BURNABY, BC — The Telecommunications Workers Union, United Steelworkers National Local 1944 Unit 60 have reached a tentative agreement with Shaw Cable, after six months of negotiations and extended bargaining.
“I am pleased our bargaining committee has reached a tentative agreement with Shaw. I wish to thank the members of Unit 60 for their support and solidarity for our bargaining committee who worked tirelessly to reach this deal,” Lee Riggs, President of the TWU, USW National Local 1944, said in a press release.
USW National Local 1944 Unit 60 represents more than 500 members across the B.C. Lower Mainland who…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Canada’s largest communications companies acknowledge that high speed Internet is now critical for Canadians to participate in the digital economy, but they remain divided as to whether the basic service objective (BSO) should be amended to include broadband.
It’s already “self-evident,” according to Rogers Communications Inc., that broadband is a basic telecommunications service because Canadians require it to access government, health, education, business and entertainment services.
“High-speed broadband Internet access is a necessary prerequisite for Canadians to participate in the digital economy in a meaningful way and almost all Canadians now have access to this important service,” it writes…
Continue Reading
VANCOUVER – Rogers has begun activating some of the AWS-1 spectrum that it picked up from Shaw last month, announcing Thursday that wireless customers in BC and Alberta now have faster speeds and higher quality mobile video.
With this spectrum, which has been unused since 2008, Rogers said that it has doubled the speed that customers can get on its AWS LTE network in the two provinces. The full spectrum is first being activated in Calgary, Edmonton, Medicine Hat, Kelowna, Prince George, Vancouver and select other communities, with the remainder of the spectrum being activated by mid-2016.
"Today we're opening more lanes on…
Continue Reading
CALGARY – Shaw is opening a new 40,000 square feet data centre in Calgary that will offer business customers a variety of hybrid solutions, including cloud, colocation, managed services or any combination in between.
The facility, scheduled to open in the fall of 2015, is Shaw's first Canadian data centre initiative following its 2014 acquisition of Denver-based ViaWest.
The data centre will be carrier-neutral, allowing businesses to take advantage of Shaw's fibre network, a carrier of their choice, or a combination of both. Staffed by a team of engineers, the centre features physical security monitoring and high resolution video surveillance,…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Shaw Communications last month hired Morgan Elliott (right) as its new senior vice-president of regulatory and government relations.
That role at the company has been vacant since Jean Brazeau’s departure in the fall of 2013 and has been filled in the interim by company president Peter Bissonnette. However, Bissonnette is retiring from Shaw at the end of this year.
While the company has yet made no official press announcment, according to his Linked In profile, Elliott was VP government relations for BlackBerry from February 2009 until June of this year and has also served on the board…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Bell Media’s CraveTV streaming service will be available to all Canadians with an Internet connection beginning early in 2016, the company said Monday.
When it launched last December, the service was firmly tied to a paid TV service subscription. But that strategy has changed, just weeks after Rogers and Shaw-owned shomi announced that it would open up to all Canadian Internet users this summer. It was not revealed whether CraveTV would continue with its $4 per month price tag.
“As our business model has continued to evolve, the time is right to also offer CraveTV as a standalone product,”…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Rogers Communications could rake in more than $300 million for selling off The Shopping Channel and is allegedly actively seeking bids on the broadcast retailer.
According to a report from Reuters, Rogers began the sale process six weeks ago and is now in the second round of bids. Liberty Interactive Corporation is one of the bidders, according to a source quoted in the report, while other interested parties could include U.S. home shopping channel operators HSN Inc. and EVINE Live Inc., which runs ShopHQ, as well as private equity firms.
The Shopping Channel is part of Rogers' media…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Alibi Entertainment has named Nick Crowe as executive producer.
Crowe (pictured) comes from Shaw Media where he was director of original factual content for brands including History, Slice, National Geographic Channel and Global. Prior to that, he worked for Alliance Atlantis and Canwest Broadcasting – Shaw Media’s predecessors – as a production executive and program manager for History.
In his new role, Crowe will oversee development and production of factual content for broadcast and digital platforms. He will be working out of the company’s head office in Toronto when he joins the Alibi team on July 13.
“We are excited…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Rogers has completed its acquisition of Mobilicity and Shaw’s AWS spectrum, just over a week after the two deals were announced.
In a short news release late Thursday, the Toronto-based communications company said that it had “received all requisite governmental, creditor and court approvals” to complete the acquisitions.
As Cartt.ca reported, Rogers offered $465 million for 100% of Mobilicity’s ownership, plus agreed to buy Shaw's unused AWS-1 spectrum for $100 million, in addition to the down payments made when an option agreement was originally announced in January 2013. Rogers then agreed divest some of that spectrum to Wind Mobile.
www.rogers.com
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Hollywood Suite chairman and co-founder Jay Switzer recalls in mid-April first taking notice of an important industry signpost: Canadian television's small club of network heads are now all women.
"Satisfying that almost nobody has noted Canada's big 3 MediaCo’s & CBC now run by smart leaders who happen to be women. #took50 years," Switzer tweeted at the time.
Bell Media president Mary Ann Turcke (lower left, in our photograph) in April joined (clockwise) Rogers Media vice-president of TV and broadcast operations Colette Watson, CBC executive vice-president of English Services Heather Conway, Shaw Media president Barb Williams, and Groupe TVA…
Continue Reading
