The CRTC indicated Wednesday that it has updated its policy regarding how TV service providers must use time allotted to them for promotional content on U.S. channels, otherwise known as "local availabilities." As the commission indicated it would do in March, as it revealed new regulations for video-on-demand services, the CRTC said in an online posting that 75 per cent of local availabilities each day must be provided to licensed Canadian channels "in an equitable manner and on a cost-recovery basis, to promote first-run, original Canadian programs." The CRTC said in its decision Wednesday that remaining 25 per cent of local availabilities can be used by the service...
Industry Canada will repurpose the 600 MHz spectrum band for mobile use and collaborate with the United States on the move, which means at least some over-the-air (OTA) television stations will have to find new frequencies if they want to continue broadcasting. One question is how many of those stations will actually make the switch, Gregory Taylor, an assistant professor of mass communications at the University of Calgary, said in a phone interview. “One of the things we’ll have...
CBC/Radio-Canada is being sued by a resident of Buffalo, N.Y., for allegedly using a video he posted on YouTube without his permission, according to a report from the Canadian Press. An article...
The tendency of major players in Canada's television industry to be involved in both content and distribution is helping the sector deal better with issues such as cord cutting and a declining...
An emerging Canadian provider of over-the-top (OTT) video content hopes that reaching viewers around the world, and particularly those with very specific interests, translates into keys to success in the fast-changing television...
The CRTC renewed the licence for Stingray Digital Group Inc.’s music TV channels, though it imposed a shorter licence term, citing Stingray’s past non-compliance with its licence conditions. The CRTC said Monday that...
BCE Inc. said Friday that it has sold its 15 per cent stake in the Globe and Mail newspaper. It said in a press release it has sold its newspaper stake to Woodbridge Co. Ltd., an investment company run by the Thomson family, which is the majority owner of the Globe. Financial terms were not disclosed....
A South Korean company is aiming to provide blind people with the first-ever braille-display smartwatch this year, and a representative from the Canadian Institute for the Blind (CNIB) says it...
Apple Inc.'s plans to offer live Internet-based television to residents of the United States have been delayed, said a report from Bloomberg on Friday. An article said sources have indicated talks are progressing slowly...
Sesame Workshop, the non-profit educational organization, announced Thursday that its famous children's series Sesame Street will air its next five seasons on Time Warner Cable Inc.’s HBO. The company said in a press...
The CRTC has given two more companies permission to provide television services to small audiences, even though it has technically denied their applications for licences. The commission said Thursday it has rejected an...
Uniserve Communications Corp. on Wednesday made note of a decision from the CRTC last month that set the stage for it and Atop Broadband Corp. to provide television-distribution services in British Columbia under a new exemption...
OUTtv Network Inc. has accused BCE Inc. of an undue preference toward its company in a complaint that appeared on the CRTC's website Wednesday. The LGBT-oriented specialty channel said in a letter to the CRTC that it was...
A report released Wednesday shows that 27 per cent of anglophone Canadians surveyed have four different screens that connect to the Internet — a computer, smartphone, tablet and television. The study, from...
Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron announced Tuesday it will be releasing an ultra-high-definition (UHD) set-top-box for its customers, making it the first Canadian telecom provider to commercially release such technology. Videotron...
Corus Entertainment Inc. said Tuesday that its new Disney Channel will debut in Canada on Sept. 1. This follows news Corus announced in April that it had struck a deal with Walt Disney Co. for the rights to the U.S. company's content in Canada. Corus said in a press release Tuesday that the Disney Channel will feature shows such as K.C. Undercover, Jessie, Girl Meets World and Austin & Ally. DHX Media Ltd. currently operates the channels Disney XD and Disney Junior in Canada. DHX spokeswoman Jaime Bassett said in an email Tuesday that the channels would be rebranded this fall under the Family umbrella. She added that the various Disney content on these channels will be replaced with shows including Canadian originals such as The Wonderful Wayneys staring Jason Priestley and...
The advocacy group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting says CBC/Radio-Canada is refusing to air TV advertisements critical of Prime Minister Stephen Harper for cuts to CBC. The group said in a press release that the ads in question...
Toronto-based TableRock Media announced on Tuesday plans to launch niche Internet-based video channels for worldwide distribution, starting next year. The company said in a press release that it would create channels dedicated to...
Canadian customers of Netflix Inc. are theoretically obliged to pay sales taxes on this service, even though Netflix does not collect the tax up front, the Toronto Star quoted a federal official as...
The Federal Court of Appeal has approved the National Football League as an intervener in the appeal BCE Inc. has made against the CRTC's decision to ban simultaneous substitution during the Super Bowl, starting in 2017. An...
Individuals fighting BCE Inc.’s appeal of a CRTC decision on its mobile-TV service in the Federal Court of Appeal have called it an “over-the-top” or OTT service, along the same lines of what Netflix Inc. offers. Ben Klass, David Ellis and Fenwick McKelvey made the categorization in a filing this week that argues why Bell should not be allowed to offer such a service to its mobile customers that bypasses regular data charges for a fee of $5 month, as the CRTC ruled in January. The filing argued that Bell was giving its own service an undue advantage with this...
The CRTC on Thursday released final rules for a new category of video-on-demand (VOD) services in which operators can avoid regular broadcast regulations, even if the service is offered through a broadcast-distribution...
The Canada Media Fund (CMF) is contributing more than $6.2 million toward development and marketing funds for 28 digital-media projects as part of its first round of experimental stream funding for this year. It said Thursday in...
BCE Inc. said Thursday that its gigabit Internet service will launch Monday for 1.3 million households in Ontario and Quebec. It added that it will be available to households in Atlantic Canada by the end of September, resulting...
Videology Inc. said Thursday that the number of ad campaigns delivered on mobile platforms in Canada increased 260 per cent in the second quarter compared to the previous quarter. It added that 47 per cent of all advertising...
Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Wednesday posted a video of himself on Twitter standing in front of a screen with a Netflix logo and criticizing calls for taxes on video-streaming services. In the video, Harper said he is a fan...
Global service revenue from 5G wireless connections will skyrocket from $100 million US in 2020 to $65 billion US in 2025, Juniper Research Ltd. said Wednesday. The British research company said in a press release that 2020 is...
The Canadian Media Fund said Tuesday it is contributing $6.1 million toward 12 projects as part of its aboriginal program. The CMF said in a press release that the funding will go towards five...
Google Inc. said Tuesday that this Thursday's federal election debate will mark the first time such an event has been broadcast live and in full on its YouTube platform. Google's blog post noted that this debate...
The National Football League (NFL) said in court documents Tuesday that it did not participate in the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV review because the regulator did not give notice that it was considering eliminating simultaneous substitution for the Super Bowl. The attorney general had argued the NFL shouldn’t be granted leave to intervene in BCE Inc.’s challenge of the regulator’s Super Bowl decision. “It cannot seriously be suggested that the NFL lacks a genuine interest because it failed to participate under these circumstances,” it argued in documents...
The Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) has appointed Reynolds Mastin as CEO following the departure of Michael Hennessy. It said in a press release Thursday that Mastin joined the CMPA as associate counsel in 2008....
Canadian companies’ recent embrace of gigabit Internet isn’t meeting a need that exists in the market, but it is setting telecoms up for the day customers start demanding such speeds, according to Greg MacDonald,...
Ethnic Channels Group Ltd. (ECGL) launched a Part 1 application Tuesday to amend the CRTC's new rules regarding Canadian content requirements for broadcasters with fewer than 200,000 subscribers. The company requested...
CBC/Radio-Canada announced Tuesday that more than 22 million Canadians watched some part of the Pan Am Games that aired from July 10-26. The public broadcaster said in a press release that nearly 2.16 million Canadians tuned in...
The National Football League shouldn’t be granted leave to intervene in BCE Inc.’s challenge of the CRTC’s decision to eliminate simultaneous substitution during the Super Bowl, the attorney general said. The NFL filed for permission to intervene in the case earlier this month, stating it has a direct financial interest in the matter. In a document filed Thursday, the Attorney General of Canada, participating on behalf of the CRTC, said it opposes the NFL’s intervention. “The NFL does not bring the necessary different and valuable perspective to an existing...
New data from Juniper Research Ltd. predicts the number of Internet of Things (IoT)-connected devices in the industrial and public services sectors will triple by 2020. The research company said in a press release Tuesday the...
Streaming is often perceived as a competitor to the traditional TV system, but the introduction of a new service in the U.S. raises the possibility that instead of one replacing the other, the two could merge into a new hybrid...
The CRTC has approved the distribution of the U.S-based Africa Channel in Canada. BCE Inc. applied to bring the channel to Canada in March. The CRTC noted Bell described the channel as “a 24-hour general interest service...
Rogers Communications Inc. said in its quarterly results that its revenues grew six per cent over the past year, from $3.2 billion to $3.4 billion. “Wireless revenue increased as a result of greater smartphone sales, higher network revenue from the continued growth in data use by our...
Stingray Digital Group Inc., a provider of music content through both traditional TV channels and streaming apps, announced Thursday it will acquire three TV music channels in order to expand its broadcast offerings. The...
The National Communications Federation (FNC-CSN) and the union representing Radio-Canada employees are criticising a recent report on the future of the CBC/Radio-Canada issued by the Senate’s transport and communications...
BlackBerry Inc. announced Wednesday that it plans to acquire AtHoc Inc., a software provider for secure networked crisis communication. The new platform will be integrated with BlackBerry’s existing secure system and will offer its enterprise customers safe, secure and mission-critical...
Canadian millennials are more active on mobile devices than other demographics, while Canadians aged 35 and above still slightly prefer using a desktop, according to the new global mobile report by...
TekSavvy Solutions Inc. is appealing a cost award in a dispute over filesharing with Voltage Pictures LLC. TekSavvy initially said it would appeal the order in March, following a court decision that set the price Voltage must pay to access personal information linked to more than 2,000 IP addresses it says were involved in sharing its movies online at $21,557.50. In a filing Friday, TekSavvy said that it is “out-of-pocket nearly $300,000 for costs that ought to have been allowed” and that the case management judge “erred in law and principle” in setting the amount....
New rules for monitoring Canadian children’s and youth television programming have been put forward by the CRTC. The commission said Tuesday in a press release that beginning Sept. 1 television licensees must record and log their program target audience, as well report program expenses based on their target audience...
The Senate's transport and communications standing committee is recommending that CBC/Radio-Canada “explore alternative funding models and additional ways to generate revenue to minimize the...
PayPal Holdings Inc. announced Monday in a press release its separation from Ebay Inc. is complete and it will now be an independently traded company on the Nasdaq. “Mobile technology is transforming payments, making it...
The CRTC announced Monday it plans to review rules for French-language vocal music on the radio. It said in a release that it would re-examine the current framework in order “to ensure that it...
The practice of sharing passwords so that more than one person or household can access a streaming service has financial ramifications for the industry, according to a new report, though it could also provide new services with a boost in the market, said 3Macs analyst Troy Crandall. “In a way, sharing credentials can sometimes be somewhat of a marketing tool, especially if you’re just starting out,” he said in a phone interview. “Over time, obviously you do have to get a better handle on it.” He added that “it actually can be beneficial for them when...
The National Football League has filed for permission to be an intervener in BCE Inc.'s appeal against the CRTC's decision to start banning simultaneous substitution during the Super Bowl. A motion filed by the NFL with...
Netflix Inc.'s growth in subscriber numbers and revenue continued on an upward trajectory in the second quarter, yet its profit was cut to about a third of what it made last year as international expansion costs added up....
Corus Entertainment Inc. on Tuesday reported declining revenue in its third quarter in both its television and radio operations, as it ended the period with a net loss of more than $8 million The company said in a press release...
Morgan Elliott has taken on the job of vice-president of regulatory and government relations at Shaw Communications Inc., according to his LinkedIn profile. The profile indicates Elliott started the job in June. It also indicates that during the same month he left his job as vice-president of government relations at...
Telus Corp. said Tuesday that it has reached an agreement to sell the website of the Blacks photography retail operation to Montreal-based photo finishing company Les Pros de la Photo. It said in an emailed statement the sale will close on Aug. 4, at which time the purchasing company will do...
A community group is launching a class action lawsuit against the MAtv community channel owned by Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron. Independent Community TeleVision (ICTV) said in a statement on its website Tuesday that it...
Wearable devices could replace everything in our pockets, eventually wiping out smartphones in five to 10 years, says one wearable-technology company CEO. However, others say functionality, design and...
Canadian television production company DHX Media Ltd. said Tuesday that an Italian broadcaster has acquired the rights to its Teletubbies children's series, including the new season currently in production and 14 past seasons...
BCE Inc. will make its CraveTV streaming service available to all Canadians as of Jan 1., 2016, it said in a press release Monday, in what marks a change in strategy for the company. Bell Media president Mary Ann Turcke said in the press release that as “our business model has continued to evolve the time is right to also offer CraveTV as a standalone product.” The service, which was launched in December, is currently available only to customers who subscribe to TV service from Bell and partner providers, including Telus Corp. and Eastlink. “It’s a big change in strategy since [former Bell Media president Kevin] Crull repeatedly said they weren’t going to do this,” broadcasting consultant Kelly Lynne Ashton said in an email. “It’s a necessary change, though, as it’s the only...
The website for the Pan Am Games, underway in Toronto, has had a rule indicating a ban on unauthorized links removed. On Friday, the following quote appeared on the terms-of-use section for the website Toronto2015.org:...
A potential sale of the Shopping Channel could net Rogers Communications Inc. $300 million, which Cannacord Genuity analyst Aravinda Galappatthige said is an “attractive price” for the...
“Sharp” price hikes in wireless service over the past year are prompting people to reduce how much they spend on other telecommunications services, according to a Conference Board of...
The CRTC has opened a consultation on a number of decisions it made as part of its Let's Talk TV review of television services ahead of making official changes to its broadcasting regulations to include them. It is consulting...
CRTC commissioner Raj Shoan and the government, who are battling in court over a finding that he committed workplace harassment, have reached an agreement on keeping the identities of individuals involved in this case private. A third-party investigation commissioned by the CRTC had found that Shoan harassed an employee at the commission. Shoan has been fighting this determination in Federal Court and calling for all the material the CRTC used against him, including an unredacted version of the investigator's report, to be made available to him. The government had said it would provide...
The use of live-streaming apps such as Periscope and Meerkat has helped journalists provide unfiltered, live as-it-happens moments for viewers, according to some proponents, though others claim such technology compromises the...
A new piece of technology is causing controversy within Canada’s oldest broadcast medium. Over the past months, some radio stations in Canada have quietly begun using a device called Voltair in an attempt to improve their ratings — at least until ratings service Numeris stepped in and told them to stop a few weeks ago. Now Numeris says...
The CRTC said Wednesday that two separately owned French-language commercial radio stations in Gatineau, Que., will be allowed to combine their sales teams. The stations involved are Cogeco Cable Inc.-owned CKOF-FM, which has a...
Microsoft Corp. said Wednesday it is cutting as many as 7,800 positions primarily as a result of restructuring its phone hardware business. The company said in a press release that this will result in a write-down of about $7.6...
Rogers Communications Inc. said Tuesday that Rick Brace will become president of its media division later this summer, replacing outgoing media president Keith Pelley. Rogers said in a press release that Brace will assume the new...
The CRTC erred in finding that BCE Inc. gave itself an undue preference with the pricing of its mobile TV product because the Telecommunications Act does not apply to this case, Bell argued in a court document Monday. Bell said the CRTC committed a jurisdictional error in its decision earlier this year, in which it...
The CRTC said Tuesday that it has approved a request from soccer TV channel Gol TV, owned by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd., to have its broadcast licence revoked as of Aug. 31. The notice on the CRTC's website said Gol TV has a Category 2 specialty channel licence and it would cease operations at the end of August. The application...
Companies spent $138.7 million on TV-related tangible benefits in Canada in the 12 months ended Aug. 31 last year, marking a 27 per cent increase from a year earlier, according to TV-industry research...
The volume of online and mobile messaging will increase 70 per cent over the next four years, Juniper Research Ltd. said Tuesday. The research group said the number of emails, instant messages, social media posts, and text messages using SMS (short message service) or MMS (multi-media messaging service) will total 160 trillion in 2019, up from 94.2 trillion this year. Juniper said email accounted for the largest share of messages last year with 35 trillion, though 80 per cent of those, or 28 trillion, were spam. It said instant messages will become the leading category over the next year,...
A new study conducted by Miner & Co. Studio. suggests watching regular cable TV is declining among kids in the United States, who would prefer to watch their favourite shows on a smartphone or...
International Datacasting Corp., the Ottawa-based maker of broadcasting technology, said Monday that Chris Barrett and Steeve Huin have been appointed co-CEOs of the company. Barrett and Huin replace Doug Lowther, who will be...
ADR.TV said Friday that it has applied to Federal Court for a judicial review of the CRTC's decision in August 2013 not to grant it mandatory carriage on basic TV packages in Quebec past Aug. 31...
The federal government has filed a notice of motion in Federal Court to keep certain details under wraps in the judicial review CRTC Commissioner Raj Shoan is seeking of a process that found he committed workplace harassment. A...
Rogers Communications Inc. said in a press release late Thursday afternoon that its acquisitions of Mobilicity and wireless spectrum from Shaw Communications Inc. have received all necessary approvals and are now closed. Both deals were announced June 24. Industry Canada signalled its approval for both transactions that day, and the Ontario Superior Court, which had been overseeing Mobilicity’s bankruptcy-protection since September 2013, also gave it the go-ahead. Approval from the Competition Bureau was still pending at the time. Rogers has said it agreed to pay $440 million for...
Susan Marjetti has been appointed executive director of radio and audio for CBC's English services, CBC/Radio-Canada announced Tuesday. CBC said in a news release Tuesday that Marjetti has been with the broadcaster for almost...
Netflix Inc. has hired Environics Communications Inc. to lobby the Canadian government on its behalf, The Lobby Monitor reported this week. It has three new filings under Environics, represented by three different Ottawa-based...
Telus Corp.’s Optik TV customers will now have access more than 1,000 National Film Board of Canada (NFB) films on their TV via a new app. Telus announced Thursday in a press release that the NFB app is now available to...
Shifts in TV consumption reveal most Canadians aren't concerned about seasonality of popular TV shows, according to a new study conducted by Videology Inc. Videology said Thursday in a press release that 39 per cent of...
The Canadian Media Fund (CMF) said Tuesday it will be going across the country for a consultation process this fall. It said in a press release that the consultation process will include several components, including focus groups...
Netflix Inc.'s audience is already on par with two out of the three major U.S. television networks and will be bigger than all three in about a year, U.S. investment analysts said last week. Chase White and Barton Crockett of FBR Capital Markets & Co. said in a note issued June 24 that Nielson Co. does not issue...
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. ranks first among fitness-band makers for customer-satisfaction among U.S. residents, while Fitbit Inc. is second, according to a survey by J.D. Power and Associates. It said in a press release...
Cisco Systems Inc. announced Tuesday it is planning to acquire OpenDNS, a security systems company with offices in San Francisco and Vancouver. Cisco said in a press release that it will buy the company for $635 million US...
The CRTC is asking for applications for radio stations in the Vancouver area, which it said in its “preliminary view” would “best be served by proposals targeting the ethnic communities,” though it noted that it would consider other types of applications. Last year, the CRTC said it would hold a hearing to look into three radio stations it said were in violation of the Broadcasting Act by operating out of British Columbia's Lower Mainland and having their signals transmitted from the United States back into Canada without a CRTC-issued licence. In a decision in...
Corus Entertainment Inc. announced Monday the launch of TreehouseGO, its first kids' app in a "full suite" of TV Everywhere apps based on its kids' television brands. The company said in a press release that the launch of the apps is part of a move to expand Corus’ digital content. The release said the app is safe and easy to...
Hexoskin, a Montreal-based maker of shirts that capture biometric information about people, said this week that its products were to become available on the Canadian website of Best Buy Co. Inc. as of Friday. The company said in...
The CRTC on Friday granted approval for seven non-Canadian television channels to be distributed in Canada, six of which were sponsored by BCE Inc. The stations approved, which Bell Canada sponsored, included: Radio...
The City of Montreal has started deploying free WiFi in parts of Montreal, according to a notice on its website. It said the service launched in Old Montreal and some surrounding areas on Thursday after getting funding from the...
New data from Media Technology Monitor (MTM) indicates growth in connections between television sets and the Internet. MTM, a project of CBC/Radio-Canada, said in a report released Thursday that 42 per cent of anglophone Canadians polled this spring reported accessing the Internet with a TV. That was up from 38 per cent last fall and 33 per cent the previous spring. It said 36 per cent reported owning a smart TV, which can connect the Internet without external components. That was up from 30 per cent last fall and 29 per cent last spring. By comparison, two per cent reported having a TV with...
A new study from Digitalsmiths, a subsidiary of TiVo Inc., shows almost 60 per cent of TV-service customers in Canada and the U.S. are spending more than $100 US a month for their subscriptions, and about one in four are...
The CRTC said it was yanking the broadcast licences of five aboriginal radio stations, all operated by a company called Aboriginal Voices Radio Inc., for years of non-compliance with licence conditions and radio regulations. The...
Shaw Communications Inc. on Thursday reported a decline in its quarterly income with much of the drop attributed to a $55-million write-down taken on an abandoned IPTV project. Shaw said in a press release that it started work in...
Pelmorex Media Inc. announced Thursday the launch of a new Weather Network app for Apple Inc.’s Apple Watch. “The Apple Watch is one of the must-have tech accessories this year and as Canada’s leading weather...
OTTAWA — Those in the wearables industry envision the day when their products are taking less direction from humans and doing more thinking for themselves — in other words, incorporating more artificial intelligence...
The proportion of Canadians connected to the Internet by fibre is rising and these people are more satisfied with their Internet service than others, according to market research data released...
BCE Inc.'s Bell Media division said Wednesday that the June 14 season finale of Game of Thrones on HBO Canada broke a record for the most-viewed pay- or specialty-TV broadcast of all time in this country. It said there were...
Google Inc. announced in a blog post Tuesday it will be adding to its current Google Play Music offering a free, ad-supported music streaming service. It will give users “a new way to find just the right music and ......
A mobile payment application owned and supported by Canada's three biggest wireless providers was announced Tuesday for Android and BlackBerry phones, while iPhone users are left waiting for Apple Pay to come to Canada. Suretap, a joint venture of Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc. and Telus Corp., said that its mobile wallet application would be available to customers of the three companies' main mobile services, as well as Bell's flanker brand Virgin Mobile and Telus' Koodo. It will be available as a download or preloaded app on more than 30 different smartphones made by...
