Lawyers are asking a Quebec court to allow a class action lawsuit against companies that they allege are violating the province’s consumer protection laws by requiring customers to take the initiative to cancel services after fixed promotional periods. The suit, filed in July, stems from several instances where consumers, after purchasing a service with a fixed free or reduced price period, were automatically charged the regular price after the end of the period even if they did not want to renew the service, after they didn’t notify the company that they intended to cancel. At...
The CRTC will consider 11 applications for radio stations in the Edmonton area next week. It will hold a four-day hearing starting Sept. 27, the commission said in a press release Friday. The hearing will consider applications “to operate new ethnic commercial AM and FM radio stations, as well an application for a new French Language community radio station to serve Edmonton.” The commission will also consider another application in Brandon, Man. in the non-appearing phase of the hearing. ...
The federal government will unveil a new consultation process for appointing members to the CBC/Radio-Canada board of directors “in the next few weeks,” Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly...
Canadian content producers who find audiences internationally are benefitting from over-the-top (OTT) services, according to a report examining the impact of OTT platforms on global video production....
BCE Inc. has filed a new motion petitioning the Federal Court of Appeal to hear its case against the CRTC decision banning simultaneous substitution during the Super Bowl. In a notice of motion...
Canada’s biggest telcos told investors Wednesday that they are seeing growth in wireless data usage on the first of a two-day conference hosted by CIBC World Markets. BCE Inc....
The CRTC has responded to a request by the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) that it reconsider its new framework for local and community TV. It told CACTUS in a Sept. 15 letter that its policy “was issued following an extensive open and accessible public consultation process,” in which various parties, including community TV stakeholders, participated, and that it considered the views of all participants. “While it is true that the community television garnered support from many parties, Canadians who participated in this...
Jeffrey Elliott, TableRock Media CEO, is the new chairman of Interactive Ontario, the association announced Tuesday. Elliott, a long-time member of the board of directors, was elected...
VMedia Inc. has rolled out live TV to Canadian users of Roku Inc.’s devices, Roku said in a press release Friday. Canadians can “watch up to 20 live TV channels, including Canadian and US networks such as...
Critics of the CRTC’s recent changes to the certified independent production fund (CIPF) policy pointed to Canadian actress Tatiana Maslany’s victory at the Emmy Awards Sunday night as evidence changes were...
Steve Maich’s role within Rogers Communications Inc.’s media division has been expanded, as he becomes the company’s senior vice-president of digital content and publishing, the...
The CRTC will host a public discussion on differential pricing practices for Internet data plans on Reddit Inc.’s website, the regulator said Monday. The commission said in a notice it...
After 13 weeks off from the Parliament Hill routine, MPs returned en masse to Ottawa Monday for the start of the House of Commons’ fall session, where the stage is set for forward...
MONTREAL — The key to reaching young viewers is to have content made by them, not just for them, panellists at the Public Broadcasters International conference said Friday. “The...
Television is still the dominant way English-speaking Canadians consume news, with 60 per cent tuning in to a news specialty channel, according to a new Media Technology Monitor (MTM) report....
MONTREAL — As technological change accelerates, CBC/Radio-Canada has to keep pace, according to CEO Hubert Lacroix, who said Thursday “we can’t think of the public broadcaster as one driven by legacy assets.” “We can’t stand still,” Lacroix said in an interview at the Public Broadcasters International conference, which is being hosted by CBC in Montreal this week. The focus for this year’s two-day event is how public broadcasters can reach the digital generation. Despite the shift in the federal government following last...
The need for upload speed is growing among Canadian consumers and businesses, though it’s too early to tell whether there’s real demand for symmetrical Internet plans that some companies have begun offering, according...
Twitter Inc. has launched apps that allow viewers to access its live-streaming video through Apple Inc.’s Apple TV, Amazon.com Inc.’s Fire TV and Microsoft Corp.’s XBox One. The Xbox and Apple TV apps...
Rogers Communications Inc. CEO Guy Laurence said the government’s ongoing review of Canadian content in a digital age should lead to more focus on promoting and selling content...
The CRTC has approved TerraTerra Communications Inc.’s application to distribute a Portuguese-language channel as a non-Canadian programming service. In a notice posted to its website Wednesday, the regulator said...
Members of the public and cultural stakeholders don’t see eye to eye when it comes to identifying the biggest challenges facing the country’s cultural sector, according to info released Tuesday as Canadian Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly launched the public consultation phase of a review of Canada’s cultural institutions. “In the pre-consultation, public respondents indicated that the two most urgent challenges facing Canada’s cultural sector are foreign competition and making Canadian content stand out online,” said a discussion paper on the review...
CRTC commissioner Linda Vennard broke conflict of interest rules by accepting a birthday gift from a stakeholder, the ethics watchdog announced Tuesday. “All public office holders should be...
Netflix Inc. argued that data caps are an “unnecessary constraint on advanced telecommunications capability” in a filing with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC)....
The CRTC has approved the Portuguese-language channel TVI Internacional for distribution in Canada. The general-interest service from Lisbon, Portugal broadcasts “a range of programming including news, entertainment,...
Former CRTC commissioner Raj Shoan won’t be reinstated while awaiting appeal of the order-in-council that removed him from his position, a Federal Court judge ruled Friday. According to...
The Urban Alliance on Race Relations (UARR) and the Community Media Advocacy Centre (CMAC) have written to Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly to ask her to look into allegations of...
GATINEAU — On the final day of a two-day hearing, consumer groups told a CRTC panel that the regulator should set standards for how companies present information about their skinny-basic packages, while CRTC commissioner...
Bragg Communications Inc.’s Eastlink unveiled its new TV Everywhere offering Thursday, Eastlink Stream, offering a one-stop-shop for television subscribers to access content from multiple networks and over-the-top (OTT)...
GATINEAU — A CRTC panel pressed Canada's largest TV service providers on whether they were doing enough to bring attention to new skinny-basic services, raising concerns that higher-tier...
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has given Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. its approval for its proposal to take the company private. In a Tuesday press release, Mark Redmond, Sirius XM Canada president and CEO, said the court’s approval “builds on the strong shareholder voting support we received last week, bringing us another step closer to finalizing the transaction.” The plan still requires approval from the CRTC, the release said....
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA)’s Toronto branch is asking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly to “call on...
OTTAWA — Last week’s decision from a Federal Court judge setting aside an investigation and decision that former CRTC commissioner Raj Shoan committed workplace harassment should weigh heavily in his favour for...
As the CRTC is set to look into the implementation of its skinny basic TV package rules by industry, telecoms are arguing the proceeding is largely premature, given that the commission’s skinny...
A group representing community TV stakeholders solidified its discontent with June’s policy framework with a letter to the CRTC asking it to reconsider its decision to give companies the ability to move funds away from...
The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed BCE Inc.’s appeal of the CRTC’s move to ban simultaneous substitution for the Super Bowl, deciding that the case, which was launched before the ban became official policy, was premature. The company plans to file another appeal, Bell Media spokesman Scott Henderson said in an email Tuesday. Justice Johanne Gauthier said in the Sept. 2 decision that as “a matter of fact, the policy reform proposed by the Commission has no direct, immediate or legal effect on the appellants unless and until they are formally implemented...
GATINEAU — As of June 30, about 177,000 TV subscribers had a skinny basic package, according to information given to media at a CRTC technical briefing Friday. That was four months after the CRTC mandated that TV providers...
A Federal Court judge has overturned a 2015 CRTC decision that former commissioner Raj Shoan harassed a senior staff member, ruling he was denied procedural fairness in the investigation leading up to the decision. In...
The CRTC has admitted it made an error in a recent decision by attributing an argument made by Rogers Communication Inc.’s group of funds to the Canada Media Fund (CMF). In a press release Thursday, the...
A CRTC decision to deny an application by VMedia Inc. to carry U.S. shopping channel QVC will be scrutinized by a judge after the independent provider was granted leave to appeal the decision in federal court. VMedia is...
CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais has responded to criticism by the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) of its recent decision on Canadian Independent Production...
Rogers Communications Inc. is defending its proposal for a new national OMNI channel with mandatory carriage, arguing that the plan it submitted to the CRTC was the best option out of the multiple alternatives it considered....
The end of August also marked the final day CBC/Radio-Canada could broadcast national advertising on its Radio 2 and ICI Musique stations, following a CRTC decision denying a request to extend their ability to air ads for another...
Stingray Digital Group Inc. has responded to a patent infringement lawsuit filed by competitor Music Choice and filed its own suit against Music Choice alleging illegal business activities. In June, Music Choice, a...
Telecom service providers should look towards improving video quality across their networks if they want to increase customer loyalty, according to a new joint report from Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and Ovum, a technology research and advisory company. “Given the explosive growth of video usage, in order to be successful, telcos will need to be proactive and strategically plan their video business development blueprint, as opposed to execution under current existing...
Josée Girard, CBC/Radio-Canada’s vice-president of people and culture, is leaving the public broadcaster after a year in the job, and will be replaced by Monique Marcotte,...
By lowering the requirements for obtaining Canadian content funding, the CRTC is pushing Canadian content creators to the curb, according to opponents of the regulator’s move last week to rejig...
BCE Inc. customers can now take advantage of the “world’s first fully wireless [Internet protocol TV] service,” the company said Monday. In a press release, Bell said a wireless 4K Whole Home PVR was...
BCE Inc. has “unclean hands” in its effort to have the Wholesale Code overturned by the federal Appeal Court while simultaneously applying to have removed certain conditions of...
A parliamentary secretary has apologized after sending a letter of support for BCE Inc.’s licence renewal application, the Canadian Press reported Thursday. Kate Young, Liberal representative for a London, Ont. riding and parliamentary secretary to Transport Minister Marc Garneau, told CP that she “did not take into consideration the implications” of her role as a public office holder and that she “sincerely apologize[s] for any inappropriate actions” on her part. The federal ethics commissioner previously issued instructions and scolded...
The CRTC announced changes to its policies governing certified independent production funds Thursday, aimed at fostering a “robust Canadian production sector” with the “flexibility necessary to operate in an...
Messaging service WhatsApp is entangling itself more closely with owner Facebook Inc. by giving the social media giant access to users' phone numbers. In a Thursday blog post on its website, WhatsApp said “by connecting your phone number with Facebook’s systems, Facebook can offer better...
A Canadian company is suing Snapchat Inc. alleging it is infringing on its patented technology. Vancouver-based Investel Capital Corp. filed a statement of claim in federal court Wednesday claiming that the social media giant...
Some companies are adding more selection to their cable TV packages by going the theme-pack route in preparation for the mandatory full pick-and-pay rules coming into effect this winter. The CRTC...
The company behind Ashley Madison, a website aimed at adulterous interactions that suffered a massive customer data breach last year, had “inadequate security safeguards and policies,”...
The 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were the most-watched Summer Games in Canadian history, CBC/Radio-Canada said Tuesday of the two-week event that wrapped up Sunday night. In a...
Cogeco Inc. said Monday it appointed Luc Noiseux as the company’s new senior vice president and chief technology and strategy officer. Noiseux, whose appointment was effective Monday, joined the company...
Rogers Communications Inc.’s and Shaw Communications Inc.’s Shomi has had more than 143 million video plays since Aug. 20, 2015, the over-the-top service (OTT) announced Monday in a press release marking...
Netflix Inc. and CBC/Radio-Canada are partnering with Northwood Entertainment for a new TV series based on the classic Canadian novel Anne of Green Gables. The show will be broadcast in Canada on the CBC in 2017 and stream globally on Netflix’s over-the-top service, said a Monday press release. Production on the eight hour-long episodes is scheduled to begin in September in Ontario, the release said. CBC and Netflix have also teamed up to co-produce Alias Grace, a series based on a Margaret Atwood book. ...
Paul Johnson has been named as the Competition Bureau’s leader of economic analysis, where he will play a key role in merger reviews, the competition commissioner said Monday. In a Monday press release,...
Twitter Inc.’s Canadian division announced Monday it had hired Jennifer Hollett as the company’s new head of news and government. Hollett, who began her new role Monday, stepped into the...
Confusion over what qualifies as watching TV online has led Media Technology Monitor to revise some previously reported data about over-the-top (OTT) services. In a Thursday report,...
Burgeoning Ottawa-based TV app maker You.i TV has hired its first chief operating officer, the company announced this week. In a Tuesday press release, the company said Dan Beer’s appointment was made “in order to fuel the company’s continued rapid growth and...
The CRTC has made official a long-announced policy to ban simultaneous substitution from next year’s broadcast of the Super Bowl. In a distribution order posted Friday, the regulator removed authorization for the practice of substituting American advertisements for Canadian ones during the National Football League (NFL) championship game as of Jan. 1, 2017. Calling the U.S. Super Bowl commercials “an integral element of the event,” the CRTC noted “Canadians may also choose to watch the Super Bowl on Canadian television stations with...
Rogers Communications Inc.’s proposal for a new national ethnic programming service is neither innovative nor appropriate in today’s TV environment aimed at providing consumers more...
The first 10 days of Olympic coverage were watched by about 30.4 million Canadians “across all networks and platforms,” CBC/Radio-Canada said Tuesday. The ongoing Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,...
Media-distribution company Entertainment One Ltd. has acquired the rest of digital studio Secret Location, completing an investment dating back to 2014. The company said in a Wednesday press release that Secret Location, which eOne describes as a content studio for emerging platforms, continued to see success since it first purchased a stake...
The CRTC has approved an application from Stornoway Communications LP to revoke the licence of its iChannel offering, the regulator said Tuesday. Stornoway applied in June to voluntarily revoke the licence...
While digital and mobile options for watching the Summer Olympics are gaining in popularity and engagement, television continues to own the podium for the Canadian outlet broadcasting the two-week...
The head of Cogeco Inc.’s Canadian division is retiring after more than 17 years with the company, the company announced Friday. Louise St-Pierre, Cogeco Connexion president and CEO, will step down as...
Facebook Inc. said Tuesday that users of the desktop version of its social network will no longer be able to circumvent advertising through ad-blocking software. In a blog post from Andrew Bosworth, vice-president...
Ontario Appeals Court judges have ruled that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy for text messages once they’ve been sent, according to a recent decision. Last month, a majority decision ruled that Nour Marakah,...
The Competition Bureau said in a press release Monday that customers signing up for sports streaming websites should make sure they understand what they’re getting when they subscribe to such services. Customers “should be aware that important information about the availability of some games may not be adequately disclosed, or may be buried in fine print disclaimers that are easy to miss,” it said. “For example, depending on your location there may be conditions associated with sports streaming services that restrict access to certain games, including the...
The CRTC has approved Arabic-language channel Medi1 TV for distribution in Canada. The channel “offers programming dedicated to news, news magazines and entertainment from Morocco targeting the Arabic-speaking...
The Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) said Wednesday it’s unhappy with the CRTC’s decision to put off complaints about alleged broadcast distribution undertakings’...
BCE Inc.’s media division is shuffling its senior management following the departure of the head of its content sales, marketing and digital products team. In a Tuesday press release,...
The CRTC has denied an application by Durham Radio Inc. to change the transmitter of its FM tower to expand its service into Toronto. In a decision Monday, the commission said that the proposal to modify the CJKX-FM-2, a...
Stingray Digital Group Inc. is expanding its management team with the appointment of a head of content distribution in the United States. Rick Bergan, who previously held the senior vice-president of distribution position at Music Choice, a Stingray competitor that filed a patent suit against the company in June, has been appointed to the newly-created position at the Montreal-based music distribution company, according to a Tuesday press release. He was most recently executive vice-president of business development and sales at Comcast Corp.'s OneTwoSee, which...
A poor showing by the National Hockey League’s Montreal Canadiens helped to usher in a $5.7 million net loss for TVA Group Inc., the broadcasting and magazine publishing arm of Quebecor Inc. According to a report on...
The federal government is appealing a federal court judge’s decision to lift a confidentiality order keeping the identities of CRTC employees involved in a harassment case against a former...
Rogers Communications Inc. must disclose the personal information of a customer accused by Voltage Pictures LLC of violating its copyright, according to a court decision that experts said clarifies the...
The CRTC’s community television framework released in June is another hit to groups, the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) argued, calling the decision the “latest in a series...
English-speaking sports fans are more likely to have TV subscriptions, according to new research from Media Technology Monitor (MTM). In a report released Thursday, the CBC/Radio-Canada research project said...
Canadians will be able to watch some Major League Baseball (MLB) games on Twitter Inc.’s social media service. The company said in a press release Monday that it would live-stream out-of-market games from the...
Music Canada has reached a settlement with isoHunt Web Technologies Inc. in a copyright infringement lawsuit, years after the isoHunt website shut down. The organization, which represents major record companies in Canada, said in...
Twitter Inc.’s vice-president of media in North America is leaving the company. Kirstine Stewart confirmed her departure in a blog post Friday. She didn’t specify where she will move next, writing that “though I’m right in the middle of some great conversations about some very exciting opportunities, I’m not...
Rogers Communications Inc.’s second-quarter earnings may have foreshadowed a turnaround for cable in 2017, after the company reported its best second-quarter for Internet subscribers in eight years, according to Canaccord Genuity. “While the Telcos may be still edging out the cablecos in terms of overall net adds, the gap is narrowing,” Canaccord analyst Aravinda Galappatthige said in a Friday morning note following Rogers earnings report Thursday. “There is clearly some positive momentum on the Internet front for the cablecos in the East, and we...
A trio of telecom companies are doubling down on their assertion that preloaded set-top box retailers are complicit in TV piracy, according to new court documents filed in their ongoing fight to...
Rogers Communications Inc. made it clear that Internet speeds are a key focus for the company on a conference call Thursday, stating Rogers' strategy is to get consumers to a baseline 100 Mbps service in order to encourage future scaling to its gigabit service. “We need to focus on the need for...
The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) has acquired a New York-based company specializing in tracking data of music released on streaming websites. “With Audiam, SOCAN now has a comprehensive database and metadata of all musical works and commercially...
The over-the-air (OTA) market has been slowly growing over the past three years, according to data collected by Media Technology Monitor, a trend industry observers said doesn’t come as a surprise. According to a report...
Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. said in a press release Tuesday that it “strongly disagrees” with a group of shareholders who filed a complaint with the Ontario Securities Commission regarding the move to take the company private. The shareholders said in a press release on July 18 that their complaint raised “a number of concerns” relating to “material related-party transactions, potential conflicts of interest, and the proposed acquisition of the assets of Sirius XM Canada and related financing.” It said the offer to take the...
Subscription video-on-demand service (SVOD) revenues will double by 2021, as broadcasters and TV network providers look to enter the market amid a trend in cord cutting and shaving, according to a new report. Juniper Research...
OpenMedia announced Tuesday the appointment of Laura Tribe as its new executive director. According a letter posted on the advocacy group’s website from board chair Phillip Djwa, Tribe was selected to helm the...
Former media executive Phyllis Yaffe has been named to a new diplomatic post. Yaffe was named as the new consul general for the United States, stationed in in New York, among the 26 appointments announced Tuesday by the...
Though the success of Nintendo Co. Ltd.’s Pokémon Go mobile game could be the tip of the iceberg for augmented-reality applications, experts said they don’t expect wireless companies to make any major shifts in...
Manitoba Telecommunications Services Inc. will begin offering Netflix Inc.’s streaming service directly on its set-top box. The company said in a press release Thursday that the move “removes the...
Corus Entertainment Inc.’s first quarterly report since it bought Shaw Media showed the acquisition drove a significant increase in overall revenues, profits and expenses, despite a fall in the division’s revenue due...
The CRTC has added One World Sports to its list of non-Canadian channels authorized for distribution, despite arguments from Rogers Communications Inc. and BCE Inc. that it would...
After receiving radio licence applications for Aurora and Georgina, Ont., the CRTC is asking for comments on the market capacity of the two markets to support an additional station. Interested parties have until Aug....
The television distribution revenues reported by Canada’s telecommunications companies have fallen for the first time in a decade, driven by a decline in satellite subscribers. Numbers released by the CRTC Tuesday showed that telecoms — including cable, IPTV and satellite providers — saw a 0.13-per-cent decrease in revenues last year, from $8.93 billion in 2014 to $8.92 billion in 2015. That’s the first such decline reported by the CRTC since at least 2006. While cable and IPTV companies’ revenues grew 1.7 per cent between 2014 and 2015, to $6.6...
