The CRTC on Friday approved a new IPTV service from VMedia Inc., despite arguments from some interveners that the proposed service would be transmitted over the public Internet and should therefore not be licensed as a broadcast distributor. The commission said 2251723 Ontario Inc., which is wholly owned by VMedia, was approved for licences to provide TV service in several markets across the country, including St. John's, N.L., Halifax, Quebec City, Montreal, Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Victoria, as well as several other locations in the Atlantic, Quebec,...
The CRTC will allow a complaint by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) against video-streaming service Shomi to proceed, despite requests from its owners that the matter be dropped. A letter from the CRTC to Shomi owner Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc., dated May 8, said PIAC's application "does not appear to be unduly burdensome." PIAC re-launched a complaint against Shomi last month, arguing that tying availability of the service to TV or Internet subscriptions from Rogers or Shaw represented an undue preference. Similar applications had been in...
Entertainment One Ltd. said in a press release Thursday that Marci Wiseman is its new executive vice-president of global business and legal affairs. “She will direct legal and business affairs activities on a global basis,...
Roger Communications Inc. is cutting about 110 conventional-TV jobs as a result of programming changes at its City and OMNI over-the-air television networks. That number was confirmed by Rogers spokeswoman Andrea Goldstein by...
In the past three years, five per cent of Canadians have gotten rid of their TV service, Media Technology Monitor (MTM) said in a new report. MTM, a project of CBC/Radio-Canada, reported that 16 per cent of Canadians currently do...
BCE Inc. said Thursday that its streaming service CraveTV will be available to subscribers of Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp.'s MaxTV service on May 12. It added in a press release that small Ontario ...
The CRTC has ruled in favour of BCE Inc. in a dispute with Quebecor Inc. over carriage fees for Quebecor’s TVA Sports channel in the French-language market. The CRTC said it found that “Bell’s offer to increase the current rate is more reasonable than Quebecor’s.” Because it only recently obtained rights to broadcast NHL games, “TVA Sports has not been able to sufficiently prove itself over a reasonable period to justify the size of its proposed rate increase,” the regulator said in its decision. The CRTC also said Bell’s offer was more...
Oculus VR, the virtual-reality technology company bought by Facebook Inc. last year, said Wednesday that it will start shipping its Rift headset in the first quarter of next year, and pre-orders will be taken later this...
The Digital ID and Authentication Council of Canada (DIACC) has issued a report calling for the creation of an official digital identity for all Canadians, which would be accepted across the country, by government and the private...
The Competition Bureau has approved the purchase of Glentel Inc. by BCE Inc., and will not attempt to prevent a deal that sees Rogers Communications Inc. taking a 50 per cent stake in Glentel from Bell, both Glentel and the...
CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais announced Tuesday that the federal government has appointed Linda Vennard and Christopher MacDonald as regional commissioners for the CRTC. A memo from Blais, forwarded to The Wire Report, said...
BCE Inc. announced Tuesday that its CraveTV streaming service is now available to Canadians on Apple TV, but subscriptions to a participating TV service provider are still required to access the...
Statistics presented by the CRTC on Monday showed Canada's over-the-air TV broadcasters are facing an increasingly tight advertising market. The CRTC's data for private broadcasters, which...
The Competition Bureau said in a press release Monday that it supports the CRTC’s proposed code of conduct governing agreements between broadcasters and TV providers. In March, the CRTC said it would consult on a revised...
Encrypted Internet traffic currently makes up about one-third of North American traffic, a figure that is projected to grow to two-thirds by 2016, after Netflix Inc. begins using encryption, according...
Despite streaming services eating away at the profits of pay-per-view movies and TV shows, TV providers could see their biggest PPV revenues in history on Saturday as two of boxing’s biggest names fight in front of a worldwide audience. Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao are set to face each other at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, in a fight that promoter and Top Rank Inc. CEO Bob Arum, who represents Pacquiao, told ESPN could raise $300 million US between ticket sales, pay-per-view sales and sponsorships. Ray Rutter, president of Canadastar Boxing Inc., said...
BCE Inc.’s latest earnings report shows the company made $532 million in profits in the first quarter of 2015, down from $615 million in same period last year. Despite the 13.5 per cent year-on-year drop in profits, the...
A former CRTC commissioner says a court proceeding initiated by current commissioner Raj Shoan, which challenges the findings of an internal report into harassment and seeks to limit Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais' control, could help clarify the rights of and limits to the power of various CRTC players. "It's...
Google Inc. announced a new partnership with European news organizations on Tuesday called the Digital News Initiative. The search and advertising giant said it will work with newspapers including the Financial Times, the...
Google Inc.'s YouTube said Tuesday that it will be partnering with a division of DreamWorks Animation LLC to make feature films in the coming years. It said in a blog post that it will work with DreamWorks' AwesomenessTV...
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) has re-launched an undue-preference complaint against Rogers Communications Inc.'s and Shaw Communications Inc.’s Shomi streaming service, following uncertainty about how a recent CRTC decision would affect the service. In the Part 1 complaint filed Monday, PIAC stated that by tying access to Shomi to Rogers or Shaw Internet or TV services, the companies are conferring an undue preference on their own services and discriminating against independent providers, in violation of both the Telecommunications Act and the CRTC’s digital...
Former Rogers Communications Inc. CEO Nadir Mohamed will lead a new venture-capital fund created by the Ontario government, the office of Premier Kathleen Wynne said on Monday. Mohamed will lead a council of about 30 business...
Facebook Inc. said Monday it has updated its Messenger app to add video-calling capabilities. In a press release, the company said the app, which introduced voice calling in January 2013, now accounts for more than 10 per cent of...
BBC Worldwide North America announced Monday that it has appointed Sandra Mackechnie to the position of vice-president for digital ad sales at BBC.com’s Canadian office in Toronto. Mackechnie...
Stingray Digital Group Inc. has filed for an initial public offering, according to documents filed Friday with Canadian securities regulatory authorities. The Montreal-based company’s products include audio TV channels, as well as music- and video-streaming apps. Stingray said in the...
Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. said Thursday it has launched mobile-payment capabilities for wireless customers who bank with Toronto Dominion Bank and have certain devices. SaskTel said the current service works...
In the wake of the CRTC's recent changes to specialty-TV genres, Corus Entertainment Inc. has applied to change the licence conditions of the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), which it has the licensing rights for in Canada. In a...
Comcast Corp. on Friday confirmed that it is walking away from its proposed $45-billion US buyout of Time Warner Cable Inc. In a statement on Comcast's website, CEO Brian Roberts said: "Today, we move on. Of course, we...
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce announced Thursday it will soon have a banking application for Apple Inc.'s Apple Watch. CIBC said in a press release that its app will allow users to check account balances, transfer funds...
The CRTC has denied an application by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the Council of Senior Citizens' Organizations of British Columbia for reimbursement of about $13,500 for their participation in a complaint against Rogers Communications Inc.'s NHL GamePlus web product. The case was brought before the CRTC by BCE Inc. in October, shortly after GamePlus launched. Bell took issue with Rogers offering the service — which provides footage of NHL games from unique camera angles along with interviews and other features — just to subscribers of Rogers'...
The federal government said in a press release Thursday that it would provide $417,215 for a program aimed at increasing “the number of women in senior executive positions and on the boards of companies in the communications, media and technical sectors across Canada.” The money will go to the to the...
Shaw Communications Inc. said in a press release Thursday that it has named Trevor English its senior vice-president of corporate development and business planning. The release noted that...
Media Technology Monitor (MTM), a project of CBC/Radio-Canada, said in report released Wednesday that the percentage of anglophones using "personalized" audio streaming services over the last year or so has been...
Google Inc. on Wednesday announced it has launched a wireless service in the United States, partnering with T-Mobile U.S. Inc. and Sprint Corp. for coverage on their networks. A website for Google's new service, called...
Pico Digital Inc. of San Diego has reached an agreement to purchase the "key" assets of Ottawa's International Datacasting Corp., the companies said in a joint news release Wednesday. The announcement said Pico would acquire International Datacasting's broadcast products business, which would include its product portfolio, customer base and supplier relationships. It said most of International Datacasting employees would join Pico. Pico is described in the release as "a worldwide leader in providing multimedia delivery solutions to customers in the broadcast, cable, satellite and broadband markets." The announcement noted International Datacasting's Laser...
Vancouver-based BroadbandTV Corp. announced Tuesday that it has bought a company that bills itself as the world's top producer of digital video content for kids. Broadband said in a press release that the acquisition of YoBoHo New Media Pvt. Ltd., based in Mumbai, India, positions it as "one of the leaders in kids...
The Competition Bureau is looking for experts in the fields of online search and advertising, and experts say it's likely related to its probe into Google Inc.'s advertising practices, the Financial Post reported....
The federal budget, released Tuesday, includes new money for broadband and research networks, satellite communications, securing the government’s own online properties and a dedicated public safety network. The government is...
The main Internet of Things (IoT) market will generate $6.5 billion in revenue in Canada in 2018, representing average annual growth of 18 per cent in comparison to the $2.88 billion the market was worth in 2013, International...
Viewership of the first round of the NHL playoffs is 40 per cent higher than last year at an average of 1.36 million viewers, Rogers Communications Inc. spokeswoman Jennifer Neziol said in an email. Citing data from Numeris, she...
The Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada (IAB) has named Sonia Carreno its new president, the organization said in a press release Monday. The release said Carreno has “more than 15 years of integrated leadership...
BlackBerry Ltd. announced Tuesday that it has reached a deal to purchase a California-based company that makes technology to secure shared documents. The company being bought is called WatchDox Ltd. Terms of the deal were not...
Rogers Communications Inc. on Monday reported a 5.1 per cent annual gain in revenue for the first quarter, driven largely by a 26 per cent jump in its media division that benefited from Rogers' exclusive national rights to NHL...
Ken Engelhart, Rogers Communications Inc.’s former vice-president of regulatory affairs, has quietly left the company after 25 years and will be starting his own law firm. His last day at Rogers was April 10, he said in a phone interview. “I’ll be hanging up a shingle and opening up my own law practice to do communications law,” he said, adding that he plans to cover all areas of communications law, such as broadcasting, telecom, and privacy, in his new practice. Engelhart added that he will take some time off this summer. “I’ve had a wonderful time at...
Google Inc.'s Android division on Monday announced several upgrades to its smartwatch technology, including built-in WiFi, making apps visible even when devices are in energy-saving mode, and adding easier functionality for...
Vancouver-based Recon Instruments announced Thursday the release of its new smart goggles for outdoor sports enthusiasts called Recon Jet. It said in a press release that the product is equipped with GPS, a camera, a display...
CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais will give the keynote address to the Banff World Media Festival on June 7, according to a press release from the organizers of the event. Blais will speak to the...
Having five Canadian teams reach the NHL playoffs for the first time in more than a decade is set to translate into a winning season for Rogers Communications Inc. as it completes the first...
BCE Inc. said in a press release Friday that its IPTV customer base has reached one million households. In the release, Bell said IPTV, which it offers through its Fibe TV and FibreOP TV brands, has since its launch in 2010 become one of the fastest growing product lines in the company's 135-year history. Rizwan Jamal, president of residential services at Bell, said the company is winning customers from cable with features such as digital recordings that can be shared across different set-top boxes in the home, wireless connections and a new feature that can restart a...
Rogers Communications Inc. said Friday that Keith Pelley will leave as president of the company's media division this summer to take over as CEO of the PGA European Tour. Pelley was appointed president of Rogers Media in...
Apple Inc. is negotiating with Canada's major banks about a launch of its mobile-payment service, Apple Pay, in November, according to the Wall Street Journal. An article published online Friday said Apple is negotiating with...
The CRTC on Thursday approved two licences for AEBC Internet Corp. to operate television services in Alberta and British Columbia. The company, which offers Internet, phone and IPTV service, was approved to offer a TV service...
Corus Entertainment Inc. said Thursday it has signed a long-term licensing agreement with Walt Disney Co. giving it the rights to distribute Disney content across Canada in both official languages. Disney had a previous agreement...
Netflix Inc. said in letter to shareholders Wednesday it would be shifting some of its U.S. marketing budget to other parts of the world in the coming months "to take advantage of the substantial available growth...
A 27-year-old entrepreneur wants to offer an alternative to what he calls a monopoly in the market for audio music channels offered through TV service providers in Canada. Evan Kosiner, president and owner of Kosiner Venture...
Al Jazeera Media Network has won its fight to delete most of the conditions on Canadian distribution of is Al Jazeera Arabic channel, the CRTC said Wednesday, making it easier for Canadian service providers to distribute the...
Network management provider Sandvine Inc. said Wednesday it has launched a smartphone application for mobile service providers to allow customers to manage their plans on their device. The...
Quebecor Inc.’s Tuesday announcement of nationwide roaming at no charge for its Videotron wireless customers could allow the company to test the waters for a national mobile service, according to SeaBoard Group analyst Iain Grant. Grant said in a Tuesday phone interview that the company’s announcement that customers of its all-inclusive Canada plans would have coast-to-coast roaming privileges at no extra cost, starting May 13, could be an indicator of the company’s wider ambitions. Still, he said there are significant hurdles if Videotron wants to be a fourth national...
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre said it will not drop a CRTC complaint against BCE Inc.’s targeted ad program, despite the company’s plans to re-launch the program according to...
The federal government said Monday that retailers will be allowed to opt out of accepting payments through mobile devices, without penalty, if higher fees are being charged than for card-based transactions using contactless...
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) said it is “dismayed” by the cuts to the Nova Scotia film and TV production tax credit and the closing of the...
Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) had a small-scale launch in Canada recently, with Rogers Communications Inc. making the service that allows carriers to transmit voice calls on the same networks as data available to a portion of its...
BCE Inc. on Friday took the next steps in appealing the January CRTC ruling regarding its mobile-TV service, having been granted leave to appeal the matter last week. The date the appeal will be heard has not yet been determined, according to a notice from Bell's lawyers filed Friday with the Federal Court of Appeal. The proceeding will be held in Toronto unless the court decides otherwise, the notice said. Bell is seeking to overturn a January CRTC ruling that compelled it to treat video streamed through its mobile-TV app like any other data. The Canadian Network Operators...
Shaw Communications Inc. said Thursday it has made a number of changes affecting the executive positions at its media division. The company said it appointed Christine Shipton senior-vice president and chief creative...
BCE Inc. said Thursday that Kevin Crull is out as president of its Bell Media division, and a press release appeared to link Crull's ousting to his recent conflict with news staff over coverage of the CRTC's decision on...
Corus Entertainment Inc. reported an $86.8 million loss for its second fiscal quarter, attributed largely to writedowns in the value of radio-broadcast licences and other associated goodwill charges. The company said in a press release Thursday that this compared to a profit of $6.1 million in the...
Microsoft Corp. announced Wednesday that users of its Xbox One gaming console in Canada and the United States that are subscribed to its beta updates program will now be able to receive over-the-air broadcast television with an...
In the fall of 2014, Canadian anglophones spent an hour more watching online video in a typical week than they did a year earlier, according to new data from the Media Technology Monitor (MTM). MTM, a project of CBC/Radio-Canada,...
Rogers Communications Inc. has launched new wireless plans for customers of its Fido brand that include exclusive content from Vice Media Inc. Rogers said in a press release that its new “Fido Pulse” plans will...
Stingray Digital Group Inc. , the provider of music content over TV subscriptions, has named Stephen Tapp as senior vice-president of business development, the company said in a press release...
The Television Bureau of Canada (TVB) said Thursday Catherine MacLeod is its new president, effective April 13. MacLeod most recently worked for BCE Inc.'s media subsidiary as the senior vice-president of specialty...
DHX Media Ltd., a Canadian content creator specializing in children's television programming, said it has reached a deal with U.S. distribution company, The Orchard, that will give it a new path to audiences around the world. The companies said in a joint press release Wednesday that the agreement will provide distribution for than 8,000 episodes in DHX's library to the U.S., Latin America, South Africa, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. It also covered more than 2,000 tracks of children's music under the control of DHX for distribution globally. “With the global...
Canada’s national news channels face new obligations from the CRTC even as the regulator is taking away their place on basic cable, raising questions about their future finances. Last month, as...
BCE Inc.'s Bell Media said Wednesday that the division that operates its MuchMusic channel will launch "a multi-channel network of Canadian and international YouTube creators" this spring. Bell Media said in a press release that the endeavour will be called Much Digital Studios and be based at Much headquarters at 299 Queen St. W. in...
Corus Entertainment Inc. on Tuesday said it has made Mario Cecchini president of Corus Radio, effective immediately. Corus CEO Doug Murphy said in a press release that Cecchini has more than 25 years of experience in the radio...
The CRTC has denied an application by Blackgold Broadcasting Inc. for a country music FM radio station in Ponoka, Alta. In its decision, the CRTC said the station could have an had an “undue negative impact on existing...
Corus Entertainment Inc. said Tuesday it has secured a long-term agreement with Viacom Inc.'s Nickelodeon division to secure the exclusive Canadian rights to its content for television in digital platforms. Corus said in a press release that the deal includes English- and French-language programming. "We are excited to leverage Nickelodeon’s high-quality content in new and innovative ways, giving Corus a competitive edge in this evolving media landscape, while offering Canada’s young, savvy digital consumers and their families full access to Nickelodeon’s...
International Business Machines (IBM) Corp. said Tuesday it will invest $3 billion US over the next four years to establish an Internet of Things (IoT) unit. It said in a press release it will use its cloud-based platform to help business clients better integrate data from IoT devices and other...
Shaw Communications Inc. said Tuesday it has named Vito Culmone as its executive vice-president and chief financial officer. The appointment is effective June 1, the company said in a press release. Culmone’s most recent...
The CRTC is proposing changes in the way it deals with broadcast-licence renewals, such as getting rid of reminder letters for each licensee and removing the requirement that it publish a notice of consultation for every licence...
A case involving BCE Inc.’s mobile-TV service that’s currently winding its way through the Federal Court of Appeal is just one example of how the lines between telecommunications and...
The mobile-app market "may be reaching a plateau," research company Gartner Inc. said in a press release Tuesday. The company said, based on research on U.S. and German consumers, it found that interest in apps is still high, though people are reaching the point where they are satisfied with the apps they already...
A national emergency alert system became operational on Tuesday, according to officials speaking on behalf of the company that will operate the infrastructure behind it. A spokesperson for public relations company High Road,...
The Canadian Media Fund said Monday it will have $375.2 million to fund television and digital-media productions in the 2015-16 fiscal year. That's up $7.2 million from the $368 million it announced was the budget for the...
Corus Entertainment Inc. on Monday announced that Doug Murphy taken over the job of president and CEO from John Cassaday, who has retired after 15 years in this role. The appointment follows the succession plan that was first...
Cogeco Cable Inc. said Monday it is now offering its TiVo Inc. service to customers in Quebec. Cogeco Cable Canada CEO Louise St-Pierre said in a Monday news release that the service ensures “there will always be something worth watching.” The company’s partnership with TiVo allows customers to access IPTV content as well as online services such as Netflix Inc., via a set-top box. Cogeco said in the release that the TiVo service features an integrated search function that scans live TV, recorded programs, on-demand and Netflix content to give users options. The Cogeco...
Customers of Rogers Communications Inc.’s Fido subsidiary will receive free access to Spotify AB’s premium music-streaming service for two years, the company said Monday. “Plug in and escape, anytime, anywhere,...
CBC/Radio-Canada and the Society for Reproduction Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers in Canada (SODRAC) recently argued before the Supreme Court of Canada over whether a tariff on “broadcast incidental...
Apple Inc. is reportedly planning to launch its own music-streaming service, according to the New York Times. The streaming service will be part of a “sweeping overhaul” of the company’s music services, the...
BCE Inc. is asking its shareholders to vote against a proposal at the company’s April 13 annual general meeting that would impose a quota on the number of women on its board of directors....
Nielsen Co., the which measures viewership for TV shows, will start assessing audiences for online streaming services such as Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.'s Prime this year, according to a Bloomberg report. “That will be the last significant portion of overall television content viewing that we don’t already measure,” Nielsen CEO Mitch Barns told Bloomberg on Tuesday. “We really will have a full set of capabilities in the market to measure what we call the total audience across all screens, devices and platforms.” The article said Netflix and Amazon.com...
A government committee in Quebec is recommending the province study the idea of applying a tax on residential Internet service for the purpose of supporting cultural industries. It's among 71 recommendations from the Quebec...
The CRTC’s proposed new code of conduct for television service providers is at odds with the commission’s stance that it won’t regulate over-the-top (OTT) services, according to...
Shaw Communications Inc. has filed a review-and-vary application with the CRTC in an attempt to get higher prices for providing wholesale Internet access to third-party providers. Earlier this month, the CRTC ordered Shaw to...
BCE Inc. is not seeking costs from the Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) in the early part of the appeals process in relation to a CRTC decision to force it treat data used in its mobile-TV...
The Competition Bureau said Wednesday it will not challenge Postmedia Network Canada Corp.’s purchase of Quebecor Inc.’s English-language Sun Media newspapers. The bureau said in a Wednesday release that the proposed acquisition is unlikely to lessen or prevent competition, citing several reasons including that Postmedia’s broadsheet...
CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais on Wednesday issued a statement warning about the seriousness of "manipulating news coverage" in the wake of a report that a prominent BCE Inc. executive did...
An Ottawa consulting company says IPTV services aren’t absorbing the exodus of cable customers at the same rate as they used to. TV-industry consulting company Boon Dog Professional Services...
Google Inc. said Tuesday it has appointed Ruth Porat, formerly chief financial officer at Morgan Stanley, as its new chief financial officer. Porat joined the bank in 1987, and led its investment in tech companies including...
The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) said Tuesday it has moved into new headquarters, though it has stayed in Montreal. SOCAN said in a press release that after 25 years in a downtown office tower, it has moved into “the heart of Montreal’s creative centre” at 33 Milton St., near Saint-Laurent Boulevard and the Quartier des spectacles, which is the city’s entertainment district. The collective said it intends to create “a dynamic hub for music rights” by sharing this space with other groups, the first of which is APEM (Association des professionnels de l'édition musicale, or Professional Music Publishers Association)....
