Prior to announcing its new 12-year, $11B NHL media rights deal on Wednesday, Rogers Communications last week filed a number of trademark applications with the federal government’s Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO).
The trademarks include “Canada, It’s Our Game”, “It’s Our Game” and “This Is Our Game”. Rogers’s applications were filed March 27 and 28.
In each trademark application, Rogers’s statement of the goods and services associated with the respective trademarks included “Promotion of goods and services of others through sponsorship of sports…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers says it has been forced to plow millions of dollars to carry Corus channels it no longer sees as useful, and asked for assurances that, if it wins its case at the Federal Court of Appeal, it will be made whole.
The cable giant allegedly asked Corus in December whether it will reimburse Rogers if it wins its case challenging how the CRTC is applying the standstill rule to both parties in a commercial dispute wherein Rogers wants to remove at least one Corus service and move two others down the dial on cable.
Corus allegedly didn’t respond…
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Rogers and the National Hockey League announced Wednesday an $11-billion, 12-year agreement for the national media rights to NHL games on all platforms in Canada through the 2037-38 season.
Worth more than double the current $5.2-billion, 12-year media rights deal the two organizations signed in 2013, the new agreement will start with the 2026-27 NHL season.
The deal was first reported on Monday by Sportico.com, based on information from sources familiar with the details, the sports news website said.
Under the new agreement, NHL fans in Canada will have access…
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Rogers says the complaint is ‘completely without merit’
By Ahmad Hathout
A national news channel is alleging Rogers is unjustly keeping it from distribution to a broader cable audience, but the cable giant is calling the complaint meritless.
The News Forum, which was granted mandatory distribution on cable in 2022, alleges that, unlike its competitors, it has been denied equal access by being excluded from Rogers’s legacy or grandfathered cable packages.
Before it received mandatory distribution under the Broadcasting Act’s 9.1(1)(h) rule, the independent news service negotiated its current distribution agreement with Rogers as an exempt undertaking the year before. But while it…
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Rogers charges OUTtv using regulatory system to stop it from making commercial decisions
By Ahmad Hathout
LGBTQ+ TV broadcaster and streamer OUTtv is alleging Rogers is violating Wholesale Code rules by shuffling the network into a less popular cable TV package.
The subscription-based service is alleging in a Part 1 application dated March 5 that the cable company is violating section 9 of the code by not putting the network in the “best available” package, negatively impacting its wholesale fee revenue. The complaint alleges that Rogers shuffled the service it must carry out of a “Premier” package and “into a different and…
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Telus and Rogers have reached a distribution agreement for the latter’s new Food Network, HGTV, Discovery, Investigation Discovery, Bravo and Magnolia channels.
Telus announced Wednesday its Optik TV customers are now getting an exclusive free preview of Rogers’s premium lifestyle and entertainment channels until April 14.
Starting April 11, Optik TV customers will be able to add the individual channels to their existing plan for $5 each or choose from two theme packs: Food & Home for $10 per month, which includes Food Network, Magnolia Network and HGTV; or Discovery & Reality, also $10 per month, which includes Bravo, Discovery and…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The Federal Court of Appeal on Tuesday granted Rogers its request to appeal two decisions of the CRTC that froze its ability to move certain Corus channels in its cable packages.
Rogers had provided notice that it was terminating its carriage agreement with Corus by the end of 2024 and, as part of that, wants to remove Corus’s Slice from certain television packages and replace the media company’s Flavour and Home networks with its own Food Network and HGTV so customers, it says, are not scrambling to find the American programming it…
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The CRTC on Tuesday opened a proceeding to review Rogers Communications’ acquisition of NBA TV (Canada) as part of the cable giant’s larger acquisition of Bell Canada’s 37.5-per-cent ownership stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE).
After announcing its proposed $4.7-billion deal with Bell in September, Rogers applied in November for authority to acquire control of Toronto Raptors Network Ltd. (TRNL), licensee of the English-language NBA TV (Canada) discretionary service, according to the CRTC’s broadcasting notice of consultation posted to its website Feb. 18.
The proposed change in ownership and effective control of NBA…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Bell is laying the blame at the feet of Rogers for why it is not carrying certain channels that utilize American programming rights the cable company obtained in the summer.
The broadcaster alleged to Cartt late last week that it is Rogers that isn’t budging on negotiations with respect to the carriage of Rogers’s Discovery and Investigation Discovery (I.D.) and other channels.
“The assertion that Bell is refusing to carry these channels is incorrect,” a Bell spokesperson told us. “We have offered to carry these channels a la carte and we are open to them making a reasonable offer,…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers is accusing Bell of refusing to carry channels crafted out of new American rights it acquired in the summer.
The cable giant alleges its Discovery and Investigation Discovery (I.D.) channels are being subject to a double standard by the rival broadcaster: while Bell, the second-largest broadcaster, complains that Rogers wants to push its new USA Network and Oxygen True Crime channels down the dial, the former allegedly doesn’t even want to carry the channels that are intended to replace them.
“Granting Bell’s requested relief is unquestionably not in the public interest and would perpetuate asymmetrical treatment of Bell…
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