime Time Sports with Bob McCown airs from…
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QUEBEC – Videotron Wireless hit the Quebec City market today as the fourth leg in the Quebecor division’s video, data and telecom stool.
As reported on Monday, the company officially launched its wireless phone service today with a number of different handsets and service plans. The one that might get the most attention is its $94.95 a month bundle of wireless phone, wireline phone, digital TV and Internet service.
Videotron Wireless, which is running on the Rogers Wireless network, will be available to the rest of its cable territories by the end of the calendar year. It will offer…
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MARKHAM – Free, sponsored golf lessons are now available on demand through Rogers Digital Cable.
Capital Networks, Markham, Ont., produced the golf lessons that will be available to approximately one million Rogers customers with a digital box. Each of the 24 episodes is sponsored by Chrysler Canada and was shot at The Club at Bond Head, just north of Toronto.
The series host is Nigel Hollidge, director of golf operations at The Club at Bond Head. Hollidge works with Canadian PGA touring professional Ian Leggatt and Matt McQuillan, an up and coming touring pro, in the various video segments….
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