WE DRILL DOWN into the analytics of our content quite a lot at Cartt.ca, studying what resonates with our valued readers and what doesn’t. We learn a lot and try adjust our coverage accordingly. So, to give you a peek at what the folks in the cable, radio, television and telecom business have been paying the most attention to for the past year, we publish the top 25 stories of the past 12 months on the day after Labour Day.
As those in the TV business will tell you, September is really the beginning of the year – and September…
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TORONTO – Showcase’s new fall advertising campaign, which kicked off this week, centres around its two new police dramas Copper and Common Law.
The four-week campaign will build awareness and drive tune-in for the shows, targeting adults 25-54 primarily in Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary. On-air teasers and spots began airing in July, while the out-of home campaign includes posters throughout Toronto and Vancouver transit systems.
Consumers also have the chance to sample Copper and Common Law with pre-roll video on cross-demographic pop culture websites determined by CPAX’s Real Time Bidding. A unique extension of the online buy is Youtube’s “First Watch”…
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TORONTO – Rogers has launched its LTE network in Moncton, its first market in New Brunswick.
The company said Tuesday that it plans to cover approximately 60% of Canada’s population by the end of the year with its new wireless network, with planned launches in Trois Rivières, Sherbrooke, Quebec City, Kingston, Ajax, Pickering, Oshawa, Oakville, Burlington, Hamilton, St. Catharines, Niagara, Windsor, Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph, London, Barrie, Sudbury, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Kelowna, Whistler, Abbotsford and Victoria. More cities will be launched in 2013.
"Rogers is proud to be the first to launch LTE in Moncton," said Ken Marshall, Rogers’ regional…
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MONTREAL – Quebecor's Videotron is making its first step toward eliminating analog cable television service throughout its network.
Last Friday, the company issued a stop-sell order for new analog television subscriptions. The end goal is the transition of its approximately 412,000 remaining analog TV customers (many of which are hotel rooms or other business customers) to the company's illico digital service.
"We need more space in the network," said Videotron vice-president Isabelle Dessureault. In areas like western Montreal, where analog cable is still prevalent, Videotron devotes about 55 of its 135 6-MHz television channels to analog service. Ending analog service completely…
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WHILE WE HAVE NO inside information to give you, we have covered enough CRTC hearings featuring the current crop of Bell executives and regulatory folks to guess at what the thrust of their presentation will be when they face the panel of CRTC commissioners in Montreal come September 10th.
They are probably going to ask what all the fuss is about. The media industry has consolidated at a rapid pace with the likes of Bell, Rogers, Shaw, and Quebecor owning significant carrier as well as media assets. With one more company, Astral Media, assimilated into Bell…
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SO IT?S NOT JUST Quebecor, Cogeco and EastLink demanding the CRTC say no to Bell Canada'?s $3.38 billion purchase of Astral Media after all. Telus, Rogers, MTS Allstream, the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and others want this latest edition of the ongoing vertical integration story erased.
(An earlier version of this story said Friends of Canadian Broadcasting were also opposed to the merger. That us not the case and Cartt.ca regrets the error.)
Still, other groups such as ACTRA, the Writers Guild, the CMPA and Directors Guild, while not ultimately opposing the…
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TORONTO – With less than two weeks to go until its Canadian debut, Shaw Media has kicked off a national advertising campaign to introduce Lifetime to Canadian women.
Targeting women 25-54, the off-air campaign highlights series Dance Moms and The Client List, plus layers in a third image piece featuring A-list talent including Jennifer Love Hewitt, Queen Latifah, Lindsay Lohan and Heidi Klum. Together, the campaign aims to promote the brand’s breadth of programming including scripted drama, unscripted series and movies.
Out-of-home executions include a “subway domination” at Toronto’s St. George station, plus large-scale billboards in the high-traffic Toronto Eaton Centre…
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WHILE LISTENING, PERPLEXED, to Tuesday’s “Say No To Bell” press conference led by Quebecor Inc. Cogeco Inc. and Bragg Communications, I tweeted “Horse is out of the barn, is lost in the woods and the barn is on fire.”
Many of us are fond of using the “horse is out of the barn” cliché when it comes to big media mergers, noting it’s far too late now to close the door on any of it. That is undeniable, and the proposed Bell Media purchase of Astral Media is just about the last of them. The Canadian barn…
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IQALUIT – Northwestel has launched its new satellite Internet service in Nunavut, offering residents of six communities faster Internet speeds, unlimited long distance calling and more customer choice.
As part of the new service package, customers in Arviat, Baker Lake, Cambridge Bay, Gjoa Haven, Kugluktuk and Rankin Inlet may now bundle their long distance telephone and Internet services together on one bill, subscribe to unlimited Nunavut calling for $1 per month, or unlimited North American long distance for $10.95 per month.
For a limited time, Northwestel will provide and install the small satellite dish needed to access the new services for…
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MONTREAL – Second quarter profits at Quebecor’s TVA Group almost doubled, helped by the sale of its interests in two English-language specialty channels late last year.
The Montreal-based television and magazine company reported net income attributable to shareholders for the quarter ended June 30 of $23.7 million, up from $13.8 million in the same quarter of 2011. TVA said Tuesday that it realized a $12.9 million gain after selling its 51% interest in The Cave and its 50% interest in Mystery TV to Shaw Media.
Its television sector's operating income dropped by more than $2 million to $17.04 million…
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