TORONTO – It is expected that Rogers Communications will announce Rogers Ignite Gigabit Internet today at noon during a press event at the Rogers Centre.
The service will be available later this year in parts of Toronto, along with Vaughan, Markham, Richmond Hill, Ajax, Pickering and Whitby. With downstream speeds up to 1 Gbps (1000Mbps) Ignite Gb will then be available across the company’s cable footprint, from St. Thomas, Ontario to St John’s Newfoundland, in 2016. No pricing details are yet available.
The move is a swing back at Bell, which launched a Gb fibre plan in Toronto and other areas…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Quebecor CFO Jean-Francois Pruneau told an investor’s conference Wednesday that despite all of the company’s spectrum holdings beyond its home province, it has no plans to build another national wireless company.
During the CIBC World Markets 2015 Institutional Investor Conference, Pruneau outlined the company’s moves over the last few years and complained about how much its stock price (it closed at $28.58 on Wednesday) undervalues the company. Its recent share repurchase from La Caisse de depot et Placement du Quebec value the company at $36/share, insisted the CFO.
Part of that increased value, he continued, is the market…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Today Hollywood Suite announced that its four HD movie channels will be relaunched on November 2nd as Hollywood Suite 70s Movies, Hollywood Suite 80s Movies, Hollywood Suite 90s Movies and Hollywood Suite 2000s Movies.
Right now, the channel branding is Warner Films, MGM Channel Sony Movie Channel and AXN Movies.
“With a focus on consumer choice in an era of vigorous competition and regulatory change, the new unified and simplified Hollywood Suite brands will create an emotional connection with consumers by leveraging the nostalgic value of the greatest films of the 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s,” said Hollywood Suite…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – It’s rare when the incumbent wireless carriers and the new entrants find themselves on the same side of an issue, but the response to a Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) appeal of the CRTC’s wholesale wireless decision last month is one of those occasions where the normally combative firms see eye to eye.
CNOC has appealed portions Telecom Regulatory Policy 2015-177, saying the Commission erred in fact and made errors of law in not granting mandated mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) access to the radio access networks (RANs) of the wireless carriers. The second…
Continue Reading
TORONTO and MONTREAL – Disney Channel and La chaîne Disney officially arrived in Canada this week.
Corus Entertainment said that the channels are available in most markets now, and will be available in 10 million households by Thursday via distribution partners Bell Aliant, Bell Fibe TV, Bell Satellite TV, CCSA members including Eastlink and Access, Cogeco Cable Canada, MTS, Rogers, Shaw, Shaw Direct, Telus and Videotron. SaskTel customers will have access to the new service in the coming weeks.
Disney Channel is a 24-hour kid-driven, family-inclusive television network that taps into the world of kids and families through original series and…
Continue Reading
ELLIOT LAKE, ON – Two consumer groups want the CRTC to overturn a previous decision that they say “sanctioned” a Telus policy, one that in turn highlights “a major flaw” in the Wireless Code.
The DiversityCanada Foundation and the National Pensioners Federation filed an application with the Commission this week that seeks to review and vary Telecom Decision CRTC 2015-211, which denied a previous application by the groups claiming that Telus made a material change to customer contracts without consent when applying its Large Prepaid Balance Policy.
Under that policy, a Telus prepaid customer who has accumulated an account balance…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Stingray Digital Group has received a five year renewal of its broadcasting licence from the CRTC for its national pay audio service Stingray Music.
Under the terms of the renewal, Stingray will contribute each year a minimum of 4% of the annual gross revenues earned by its pay audio programming undertaking to eligible third parties associated with Canadian content development allocated as follows:
– 25% to FACTOR;
– 25% to MUSICACTION,
– 5% to Community Radio Fund of Canada and;
– 45% to Stingray Music Rising Star to discover, encourage and promote new Canadian artists.
"We are pleased by with the CRTC's…
Continue Reading
OVER THE LAST TWO YEARS, the Canadian government’s ambitious Canada’s Wireless Policy took great steps from being a strategy to becoming a reality. The amount of spectrum made available to mobile wireless operators (and to fixed wireless operators) increased significantly, as Industry Canada delivered three auctions (700 MHz in March 2014, AWS-3 in March 2015 and 2500 MHz in April 2015) and is getting ready for a fourth one, scheduled in August 2015.
August 2015: Industry Canada’s residual auction
Industry Canada is holding its third auction in 2015 – a sealed-bid auction for “Residual Spectrum Licences in the 700 MHz and…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Canada’s publicly traded television service providers combined lost almost six times more TV subscribers in the first half of 2015 compared to the same period in 2014, and almost double what they lost in all of 2014, according to new research released Wednesday.
Ottawa-based research and consulting firm Boon Dog Professional Services also found that BCE, Rogers, Shaw/Shaw Direct, Vidéotron, Cogeco, Telus, and MTS (IPTV subscribers only) combined lost approximately 113,700 TV subscribers in their respective fiscal 2015 first and second quarters, up significantly from the 19,200 lost in the same quarters in 2014, and almost double…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Corus Entertainment has announced that Teletoon Retro will cease to exist as of September 1st.
The company's Cartoon Network Canada will be shifted into its place for those TV providers who don’t already carry that channel, two carrier sources have told Cartt.ca. Both sources asked not to be named as they do not have permission to speak publicly on the matter but have been told by Corus representatives that is the plan.
While some had assumed that the channel would be rebranded as a Disney service, since Corus now owns the rights to that programming going forward and will…
Continue Reading