MONT TREMBLANT – While it may look like the direct, immediate threat of over-the-top video has hit a plateau, don’t be fooled, Clearcable’s Rob McCann told Canadian Cable Systems Alliance delegates this morning.
As the first speaker of the day at the CCSA’s annual Connect conference, McCann woke the independent TV, internet and telecom distributors to news that online video’s growth shows little sign of slowing and that constant network investment is required to keep up with what the likes of Google and Apple are doing.
When companies the size of those two (approximate combined market capitalization, $570 billion) decide to…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC’s decision on new policy for the country’s vertically integrated companies is expected this week, most likely on Wednesday after the markets close, Cartt.ca has learned.
After a five day long hearing in June, the primary issues that emerged were a potential code of conduct that the large companies – Bell Media, Rogers Communications, Shaw Communications and Videotron – must abide by when negotiating for content and/or carriage; exclusive content allowances; the need for a skinny basic programming package; and protections for independent broadcasters and distributors.
Stay tuned – Cartt.ca will have a full report on the new…
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TORONTO – The Canada Media Fund (CMF) has revised its guidelines for all production programs in its Convergent Stream.
The changes to the guidelines, described here, “address the current inconsistencies or conflicts” between the program guidelines and the terms of trade agreement that was reached last April by the Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) and private broadcasters Astral Television Networks, Bell Media, Rogers Broadcasting, Shaw Media and Corus Entertainment.
The CMF said that it will continue to monitor both the impact of the current changes to the program guidelines and the terms of trade negotiations…
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TORONTO – Rogers Media said Thursday that it will not take part in any bidding for the Canadian broadcast rights to the 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games as it is pulling out of Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium.
The decision will not affect the company’s plans to help show more than 5,000 hours of coverage of London 2012, in conjunction with CTV. Under the current consortium agreement, which spans the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games and 2012 London Summer Games, Rogers Media is a 20% stakeholder of the consortium while the remaining 80% interest is controlled by CTV.
The Olympic Games in…
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SINCE SEPTEMBER IS OFTEN viewed as the “new year” for those in the television business, we’ve used Labour Day week each year since Cartt.ca’s launch in 2005 to look back at the top stories of the past 12 months.
It’s good fun and very instructive for us at Cartt.ca to pause, study and see what resonated with readers among the approximately 2,000 stories we have published since September 1, 2010 (that’s almost eight per working day).
In examining our analytics to see just what stories were most-viewed between September 1, 2010 and August 31, 2011,, it’s not surprising to see the…
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KITCHENER, ON – CTV Southwestern Ontario is now available to more viewers after being added to the Shaw Direct lineup and to Rogers Cable’s high definition offering.
CTV Southwestern Ontario serves a huge portion of the south west part of the province from Hamilton to Windsor, and Lake Erie to Georgian Bay, including the Bruce Peninsula. In addition to three daily newscasts, the channel produces original local programs including entertainment and culture show The Beat and current affairs program Provincewide.
“CTV Southwestern Ontario strives to bring the best news, and entertainment programming to the community,” said station VP and GM, Dennis Watson,…
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TORONTO – The Association of Canadian Advertisers is demanding that proposed changes to the Internet domain program be scrapped, warning it “could become a minefield for criminal activity, aimed at consumers especially, if it remains possible for others to hijack trusted brand names”.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has proposed a new program that would permit applicants to claim virtually any word – generic or branded – as domain suffixes (for example .shaw, .rogers., .bell, .beer, .toys), supplementing the 22 generic top-level domains (TLDs) now in use, such as .com, .edu, .net, .gov, and .org. The…
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OUTSPOKEN CONSUMER GROUP OpenMedia.ca is miffed that it has yet to be invited to meet with new Industry Minister Christian Paradis.
After a report on Bloomberg noted that Minister Paradis held meetings earlier this month with 13 of Canada’s largest telcos – including Bell, Rogers, Telus, and Shaw – the organization issued a statement claiming that “positions the Industry Minister to create key digital policies in the Big Telecom lobby’s narrow commercial interests rather than those of Canadians”.
“Time and again the Big Telecom lobby has shown its neglect, and even disdain, for the Canadian public’s communications interests”, said OpenMedia.ca executive director Steve…
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TORONTO – Showcase kicked off a new multi-media marketing campaign this week in support of its roster of fall shows.
The four-week promotion targets adults 25-54 primarily in Toronto and Vancouver in support of the new series Royal Pains and Warehouse 13, as well as the return of fan favourites Lost Girl and Covert Affairs.
While the campaign initially launched in July with on-air teasers across Shaw Media channels, the off-air campaign includes a large-scale media buy that includes out-of-home, in-cinema, on-air, online, radio, print and IPG advertising. In Toronto, it also includes a “subway takeover” at St. George station and on…
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ANTHONY LACAVERA CARRIES two BlackBerrys with him wherever he goes. One is a Wind Mobile handset, of course. The other, Rogers (with the logo scratched off).
The Globalive chairman and Wind Mobile CEO wants to make sure wherever he goes, he can do a real-time comparison of his own of his company’s network performance versus the Canadian mobile market leader, via his own handset. Just last week he was doing that in Kitchener-Waterloo, Wind’s newest market.
In a couple of years, he hopes to be able to do the same thing in many more places using a more robust bit…
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