TORONTO – Rogers Sportsnet recorded its highest-rated CHL audience ever last Saturday during the Memorial Cup’s opening game between the OHL’s London Knights and the Rimouski Oceanic.
The game pulled in an average audience of 593,000 viewers, peaking at 701,000. That represents an increase of almost 250% over the previous high for a Memorial Cup contest on Sportsnet, said a release.
Last year’s final between the Kelowna Rockets and the Gatineau Olympiques attracted a total of 238,000 viewers, the highest Memorial Cup audience before the Knights versus Oceanic clash Saturday.
Last year’s Cup also had to go up against…
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TORONTO – Saying the new management structure will facilitate further simplification of operations and integrated approaches to markets and functions, Rogers Communications today appointed Nadir Mohamed as president and COO of the company’s communications division: the cable and wireless sides.
Mohamed had been president and CEO of Rogers Wireless. Edward Rogers will continue as president of Rogers Cable while Robert Bruce, executive vice-president and chief marketing officer at Rogers Wireless, will become president of Rogers Wireless. The changes are effective immediately.
“Having achieved full ownership of all three of our operating companies, we are now proceeding to structure our…
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TORONTO – Canada’s wireless industry will announce North America’s broadest WiFi hotspot on Wednesday.
The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA), in conjunction with national wireless service providers Bell Mobility, Fido, Rogers Wireless and Telus Mobility, has announced the launch of inter-carrier WiFi service along with the commitment to develop more than 500 new hotspot locations this year.
This new hotspot network, the broadest inter-carrier undertaking of its kind in North America, allows for cross-Canada roaming between carrier-run hotspots under a common brand.
“It’s the first of its kind in Canada, certainly, and it’s also the first of its kind…
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LONDON and TORONTO – All of the Memorial Cup hockey games being shown on Rogers Sportsnet will be shown in HD, the channel recently announced.
The HD coverage begins with Sportsnet HD’s opening game, when the powerhouse host team London Knights face off against Sidney Crosby’s Rimouski Oceanic tomorrow, Saturday, May 21 at 7:00 p.m. (ET)/ 4:00 p.m. (PT).
“This is arguably the most significant hockey event in Canada this season,” said Dave Akande, vice-president programming, Rogers Sportsnet, with a nod towards the NHL strike/lockout. “An event of this magnitude should be available to our viewers in high definition.”…
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TORONTO – While technically, they lost, the Canadian Recording Industry Association says it welcomes Thursday’s decision by the Federal Court of Appeal.
The appeal was denied, but the ruling clarified the steps necessary to obtain disclosure of the identities of alleged large-scale uploaders from Internet service providers and rejected the findings of the motions court with respect to copyright law.
"We welcome the court’s confirmation that Canada isn’t a piracy haven," says CRIA President Graham Henderson. "This was the key issue on which we appealed, and we’re delighted that the court agreed with us."
The court decision hinged on…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC this morning approved the $13 million acquisition of religious broadcaster NOWTV by Rogers Broadcasting.
According to the terms of the deal released last year, Rogers will pay $12.25 million for CHNU-TV Fraser Valley (which serves the Vancouver region as NOWTV BC) and $750,000 for CIIT-TV Winnipeg, or NOW TV Manitoba, which has not yet launched. Rogers also proposed a benefits package of $1.3 million.
When contacted by www.cartt.ca, Rael Merson, president of Rogers Broadcasting, said that the Winnipeg station will launch by September 2006, “at the latest.”
The Commission also approved Rogers’ request to add…
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BRAMPTON – The annual SCTE Ontario chapter golf tournament is scheduled for August 9th at the Lionhead Golf Club in Brampton.
While player registration is not yet opened, the chapter is looking for sponsors for the popular event, which will also feature some learning as well with “wireless” as the working topic.
For more information, go to www.scte-ontario.com or e-mail Laura O’Hare at laura.ohare@rci.rogers.com.
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WHILE THE SATELLITE SIGNAL theft issue seems to have receded into the background recently, the Canadian TV industry must keep the pressure on government in order to force change.
A number of things have happened of late to limit the damage caused by illegal U.S. dishes, such as DirecTV’s as-yet-unhacked new access card – and the fact that Bell ExpressVu is nearly done with its card-swap, moving to a far more secure algorithm. The quick Quebec Superior Court decision in April to strike down a lower court ruling which said the Radiocommunication Act was contrary to our Charter of…
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OTTAWA – The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed a challenge from the Canadian music industry over gaining access to the names of a number of high-volume music file-swappers, but has left the door wide open for further court action.
Reading the decision, though, makes it seem like the judges thought that such file-swapping needs some deeper exploration but were bound by the rules of law to dismiss this particular lawsuit.
The Canadian Recording Industry Association had wanted Canadian Internet service providers Shaw Communications, Rogers Cable, Telus, Bell Canada and Videotron to give it the names of 29 music…
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TORONTO – Corus Entertainment’s vice-president, finance and administration in its radio division has decided to return to Rogers Communications.
However, Jamie Haggarty won’t be returning to Rogers Cable, which is where he came from prior to his six years at Corus. Instead, he has been hired as vice-president, finance at radio/TV/publishing division Rogers Media.
His final day at Corus is slated to be June 3rd.
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