TORONTO – Rogers’ new 12-year $5.2 billion broadcast and multimedia deal with the NHL may have grabbed headlines across the country, but will likely have little impact on the company’s bottom line, say industry analysts.
Rogers Communications executives said Tuesday the deal will be immediately EBITDA-accretive to its Media division, predicting an influx of $25 – $35 million in the first year, rising to more than $60 million per year after that. But Dvai Ghose, managing director/head of research for Canaccord Genuity, pointed out that Rogers Media only accounted for 4% of the parent company’s 2013 third quarter adjusted EBITDA.
In…
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AT THE 2013 Canadian Telecom Summit, just a day after the CRTC released its Wireless Code of Conduct, Commission chairman Jean-Pierre Blais told delegates, essentially, what’s good for your business should be good for the customer – and vice versa.
In his June 4 speech, he quoted Mary Kay Ash, the enormously successful founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics – a brand built on direct personal relationships who said: “Everyone has an invisible sign hanging from their neck saying, 'Make me feel important.' Never forget this message when working with people."
Blais went on to note: “Mary Kay…
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TORONTO – Call this a case of bad news, good news.
The bad news is that TV Everywhere still faces some serious hurdles before it can really take off for cable operators, telcos and other video service providers. The good news is that video-on-demand (VOD) may be on the cusp of reaping significant ad revenues for Canadian pay TV providers.
These twin assessments of the market for advanced video services emerged from the packed CTAM Canada Broadcaster Forum held Wednesday at Toronto’s Westin Harbour Castle Hotel. In back-to-back panel sessions, cable operators, programmers, equipment vendors, online experts, audience measurement specialists and…
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TORONTO – What is the best way to offer choice to your customers when the very act of choosing is personal and subjective?
That was the basis of a panel entitled ‘Packaging Flexibility: Customer Choice vs. Brand Investment’ at the CTAM Canada Broadcaster Forum held Wednesday in downtown Toronto. And that panel, a mix of broadcasters and distributors moderated by Rogers’ senior vice-president of content David Purdy, all agreed that Canadians’ ability to choose their own television channels was inevitable, whether mandated by the government, the Regulator, or driven by consumer demand.
“This…
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DID THAT HEADLINE get your attention? I can already hear irritated e-mails disputing that claim being tapped out in response, but bear with us for a few paragraphs.
“What!?” some of those running popular specialty video brands might be asking, “Isn’t Galaxie just that group of sleepy music channels which are a throw-in with everyone’s digital cable box?” Well, they may be a value-add which come automatically with most digital TV subscriptions, but some comprehensive recent measurement shows the suite of music channels (anywhere from 40 to 100, depending on the BDU) is anything but sleepy. This is…
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OTTAWA – In the third quarter of 2013, Canada’s publicly traded television service providers combined to add subscription TV customers, thanks to the record growth of IPTV, reversing a trend of cumulative losses in each of the previous three quarters.
New research from Ottawa-based research and consulting firm Boon Dog Professional Services shows that the publicly traded TV service providers (cable satellite and telcoTV) added an estimated 14,145 TV subscribers combined in Q3 in what is traditionally a strong quarter for TV subscriber growth – and all of it was a result of record IPTV subscriber…
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OTTAWA – Shaw Communications has parted ways with its senior vice president, corporate and regulatory affairs, Jean Brazeau.
While a company spokesperson confirmed Brazeau is no longer with Shaw, the reasons for his departure are not known at this time. He had worked at Shaw since 2006.
Prior to joining Shaw, Brazeau was SVP regulatory at Call-Net and then at Rogers after the company’s acquisition of Call-Net in 2005. He has also worked at Bell Canada, the Competition Bureau and at Cable & Wireless.
Shaw has listed the job opening, a plum one in the media regulatory space,…
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TORONTO – When most people think of JR Shaw, it’s the cable business that first comes to mind since Shaw Cable and its sister satellite company Shaw Direct provide subscription TV service to over three million Canadians. But the executive chair of the company always been a big broadcast backer, too and he will be inducted into the Ontario Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame Thursday in Toronto.
People nowadays forget that when cable first launched in the 1950s and grew through the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, there were precious few channels available to distribute to people, especially in Edmonton,…
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GATINEAU – Interveners continued to insist the CRTC impose strict safeguards on Corus Entertainment to ensure that its acquisition of Teletoon and other services don’t negatively affect independent producers, reduce diversity of voices or open the door to anti-competitive behaviour.
On the second day of the hearing, the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) argued that Commission approval of Corus’ acquisition of Teletoon will eliminate the safeguard as it relates to programming investment decisions being made independently of the Teletoon’s shareholders. “As a result, this transaction will effectively close a door for independent producers of animation programming,” Gerry Barr,…
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TORONTO – CTAM Canada is moving its Broadcaster Forum to a larger venue to accommodate larger than expected registration demands by members.
Scheduled for November 20 from 12:30 PM – 5:00 PM, the event will now take place in the Frontenac Room at the Westin Harbour Castle, just down the road from its previous location at Corus Quay in Toronto. CTAM will re-open registration for the event later this week.
The afternoon will consist of three panels, two of which will be moderated by Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien. Senior executives from major broadcasting…
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