TORONTO – Rogers Media on Thursday made official something most knew – that its partnership with youth-centric Vice Media will lead to the launch of a new specialty TV channel, Viceland, in early 2016.
Rogers Media president Rick Brace told Cartt.ca that the long-gestating Viceland channel replacing the media group's existing Bio specialty channel will help his company close a gap to reach fickle 18-to-34-year-olds prized by advertisers. "It's about filling a void for Rogers Media," said Brace in his first public comments since taking the helm at the company’s media division.
"Targeting millennials and understanding their needs and their concerns…
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GATINEAU – The third day of the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunication Services (CCTS) mandate review saw telecom providers in the West and East agree on a few changes to the complaints body. Quebecor Media and Shaw Communications noted in their respective testimony to the CRTC on Thursday they believe it’s natural for the CCTS to conduct some code interpretation.
They also believe that participation in the complaints body should be mandatory.
Peggy Tabet, senior director of regulatory affairs for telecommunications at Quebecor, noted under questioning that it’s about treating all players equally. In a world where the company is subjected…
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MONTREAL – Bell Canada said late Monday it has surpassed 2.7 million total TV customers in the third quarter of 2015 and launched “Enhanced Restart”, which lets customers go back in time, and “Trending”, which shows what Canadians are watching and lets customers join in.
(The company also said in its release it is now the largest TV provider in the country, passing the approximately 2.6 million TV customers served by Shaw Communications under its cable and satellite TV banners.)
"Bell has transformed into a broadband communications growth company in recent years, and becoming Canada's favourite TV provider is…
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GATINEAU – Rogers Communications told the CRTC on Wednesday that the Commissions for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) should become “a destination of last resort” for consumer complaints.
The country’s largest wireless provider argued during day 2 on the hearing into the CCTS (click here for day one's coverage) the industry should take a page out of the banking sector’s playbook and adopt a model similar to that of the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI). Kim Walker, Rogers’ Ombudsperson, said during her opening remarks that the OBSI is the final recourse for customers after…
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TORONTO – Shaw Media’s History is set to honour Canadian veterans with a lineup of commemorative programming from November 9 – 11, 2015.
Headlining the channel’s ‘Days of Remembrance’ programming is the fourth season of the award-winning documentary series War Story: Afghanistan which chronicles the moving, personal stories of soldiers in Canada’s longest conflict. Other programming includes the return of documentary series War Junk, as well as encore presentations of Canadian originals such as D-Day to Victory; Dig WW2; Air Aces; Camp X: Secret Agent School; The Great Escape: Secrets Revealed; Storming Juno; Dieppe Uncovered; and 28 Heroes.
In addition, Global…
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CALGARY and TORONTO – JR Shaw and members of his family and corporations and trusts which they collectively own or control have completed an internal reorganization of their holdings in Shaw Communications and Corus Entertainment as part of ongoing estate planning for JR Shaw and his family.
The Shaw Family Group beneficially owned, and continues to own, 17,782,600 Class A Voting Participating Shares and 36,416,426 Class B Non-Voting Participating Shares of Shaw, and 2,906,496 Class A Voting Participating Shares and 5,651,417 Class B Non-Voting Participating Shares of Corus. Accordingly, the reorganization does not affect either company, reads the news release.
The reorganization…
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TORONTO – Hollywood Suite’s four HD movie channels are officially now known as Hollywood Suite 70s Movies, Hollywood Suite 80s Movies, Hollywood Suite 90s Movies and Hollywood Suite 2000s Movies, after being relaunched on Monday.
The independent broadcaster announced in September that the rebrand would include a streamlined look that brings a single Hollywood Suite identity to the four on-air HD channels, On Demand, the Hollywood Suite Go app, and its web and social media properties.
Subscribers can still find the big pre-1970 films with programming blocks dedicated to the essential classics from the golden age of Hollywood. All movies will remain uncut…
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TORONTO – Discovery launched its TV Everywhere app Discovery Go this week, pledging to become the first in Canada to offer content in 4K Ultra HD.
Launching with 4,500 hours of programming from Discovery, Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery, Discovery Science, and Discovery Velocity, that total will swell to more than 7,000 hours by January 2016, reads the company’s news release.
Content includes complete season stacks of series such as Highway Thru Hell, Deadliest Catch, Close Encounters, Shark Week, and How It’s Made, alongside current episodes of the network’s flagship daily science program Daily Planet. The release added that Discovery networks programming in 4K…
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PEOPLE ARE ALREADY CALLING Justin Trudeau our first “selfie” Prime Minister. Images of him on the campaign trail – and the day after the election – mugging with various Canadians who have one arm outstretched and the other around our PM-to-be number in the hundreds of thousands. He’ll apparently even click it for you, if you like.
Of course, those snapshots are then uploaded to the likes of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other sharing platform to display to followers around the country and the world. Just Google “Justin Trudeau selfie”.
Invariably, those images ride…
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OTTAWA – Late Thursday, Bell Canada applied to the Federal Court of Appeal for leave to appeal the CRTC’s recently announced Wholesale Code of conduct which it established for the TV industry as part of its Let’s Talk TV policy review process.
The Commission released the Code September 24th.
The CRTC has overstepped its jurisdiction with this Code, says the Bell application to the court. “The purpose of the Wholesale Code is to govern the commercial relationships between Programming and Distribution Undertakings. In doing so, the Wholesale Code conflicts with the Copyright Act and exceeds the CRTC’s…
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