theScore in the News
In The Press
Detailed View | List View
5
Canada sports channel, NHL ink digital rights deal
By Etan Vlessing
TORONTO (Hollywood Reporter) – With basketball’s March Madness wrapping, Canadian cable sports channel Score Media is pivoting to the Stanley Cup playoff rounds by striking a first-ever digital rights deal with the National Hockey League.
The deal will see NHL game highlights and other pro hockey league content, including live in-game blogging and chat, stream on Score Media’s newly re-launched Web site.
On the main TV platform, Canadians will watch the Stanley Cup round of playoff and championship games on both the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and the Sports Channel, while Versus and NBC provide coverage stateside.
The digital rights deal for Score Media also comes ahead of a possible second southern Ontario NHL team, likely northwest of Toronto, or one in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Despite the dominance of American teams during the Stanley Cup playoffs in recent years, Canadian TV hockey ratings have spiked since Canada beat the United States in the gold medal round at the recent Vancouver Olympic Games. Score Media’s cable sports channel, The Score, reaches about 6.2 million Canadian homes with a blend of sports news, scores, statistics and some live game coverage
31
Count the basket for The Score
Michael Grange
For those of you with memories or lives too short to remember what it was like to be a basketball fan before the existence of 24-hour sports television, let me remind you, or tell you: It sucked.
Very few games to watch, minimal hi-light packages etc. etc.
The advent of TSN and then Sportsnet (though their basketball coverage has obviously been reduced) helped the cause considerably. As a single-ish young man my weekends often went like so, provided I wasn’t finding new ways to abuse my liver: Watch the Raptors game Friday night (didn’t cover’em back then) followed by whatever late game TSN was showing from the West Coast, get up Saturday morning, play in my pickup game, go for greasy breakfast and talk about the Raptors game.
Then came the Internet, also a good thing, basketball wise.
But the development that has really moved the needle lately has been The Score’s commitment to basketball coverage. As a grown up with a mortgage and who now spends his free time driving kids around, I’m pretty confident I’m not their demographic.
But I’m a basketball fan, so in that respect, I absolutely am. I still shake my head in admiration about The Score’s decision to broadcast the national team’s Olympic qualifying games from Greece a couple of summers back.
Court surfing? That’s just a wicked show that didn’t exist before. They hired Scott Carefoot, the original Raptors blogger to do something digital which I don’t quite understand, also Holly Mackenzie, who previously was scribing for Slam, and just recently added bloggers/podcasters/twitterers The Basketball Jones to their line-up. There’s always Cabbie loving Kobe. They dropped the CIS Final Eight (picked up by TSN), but do have this thing called March Madness.
And I mention all of this because tonight they’re showing the McDonald’s All-American game live at 8 p.m. which is just ….awesome.
It’s the granddaddy of US high school all-star games, but has always been kind of theory compared to fact for Canadian hoops fans (though I seem to remember one of From Deep’s Original Seven™ sending me a photo he took of the Hump playing in the AAG with LeBron).
But this year it was particularly relevant because of Cory Joseph and Tristan Thompson, a pair of Canadian kids – Cory’s from Pickering, Tristan’s from Brampton – who have been dominating at the top level of US high school basketball all year and earned selections to the McDonald’s game.
I was fortunate enough to see them play (um, they’re both really good) for their high school team outside Las Vegas earlier this year, which I did in advance of a couple of stories I wrote about them and about the exodus of top high school talent from Canada to the US, particularly from the Toronto area.
There are a lot of points of views on that particular issue, and I certainly have mine, but they’re not really germaine at the moment.
What matters is that here are a pair of remarkably talented basketball players, each with legitimate prospects of playing in the NBA – though that is a high a standard and far from a sure thing – who for one night get to metaphorically shout from the rooftops that they’ve made it; they have arrived at a significant and hard to attain intermediary step along their athletic destiny.
There are pitfalls to avoid and much, much steeper hills to climb, but for now it’s worth celebrating those achievements.
And thanks to The Score, Canadian basketball fans can share in the moment.
I’ll be at work, covering the Raptors-Clippers, but can be sure I’ll have the PVR ready to go at home, and you know what channel it will be on.
9
ScoreMobile review
knowyourmobile.com
Simon Bisson
We review ScoreMobile, a sports information and statistics app for the dedicated fan
Published on Mar 9, 2010
It’s not easy to forget that the BlackBerry is Canadian – after all, many of the applications in App World come from Canadian developers.
One of the more interesting is the free ScoreMobile, from the Canadian TV sports channel.
You’ll probably only want to download this app if you’re a fan of American sports.
You won’t find the Premier League here and the only truly international sports covered are the PGA gold tour and Formula 1 (you’ll have to wait until 2012 for the next batch of Olympic coverage!).
However, if you’re into ice hockey, American football, baseball, or basketball, then this is the application for you, as you’ll get results from the NHL, the NFL, from MLB, and the NBA.
Expat-Canadians will be pleased to see CFL results, while fans of the US College Basketball tournaments will get the March Madness results delivered straight to their phone.
The application is simple enough to use. Pick the league you want to follow (you can customise ScoreMobile to just display the sports you enjoy).
You’ll then be shown the last few days’ results, as well as upcoming fixtures. For each game you’ll get the score in each quarter or half – and if you understand the annotations for the sport in question, you’ll get full scoring statistics for e2ach player.
There are also game summaries, so you can quickly see just what happened during a game.
You’ll also get details of the current league standings of each team, which can be broken down by conference and by division.
One useful feature of ScoreMobile is the various statistical views.
If you’re taking part in a fantasy league, then you’re going to want to know the scoring percentages of each player in your team – though you’ll have to manually transfer them to your spreadsheets.
One useful feature is ScoreMobile’s integration with the core BlackBerry applications, so you can add a fixture directly into your calendar.
That means you’re able to schedule your time in front of the TV for the next Grand Prix, and make sure that everyone knows you’re going to be busy then…
This is an application for the dedicated sports fan, and it knows just what its audience wants.
In delivering it, ScoreMobile takes advantage of the BlackBerry’s unique features, and gives you a clean and clear view of the information you want in a timely manner.
24
Kobe lets humor flow with Cabbie
By Arash Markazi
ESPNLosAngeles.com
http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/columns/story?id=4943698
Getty Images Cabral ‘Cabbie’ Richards has been granted unprecedented access to Kobe Bryant.
Every great athlete in sports history it seems has had a reporter sidekick. Muhammad Ali had Howard Cossell, Michael Jordan had Ahmad Rashad and Kobe Bryant has Cabbie.
If you haven’t heard of Cabbie, that’s OK. He’s not on U.S. television. He’s a cable television personality in Canada who has somehow driven around L.A. with Bryant in a limo, flown with him to practice on his personal helicopter and changed the way an entire country views one of the most enigmatic personalities in sports.
Cabbie, whose real name is Cabral Richards, first met Bryant in December 2005 when the Lakers were in Toronto to play the Raptors. "I was doing a piece on bandwagon fans so I went up to him with a pad of paper and asked how he felt about bandwagon fans and asked him to draw a bandwagon for me," Cabbie said. "He said, ‘I can’t draw, I suck.’ At the end of the interview I said ‘I’m going to be in L.A. in a couple months would you mind if I stayed at the guest house in Casa de Bryant’ and he said OK."
The simple request ended up being the springboard to a four-year running joke where Cabbie asks Bryant when he’ll be able to sleep over at his house. It also has given Canadian viewers a window into a humorous side of Bryant many American fans haven’t seen. When Cabbie, after a Lakers-Raptors game, asked Bryant for his address, Kobe said, "Sure, it’s 8 Out of your mind Avenue." When he saw him a couple of months later and asked for his phone number, Bryant said, "Sure, it’s 1-800 Never ever ever call me ever."
"I ended up seeing him four times in the span of three months so he knew what I was about and became familiar with my shtick," Cabbie said. "I just continued with the whole staying at his house bit and started giving him gifts. Once I gave him pajamas, another time I brought him CDs. I think Kobe trusts me now where he can lower his guard and just have fun."
Bryant lowered his guard with Cabbie so much he gave him and his camera crew the first — and still only — ride on the helicopter he rides to practices and games to avoid traffic. Cabbie flew with Bryant the day the Lakers played the Miami Heat and Bryant hit the buzzer-beater over Dwyane Wade to win the game.
"When we were in the helicopter all strapped in and going up, the moment hit me, ‘I can’t believe I’m in a helicopter with Kobe Bryant,’ " Cabbie said. "This doesn’t make any sense. I’m just some kid from Toronto. I’m just some idiot from Canada and I’m in a helicopter with Kobe Bryant."
The trip took about 20 minutes and was filmed for Cabbie’s popular segment on The Score, "Cabbie on the Street." During the trip, Bryant said the helicopter cost him about as much as his Ferrari California ($250,000) and saves him over an hour of travel time a day so he can spend more time with his kids. He said he drives from his home in Newport Beach to John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana where a helicopter takes him to LAX for practices or to a helipad on top of an office building in Downtown L.A. for games. In either case, a driver is waiting for him to take him to the practice facility or Staples Center.
"I don’t know how I get the access I get. It probably helps that I’m Canadian," Cabbie said. "I’m not in his face all the time. I don’t know how you Americans view us Canadians. We’re kind of strange and I certainly don’t represent most Canadians because I’m extremely strange."
Arash Markazi is a reporter and columnist for ESPNLosAngeles.com.
9
Apps mania mimics the dot-com boom
Executives, entrepreneurs and consumers know they are going to be big, and there is consensus that we've only scratched the surface
Friday afternoon: An old colleague of mine drops by to talk about an opportunity.
He’s EVP of a smartphone app development company in Toronto. Its play is developing apps for retailers and entertainers that will enhance the customer experience and drive customer loyalty.
I spent the morning with an entrepreneur trying to capitalize on smartphone apps. He also has a novel idea. He’s trying to connect the dots between branded promotions, customer loyalty and this quickly emerging technology.
Earlier in the week, I reported back to a client in the mobile industry on, among other things, the current state of smartphone apps, and how it could capitalize on opportunities in the space. The week before it was a university, thinking about new ways to communicate with younger stakeholders.
It feels like the beginning of dot-com all over again. Executives, entrepreneurs and consumers know apps are going to be big. There is a consensus among those I talk to that we’ve only scratched the surface of the potential. Gartner, according to an article recently published on CNET, projects apps will be a $6-billion industry in 2010.
But there is enough uncertainty to give some folks pause while others plow ahead.
The Score was an early entrant into the apps space. While some larger players in sports media held back, the mid-sized firm took the plunge with ScoreMobile iPhone Edition in October, 2007, long before the iPhone launched in Canada. The app lets users receive stats, live blogs, sports headlines and real-time updates on their favourite teams and leagues throughout the day. Not only did the company ride the learning curve fast, it also gained a first-mover advantage, quickly becoming one of the top downloaded apps for both BlackBerry and iPhone – and it turned that advantage into new customers, revenue and increases in year-over-year profit.
As the owner/operator of private business, with lots of fires to fight, should apps be on your radar? Maybe. Exploring opportunities in apps doesn’t rate higher than addressing cash flow problems or continuing to sharpen your value proposition. On the other hand, entrepreneurs were likely asking themselves the same thing about “websites” in the late ’90’s – simply dismissing the notion is probably foolhardy.
If you are not already familiar with apps, here is a short précis: An app is a program downloaded to a smartphone or other mobile device, meant to serve a specific purpose. Webopedia defines apps in terms of enhanced connections to the Internet. That’s true, as many apps do a better job of providing users with a rich, interactive web experience for a particular company, brand or entity. I also think consumers see apps as games, utilities (turning the phone into a flashlight) and better access to information (such as sports scores and weather).
Apps are either paid for by consumers, or are free and have advertising embedded.
Special to the Globe and Mail
Mark Healy (P.Eng, MBA) is a partner at Torque Customer Strategy, a boutique consultancy focused on go-to-market strategy. He is a regular speaker and media contributor on topics ranging from marketing to managing professional service firms, and he has completed more than 100 engagements in this space over the past five years. Mr. Healy is known as much for his aggressive sense of personal style as he is for intense and engaging conversations. He lives with his wife Charlotte and their bulldog McDuff in Toronto.
8
High-tech kept the Super Bowl on track
By Doug Gross, CNN
(CNN) — As the players, coaches and halftime performers — not to mention the Lombardi Trophy — made their way to Miami’s Sun Life Stadium for the Super Bowl on Sunday, Jerry Hunter and company were keeping a close eye on them.
The Super Bowl contracted with Hunter’s US Fleet Tracking to use its real-time GPS tracking system, which uses satellite technology that can "ping" a vehicle’s location every few seconds.
The Web-based mapping system was just one of the high-tech gadgets used Sunday to make sure the party for 74,000 people ran smoothly.
"You think you and your wife have a struggle throwing a dinner party with 30 guests — making sure everything is where it’s supposed to be at the right time?" he said. "Imagine the Super Bowl."
Sunday’s Super Bowl in Miami, Florida, unfolded against a backdrop of new high-tech stadium features, smartphone applications and video technology.
CBS Sports, which broadcast the game, is boasting about what it called a host of technological advances this year.
The network used six high-speed, high-definition cameras — they call the technology SuperVision — with the ability to shoot 300-400 frames per second. (A normal camera shoots about 60).
In a news release, the company said the technology was designed to show questionable calls like fumbles and receptions from multiple angles.
The cameras were calibrated to measure first downs, be able to overlay virtual extensions of the goal posts to help see whether kicks were good, and launch an integrated animation package that CBS incorporated with its existing graphics.
The technology was used Sunday night to give viewers lots of looks at an attempted two-point conversion by the New Orleans Saints.
The play was originally ruled no-good by officials on the field. Shots of the play, however, appeared to show the Saints receiver had crossed the goal line and the officials eventually agreed, overturning the call.
AT&T, the exclusive network for Apple’s iPhone, beefed up its capacity to handle the phone calls, text messages and photographs that poured out of the stadium during the game — a 31-17 win by the Saints.
The company added three mobile cell towers and a new distributed antenna inside the stadium.
The company, which has at times been criticized for getting overwhelmed when iPhone users gather en masse, similarly bolstered its network for last week’s Pro Bowl game.
"These are two of the biggest games of the year, and fans attending them want to be able to share the experience, as it’s happening, with those back home, whether its through a voice call, text message, e-mail or picture and video messaging," said Rich Guidotti, AT&T Mobility’s south Florida vice president, in a news release last week.
"Our network team has been working for months to deliver the best possible wireless experience for the games and their related activities."
Sprint, which said in a release that it spent more than $2 million on Super Bowl preparations, and other carriers also added towers to prepare for the information overflow.
Smartphone users also were granted a spate of new apps to help follow the tilt between the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts.
Blackberry users loaded up ScoreMobile, an app from Score Media Ventures that provided everything from previews and betting odds before the game to real-time box scores and blog posts during it.
High-tech security scanners were used to scan both people and packages entering the stadium and law enforcement had bomb-removal robots at the ready (although federal authorities have said there were no specific, credible threats against the game).
This year was the fourth Super Bowl for Hunter’s Oklahoma City, Oklahoma-based company.
The system uses a hardwired device about the size of a bar of soap that is installed either somewhere under a vehicle’s dashboard or on the driver’s person.
Not only does the device provide tracking, but it can be used remotely to lock or unlock doors, honk the horn, open the trunk or enable and disable the starter.
The operator can do those actions from a smartphone even when in another state, he said.
"You can bring up the vehicle on an iPhone and start it from anywhere in the world or pop the trunk for the guy who wants to borrow your golf clubs from across town," said Hunter, formerly a tech guru at companies including EA Sports and Wal-Mart.
While the devices, which cost about $400 each, work for organizing and security at events like the Super Bowl and Olympics, which US Fleet Tracking also will be working, they’re most commonly used for things like ambulance dispatching and delivery companies needing to keep an eye on their workers.
Hunter said one client found an employee using a company vehicle to back down a boat ramp at 2 p.m. on a Friday. Another discovered workers running their own private moving service with company trucks, he said.
A city roads department found the crew in charge of patching potholes was instead going out into the woods and playing poker most days, he said.
The devices used at the Super Bowl are able to update once every three seconds, he said.
"This is not a historical playback," he said. "This is exactly where these vehicles are at this instant."
In other personal technology news, social networking was expected to play a role in the Super Bowl, even for people who don’t actually care about the game.
According to survey results by business research site Knowteria, 41 percent of Super Bowl viewers will re-watch this year’s commercials online and 48 percent said they’re likely to discuss the ads on a social networking site.
29
ScoreMobile makes 680 News headlines
15
Webcast has hoops fans Jonesing for more
Chris Zelkovich
About four years ago, a couple of Toronto basketball junkies sat down in front of a camera, hooked it up to a computer and started talking about their favourite sport.
It was a lot like those old Andy Hardy movies, the ones in which Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland would find some old props in a barn and somehow put together a musical with Hollywood production values. It was all pure movie hokum and couldn’t have happened in a million years.
Or so we thought.
The Andy Hardys of today are making that real.
The basketball guys have made it thanks to the wonders of an Internet world that can make everyone a star.
On Friday, thebasketballjones.net will mark its 500th show. It averages more than 200,000 hits a month – an amazing total considering that it basically consists of nothing more than two fans offering their opinions while sitting in a condo for 20 minutes every day.
There are some witty photo montages to open the show, but basically it’s just two guys talking hoops.
"We fill a need," said Tas Melas, who appears daily on camera with J.E. Skeets. Helping produce the show, shot early in the morning so everybody can get to their day jobs, are Jason Doyle and Matt Osten.
"There isn’t really a daily show that gets produced in the morning that talks about what’s going on in the league," Melas adds. "You can get your highlights, but you can’t get this."
But filling a need isn’t the only reason for their success. The fact that the show deals with the NBA has a lot to do with it.
NBA fans appear to be the most web-savvy and web-addicted in the world of sports.
The NBA is basically the king of Internet sports. It’s the No. 1 sports league on Twitter with more than 1.75 million followers. That doesn’t count the 2.5 million who follow NBA star Shaquille O’Neal’s musings, by the way.
It’s also outdraws all other sports leagues on Facebook and YouTube and is easily the most popular blog on thestar.com.
“NBA fans seem to embrace new technology more than other fans," said NBA.com spokesman John Acunto.
A lot of this is because basketball fans tend to be a lot younger than most, which means they’re more comfortable watching things on the Internet or their cellphones than they are sitting in front of a TV.
While the Toronto-based hoops site isn’t producing much revenue, those days may not be far off. The guys have a deal to air more off-the-wall stuff on The Score, which believes that bigger things for these guys and others are just around the virtual corner.
"This is the future of sports on TV," said Score chairman John Levy. "More people are connecting to us through our mobile, web and satellite radio than are watching us on television."
For example, The Score’s mobile application for the BlackBerry just passed its millionth download – and it launched a mere seven months ago.
Levy is a big believer in the power of non-traditional media, including features like the hoops webcast.
The Score just announced its most successful quarter in its history, producing $11.4 million in revenue, and the new media played a big role in that.
“Two-and-a-half years ago there was nothing there," Levy said. “Now it’s millions and millions of dollars. Within a few years it will be a major contributor to the financial success of our company."
When specialty channels first appeared on the scene, broadcasting was replaced with narrow-casting. Now that appears to be replaced by something else. How about micro-casting?
15
Score Media’s new platforms part of offensive strategy toward growth goals
By Sunny Freeman, The Canadian Press
TORONTO – Over a million sports junkies who have downloaded Score Media Inc.’s (TSX:SCR) smartphone applications are key players in the company’s aggressive multi-platform growth strategy, CEO John Levy said Thursday.
The Toronto-based sports media company just reported its most profitable quarter ever, earning $1.1 million as revenue grew nearly 10 per cent, Levy said in an interview after the company’s annual general meeting Thursday.
"As the economy starts to snap back, because we were able to hang in there with very positive results last year, we’re moving forward very aggressively," Levy said.
"Relative to some of the other media companies who struggled through a very difficult economic time … we had a situation where, basically, we showed increased revenues in 2009."
Revenue totalled $11.4 million for the quarter ended Nov. 30, up from $10.5 million a year ago, when profit totalled $248,000.
Over fiscal 2009, revenues rose by $2.5 million to $38.9 million, thanks to increases in TV sales as well as web and mobile revenues. However, Score Media reported a net loss of $1.5 million for the year, due in part to investments in high-definition programming.
While Score’s media rivals played defence against declining advertising sales during the economic downturn, Levy said his company concentrated on new media platforms that "redirect advertisers into looking for new ways to connect with audiences."
ScoreMobile for BlackBerry has been downloaded on about 1.8 million BlackBerrys since its launch seven months ago and is the most downloaded sports application on the smartphone.
"The broadcasting industry has got to adapt to the new way people are going to consume sports, and news, and information, and entertainment. Anything that was is about to change and is changing," Levy said.
He added that the potential for growth is "exponentially greater" in its new media platforms than in traditional content delivery.
"As new (technologies) open up, I think advertisers are going to be very receptive to joining back into the fray."
The company expects a 40 to 50 per cent year-over-year growth in revenues from its new media platforms, such as its smartphone applications that lets users check real-time scores, as well as standings and TV clips.
He added that adapting content and advertising strategies to new platforms is so integral to 21st century media operations that it will determine whether an outlet exists in the next five years.
Levy also attributed the company’s stability during the recession to a "core passion" in sports enthusiasts, who are empowered by new technologies. He added that mobile and social media will become a bigger part of their lives in the coming years.
"You don’t have to take stuff from people who think they know about sports – you are sports," he said. "So this whole new way of doing things is allowing more people to communicate with each other and allowing them to get more and more excited."
"The trick for us is to be that cool sports information brand that people come to to interconnect with other people…and that will be our success."
Jeff McDowell, a senior vice-president at Research In Motion, said mobile downloads will be the way of the future for sports fans.
"With mobile not only do you have a direct relationship with the people who consume your content, but you have a direct relationship with them always, because they always carry their phone with them."
Score Media’s main business is The Score Television Network, but it also operates satellite radio network Hardcore Sports Radio and interactive assets including TheScore.com and Score Mobile.
Shares in the company were up five cents or 10 per cent at 55 cents in early afternoon trading Thursday on the Toronto Stock Exchange Thursday.
15
Mobile app scoring big for Score
'Future direction'
Matt Hartley, Financial Post
TORONTO — There are hundreds of thousands of sports enthusiasts in the United States who likely have never watched Score Media Inc.’s television network, but who are already big fans of The Score.
For many U.S. sports fans, The Score has become their primary source for scores and news about their favourite teams, thanks to the company’s ScoreMobile smartphone applications for BlackBerrys and iPhones.
Since it was launched a little more than seven months ago, ScoreMobile has become the most downloaded sports application in BlackBerry’s App World marketplace, totalling more than 1.25 million downloads and more than 45 million page views per month.
As well, ScoreMobile for iPhone is one of the most popular sports applications in Apple Inc.’s App Store both in Canada and the United States.
In fact, despite its Canadian roots, more than 60% of ScoreMobile users now come from the United States.
For John Levy, Score Media’s chairman and chief executive, mobile isn’t merely a way of promoting the company’s Canadian sports network, but rather is a first step toward becoming a player on the international stage.
"It really is the future direction of our company," Mr. Levy said in an interview. "This is not just a sidebar for a TV network. The fact that we are being able to show this sort of success is really the direction of where we’re headed."
Score Media reported yesterday its highest quarterly earnings to date, with revenue jumping 8% to $11.4-million for the three months ended Nov. 30 from $10.5-million in the same quarter the year before. Profit for Score Media rose to $1.1-million in the quarter from $200,000 in year-earlier period.
Score Media’s mobile operations are an extension of the company’s strategy to use digital media to expand the sports-viewing experience.
The plan that also includes the company’s website, its expanding blog federation and its social media presence on sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
As the online advertising industry develops and North Americans upgrade from cellphones to multifunction smart phones capable of supporting apps like ScoreMobile – which is free and supported by advertising – Score Media expects its mobile operations to play an increasingly larger role in the company’s bottom line.
The apps are currently monetized through both direct ad sales as well as through partnerships with ad networks, such as Quattro, JumpTap and Google Inc.’s AdSense Mobile.
Two years ago, long before the iPhone arrived in Canada and before Apple’s App Store ignited public interest in mobile applications, Score Media hired its own director of mobile, Dale Fallon.
"At that time there were almost no iPhones in Canada, so, out of necessity, we were targeting sports fans not just in Canada, but particularly in the U.S., who were interested in similar sports to what we follow in Canada," Mr. Fallon said.
"We knew the iPhone was going to come to Canada, but it actually took longer than we expected. So for months we were growing this business in the U.S."
Mr. Fallon said that in order for ScoreMobile to evolve into a bona fide revenue generator for the company, they need the scale the U.S. market offers to grow their potential user base as a means of attracting advertisers.
Financial Post
