ROGERS COMMUNUCATIONS' BLOCKBUSTER NHL deal puts a direct focus on the sheer costs of sports programming for distributors and their customers, the Canadian consumer.
Cartt.ca interviewed several executives across the Canadian television industry (including some distributors who spoke to us on the condition they not be identified) to discuss the impact sports is having on broadcasting in Canada and whether or not the business can survive the spiralling costs of this rich content.
Alyson Townsend, president of the independent cable group Canadian Cable System Alliance, said no one should be surprised by the consistent price increases consumers have paid for cable…
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TORONTO – Telus has teamed up with Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner Dr. Ann Cavoukian on a new white paper that explores the challenges associated with Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) initiatives.
More than 27 million Canadians use mobile computing devices such as laptops, smartphones and tablets and that number continues to grow. Canadian enterprises outpace their global counterparts in BYOD, though fewer than half (33%) of Canadian organizations have mobile device management policies and practices in place to mitigate the many security and privacy risks associated with BYOD. Further, more than half (58%) of Canadian organizations lose sensitive corporate…
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OTTAWA – Just 11 companies remain in the running to participate in next month’s auction of 700 MHz wireless spectrum.
The latest to withdraw is Toronto’s Catalyst Capital Group, a private equity investment firm which is one of the largest shareholders of the struggling Mobilicity, which is operating under the court’s protection. No reasons were given for its withdrawal, which leaves Bell, Eastlink, Feenix Wireless (Mobilicity founder John Bitove), Globalive (Wind), MTS, Novus Wireless, Rogers, SaskTel, TbayTel, Telus, and Videotron still in the running. See the full list here.
The auction is slated…
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A FEW YEARS AGO, when digital video recorders first appeared on the scene, many predicted big trouble for the TV industry. Broadcasters sued or threatened to.
After all, if people could record their favourite shows and zip through commercials when watching them hours or even days later how long would it take advertisers who want their messages to be seen and acted on rightnow to lose faith in television's all-encompassing power?
But while many feared the power of the DVR (or PVR), those on the sports side almost welcomed it as an affirmation of the drawing power of that content. They…
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TORONTO – Rogers’ new 12-year $5.2 billion broadcast and multimedia deal with the NHL may have grabbed headlines across the country, but will likely have little impact on the company’s bottom line, say industry analysts.
Rogers Communications executives said Tuesday the deal will be immediately EBITDA-accretive to its Media division, predicting an influx of $25 – $35 million in the first year, rising to more than $60 million per year after that. But Dvai Ghose, managing director/head of research for Canaccord Genuity, pointed out that Rogers Media only accounted for 4% of the parent company’s 2013 third quarter adjusted EBITDA.
In…
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DID THAT HEADLINE get your attention? I can already hear irritated e-mails disputing that claim being tapped out in response, but bear with us for a few paragraphs.
“What!?” some of those running popular specialty video brands might be asking, “Isn’t Galaxie just that group of sleepy music channels which are a throw-in with everyone’s digital cable box?” Well, they may be a value-add which come automatically with most digital TV subscriptions, but some comprehensive recent measurement shows the suite of music channels (anywhere from 40 to 100, depending on the BDU) is anything but sleepy. This is…
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OTTAWA – Industry analysts and a journalist duked it out over wireless pricing and government policy in Canada during a session at the annual International Institute of Canada conference on Monday.
Jeff Fan, research analyst at Scotia Capital, presented some figures that countered many of the arguments which have been made by the federal government and others who say that competition in Canada’s wireless market is lacking. Fan noted that the elimination of three-year contracts as mandated by the CRTC earlier this year in its Wireless Code of Conduct has actually made things worse for consumers by leading…
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TORONTO – Under creditor protection since September, wireless carrier Mobilicity has won Ontario Superior Court of Justice approval to pursue the formal sale of the company.
On Wednesday, the company’s debtors received a sale procedure order from the court approving the sale of “substantially all of the business and assets or shares” of the company (known legally as Data & Audio Visual Enterprises, or DAVE).
Click here for all the documents related to the Mobilicity creditor protection and sale process.
Any parties interested must formally declare their intentions to the sellers by December 2,…
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OTTAWA – Use it or lose it. That was the gist of Industry Minister James Moore’s message to Canadian spectrum holders on Thursday.
Following up on a Throne Speech promise that Canadians living in rural areas have greater access to high-speed Internet services, Minister Moore said that Industry Canada will begin renewing 2300 MHz and 3500 MHz spectrum licences next March, but will deny extension requests from holders whose licence conditions – especially deployment – have not been met.
"Our government will only renew spectrum licences for those holders that have met all conditions of licence. Those that have not used the…
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OTTAWA – In the third quarter of 2013, Canada’s publicly traded television service providers combined to add subscription TV customers, thanks to the record growth of IPTV, reversing a trend of cumulative losses in each of the previous three quarters.
New research from Ottawa-based research and consulting firm Boon Dog Professional Services shows that the publicly traded TV service providers (cable satellite and telcoTV) added an estimated 14,145 TV subscribers combined in Q3 in what is traditionally a strong quarter for TV subscriber growth – and all of it was a result of record IPTV subscriber…
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