Plus, spectrum set asides are a bad idea
TORONTO – Customer service at Rogers had better improve because on Tuesday, CEO Joe Natale put a target in front of himself and his company at which to aim.
While speaking at the BMO Capital Markets Media and Telecom Conference, Natale revealed how removing customer service friction points which he has noted during his five months at Rogers makes him believe “we can get anywhere from 100 to 200 basis points of margin improvement in the next 12 to 18 months,” by tackling various issues, he said.
“To date Rogers has done a good…
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TORONTO – Cablecasting Ltd. co-founder David R. Graham passed away September 2 in Toronto after suffering a serious stroke earlier this year. He was 80.
Graham and Jim Meekison founded Cablecasting Ltd. in Toronto in the early 1960s which went on to became one of the largest cable TV providers in Canada and eventually expanded to the United States and Britain. Graham sold the company to Shaw Communications in 1992 for a reported $307.8 million.
A memorial mass will be held in Toronto on October 5 and a celebration of his life will take place October 7 in Ottawa.
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TORONTO – Career strategy and recruitment firm mediaINTELLIGENCE is calling on media employers to help educators prepare students seeking to enter the media workforce.
Please participate in a brief academic study aimed at helping educators address the challenges brought about by rapid change in technology. The study is being conducted by doctoral candidate Rob Carver, Chair of the School of Contemporary Media at Fanshawe College in London, ON.
Carver is soliciting employers from all areas of the media sector to participate in an online survey, which will take approximately 20 minutes to complete. To participate, please contact him directly…
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TORONTO – Multilingual media company Telelatino has announced the appointment of industry veteran Errol Da-Ré to the newly created position of chief revenue officer.
Da-Ré will lead Telelatino’s efforts to leverage corporate assets and strengths and align them with customer needs and desires, says the company’s announcement. “He will oversee client direct and national agency sales functions and provide input and advice on other revenue generating activities,” reads the release.
He most recently headed the Olympic sales team for CBC and Radio-Canada, and was previously the longtime senior head of sales for Shaw Media, and prior to that, Alliance Atlantis…
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ROBERVAL, QC – Ten communities in Quebec are the first to benefit from improved high-speed Internet access under the Feds’ new rural broadband program Connect to Innovate.
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains said Thursday that Ambra Solutions will receive up to $13 million in funding to provide faster, more reliable Internet connections from Shawinigan to Chambord, a move impacting thousands of residents throughout the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean and La Mauricie regions. In addition, the improved network access will allow telcos to offer cellphone service along Route 155.
The Government of Quebec is providing matching funding for these projects through its…
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OTTAWA – Registration is now open for the ‘New Developments in Communications Law and Policy’ presented by the Canadian Chapter of the International Institute of Communications.
Scheduled for November 14 -15 at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa, the event promises to bring together communications lawyers, academics, regulators and other stakeholders to discuss key developments in Canadian and international communications law and policy.
New CRTC chair Ian Scott will speak at the conference and FCC Commissioner (and former General Counsel) Brendan Carr will provide an update on the FCC's policies under the Trump administration.
In addition, research papers will be presented on, and…
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MONTREAL – Videotron will be the next Canadian TV service provider to roll out Comcast’s X1 interactive cable platform.
The Quebec company confirmed Tuesday that it has reached a strategic partnership with Comcast aimed at developing and delivering an IPTV service based on the award-winning Xfinity X1 platform “that will support a peerless customer experience for Videotron customers”.
X1 allows users to search and navigate live TV, on demand movies and shows, web video, apps and more in a simple, fast and intuitive way – and with a voice-activated remote.
When contacted by Cartt.ca, Videotron declined to disclose…
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OTTAWA – Canada’s publicly traded television service providers combined lost 22% fewer TV subscribers in the first half of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016, bucking the recent trend of accelerating TV cord-cutting in, according to new research released Monday.
Ottawa-based research and consulting firm Boon Dog Professional Services also found that BCE, Rogers, Shaw/Shaw Direct, Vidéotron, Cogeco, and Telus combined lost approximately 100,931 TV subscribers in their respective fiscal 2017 first and second quarters, down from the 129,000 lost in the same quarters in 2016.
“The significant turnaround in TV subscriber performance at Shaw Cable as a…
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WINDSOR, ON — Freedom Mobile’s customer care employees at its call centre in Windsor, Ont., have rejected a contract offer put forward by the company last week, the employees’ representatives from the United Steelworkers (USW) union announced Friday.
The employee vote took place Thursday, after a series of meetings were held throughout the day at a Windsor hotel. After reviewing the company’s contract offer, the employees held a secret-ballot vote and the offer was rejected, the USW said in a press release.
The 185 employees at Freedom Mobile’s Windsor call centre joined the USW in January and bargaining talks…
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MONTREAL — Quebecor Inc. reported Thursday consolidated revenue of $1.03 billion in the second quarter of 2017 and its largest quarterly year-over-year increase in adjusted operating income in almost five years.
The company’s adjusted operating income was $395.3 million for the second quarter of 2017, up 9.7% from the $360.3 million in adjusted operating income it reported in Q2 2016.
Quebecor’s net income attributable to shareholders was $132.4 million ($1.09 per basic share) in Q2 2017, compared with $9.8 million ($0.08 per basic share) in the same period of 2016. This increase of $122.6 million ($1.01 per basic share) was primarily…
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