TORONTO – Almost 30% of Canadians watched some or all of Sunday’s thrilling Grey Cup game, the CFL said citing overnight data from Numeris.
An average audience of 4.3 million Canadians tuned in to TSN (4.1 million) and RDS (220,000) to watch the Toronto Argonauts’ dramatic come-from-behind victory over the Calgary Stampeders in the championship game.
Overall, nearly 10 million unique viewers took in some or all of the tilt. The game achieved a 34% share, meaning more than one in three Canadians watching television on Sunday tuned in.
The audience for the 105th Grey Cup presented by Shaw peaked at nearly…
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A PATENT DISPUTE OVER Comcast’s X1 operating system could have a wide-ranging impact on Canadian cablecos' plans to rollout the set-tops here.
The International Trade Commission (ITC) issued a final ruling upholding a claim by TiVo parent Rovi Corp. that Comcast violated patents on technologies that let users schedule set-top DVR recordings remotely via mobile device, according to a FierceCable report.
The ruling will put pressure on Comcast to forge a licensing deal, the report continues. Comcast, however, said it will simply remove features related to the patents while it pursues an appeal.
In addition to halting imports of X1 set-tops from…
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TORONTO – Freedom Mobile will accept orders Friday for the iPhone X, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus and promises to deliver the devices before the holidays.
The Shaw-owned wireless provider said that customers will be able to pre-order all three devices beginning November 24 and they will be available in all Freedom Mobile retail locations across Canada on December 8.
"Canadians have told us they want access to Apple's range of products on a vastly improving network at a reasonable price," said Shaw president Jay Mehr, in the news release. "By offering iPhone in combination with our Big Gig data…
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BEFORE DELVING INTO the backbone issues, what is current the state of broadband in the Far North? What levels of service are currently available? According to Northwestel’s COO Curtis Shaw, residential customers in the western part of the North can purchase a 125 Mbps service while businesses can get 150 Mbps over the regions where it offers a DOCSIS 3.0 network on its hybrid-fibre-coax cable plant.
By the end of this year, however, Northwestel will be able to offer all 59 communities in the western arctic region a minimum 15/1 Mbps service. “We've done 51 communities to date, we've got…
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TORONTO – When Corus purchased Shaw Media last year, along with the company came 15 union members who belonged to the Canadian Media Guild.
Shortly after joining Corus, the group of former Shaw operations employees organized with their new colleagues and in March, the group voted to join CMG together. According to the union, that’s when things started to go wrong between management and the now 45 unionized employees. Unions are not generally a large presence at Corus, which has close to 5,000 employees, however over 200 Global TV staffers belong to Unifor.
The vote by the group to join CMG…
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OTTAWA – Brendan Carr, recently appointed commissioner of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has some advice for Canadian spectrum regulators: avoid using spectrum set asides in the 600 MHz auction.
In an interview style session with Cartt.ca publisher and editor Greg O’Brien at the International Institute of Canada’s annual conference in Ottawa on Tuesday, Carr, one of three Republicans on the five-member commission, characterized the FCC’s 600 MHz auction as generally successful, but noted it didn’t need to be as complicated as it was. The complexity resulted from the FCC’s decision to set aside spectrum as a way to…
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BROADBAND IN CANADA’S FAR NORTH got a boost earlier this fall when the federal government gave Northwestel $50 million for the deployment of a satellite backhaul network for Nunavut. The much needed investment comes from the Liberals’ Budget 2016 Connect to Innovate program, which promises $500 million over five years to address lack of high speed Internet services in rural and remote regions of the country.
Curtis Shaw, COO at Northwestel, noted at the time of the funding announcement that this new backhaul network will provide additional choices to consumers and businesses. The company will also invest $73 million…
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FORT FRANCES, Ont. – Tbaytel Fibre is now available to homes and businesses in Fort Frances, a town of about 7,800 right near the border with Minnesota, about 350 kms from Thunder Bay. The move brings it in direct competition with regional incumbents Shaw and Bell.
Tbaytel announced 11 months ago it would be embarking on a project to add wireline fibre services to its existing mobility offering in the Fort Frances area and since that time, the city of Thunder Bay-owned company has completed a regional network centre along with the new fibre runs.
Customers in Fort Frances now…
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TORONTO – Hollywood Suite is gearing up for a five-week national free preview promising a slew of films including 28 premieres.
From December 1 through January 5, viewers can stoke their holiday spirit with perennial festive favourites such as Die Hard, Gremlins, Scrooged and White Christmas; celebrate John Lennon on December 8 with A Hard Day’s Night, Imagine: John Lennon, and Across the Universe; remember Carrie Fisher on December 27 with When Harry Met Sally and Postcards from the Edge; plus ring in the new year with a Star Trek marathon.
Hollywood Suite owns and operates four exclusive HDTV channels featuring…
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Shaw says it’s a must if the government truly wants competition
OTTAWA – The large incumbent wireless operators and their smaller rivals continue to spar over proposed 600 MHz spectrum licensing rules in reply comments to Innovation, Science and Economic Development’s (ISED) consultation. There are several sticking points over ISED’s pro-competitive ideas but the most contentious revolve around the provision to set aside spectrum for companies which aren’t Bell, Rogers or Telus.
Rogers and Telus remain convinced that setting aside spectrum for the regional wireless players isn’t the right approach. (Bell Canada’s reply comments weren’t made available at the time…
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