VANCOUVER – Telus customers may now access some of Netflix’s big new shows in 4K after launching the Netflix app on its Optik TV 4K set-top boxes.
Specifically, the Netflix 4K app is an upgrade that Telus added to its new Optik 4K set-top boxes that debuted this summer. To access the Netflix 4K programming through Optik, customers require a 4K TV, a 4K set-top box, which Telus offers for no additional cost with a two-year commitment, and a Netflix Premium subscription. Customers also require a minimum of Telus’ Internet 50 package to support 4K streaming.
Netflix content now available in…
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TORONTO – Food lovers may gorge on Bell Media’s Gusto over the holiday season thanks to a national free preview of the food and lifestyle channel.
The exclusive home to all-new Jamie Oliver programming in Canada, programming also features cooking series from lifestyle guru Martha Stewart, including the new Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party where she cooks and entertains alongside her unlikely friend and King of Kush, Snoop Dogg. Gusto’s lineup also includes superstar British chef Lorraine Pascale in her new series Lorraine’s Fast, Fresh And Easy Food, the perfectly paired exclusive series The Wine Show, plus hours of original Canadian programming,…
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VANCOUVER – Higher data revenue and subscriber growth in both wireless and wireline operations helped to lift third quarter revenues at Telus, the company said Friday.
For the period ended September 30, consolidated operating revenue grew 2.6% to $3.2 billion year-over-year, while earnings before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased by 5.8% to $1.1 billion.
When excluding net gains and equity income related to real estate joint venture developments in Q3 2016, as well as restructuring and other costs from both reporting periods, adjusted EBITDA was up 5.5% to $1.2 billion. This growth reflects higher wireless and wireline…
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GATINEAU – Differential pricing can benefit a broad range of players in the communications market, Telus told the CRTC on the fourth day of its DPP hearing, but just don’t let the vertically integrated (VI) entities use their “unnatural incentives” to give themselves an advantage.
“Since differential pricing practices increase the size of the market, they allow both carriers and content providers to spread these fixed costs over a larger number of consumers. This process has produced, and should continue to produce, newer and better services at stable or falling prices throughout the Internet ecosystem,” said Dr. Jeffrey Eisenach, managing…
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GATINEAU – Smaller broadcasters warned the CRTC on Wednesday that it must guard against differential pricing practices because they could have a significant negative impact on their content.
The Independent Broadcast Group told the Commission Wednesday morning it has to consider potential abuses from media companies which own both content and ISPs.
Brad Danks, CEO at OUTtv, noted in his opening remarks to the IBG’s appearance in the DPP hearing that it’s pretty clear that vertically integrated (VI) media companies are able to prefer their own content in ISP distribution. In addition, once the VI’s affiliated broadcast distribution arm gets ISP…
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TORONTO – The incoming CEO of Rogers Communications, a former Rogers CEO, and the founder of Wind Mobile in Canada are all now investors in a wireless company looking for growth in Bolivia and New Zealand.
In a press release today, Alignvest Acquisition Corporation (AQX) and Trilogy International Partners LLC have announced a proposed acquisition where the two combine.
Trilogy, based in Bellevue, Washington, was formed in 2005 as a privately held wireless telecommunications operator and provides communications services through its operating subsidiaries, 2degrees and NuevaTel (which operates under the brand Viva), in New Zealand and Bolivia, respectively.
2degrees and NuevaTel provide…
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GATINEAU – Social media giant Facebook took the stand in the CRTC’s differential pricing practices (DPP) hearing on Tuesday and argued that zero-rated services don’t need to be anti-competitive and can be constructed to meet net neutrality rules.
Blair Levin, an advisor to Facebook, said under questioning that zero-rated services such as the company’s Free Basics offering (which has faced scrutiny around the world) don’t run amok of net neutrality because ISPs are prevented from acting as content gatekeepers.
“When companies use their position as the gatekeeper to essentially favour one kind of content or another, then…
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REVELSTOKE, BC – Last week, Telus purchased the British Columbia assets of independent cable and Internet service provider YourLink from Vecima Networks.
A purchase price was not disclosed.
Saskatoon-based Vecima (which is also a cable and wireless technology manufacturer) had put the B.C. networks on the block in the summer and will retain the cable and ISP nets it owns and operates under the YourLink brand in Saskatchewan.
The B.C. systems sold are in the southern interior in Revelstoke, Ashcroft, and Nakusp and farther north in Fort St. James, Vanderhoof, Burns Lake and Fraser Lake (nearer to Prince George). It is…
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FROM AN OUTSIDER’S point of view, Guy Laurence was a breath of fresh air for Rogers Communications. From the inside, however, it may have seemed more like a tornado.
Compared to other Canadian CEOs, Laurence was never short on swagger. Engaging, funny, far more open with the media than others, eager to boldly call out competitors if he felt like it, Laurence also showed himself willing to tear apart the company Ted built.
After the retirement of former CEO Nadir Mohamed three years ago, Rogers needed a shakeup. The controlling Rogers family knew it, as did its…
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Shocker after less than three years at the helm
TORONTO – Rogers Communications announced this morning that president and CEO Guy Laurence will step down, effective immediately. No reasons were given for his departure.
It also announced that it is Rogers intention to hire former Telus CEO Joseph Natale as president and CEO as soon as he is in a position to join Rogers. During the interim, board chair Alan Horn will act as president and CEO.
"We have appreciated Guy's leadership over the last three years," said Edward Rogers, deputy chairman, Rogers Communications, in a press release. "He has moved the…
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