SOMETHING’S NOT RIGHT. Especially if I’m quoting Macbeth.
We have analyzed the hell out of the CRTC’s TV Policy Review which is set to begin Monday in Gatineau, but there’s something ungraspable about the whole thing. Is there too much on the table? Probably. Is the Regulator looking to solve problems it has no chance of fixing – or trying to solve some where none exist? Yes, and yes, certainly.
This is a hearing about all things English Television, or English language video. Yes I know it’s supposed to be about all things television in Canada, but let’s be honest here;…
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SAN FRANCISCO – Digital music service Rdio has updated its app to include a free Internet radio service as well as new features designed to make it easier for users to listen to music any way they want.
Rdio said Thursday that its free stations-first offers more music and a wide variety of station types, including algorithmic artist and genre-based stations, human curated stations programmed to fit any mood or activity, personalized stations tuned to each individual listener, and stations based on tastemakers. Users may also upgrade to a full on-demand subscription service that offers access to any song, album…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications has finalized its acquisition of Denver-based call centre company ViaWest from Oak Hill Capital Partners and other shareholders.
The deal, announced in July, has an enterprise value of US$1.2 billion. Led by co-founder, president and CEO Nancy Phillips, ViaWest will continue to operate from its Denver headquarters as a stand-alone wholly owned subsidiary of Shaw.
"The ViaWest acquisition provides Shaw a growth platform in the attractive North American data centre sector and is another significant step in expanding our technology offerings for mid-market enterprises in Western Canada," said Shaw's CEO Brad Shaw, in the announcement. “We are…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The federal government said that it will force the communication industry to abandon paper bill charges after the country’s biggest companies failed to commit to doing so at Thursday’s CRTC review into the practice.
Industry Minister James Moore said Friday that charging extra fees to customers who receive paper copies of their bills, a practice known as pay-to-pay billing, was “unfair”, and promised that the government would introduce legislation to end it in the telecommunications sector. He did not say when such legislation would be tabled.
"More and more Canadians are finding a new charge appearing on their monthly…
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TORONTO – The slick-looking user interface of the new shomi service from Rogers and Shaw is purported to be one of the key differentiating features that will allow it to compete against other SVoD players, especially indomitable Netflix.
During its official announcement on Tuesday, Rogers Media president Keith Pelley described shomi’s “really spectacular” user interface as “far superior” to that of any other SVoD service.
“When you actually take a look at the product, it has taken a significant amount of time to actually build the user interface, to have a kind of ‘attitude’ on the user interface and to…
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TORONTO – Finally putting an end to months of speculation over plans to launch a Canadian subscription video-on-demand service, Rogers Media and joint-venture partner Shaw Media announced the highly anticipated SVoD service, dubbed shomi, in Toronto on Tuesday.
Cartt.ca broke the story in January that Rogers was working on an over-the-top video portal, but despite being continually pressed on the subject, until today, Rogers execs wouldn’t comment publically on the service other than Rogers CEO Guy Laurence’s recent cryptic allusion to the “Loch Ness Monster”.
And Cartt.ca doesn’t want to take it personally that Rogers and Shaw decided to officially…
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TORONTO and CALGARY – Canada’s new subscription video-on-demand service showmi is coming to tablets, mobile, online, and Xbox 360 in early November for $8.99 per month.
The joint venture, owned equally by Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications, will launch in beta first to Rogers and Shaw Internet or TV customers. The service is being officially unveiled Tuesday in Toronto, and Cartt.ca will be there.
Featuring more than 11,000 hours of prior seasons of TV series like Modern Family, Sons of Anarchy, Sleepy Hollow, Shameless, 2 Broke Girls, Vikings, New Girl, 24: Live Another Day, Chicago Fire, The Strain, and American Horror Story, the service will…
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TORONTO – Rogers and Shaw are set to reveal their new over-the-top video portal, known as Showmi, at an event Tuesday morning in Toronto. According to our sources, the service could be ready to launch as early as November (but announcing it officially now, just prior to the CRTC television policy hearing, is no mistake).
As Cartt.ca was first report early this year, the service was conceived as the Canadian answer to Netflix or Hulu, a one-stop online space where TV and film content whose Canadian rights – owned by Rogers Media, Shaw Media, Bell Media and Cineplex – would…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications said Monday that it is expanding access to its Shaw Go WiFi guest network in Sault Ste. Marie, ON for the next few weeks.
Beginning immediately and continuing until September 14, all residents will be able to access Shaw's WiFi network at the almost 460 hotspots across the city for free, regardless of whether they are Shaw customers or not.
Residents who are not Shaw customers can connect to the network by selecting "ShawGuest" on the list of available WiFi hot spots at participating city facilities and following the steps to register their devices. Registration for the…
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GATINEAU – A group of Canadian television viewers and consumer-oriented organizations says that it’s time for the CRTC to change the way it regulates the broadcasting system; this time, by putting Canadians, and not a specific industry, front and centre.
“The broadcasting system – and its business and regulation – must move back towards one that serves Canadians,” reads an intervention by the Groups for the Public Interest to the Commission’s Let’s Talk TV Conversation with Canadians.
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre, Consumers’ Association of Canada, Council of Senior Citizens Organizations of British Columbia, National Pensioners Federation, Option consommateurs and Canadian…
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