TORONTO – Security is uppermost in the minds of on-line Canadians, a new survey released today shows.
According to the results of a new Internet safety and security poll from Rogers and Yahoo!, 79% of respondents feel it’s extremely important to protect their home computers from potential Internet and security threats. The nuisance of online threats is frustrating more users than ever before, even though 98% of polled users have security software installed on their personal computers.
The poll was released today at the same time the two companies announced the launch of a new integrated suite of…
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TIMMINS – Rogers Radio’s Q92 in Timmins has undergone a few personnel moves recently.
General manager market sales Mick Weaver recently departed to head up Rogers’ CHEZ 106 and Oldies 1310 in Ottawa, says Rogers Radio’s Timmins manager Art Pultz.
The market sales manager is now Angelo Lia while Pultz has now taken on a larger role as operations manager.
Q92’s popular morning man Darryl Spring is now working overnight at the Edge in Toronto – so the Timmins “drive” show is being hosted by Jeff Spindel, who joined from 97.7 Sun FM in Grande Prairie (OK Radio) with…
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OTTAWA – Three days before the two sides were to face the CRTC, OUTtv and Shaw Communications have settled their disagreement.
The deal means that gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered lifestyle channel OUTtv will be re-packaged on Shaw Cable and Star Choice. OUTtv objected to the way it was being packaged as a stand-alone service, contrary to its rights as a category one digital channel as a must-carry.
Shaw and OUTtv were to face the CRTC for one more ruling on Friday but the channel withdrew the complaint after the two sides came to an agreement last Tuesday. “The Shaw…
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MONTREAL – Videotron announced today it is dropping its $4.95 long distance plan.
This follows recent moves by Bell Canada and Rogers Communications to ditch their own ultra-cheap $5 offers.
The Videotron plan gave residential customers 1,000 minutes per month to call anywhere in North America for $4.95. Other long-distance plans, including unlimited calls in Quebec for $4.95 per month, remain available. Videotron also offers free long-distance calling between subscribers to its residential telephone service.
"The 1,000-minute plan included in our original offering, at the time of the launch of our cable telephone service in January, was dictated by…
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TORONTO – Last week Rogers Cable added Playboy On Demand to its SVOD lineup.
As usual with adult content, the addition wasn’t trumpeted with a press release, but quietly added, given that many customers are uncomfortable with such content.
PBOD is available at no extra charge to customers already paying $14.95 for the regular channel.
Rogers is the first Canadian carrier to add PBOD, which is carried Stateside by large MSOs such as Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications.
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TORONTO – Rogers Cable must be juiced about its next new TV channel because ads touting it are already in rotation among its parent company’s Toronto radio stations, despite the fact it doesn’t launch for another 12 days.
The channel is RETV, a brand new digital real estate channel platform for cable operators, from Capital Networks. Officially, Rogers will launch it on July 19th in York Region, with the rest of the company’s Ontario systems adding it later this year.
Customers of Aurora Cable already know RETV since the company has been offering the service to its 14,000 customers…
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TORONTO – With the ongoing growth of his company, Bill Evanov, president and CEO of Evanov Radio Group, announced this week the appointment of Wolfgang von Raesfeld as director of special projects.
Von Raesfeld will work on a variety of special items including overseeing the sales departments for the Evanov Radio Group’s five radio stations.
“With the expansion and growth of the Evanov Radio Group and the CRTC granting new broadcasting licenses to the company in Halifax (Z103.5) and recently in the Ottawa market (98.5 The Jewel), there is a need for additional management personnel,” said the company.
Von…
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TORONTO – Call it the churn-buster
Subscription video on demand has, by all measures, been a stunning success for Astral Television, says the company’s senior vice-president of sales and marketing Domenic Vivolo (pictured). Usage rates, except in Quebec, have been extraordinarily high as people can thumb through and watch almost everything available that month from TMN and its multiplexes whenever they want, through TMN On Demand.
In the French market, though, Super Ecran does not fare nearly as well, for reasons you’ll read below.
However, with usage rates among TMN subscribers at 70% and pushing three million views per…
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CALGARY – Shaw Cablesystems today said it has added Rogers Sportsnet HD and Fox HD to its channel lineup.
The two channels are included at no charge to customers subscribing to Shaw Digital.
While Fox HD carries much popular TV programming, including NFL Football, NASCAR racing, American Idol, 24, House, Stacked, The O.C., and Malcolm in the Middle, Sportsnet is the HD leader in Canada with hundreds of hours of HD content, including every home game of the Toronto Blue Jays in HD. Sportsnet has broadcast about 150 live events since the Toronto Blue Jays opened their HD schedule…
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TORONTO – After the shareholders and the Competition Bureau approved, all that was left was today’s Ontario Court ruling on Rogers Communications’ purchase of Call-Net Enterprises.
Call-Net received the final order from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice this morning relating to the plan of arrangement through which RCI will acquire all of the outstanding common shares and class B non-voting shares of Call-Net on the basis of one RCI class B non-voting share for every 4.25 Call-Net shares.
When the deal was announced last month, it was valued at $330 million.
The acquisition of Call-Net by RCI is…
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