OTTAWA-GATINEAU – A local market won’t be considered competitive until one-quarter of the households in it get their home phone from a newcomer, the CRTC said Thursday.
The 44,000-word decision made the newcomers like cable and third party VOIP providers very happy but angered the incumbent telcos, who erupted with anger and say they won’t stand for the decision.
“Aliant fully intends to appeal this decision,” said Heather Tulk, vice-president of residential markets at Aliant, the company whose application for deregulation launched the review.
There are three main aspects to the decision. 1) Competitors must gain 25% market…
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I FIND CARTT.CA AN EXCELLENT source of timely information about the exciting communications industry in Canada and occasionally we subscribers are treated to one of your humorous diversions, or at least that is what Thursday’s Commentary seems to be. It focuses on what can only be described as the old saying “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic,” Global style.
Last November I learned through your service that the CEO of Global, Mr. Leonard Asper announced, among other things, that “There is a battle coming.” He was also quoted as saying “We know the Commission has some sympathy…
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SHOULD BROADCASTERS RECEIVE a wholesale fee for their signals from BDUs?
That will be one of the key questions for the industry and the Commission to answer in the coming months because while the CRTC’s radio review is well under way – with public hearings in May – we can likely expect a TV policy review to begin late this year with hearings in 2007, sources told www.cartt.ca this week.
The desire by broadcasters to be paid a fee for carriage, or for retransmission, is about as old as the cable industry itself. In the 1950s, broadcasters called nascent…
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TORONTO – Toronto Blue Jays owner Rogers Communications has added to its team coverage with free preview games not televised locally, player profiles on Jays On Demand and up to the minute stats and schedules.
Rogers digital cable customers can catch a free preview of MLB Extra Innings on the Sports Preview Channel, for example. The free preview will broadcast, 15 Toronto Blue Jays games, not televised locally, between April 5th and August 9th, 2006. Customers in Ontario and New Brunswick can watch the free games on digital channel 401.
The 15 games are:
Wed. April 5th, 7 p.m.,…
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TORONTO – ATN B4U Music was added to the Rogers Digital Cable lineup this week.
"Music is an integral part of the South Asian Culture and ATN has been a pioneer in the production and promotion of music from the Indian sub-continent," said Shan Chandrasekar, president and CEO of Asian Television Networks, who is also on the board of the Royal Conservatory of Music.
B4U Music is "a hip and funky 24-hour global music channel," says the release, with programming that includes the musical hits from the latest Bollywood movies, the Bollywood music charts, star interviews, dance floor hits…
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BUFFALO – American Arab/Muslim channel Bridges TV will soon launch in Canada.
The company announced this week that Rogers Cable will begin carrying it this spring and has also recently transitioned from a premium pay channel in the U.S. to basic cable on several cable and satellite systems there.
The year-old Buffalo, N.Y.-based cable channel was added to the list of eligible satellite services by the Commission in December.
The changes to its carriage and its launch in Canada "comes at a time when Middle Eastern and South Asian communities around the world are in the spotlight," says the company. "Most recently,…
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GATINEAU – Thanks to complaints that some channels up for addition to the eligible satellite list in Canada offer nothing but Communist propaganda, the CRTC has re-opened a public proceeding to gather additional evidence.
Rogers Cable has faced complaints and some small protests after sponsoring the addition of nine new Chinese channels to the eligible satellite list for digital distribution in Canada.
The now-defunct Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association had made the original application (Rogers Cable took over sponsorship after the organization closed) and described the channels as general interest fare. "Based on supporting information provided by the CCTA, the…
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TORONTO – New Canadians are avid users of mobile phones and alternative long distance calling options — and spend more on wireless and home phone combined, according to a new study by Solutions Research Group, a Toronto-based market research firm.
Among the key findings of the wireless and telecom module of the Diversity in Canada study are:
• Major ethnic groups in Canada are somewhat more likely to have cellular phones (61% have one, vs. 59% average among 15+ population in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver). Highest penetration is among Chinese Canadians (74%).
• Rogers is the leading wireless company…
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CALGARY – It wasn’t exactly a secret among western Canadian radio folks, but Rogers Radio made the format change official today by launching 660News in Calgary.
The station had been Oldies 66 CFR and pulled a 2.5 (A12+) in the fall 2005 ratings book but will now compete head on with Corus Radio’s news/talk CHQR 770, which boasted a 10.2 in the fall, fourth in the market.
"At Rogers Media we believe that our extensive experience with the ‘All News Radio’ format will allow us to deliver a quality product that listeners will return to throughout their busy day,"…
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TORONTO – Rogers and Bell can now compete nationally for high speed Internet users, regardless of where the two companies have wired footprints.
A trio of releases today announced that 1) the long-dormant Inukshuk spectrum is now ready to be used and; 2) that both Bell and Rogers – the co-owners of Inukshuk, are retailing high speed wireless service beginning today.
Rogers is called, a little clunkily: Portable Internet from Rogers Yahoo! Hi-Speed Internet and is available in 20 cities across Canada, giving customers access to Internet speeds up to 1.5 mbps download, 256 kbps upload from anywhere in…
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