EVEN THE NON-SPORTS fan will know there’s a bit of a soccer tournament about to begin in South Africa this weekend. And yesterday was press release day on the TV front.
In Canada, the CBC is leading the coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup with broadcast across multiple platforms, a World Cup CBC mobile app – and the third place and final games are to be available in 3D for the dozens (?) of fans who have new 3DTVs.
After CBC sent out it’s announcement, so did Shaw Cable, Telus, Shaw Direct, Cogeco, Rogers…
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OTTAWA – Telesat has chosen Space Systems/Loral to manufacturer its new Anik G1 satellite and International Launch Services (ILS) for its launch into geostationary orbit, scheduled for the second half of 2012.
The powerful new multipurpose bird will carry 16 transponders operating in the extended Ku-band for Shaw Direct, as the DTH company announced in March. Co-located at the 107.3 degrees West Longitude orbital location with the Anik F1R satellite Shaw Direct presently uses, the satellite could boost Shaw Direct’s satellite television services by 30%.
Anik G1 also will also have satellite capacity operating in the X-band frequencies with geographic coverage of the…
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TORONTO – Can connectivity and content achieve a happy marriage or should they just stay friends?
Dvai Ghose, the outspoken managing director and head of Canadian research for Canaccord Genuity, came down firmly on the side of ‘friends’.
“There is no evidence to suggest that owning content assets helps connectivity providers,” he said at the Canadian Telecom Summit during a panel discussion Monday afternoon called ‘Business Models 3.0: Financial Implications for Content and Carriage’.
While acknowledging that content ownership could make sense for “defensive reasons” or as a “regulatory hedge,” he was also quick to point to the “convergence nightmares” of the…
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GATINEAU – CRTC commissioners were given a lesson in basic cable architecture on Wednesday as Rogers, Shaw, Cogeco, Videotron and EastLink faced the panel considering CRTC 2009-261, the wholesale high-speed access services proceeding.
The overall message appeared to be a detailed reminder to the Regulator from cable that “we’re different. Cable is a shared network that can’t be unbundled.”
Some have asked, for example, that a single 6 MHz channel (the space in which one analog TV channel is transmitted but which can be crammed full of digital and IP data and is by MSOs) be set aside for wholesale access by…
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TORONTO – According to a new story in the Financial Post, certain Canwest Global Communications shareholders, including the Asper family, are seeking to block the purchase of the company’s television divisions by Shaw Communications.
The shareholders say the sale process was flawed, leaves them with nothing after the transaction is completed and needs to be re-done.
The story (click here to read it) says the likes of Quebecor Media and Rogers Communications are tacitly backing the bid to halt the sale.
However, a very senior Rogers executive told Cartt.ca recently on condition of anonymity that the sale of Canwest to Shaw…
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CALGARY – The Shaw Rocket Fund has added a new digital funding stream to help finance digital content related to the Canadian television programs that the Rocket Fund has invested in.
The new stream, which will allocate up to $2 million annually towards digital content, will support the creation of digital content on various platforms to enhance the viewing experience for the audience and support the exploitation of the programs. The deadline for applications is June 16, 2010, and any digital content related to a Canadian television program that the Rocket Fund has invested in is eligible for funding.
The Shaw…
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OTTAWA – In addition to requests for a number of new television channels, the CRTC will also consider two applications for new BDUs at a hearing this summer.
Montreal-based ISP Colba.Net Inc has applied for a broadcasting licence to operate a Class 1 terrestrial BDU to serve Montréal Island.
Atop Broadband Corp. , located in Woodbridge, ON, has asked to operate a Class 1 terrestrial BDU to serve the majority of the greater Toronto area, specifically bounded by the city of Oshawa on the east, the city of Oakville on the south, the city of Orangeville on the west; and the…
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CALGARY – The Shaw family has bought an additional 235,000 Class B non-voting shares in Shaw Communications.
The Shaw Family, and entities owned or controlled by them, now hold 48,199,104 Class A and Class B shares of the company. In a statement on Thursday, the Shaw’s have also advised the company that they will “continue its practice of purchasing shares on a regular basis”.
www.shaw.ca
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TORONTO – Global Toronto’s supper hour newscast and Rogers-owned 680 News’ coverage called Tornado Aftermath were the central region’s television and radio large market winners at the RTNDA Canada awards.
In the TV category, /A\ News Barrie was recognized for its /A\ News at 6 (medium market), while /A\ London received an honourable mention for Transit Strike.
The best newscast awards in the radio division went to AM800 CKLW for AM800 News 7:30am (medium market), CBC Radio Thunder Bay for CBC Radio Thunder Bay 7:30 AM Newscast (medium market – honourable mention), and 560 CFOS AM Owen Sound for the Noon News on…
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LOS ANGELES – Since it went digital, the cable industry has been on a long, arduous search for a pair of improvements: a better remote control and an easier to use interactive program guide.
The on-screen grid guide and multi-buttoned remotes have gone about as far as they can in their ability to navigate the multichannel world. It’s a world not only with hundreds of linear TV channels but also thousands of video on demand titles (and in the case of Comcast, tens of thousands of titles).
Navigating through what’s on with a remote and the standard grid is not a customer-pleasing…
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