Guylaine Roy has been named associate deputy minister of Canadian Heritage, according to a press release from the Prime Minister’s Office Friday. Roy had been the assistant deputy minister for cultural affairs at the department since 2011 and in the public service since 1986, the PMO said. The appointment is effective Tuesday....
The parliamentary secretary to the innovation minister was a popular target for lobbyists last month, as representatives from major telecom and Internet companies sought him out, according to the latest statistics from the office of the lobbying commissioner.
BCE...
CBC/Radio-Canada’s president and CEO Hubert Lacroix said the Crown corporation’s competition comes...
Pressure from Quebec could lead Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly to consider imposing taxes on foreign over-the-top (OTT) services, according to Desjardins Capital Markets analyst Maher Yaghi....
Facebook Inc. will live stream 20 Major League Baseball (MLB) games this season on its social media...
Netflix Inc. is setting up “download zones” in certain areas in Ontario to help the data starved pre-load movies and TV shows onto their devices, according to a Canadian Press report. WiFi...
Radio will continue to thrive in a competitive environment because it remains a trusted source of local content, CRTC commissioner Stephen Simpson said in a speech to British Columbia broadcasters Thursday.
“I’m confident that radio will fend off current challengers...
The CRTC will hold a hearing on a number of broadcast distribution undertakings’ [BDUs] licence renewal...
While about a tenth of Canadians have used a virtual reality (VR) headset, only about two per cent of them actually own one, according to a new Media Technology Monitor...
A day after the CRTC released its decision on broadcast licence renewals for large ownership groups, three organizations representing the country’s production sector said they are concerned the new...
While the primary goal of BCE Inc.’s new television product is to tackle TV sub losses, it could also be used as an “offensive tool”...
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) has elected David Sparrow as its national president for a two-year term.
Sparrow, who from 2013 was...
MONTREAL — BCE Inc. has launched a new TV product hoping to appeal to a segment of the market that’s less likely to subscribe to...
Rogers Communications Inc. will get a three-year window to run its new national ethnic channel before having to compete with other proposals for its mandatory carriage, the CRTC announced Monday. The regulator partially...
Manon Brouillette, president of Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron, downplayed the effect that BCE Inc.’s recent move to deploy fibre-to-the-home...
Mark Slone has been elected president of The Canadian Association of Film Distributors and Exporters. The lobby group announced the election of Slone, who is currently Entertainment One Ltd.’s executive vice-president of theatrical distribution and marketing, in a Thursday press release. This year “is promising to be an exciting year of opportunity for Canadian content feature films, with the Cancon consultations coming to a close and Canadian Heritage putting in place policy based on these consultations,” Slone said in the release. Slone, who was previously vice-president of CAFDE, is succeeding Victor Loewy, who remains with the organization. The new president has over 20 years of industry experience and previously held a position as senior vice-president of acquisition at Alliance Films Inc., the...
The Federal Court of Appeal has granted Voltage Pictures LLC its appeal challenging the costs Rogers Communications Inc. was asking for to disclose customer information in...
Despite not operating in Canada, the country’s competition watchdog has reviewed the proposed merger of AT&T Inc. and Time Warner Cable...
Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and Peppermint Patty are joining Halifax-based DHX Media Ltd.’s stable of properties, as the company announced Wednesday its bid to acquire the Peanuts brand from an American management company. The deal with Iconix Brand Group Inc. includes an...
The number of anglophone Canadians who have smartphones climbed up to 80 per cent in the fall of 2016 from 77 per cent a year earlier, according to a new report from Media Technology Monitor (MTM). At the same time, the...
The CRTC’s offices in Gatineau, Que., remained shut down for a second day Tuesday due to flooding in the area, according to the commission’s website. Among the releases the regulator was scheduled to issue this week are its decisions on TV broadcasting licence renewals, following a hearing it held in November....
Canadian viewers will get to watch a National Football League (NFL) game that will be played out of London, England, this fall after Verizon Communications Inc. purchased the streaming rights to the game. The one-game...
OTTAWA — The future of wireless spectrum in Canada won’t be about who holds the largest amount of it, but rather who wields it in the...
The CRTC has approved two applications for new radio broadcasting licences, for a community FM station in Kingston, Ont., and a commercial ethnic FM station in Toronto. It granted an application for the Toronto station to a...
Raj Shoan, the CRTC’s regional commissioner for Ontario who was fired again just four days after a return to his post, said he will be heading back to court to challenge the second...
Rob Farina will take on the role of head of radio content, strategy and iHeartRadio for BCE Inc.’s media division, the company announced in a Thursday press release. The position, effective May 29, will...
NDP heritage critic Pierre Nantel is raising the alarm that cultural protection could be on the chopping block if a wholesale renegotiation of the country’s trade agreement with the United States and Mexico occurs, and is asking the heritage minister to take a stand. In an opinion piece published in French-language...
A new report from broadband equipment maker Sandvine Corp. says about six per cent of households in North America “currently have a Kodi device configured to access...
A private member’s bill to privatize CBC/Radio-Canada met a decisive defeat Wednesday night, after members of Parliament voted 260-6 to send it to the legislation graveyard. Saskatchewan MP and Conservative Party...
Canada’s big three wireless providers have not spoken with the minister for Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. about the potential partial sale of the company, even though last week he said he met with a major telecom, according to a Tuesday Regina Leader-Post report. SaskTel Minister Dustin Duncan has “literally not met—or even popped into a meeting with someone else from his office” with BCE Inc., Telus Corp. or Rogers Communications Inc., a statement from Premier Brad Wall’s office said, according to article. Wall’s office did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday. Last week,...
Raj Shoan, the once-former CRTC commissioner, returned to work Monday, following a 10-month gap in his role as the regional representative for Ontario. As Shoan put it in a statement issued over the weekend, his tenure was...
Stingray Digital Group Inc. has named Valery Zamuner to the position of senior vice-president of mergers, acquisitions and strategic initiatives, effective May 23. “With her...
Twitter Inc. and Bloomberg LP have come to an agreement that will see the financial news outlet provide round-the-clock streaming content for the social media platform as part of 12 streaming deals...
Artificial intelligence is a tool telecoms will increasingly use to manage networks and enhance various products, but its susceptibility to hacking will also pose big security-related concerns,...
Raj Shoan was denied procedural fairness when he was fired from his job as the CRTC’s regional commissioner for Ontario last summer, three years into a five-year term, a Federal Court justice has found, sending the decision back to the governor-in-council for reconsideration. In an 82-page decision Friday, judge Cecily Strickland granted Shoan’s application for judicial review of his dismissal, which was handed down in June 2016 by the governor-in-council (GIC) on...
Facebook Inc. received 773 requests for customer information from Canadian law enforcement and government agencies in the second half of 2016, down from 1,004 requests in the...
OTTAWA — Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly said she found a receptive audience for her message of cultural diversity on digital platforms among the executives of the digital media giants she...
The Ontario government said it will support the latest technologies in the coming years, with funding for artificial intelligence and 5G networks included in its 2017 budget. Finance Minister Charles Sousa tabled Ontario’s...
The CRTC will explore the topic of generating more participation of women in media production, according to Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais. Speaking at the annual awards gala for Women in Communications and...
Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. received the final nod required in its bid to privatize, with the CRTC granting its approval Wednesday for the transaction it said was worth $479 million. The deal is in the public...
BCE Inc. will introduce a new television service aimed at customers who have been turning away from traditional TV to online alternatives, president and CEO George Cope said on a conference call with analysts discussing the...
Shaw Communications Inc. and Corus Entertainment Inc. will close three Shaw local TV stations in Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary, and redistribute the annual funding to Global News...
Canada has become the world’s sixth-largest market for recorded music, according to a new report from the International Federation for the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The group’s 2017 Global Music Report said...
Rogers Communications Inc. said Tuesday it intends to purchase a Vancouver radio station from Newcap Inc., adding it to its stable of all-sports stations. In a press release, the company said the transaction to create the new Sportsnet 650 station is expected to close in the fall, though it still requires approval from the CRTC. “With Vancouver being such a passionate sports town, there is a strong appetite for all-sports radio that delivers engaging conversation, wide-ranging opinion, and top-tier live sports content,” Julie Adam, Rogers Media’s senior...
Telus Corp. announced Monday a new investment of $80 million in its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network in Quebec. It said in a French-language press release that the investment would affect almost 20 communities in...
Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. has to pony up more than $300,000 to make up a deficit in its Canadian content development contributions, the CRTC said. In a letter dated April 5, the regulator...
The Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (CCSA) led the telecom field for lobbying the federal government in March, logging 15 communication reports for the month, according to the federal lobbyists’ registry. Those...
Telus Corp. has quietly launched an IPTV service that will allow subscribers to watch live TV and on-demand content for $20 a month with no contract. The box itself, which is powered by Alphabet Inc.’s Android,...
The CRTC’s decision Thursday to ban most forms of zero-rating means telecoms will have to rely on service in order to stand out from the competition, analysts said. The new rules that prohibit differentiated pricing practices (DPPs) that aren’t data-agnostic and aren’t offered to all customers, among other stipulations, mean Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron won’t be able to keep operating its Unlimited Music service. “In our view, this is a...
CBC/Radio-Canada is leading a collaboration between public broadcasters and other media distributors to boost video exports via a new online platform, it said Tuesday. The platform, called Panora.tv “aims to...
As the CRTC banned most forms of differential pricing practices Thursday — including declaring that telecoms can’t pick and chose Internet content to zero-rate and...
Annual subscription revenue from over-the-top (OTT) providers is estimated to be inching toward the billion-dollar mark in Canada, according to a new report from Convergence Consulting Group Ltd., which estimated a...
In his first day on the job, newly minted Rogers Communications Inc. president and CEO Joe Natale gave few details about his priorities, but said he’ll be working on a strategy in the coming...
The federal government has signed an audiovisual coproduction treaty with Luxembourg. “This treaty will further position Canada as a partner of choice in audiovisual coproductions, and strengthen our cultural and...
The CRTC may very well complete the record on net neutrality policy in Canada when it releases its decision Thursday afternoon on differential pricing practices,...
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) has released a schedule and details how it plans to shift the use of 600 MHz spectrum from over-the-air (OTA) television to wireless. ISED...
BCE Inc. is asking the CRTC to reinsert a phrase into its terms and conditions removed in last month’s decision on mobile wholesale mobile wireless roaming service tariffs that the company...
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) has hired Cathia Badiere as its national director of research. Effective immediately, Badiere will oversee the organization’s collective bargaining, policy and industry research “to support ACTRA’s objective of improving the working lives of Canadian professional performers,” the union said in a Tuesday press release. Badiere will report to Stephen Waddell, ACTRA’s national executive director and chief negotiator, who said in the release that “Cathia’s innovative analytics and research experience will be a great asset for ACTRA. With adaption to change being critical in today’s entertainment environment, and ACTRA’s critical role in shaping the future of our industry, Cathia’s skills and experience will...
MONTREAL — Digital advertising will continue to evolve into new forms we can’t yet predict, Richard Gingras, vice-president of Alphabet Inc.’s Google News,...
The CRTC will begin measuring the books of digital media operations in the country, with the aim of eventually publishing data on their finances, the regulator said in its new three-year plan. Published on its...
After a series of high-profile departures from the company, Rogers Communications Inc. announced Thursday that it will welcome its new president and CEO next week. Former Telus Corp. head Joe Natale...
Rogers Communications Inc. has extended its deal with CBC/Radio-Canada to broadcast its flagship Hockey Night in Canada program for one more year, spokesman Andrew Garas confirmed to The Wire Report. Rogers and CBC...
Analog and digital cable’s share of the TV market declined from 40 per cent to 36 per cent in 2016, while IPTV subscriptions picked up among English-speaking Canadians, according to new research from Media Technology Monitor (MTM). “The decrease can be attributed partly to the increase of competition in many markets across Canada, and the increasing availability of Fibre Optic (IPTV) services,” said a report released Wednesday by the CBC/Radio-Canada research project. Satellite TV subscriptions have declined from their peak of 27 per cent of the market...
Canadian advertisers are catching up to their American counterparts, with the market share of digital ad spending on mobile platforms forecast to hit 77.6 per cent by 2021, according to research firm eMarketer Inc. This...
The CRTC can’t retroactively apply regulations established almost a year after the fact to justify its prohibition simultaneous substitution during the broadcast of the National Football...
Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly will travel to California later this month to meet with representatives from Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc., her office has confirmed....
The CRTC has resolved a dispute between Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. over 4K content, telling the companies in an April 5 letter that Rogers has to provide its 4K content to Telus immediately. Telus...
OTTAWA — A Conservative backbencher’s bill to privatize CBC/Radio-Canada found a little more support from party colleagues in the House of Commons Monday, but it likely...
Amazon.com Inc.’s Twitch is asking the Supreme Court of British Columbia to order five companies, including Shaw Communications Inc., to identify a customer Twitch is accusing of “malicious spambot...
Cogeco Inc. CEO Louis Audet said Friday that he’s not concerned about customers substituting wireline Internet service with wireless with the advent of 5G, and that the company...
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with the CEO of Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube Thursday, and used the opportunity to express “his appreciation for Google and YouTube’s continued investment in Canada and...
Getting rid of digital advertising on CBC/Radio-Canada online platforms would undermine its television arm, the public broadcaster said Wednesday. It argued in a posting on its website that “going ad-free on only one platform is a half measure. It doesn’t provide any of the advantages of being completely ad-free, and it undermines those areas which still depend on commercial revenue.” CBC was responding to a report from the Public Policy Forum released in January, which recommended it eliminate digital ads, focus more on the “inform” plank of its mandate to “inform, enlighten and entertain,” and switch to publishing its news under a Creative Commons licence so that it can move towards being “a universal public...
Canada Media Fund (CMF) is providing $2 million for 10 web series as part of a pilot project. The organization said in a press release Thursday the funding is “the result of the pilot program the CMF had put in place to...
The Canadian Wireless Telecommunication Association has hired Chris Jones as its new director of regulatory affairs, policy and research. Jones replaces Kurt Eby, who left the role at the CWTA in January to take a position in Toronto. According to emails from CWTA spokeswoman Sophie...
The fallout from Alphabet Inc.’s placing of advertisements next to unfavourable content is in line with an ongoing trend of some advertisers shifting money from digital back to traditional...
Amazon.com Inc. has secured the streaming rights to 10 Thursday Night Football games from the National Football League (NFL), according to a Wall Street Journal report. The deal is...
Shaw Communications Inc. has made its new IPTV platform available across Western Canada and will launch an “extensive mass marketing campaign” to promote the service, it said in a press release. Earlier this week, Barclays Capital said in a research note that it’s still too early to gauge the effect of BlueSky TV, which was launched in January, adding that the company had yet to put any significant marketing muscle behind the product. Shaw said Wednesday that in order to “help introduce BlueSky TV to Canadians, Shaw is...
Nearly two-dozen representatives from the screen-based media industry, such as the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA), and...
The Competition Bureau will be keeping an eye on how regional telecom providers can disrupt the incumbents’ hold on the market, the commissioner said Tuesday. In a speech to the...
BCE Inc. has announced two new appointments in its Bell Media division. Karine Moses, president of advertising arm Astral Out of Home (AOOH) since July 2016, is having her role in the company expanded to...
Canada should allow high-power and outdoor devices (HPODs) in the 5GHz band before the World Radiocommunications Conference in 2019 (WRC-19), Canada's major telecom companies said in comments to the Ministry of Innovation,...
OTTAWA — The development of connected and autonomous vehicles might be the thing that makes the issue of cyber security tangible, a Canadian intelligence official told senators Tuesday....
Rogers Communications Inc.’s chief strategy officer, Frank Boulben, is leaving the company. Rogers spokesman Andrew Garas said in an email Tuesday Boulben would depart at the end of April. Boulben joined Rogers...
Telus Corp. has finalized a deal it struck as part of BCE Inc.’s acquisition of Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. to have 100,000 former MTS subscribers, or about one quarter of its postpaid wireless subscriber base,...
Ontario’s highest court has reversed an order by a lower court to allow a U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation team to investigate and prepare a report on seized data in a copyright infringement...
Ken Whyte, Rogers Communications Inc.’s senior vice-president of public policy, is leaving the company effective April 28. Whyte said in a posting on LinkedIn Monday that he resigned “this morning after 12 happy, fruitful years.” According to a note from Rogers chief legal officer David Miller posted by Whyte, the public policy team will be rolled into Rogers’ regulatory team upon his departure. Whyte “decided to leave Rogers to devote more time to other interests,” the note said. He was named president of Rogers’ publishing division in 2011, during which time he launched the company’s “all-you-can-read” magazine app. Last year, Whyte was appointed part of a 12-member panel advising the Heritage Minister as part of the...
The annual program budget for the Canada Media Fund (CMF) for 2017-2018 is smaller than the previous year due to a decrease in contributions from broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs). The CMF...
Despite being well received in some western markets, it’s too early to determine how Shaw Communications Inc.’s BlueSky TV is working out for the company, according to Barclays Capital. “We expect it will take...
Though virtual reality is still in its early days, it holds promise for Canada’s media industry — including for broadcasters as a new way to draw eyes to live events, such as sports, according to...
Verizon Communications Inc. is working on delivering an online streaming television package this summer, according to Bloomberg. The report, published Thursday and citing anonymous sources, said the telecommunications...
A typically competitive process, disseminating new applications for radio licences seemed to take on a more culturally significant connotation for the CRTC as it navigated a three-day public hearing for urban Aboriginal radio stations in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. At the end of the three-day public hearing this week, Jean-Pierre Blais said, according to a transcript, that after spending a few years as chairman of the CRTC, “you’d think it would get easier. And it’s...
Alphabet Inc.’s Google has launched a research facility in Toronto dedicated to the development of artificial intelligence (AI). The Vector Institute will focus on “expanding the applications of AI by performing...
A Quebec union representing communications sector employees said it is disappointed with both the federal and provincial budgets, saying that in “both cases, no action has been taken to counter...
Jacob Glick is leaving Rogers Communications Inc. after two years with the company and becoming a distinguished executive fellow in residence at the University of Ottawa. Glick was chief corporate affairs officer at...
OTTAWA — The federal privacy commissioner will be working with stakeholders to develop a “code of practice” to help address privacy concerns around connected and autonomous vehicles,...
A tool that allows users to see exactly where their Internet traffic is travelling, backed partially by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, has received a facelift make it easier to use...
Facebook Inc.’s WhatsApp messaging service should not be a place “for terrorists to hide,” according to U.K. Home Secretary Amber Rudd, who appeared on a Sunday BBC program...
Following a quiet first quarter, wireless companies’ flanker brands stepped up the competition in March, ramping up promotional activity through data increases and handset discounts, according to Barclays Capital. Just...
A Canadian class-action lawsuit is being filed against Amazon.com Inc. for the collection of sales tax on tax-exempt products, the Consumer Law Group announced Monday. In a press...
Twitter Inc. had to respond to 51 requests for Canadian user's information and 11 requests for account removal in the latter half of 2016, according to the social media company’s latest transparency report. Out of the 51 government and “non-government legal” information requests, affecting 52 accounts, Twitter produced information 80 per cent of the time, the report, released Tuesday, said. Twenty-nine accounts were specified in the 11 removal requests the company said it received, and 14 accounts were removed for violating Twitter’s terms of service....
