The Federal Court of Appeal has granted Quebecor Inc.’s application to challenge the CRTC’s ruling that it must continue to provide its TVA Sports signal to BCE Inc. customers following a tiff earlier this year. Last month, Quebecor asked the court to appeal a CRTC decision in April that forced the telecom to keep providing Bell customers with the signal after it pulled it at the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs over a carriage fee dispute. In its application for appeal, Quebecor said the regulator doesn’t have jurisdiction over economic relationships or affiliation agreements...
A former Astral executive is Quebec’s new representative to the CRTC, with the federal government appointing Alicia Barin to the commission for a five-year term. Barin will join the CRTC in August. She is a former executive at Astral Media who left the company after BCE Inc. purchased it in 2013. Barin has worked in corporate affairs for AECO Project Management Inc. and Barin Architecture + Design since leaving Astral Media, the government said in a press release. “Ms. Barin’s extensive experience in the media industry as well as her expertise in Canadian broadcast policy and...
The CRTC has approved a request from Corus Entertainment Inc. to shutter 44 of its television transmitting towers that serve rural customers. The original application from November said that the...
The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal request by MediaTube Corp. to present new evidence in a six-year-old patent infringement case brought against BCE Inc. Judge David Stratus agreed with Bell’s argument that...
BCE Inc. confirmed today that several thousand of its Fibe TV and Alt TV...
The federal government isn’t interested in helping ensure BCE Inc. sees a...
CRTC chairman and CEO Ian Scott told a broadcasting conference Tuesday that the commission is “prepared to be flexible with new approaches to regulation” as it prepares to review its policy for commercial radio. According to a copy of his speech to the annual conference of the Western Association of Broadcasters, Scott said the regulator is “in the early stages of preparing for a comprehensive review of our commercial radio policy.” The CRTC’s three-year forecast mentions the review...
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — Innovation Canada will give existing holders of 3.5...
The House industry committee is asking the Heritage committee to study...
TORONTO — The interim report due at the end of this month from the expert...
OTTAWA — The concept of privacy should factor more prominently in competition law when it comes to regulating social media and big data, a conference heard on Thursday. “Users need to be able...
OTTAWA — The spectre of past Conservative government cuts to...
Corus Entertainment Inc., the only major Canadian broadcaster refusing to...
OTTAWA - Legislators on Tuesday gave some sense of what regulatory options...
OTTAWA — For the Canadian government to be more effective at legislating on issues including social media and internet of things (IoT) technology, it needs to communicate with technology specialists...
Broadcasters have lobbied the government for years to reimburse them for having to switch channels when the 600 MHz spectrum is repurposed for mobile wireless use, but all such requests have so-far been rebuffed, The Wire Report has learned.
In 2016, Innovation Canada...
OTTAWA — Facebook Inc. and Microsoft Corp. have both signed on to a...
Cogeco Inc. is lobbying the government to help Canadian radio news...
Innovation Canada is recommending that the privacy commissioner be vested...
Users of a program that provides free access to conventional TV stations in areas where they’re not available over-the-air are asking the CRTC not to allow Shaw Communications Inc. to shut down the...
The House heritage committee says the government should do more to fight piracy, including holding internet service providers “accountable,” and put in place efforts to...
The Centre for Digital Rights has hired new lobbyists to help it research...
Shaw Communications Inc. is getting rid of $548 million in shares in Corus Entertainment Inc.
The...
An organization representing sound recording rights holders wants to...
Quebecor Inc. has turned to the Federal Court of Appeal to overturn the CRTC’s decision forcing it to keep providing the signal for its TVA Sports to BCE Inc.’s TV customers. It filed for leave...
A class action against BCE Inc.’s controversial 2013 relevant advertising program will be heard in an Ontario Court. The action, which alleges that the program violated the plaintiffs’ privacy...
Almost 60 per cent of Canadians have “low trust and confidence” in Netflix Inc. to “protect Canadian culture and identity on television”; half of Canadians don't trust cable companies to do...
MONTREAL — The NDP’s platform for this year’s federal election will include requiring foreign...
When the Game of Thrones series premiere aired in 2011, streaming services...
OTTAWA — Facebook Inc.’s head of public policy in Canada said Friday the platform’s community guidelines, “in many respects,” go above what is currently prescribed in Canadian law, as the company works on making those guidelines more transparent. “We need to respect the laws of the country, but then beyond that, we have our community standards, which actually have a higher standard,” Kevin Chan said at a communications law conference hosted by the Forum for Research and Policy in Communications. Chan said Facebook doesn’t want and bans hate speech, terrorism, and...
OTTAWA — In an at-times tense hearing of the House of Commons ethics committee, executives from the Canada office of Alphabet Inc.’s Google made the case that the company was technologically...
The new Fizz flanker brand launched by Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron is still...
OTTAWA — Canadian companies that sell digital products which are subject...
BCE Inc. has filed a Part 1 application with the CRTC alleging Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron removed its film and TV show service Super Écran from its premium pack selection, giving its competitor Club...
Nicholas McHaffie, who served as counsel to TekSavvy Solutions Inc. in its long-running legal saga against movie studios looking to get the personal information of Canadians in copyright cases, has been appointed to the Federal Court. Justice Minister David Lametti made the appointment on Monday. It comes amid Federal Court court proceedings involving TekSavvy, a client of McHaffie, and movie studios pursuing the disclosure of the telecom’s subscriber information to start legal action against alleged infringers of the studios’ copyright. But Monday’s appointment means the end of...
The expected focus by the country’s largest wireless service providers...
The CRTC has told Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. that half a million...
Rogers Communications Inc. today announced that it is acquiring the Vancouver-based podcast company Pacific Content. “Podcasting is a big part of the future of audio. We quickly identified its immense potential and are being...
If the Office of the Privacy Commissioner takes Facebook Inc. to Federal...
The CRTC has approved a proposed sale of two Quebec radio stations to Leclerc Communication Inc., but not a requested exception to its ownership policy that Leclerc has said would kill the deal if not...
BCE Inc. has hit Quebecor Inc. with a $150-million lawsuit over Quebecor’s decision to cut the signal for its TVA Sports channel from Bell customers earlier this month. Quebecor pulled the TVA Sports signal at the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs in a dispute with Bell over carriage fees. The CRTC has since issued a mandatory order to keep the...
OTTAWA — The Office of the Privacy Commissioner said Thursday it is...
The number of Canadians who opt for over-the-top services is set to surpass the number of Canadians who subscribe to traditional television providers next year, according to a report released...
Rogers Communications Inc. CEO Joe Natale emphasized the $1.7 billion the company recently spent on 600 MHz spectrum in a speech to shareholders that effectively doubled as an anti-MVNO message to government on Thursday.
“The race to 5G is not with other carriers,”...
The CRTC will register a mandatory order with the Federal Court forbidding Quebecor Inc. from withholding the signal for TVA Sports from BCE Inc. subscribers — meaning that if Quebecor chooses to...
A chief Federal Court clerk has rejected Alphabet Inc.’s request to expand to constitutional questions the scope of a legal reference that seeks to determine whether Canada’s private sector...
Gatineau, Que. — Quebecor Inc. CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau was unrepentant...
Twitter Inc. has added a timely subject matter to its lobby files: educating federal officials on social media use during elections. The social media company updated its files last week to include...
The Quebec Superior Court on Friday forced Quebecor Inc. to restore a TV signal for customers of BCE Inc. after it was pulled in the midst of a carriage fight, according to a...
The CRTC has told Quebecor Inc. executives to appear at a hearing in Gatineau Wednesday to explain why it defied the regulator and pulled the signal to its TVA Sports channel from BCE Inc. TV...
OTTAWA — A Federal Court judge has granted an application by the...
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) said it has a new national executive director in Marie Kelly, effective on Monday. Kelly, a labour lawyer by trade, will replace the retiring Stephen...
OTTAWA — Quebecor Inc. president and CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau said...
OTTAWA — It is now “very likely” that Canadians will face some form...
Corus Entertainment Inc. said it will see TV ad growth in the third quarter...
The panel in charge of reviewing Canada’s communications laws has hired...
Complaints about TV service to the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS)...
While the Canadian music industry aims to address revenue shortfalls in the face of increasing internet competition, amalgamators of their content rights have been filing lawsuits against public establishments who they allege have been playing their music without a license....
One of the defendants in a long-running lawsuit against companies selling pre-loaded set-top boxes will pay three Canadian telecoms $5 million to settle the case, according to a March 20 consent...
The CRTC wants to update both its Canadian Programming Expenditure policy and its annual broadcasting survey to reflect the growth of streaming and other digital options and is asking for input on how...
OTTAWA — If a court determines Google’s search engine falls under the country’s private sector privacy law, then that would effectively make the internet company a media regulator, counsel to...
The 2019 federal budget is boosting funding to the office of the privacy...
The CRTC has decided the Timmins, Ontario commercial radio market can’t sustain another station, rejecting an application by Vista Radio Ltd. for another broadcasting licence. Timmins has four commercial FM radio stations. Two are English-language stations owned by Rogers Communications Inc., CJQQ-FM and CKGB-FM. Vista owns the third English station, CHMT-FM, while LE5 Communications Inc. runs the French-language station CHYK-FM. Vista had argued to the commission that the radio advertising market in Timmins is “under exploited,” and that the profitability of stations there is...
Rogers Communications Inc.’s media division has announced it’s selling all seven of its magazine...
An illegal radio station that allegedly kept operating despite being shut down by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) has been off the air since last August, the government said in a response tabled on...
OTTAWA — The Liberal government is announcing $1.7 billion in new rural...
Facebook Inc. will solicit the advice of an advisory group as part of its effort to ensure its ad registry captures key issues leading to the 2019 federal election. The group of five will include former NDP deputy leader Megan...
As the Liberal government unveils its last budget before the upcoming...
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner and the Attorney General of Canada (AGC) have filed appeals challenging Alphabet Inc.’s application to expand the scope of a deindexing case to include questions about whether forcing it to...
A trade association for Canadian-based television and content distribution...
Quebecor Inc. has filed a complaint with the CRTC against BCE Inc., alleging undue preference against its sports channel because it’s been excluded from a popular Bell TV package in Quebec....
The CRTC has approved the sale of Corus Entertainment Inc.’s stake in Telelatino Network Inc., according to a Feb. 22 decision.
Corus had a controlling 50.5 per cent claim in the network before agreeing to sell it back to existing stakeholders in the company: a numbered...
Canada’s broadcasting and telecommunications legislation should be...
Bart Yabsley has been appointed as the new president of Sportsnet, filling a role left vacant when Scott Moore stepped down from that position last fall. Yabsley was most recently senior vice-president of sports and...
Alphabet Inc.’s search giant Google plans to ban political advertising from its platforms during the next federal election campaign in Canada, following the introduction of tougher political advertising transparency rules by...
The Liberal government has appointed Matthew Boswell on a full five-year...
The Federal Court has denied the CBC/Radio-Canada’s and the Media Coalition’s application to intervene in a case that will determine whether the privacy commissioner can order search engines to delist certain content -- at least until it deliberates on Alphabet Inc.’s motion to change the scope of proceedings. Google’s motion, which became available only after the intervention hearing last month, seeks to amend the original November reference to include a discussion of freedom of expression rights under the Charter. CBC called the privacy commissioner’s request an “indirect...
The Shaw Rocket Fund wants CBC/Radio-Canada to expand its focus on children’s content to reflect a broader age range and is asking for new communications legislation to ensure it has the funding...
Despite heightened interest in the impact of social media on Canadian elections, Facebook Inc. said it has not heard of any Canadian institutions that have applied to view the social media giant’s...
Both over-the-top services and broadcasters should be required to show a certain amount of Canadian feature films, the Canadian Association of Film Distributors and Exporters is asking the panel...
Marco Dubé will take over the vice-president of people and culture position at CBC/Radio-Canada when...
OTTAWA -- Democratic institutions minister Karina Gould said the government...
OTTAWA — Facebook Inc.’s head of public policy in Canada said the...
Organizations representing Canadian publishers are flagging the difficulty...
Key evidence relied upon by movie studios in a substantial chunk of copyright infringement cases that have yielded vast sums of money from settlements has been ruled insufficient by a Federal Court...
The real value of the funding CBC/Radio-Canada receives has slipped significantly due to inflation, the Canadian Media Guild (CMG) said in its submission to the federal government’s expert panel review of communications legislation.
“If CBC/Radio-Canada were to be...
A group representing the Canadian community TV sector is asking the panel reviewing the broadcasting and...
Corus Entertainment Inc. has promoted Troy Reeb and Colin Bohm to its executive vice-president ranks,...
A majority of Canadian internet users say the federal government should impose fines or other sanctions on social media companies that don’t remove fake news from their platforms, according to...
Netflix Inc. will expand its production presence in Canada by leasing space at two Toronto production...
Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube makes up just over 35 per cent of worldwide mobile data traffic, making it the biggest download draw on phones by a wide-margin, according to Sandvine Corp.’s Mobile Phenomena Report released Monday.
“YouTube is still the dominant video...
The National NewsMedia Council wrote to the expert panel reviewing...
Better representation at the CRTC of official language minority communities is a concern a number of...
OTTAWA — A lawyer for CBC/Radio-Canada who is asking the Federal Court to...
Trish Williams is moving from Temple Street Productions to CBC/Radio-Canada, where she will be CBC’s new executive director of scripted content.
Starting this week, she...
Rogers Communications Inc. said it was surprised to see two motions for disclosure of subscriber information filed by two movie studios late last year and challenged them because they did not include...
Corus Entertainment Inc.’s former chief operating officer, Barbara Williams, will be CBC/Radio-Canada’s new executive vice-president of CBC.
Williams, who retired from Corus last year, will start the Toronto-based job on May 1, CBC said in a press release Wednesday.
Michel Bissonnette,...
Former CBC/Radio-Canada president Hubert Lacroix has joined the business law firm Blake, Cassels &...
Canada’s private radio broadcasters are fighting against a push to keep...
The federal government is organizing a working meeting next week in Ottawa involving a broad swath of stakeholders to devise strategies for promoting diversity of digital...
