Plus, DAZN has a big job to do and very little time
VARIOUS ‘SUPER SPORTS’ PACKAGES have quietly been pulled or are being rendered anew by Canadian TV carriers with the announcement last week they will no longer contain NFL Sunday Ticket or NFL Red Zone.
Both Sunday Ticket (every single NFL game, no matter what) and Red Zone (all the games’ action when the team are inside their opponent’s 20-yard line) have been on offer to NFL fanatics from TV carriers for years, since Rogers originally tried to bring it north as an exclusive more than a decade ago.
Since the…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications has held a significant stake in Cogeco Communications and Cogeco Inc. for quite some time, but it’s now time for Rogers to sell that stake, according to one Bay St. analyst. Proceeds from selling the stake could go towards share buybacks, paying down debt or upcoming wireless spectrum auctions.
In a research note to clients Monday, Scotiabank’s telecom and media analyst Jeff Fan recounted a long-ago plane ride with Rogers late founder Ted Rogers, in which the company creator made clear his frustration at not being able to buy Cogeco outright – so that the…
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THE RECENT CRTC DECISION to reset broadcaster minimum spending requirements on programs of national interest (PNI) to a lowest-common-denominator level of 5% (see here for more) dealt a blow that the Canadian television industry is still reeling from. In the aftermath, the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) filed a petition to Cabinet seeking to set aside or refer back the decision.
There was very little in the decision that provided a rationale as to why PNI minimums were so summarily slashed, making a letter that former CRTC Chair Jean-Pierre Blais sent to Hedy Fry, the Chair of the…
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MONTREAL – Bell has expanded its Quad Band LTE-A network to almost 40 cities across eight provinces.
After launching in April, Bell said Wednesday that Quad Band LTE-A is now live in the following locations:
– Ontario: Ancaster, Barrie, Brampton East, Burlington, Kitchener, London, Niagara Falls, Oshawa, Pickering, Scarborough, and Welland;
– New Brunswick: Dieppe, Edmundston, Moncton, New Maryland, and Riverview;
– Newfoundland & Labrador: Bay Roberts, Mount Pearl, and St. John’s;
– Nova Scotia: Halifax, Dartmouth, Lake Echo, Middleton, and Sydney Mines;
– PEI: Charlottetown;
– Quebec: Montreal;
– Alberta: Calgary, Airdrie, Sherwood Park, Edmonton, Fort Saskatchewan, St. Albert, Ponoka, Sexsmith, Redcliff, and Slave Lake;
– British…
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GATINEAU – Some of the project evaluation and eligibility criteria proposed by the CRTC for its new broadband deployment fund must be altered or it risks repeating the deferral account fiasco, according to comments on a new broadband funding regime.
Introduced as part of the Basic Service Objective decision last year, the proposed funding model would provide much needed capital to broadband deployment projects in unserved and underserved communities across the country. It also set a new standard called the Universal Service Objective (USO) with a minimum requirement of 50/10 Mbps.
In comments to Telecom Notice of…
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OTTAWA – Ross Video has received an Emmy Award for its contributions the Media Object Server (MOS) Group.
The MOS Group was recently honored by The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a 2017 Technology & Engineering Emmy for the development and standardization of the MOS protocol, which has become a foundational technology for modern television news environments.
MOS was developed to address the need to connect a variety of device types from multiple vendor companies in a television news environment, from teleprompters to graphics systems, video servers, newsroom editorial systems and automation. The evolving protocol is supported and…
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TORONTO – Corus Entertainment CEO Doug Murphy says the company is making progress on its goal of “returning to growth” after posting double-digit gains in third quarter revenues and profits.
Corus said Tuesday that net income attributable to shareholders for the quarter ended May 31, 2017 was $66.7 million, versus a $15.8 million net loss in the same period last year, which includes business acquisition, integration and restructuring costs of $4.6 million. Adjusting for the impact of this item resulted in an adjusted net income attributable to shareholders of $70.1 million in the quarter.
Consolidated revenues for the quarter of $461.6 million…
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HAMILTON – When Comcast, the largest cable company in North America, needed to upgrade its network to handle the massive demands of delivering IP video at scale, there was no where to turn.
No vendor could provide the complete solution Comcast needed. So the company developed one itself, Neill Kipp, a distinguished engineer and software architect for Comcast, told last week’s Clearcable Networks Technology Summit in Hamilton, Ont.
“I think what is intriguing about the Comcast story is that they turned to open source to find a solution. A lot of small operators think open source is not viable,” said Rob…
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TORONTO – Hollywood Suite will offer the red carpet treatment to new customers in Ontario, B.C., and Alberta after finalizing agreements with Cipher TV (AEBC Internet Corp), Beanfield Metroconnect and Frontline 360 Inc. for its four HDTV movie channels.
“We are thrilled to satisfy more and more Canadians’ appetites for nostalgic, high-quality programming with our growing service partnerships,” said Hollywood Suite content distribution VP Julie Kumaria, in the news release. “With an illustrious, expansive film catalogue and monthly movie premieres to boot, Hollywood Suite is excited to deliver the customers of Cipher TV, Beanfield Metro Connect and Frontline 360 unparalleled…
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THE ANNUAL CANADIAN MEDIA LEADERS panel at the 2017 Banff World Media Festival pivoted from the future of production, development, and broadcast screen-based content to the onslaught of streaming opportunities commanding the increased attention of domestic advertisers and viewers.
Those leaders included: Rick Brace, president of Rogers Media; Randy Lennox, president, Bell Media; John Brunton, chair and CEO of Insight Productions; Sally Catto, general manager, programming, CBC; and Barbara Williams, EVP and COO, Corus Entertainment.
Running throughout the discussion was a strong sentiment that non-Canadian OTT services should be paying their fair share of domestic taxes and other tithings for the…
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