Customers can keep TiVo though
MONTREAL – Cogeco Connexion will roll out the MediaFirst IPTV platform from MediaKind (previously Ericsson Media Solutions) to its Canadian cable customers starting next year.
The company said Tuesday that the MediaFirst platform will offer customizable video content, wireless receivers, voice activated controls, and access to Android Google Mobile Services “for a complete video offering”. MediaFirst is the same video platform deployed by Bell Fibe, Telus Optik, and SaskTel's MaxTV, and this decision from Cogeco diverges from the path set by Shaw, Rogers and Videotron, who chose Comcast's X1 platform for their next generation TV offering.
It…
Continue Reading
TORONTO — Football fans across Canada should soon be able to include NFL Sunday Ticket in their cable or satellite subscriptions again, after live sports streaming service DAZN Canada announced Tuesday it has entered into distribution agreements with Bell, Rogers, Shaw, SaskTel and other cable/satellite providers to carry NFL Sunday Ticket this upcoming season.
Mid-summer last year, cable and satellite providers in Canada were no longer able to offer NFL Sunday Ticket to their residential subscribers after DAZN Canada bought the rights to distribute all out-of-market NFL games on its streaming service and launched its NFL Game Pass…
Continue Reading
EXTON, PA — The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE), in conjunction with its global arm, the International Society of Broadband Experts (ISBE), has created a new Generic Access Platform working group within the SCTE•ISBE Standards program to promote technical innovation in node housing interfaces.
The Generic Access Platform (GAP) project, conducted within the Interface Practices Subcommittee (IPS), is intended to develop standardized physical, thermal, mechanical and electrical interfaces for node housings or families of node housings, SCTE•ISBE said in a news release.
The GAP project is being chaired by two engineers from Charter Communications and the working group’s members…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA — Canada’s largest, vertically integrated BDUs have a little over a year to start providing set-top box data to a national STB-based audience measurement system — a new condition of licence imposed by the CRTC when it announced August 2 the collective renewal of soon-to-expire licences for various terrestrial BDUs.
As it renews their respective licences for a new term starting September 1, 2018, the CRTC is imposing a condition of licence on Bell, Rogers, Shaw and Videotron that will require them to provide the set-top box (STB) data they collect regarding programming services they distribute to a national…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – The Canadian wireless market is about to face disruption akin to what T-Mobile wrought in the U.S., which will come as good news for Canadian consumers looking for much more data at a far lower price. The news likely won’t be so good for the likes of Rogers, Bell and Telus, who will have to respond.
Today, Shaw Communications’ Freedom Mobile will unveil a new ad campaign (TV, radio, outdoor, digital, social…) fronted by Canadian comedy star Will Arnett which takes dead aim at the complaints so many Canadians make daily – that their wireless bills are too…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Rogers Communications has officially launched its long awaited cable TV upgrade this week as it begins to aggressively market Ignite TV in Ontario.
A TV spot featuring Lucy Liu, Gordon Ramsay, Paul Sorvino and real live Rogers technician Peter Dafos began airing Monday and Rogers has built three mobile units which will show off Ignite TV to the masses at various events across the GTA this summer. One was at the PGA Tour’s Canadian Open this past weekend in Oakville. It’s easier to show than to tell when it comes to new tech,…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC needs more information from the country’s telcos on their pending lower-cost data-only plans for mobile wireless services.
In a letter dated July 20 from Philippe Kent, competition and emergency services policy director, the Commission made specific requests for more information from the national wireless carriers as well as other stakeholders who filed interventions by the June 29 deadline.
“Commission staff is of the view that additional information is needed to further develop the record of the proceeding”, reads the letter. “As such, parties are asked to respond to the requests for information appended to this letter. Parties…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Corus Entertainment this week made a number of shifts in the structure of its marketing and communications units, bringing it all under one umbrella as the company pushes toward what it’s calling Corus 3.0.
However, the restructuring saw a number of people let go as well.
“As we look at how consumers continue to both discover and consume content across multiple platforms and the multitude of ways we now need to reach and engage our audiences, we have spent some time thinking about the optimal structure to best focus our efforts for the future,” said a staff memo sent…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA –The responses filed to ISED’s consultations on the 3500 MHz and 3800 MHz band pit incumbent fixed wireless service providers against mobile operators eager to deploy 5G services. The terrestrial operators, however, face opposition from satellite operators eager to protect the C-band. Caught up in the cross-fire are customers and communities who are reliant on existing services – both terrestrial and satellite.
Comments by a number of parties have been posted in response to Gazette Notice SLPB-004-18 — Consultation on Revisions to the 3500 MHz Band to Accommodate Flexible Use and Preliminary Consultation on Changes to the…
Continue Reading
BURNABY, BC – Negotiations on a new collective agreement between Shaw Cable and the United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1944 appear to have hit a snag.
The union, which represents over 500 employees at Shaw Cable in Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, says that strike votes were held earlier this week with 357 members (85% of the membership) voting, giving a strike vote mandate over 98%. These employees have been without a contract since March 23, 2018, it added.
"Shaw says they want an organization that is agile and adaptable; we say this should not be at a cost to our…
Continue Reading
