OTTAWA – Bell Canada and Rogers Communications showed off some different philosophies when it came to the federal government’s NAFTA negotiations when they appeared recently in front of a recent meeting of the Standing Committee on International Trade.
Rogers Cable vice-president, regulatory, Pam Dinsmore said in her opening remarks on September 20th that her company is concerned the trade talks will wander too far from its prior mandate and into copyright, which includes such issues as retransmitting U.S. over-the-air TV signals, Canada’s notice-and-notice regime for pirated online content, and our Copyright Modernization Act’s provisions for personal use and its…
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MTS integration proceeding well, no 600 MHz set asides required
TORONTO – Bell Canada Enterprises CEO George Cope, like any wireless executive in Canada these days, is feeling pretty good.
All companies are posting strong recent subscriber additions and see growth continuing. Speaking to the BMO Capital Markets Media and Telecom Conference in Toronto on Tuesday, Cope pointed to the fact Canada has grown by 350,000 immigrants – and the phones and plans they buy – during the past 12 months or so as a leading reason why the business is so buoyant.
Add all those new Canadians to the growth of…
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Plus, spectrum set asides are a bad idea
TORONTO – Customer service at Rogers had better improve because on Tuesday, CEO Joe Natale put a target in front of himself and his company at which to aim.
While speaking at the BMO Capital Markets Media and Telecom Conference, Natale revealed how removing customer service friction points which he has noted during his five months at Rogers makes him believe “we can get anywhere from 100 to 200 basis points of margin improvement in the next 12 to 18 months,” by tackling various issues, he said.
“To date Rogers has done a good…
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TORONTO – Family Channel has kicked off its 15th annual Bullying Awareness Week campaign with the message to Stand UP! when bullying happens.
Family Channel is also taking the message of bullying prevention on the road, bringing Stand UP! rallies to selected schools across Canada. Hosted by The Next Step’s Briar Nolet (Richelle) and Myles Erlick (Noah), each rally will feature a screening of bullying-themed content from Backstage, an interactive discussion led by a PREVNet representative and a special dance performance. Kids can enter to win by visiting Family.ca and explaining how their school stands up to bullying. The…
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OTTAWA – Canada’s publicly traded television service providers combined lost 22% fewer TV subscribers in the first half of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016, bucking the recent trend of accelerating TV cord-cutting in, according to new research released Monday.
Ottawa-based research and consulting firm Boon Dog Professional Services also found that BCE, Rogers, Shaw/Shaw Direct, Vidéotron, Cogeco, and Telus combined lost approximately 100,931 TV subscribers in their respective fiscal 2017 first and second quarters, down from the 129,000 lost in the same quarters in 2016.
“The significant turnaround in TV subscriber performance at Shaw Cable as a…
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Bidding starts at $1.54 billion
OTTAWA – The auction of 600 MHz wireless spectrum, when it happens, will favour the smaller newcomers like Freedom Mobile and Vidéotron and looks to offer no payments to TV broadcasters which will be forced off the band.
While the Canadian bandwidth plan is to be harmonized with the United States (something we’ve known for a while), our auction for the valuable low frequency spectrum sure won’t be the same. In its consultation paper released late Friday (Ed note: right before the long weekend, so no questions, media!) Innovation, Science and…
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MONTREAL — BCE’s strong performance in the wireless market in its most recent fiscal quarter helped to offset softening gains in its wireline business, enabling the company to meet analysts’ growth expectations for both its overall revenue and wireless subscriber increases.
BCE reported operating revenues of $5.7 billion in the second quarter of 2017, up 6.7% from $5.34 billion in the same quarter last year. The company’s adjusted EBITDA was $2.38 billion in Q2 2017, representing a 5% increase from its adjusted EBITDA of $2.69 billion in Q2 2016.
These results were in-line with street expectations, according to a “first look”…
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GATINEAU – Maybe it’s not so bad yet, after all…
The CRTC on Thursday released three different documents breaking down the 2016 results from conventional broadcast, discretionary and on demand, and broadcast distribution undertaking sectors of the Canadian TV business.
The numbers are all almost a year old (filed by the regulated companies at the end of the regulatory broadcast year, August 31, 2016) – so bear that in mind when perusing these highlights. Also, these figures do not include any revenue from broadband, telephony or wireless streams. (As well, the Commission told us the breakdown for…
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Plus, DAZN has a big job to do and very little time
VARIOUS ‘SUPER SPORTS’ PACKAGES have quietly been pulled or are being rendered anew by Canadian TV carriers with the announcement last week they will no longer contain NFL Sunday Ticket or NFL Red Zone.
Both Sunday Ticket (every single NFL game, no matter what) and Red Zone (all the games’ action when the team are inside their opponent’s 20-yard line) have been on offer to NFL fanatics from TV carriers for years, since Rogers originally tried to bring it north as an exclusive more than a decade ago.
Since the…
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NEW YORK – Media company ZoneTV is readying a suite of customizable linear TV channels that it says will launch this fall.
The start-up announced a partnership with video monetization technology and services provider Ooyala and Microsoft that will see it curate some 6,000 hours of licensed digital-first content into specialized channels for pay-TV subscribers called ZoneTV Dynamic Channels.
The result is a new cable/satellite content category that offers a personal user experience blending the convenience of linear viewing with the flexibility of on-demand programming in a highly personalized viewing experience, with genres that include kid’s programming, fitness, cooking,…
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