A new organization has been formed to facilitate discussions on public policy relating to technology. Canada’s Digital Policy Forum bills itself on its website as “a new and unique roundtable that focuses on issues in the high technology space. CDPF’s mission is to promote public policies that advance the growth of technology and the digital economy in Canada.” The group was founded by Jeremy Depow, who has 14 years of experience in government affairs and public policy. He has advised several organizations and held staff positions with companies such as Pfizer...
Google Inc. is purchasing Divide, a company that provides technology and services for workers who bring their own mobile devices to work. Divide posted a notice on its website on Monday that said it is “thrilled to be joining Google.” Terms of the deal were not released. An Associated Press report said Google is hoping to use Divide to increase usage of devices powered by its Android software in the workplace. Divide’s website says it provides support for Android devices and those running on Apple Inc.’s iOS platform....
The Copyright Board of Canada issued a decision Friday that gives musicians and record companies a fraction of the money from webcasting that their collective had asked for. The board said in a news release that the tariff for non-interactive and semi-interactive webcasting would be 10.2 cents per 1,000 plays for...
The CRTC has approved an application from Asian Television Network International Ltd. to add UTV Movies International to its list of non-Canadian programming services authorized for distribution. ATN described the channel as a...
Newcap Inc. is asking the CRTC for more flexibility in how the company meets local programming requirements for two television stations in Lloydminster, Alta. In an application posted to the commission’s website on Friday,...
The ownership rate of ultra-high-definition televisions will hit 33 per cent in the United States by 2020, up from less than 10 per cent now, according to a report from Strategy Analytics. The...
The CRTC ruled in a decision Thursday that CBC/Radio-Canada’s airing of a radio advertisement for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra did not violate the broadcaster’s licence, which prohibits local advertising. The case was sparked by a complaint from Radio-Classique Montréal Inc., whose CJPX-FM station broadcasts classical music in Montreal. Radio-Classique said that Radio-Canada had sold advertising on its Espace Musique radio channel to the Montreal Chamber Orchestra, a regular advertiser with CJPX-FM. The CRTC said Thursday that it “considers that the MCO...
More users of social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, are connecting to those sites on mobile devices, MTM, a CBC/Radio-Canada project, said in a report Thursday. The report said 63 per cent...
The CRTC denied two requests from the broadcasting arm of Rogers Communications Inc. to add up to a half-hour of French-language commercials per week to three English-language radio stations in northern Ontario on Thursday. In...
Yahoo Inc. has acquired mobile-messaging application company Blink, according to a blog post on the latter’s website. “We’re excited to announce that as of May 13, 2014 Blink is joining Yahoo!” Blink said. Blink's application lets users send self-destructing text messages, audio, sketches, video and photos, its website...
Google Inc. said Tuesday any resident of the United States is invited to sign up for the opportunity to purchase its Glass technology, which is still in development. “We’re still in the Explorer Program while we...
OTTAWA — Lawyers representing two streaming music services told the Copyright Board of Canada in hearings this week that a request from the not-for-profit group that represents Canadian songwriters and music publishers to...
North American cord-cutters are dominating Internet network usage market by consuming more than seven times the typical subscriber, according to a report Wednesday from Sandvine Inc. On average, cord-cutters consume 212 GB over...
Mobile-TV services, such as that offered by BCE Inc.'s Bell Mobility subsidiary, are not broadcast distribution services, critics said in final reply letters that were due this week in a case...
The CRTC is considering an application to approve for distribution in Canada a U.S.-based channel that specializes in African soccer. The channel in question is called Africa Sports, according to a posting that appeared on the...
BeIN Sports Canada, the sports specialty television network owned by Qatari Sports Investments, said Tuesday that it is adding its channel to the East Coast and Quebec markets through Eastlink and Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron. BeIN Sports announced its launch in Canada last year, and was previously only available in France and the United States in the summer of 2012. "It is comforting to see how fast it is growing. In addition to the channel's current distribution on Rogers, Bell TV, Bell Fibe and MTS, we are proud to add Eastlink and Videotron to our family of...
The CRTC on Friday announced the approval of two separate applications for Greek-language, non-Canadian TV channels to be distributed in Canada. Soundview Entertainment Inc. was the sponsor for both. One channel is RIK, which...
Netflix Inc. is raising its monthly subscription rates for new customers to a basic cost of $8.99 from $7.99 per month, though existing customers are getting a two-year reprieve from the higher price. Emails went out to...
Polling done for Industry Canada suggests most Canadians have not noticed the government's advertising campaign about the wireless industry. The poll was done by research firm TNS Canada and the...
The CRTC dismissed one challenge and overruled another on Thursday against Ethnic Channels Group Ltd., the operator of a channel aimed at Hindi-speaking women, allowing them to add a second channel of...
Quebecor Inc. improved its bottom line in this year’s first quarter as its telecommunications segment saw a revenue boost of 4.8 per cent, featuring some strong gains in its wireless business. Revenue was up 1.1 per cent from a year earlier to $1.04 billion, the company said in a press release Thursday. Net income rose to $40.7 million from $35.6 million in last year’s first quarter, it added. Quebecor’s financial data, released on its website, showed its telecommunications segment had $692.7 million in revenue, up 4.8 per cent from a year earlier. That included a 0.3 per...
Granting VMedia Inc. licences to operate a national video-on-demand (VOD) service and expand its broadcast distribution service would mean approving a distribution structure that would...
A Federal Court hearing has been set for Sept. 3 for the case in which Canada’s major wireless carriers are trying to retrieve $12 million back from the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) in...
Google Inc. has made a switch in the managing director’s position at its Canadian operations, the Financial Post reported Wednesday. An article on the Post’s website said Chris O’Neill was leaving the post after...
OTTAWA — Canada is becoming a “rentership society,” and this bodes well for the future of music streaming in this country, the managing director for Canada of online music provider...
One of television’s strengths as a vehicle for advertising has always been its ability to reach a lot of people with the same message at the same time. The industry has the technological capability to move in a different...
Another U.S. cable company said it will provide the services of Netflix Inc. to its customers through set-top boxes made by TiVo Inc. Suddenlink Communications announced the arrangement in a press release on Tuesday, saying...
CBC/Radio-Canada’s conventional-television operations improved their financial performance in the 12 months ended last August while private-sector, over-the-air TV stations collectively recorded...
BCE Inc. improved its bottom line in this year’s first quarter as wireless data revenue surged and last year’s purchase of Astral Media contributed to its overall revenue. Revenue was up...
BCE Inc.’s Bell Media division announced Tuesday that it will expand TSN from two to five national feeds this fall. According to a press release, the five national feeds will be branded as TSN1, TSN2, TSN3, TSN4 and TSN5. All TSN feeds will be available to subscribers both online and through the TSN Go application, Bell said. “With five national channels as our new canvas, we now have the flexibility to fully leverage our immense portfolio of premium sports programming," TSN president Stewart Johnston said in the press release. He added: “With this expansion, we are increasing our lineup of live events and in-house productions, while acquiring even more new content. This evolution of TSN is a win-win for both our viewers and our key partners.”...
CBC/Radio-Canada CEO Hubert Lacroix made a speech before the Canadian Club of Montreal on Monday that focused on how crucial a role funding — or rather a lack of it — is playing in the public broadcaster's current problems. Lacroix’s online speaking notes and a CBC press release that went out Monday both said that CBC receives...
Google Inc. announced Monday that its online music streaming service, Google Play Music, is now available in Canada. Paul Joyce, product manager for Google Play Music, said in a Google Canada blog post that Canadians can try...
Vermont Public Radio is appealing to its listeners in Montreal to pressure the CRTC to not allow a Concordia University students group to launch a new FM signal that would be on the same frequency. A...
An antitrust class-action lawsuit in the U.S. has been filed against Google Inc., claiming the search engine illegally monopolized and stagnated the American market for Internet and mobile search....
Mobile picture-sharing service Snapchat has introduced instant messaging and video-calling capabilities to its application. Snapchat has been known for being a way to share photographs between users on Apple Inc. iPhones or devices that run on Google Inc.’s Android software which is then automatically deleted unless users save them. The company said in a blog Thursday that instant messages will also disappear by default. There will also a button one can press to start a video chat with another available user on the Snapchat service, the blog said. It’s been widely reported that...
OTTAWA — The CRTC would be unlikely to intervene if a move to pick-and-pay television caused price increases, said Reynolds Martin, chief negotiator and chief legal officer at the Canadian Media...
OTTAWA — Canada needs more online music streaming providers, though the regulatory environment here keeps them away, the president of Nettwerk Music Group told a parliamentary committee...
Despite saying it was ending support for Windows XP last month, Microsoft Corp. will make an exception in making a security update for Internet Explorer available to users of that operating system, Reuters reported. The news...
BCE Inc.’s chief legal and regulatory officer told a Senate hearing on Wednesday night that his company’s targeted advertising program respects Canada’s current privacy laws. Mirko Bibic repeatedly compared his...
Television providers earned less from their video-on-demand services last year, according to CRTC data released Wednesday, despite investing in increasing the availability of content. The CRTC said in the statistical and...
Online streaming of audio is gradually growing in popularity but not replacing traditional radio listening, according to a new report from the Media Technology Monitor. MTM, a project of CBC/Radio-Canada, said Tuesday that 64 per...
The CRTC said Tuesday that an application that was to be heard May 13 from a radio station seeking to change its frequency has been delayed due to an advisory from Industry Canada that its request “is not technically...
Lions Gate Entertainment announced Tuesday that Peter Levin is its president of interactive ventures and games. The company said in a press release that Levin will be responsible for expanding the company’s content creation into video games and other interactive ventures. Lions Gate said Levin recently served as CEO and co-founder of Nerdist...
Television broadcasters’ spending on tangible benefits related to acquisitions dropped 39 per cent for the 12 months ended last August, according to a new report. Boon Dog Professional Services, an Ottawa-based research group, said in a press release that spending on tangible benefits amounted to $108.8 million in 2012-13, down from a record $177.1 million in 2011-12. “The sharp drop in spending on television benefits in 2012-2013 compared to the previous broadcast year was partly due to timing and the fact that some benefits packages came to an end,” Boon Dog partner Mario...
Quebecor Inc.’s Sun News Network said Tuesday it has reached agreements for carriage on BCE Inc.’s Bell Fibe and satellite TV service, along with Bell Aliant Inc.’s FibreOP TV. The terms of the agreements...
Rogers Communications Inc. on Tuesday said Alan Dark will take over as vice-president of national sales at Rogers Media, starting May 26. The company said he will be based in Toronto and set the strategic direction for national...
Mobile carriers have filed a memorandum in Federal Court late last week that makes the case for why they want $12 million back from the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) in relation to tariffs...
BCE Inc.’s CTV network is launching an online platform for digital series, the company’s media division said in a release Tuesday. It said the platform, called CTV Extend, will be supported by advertising and feature...
Independent Internet service provider Distributel announced Tuesday that Matt Stein is taking over as the company’s new CEO. The company said in a press release that Stein took on the role on March 31. It said Mel Cohen, the former president, will remain chairman of the company. Spokesman Jean-Pierre Gosselin said in an email that the position of president no longer exists at Distributel and “CEO is a new position.” Distributel said in its release that Stein was formerly chief technology officer at Primus Telecommunications Canada Inc., and a board member of the Canadian...
Parks Canada has issued a public tender for suppliers of equipment and service to provide WiFi access to visitors of national parks and historic sites. The tender was published on the Merx website on Monday. A Canadian Press...
Robert Dépatie, the president and CEO of Quebecor Inc. who succeeded Pierre Karl Péladeau when the media mogul stepped down in March 2013, is resigning his position due to health reasons, the company said in a press release. Pierre Dion, who since 2005 has been president and CEO of TVA Group Inc.,...
In defending their practice of charging rates separate from regular data charges for mobile-TV service, both Rogers Communications Ltd. and Quebecor Inc., in written submissions to the CRTC, talked about being in the early stages of trying to develop a market for this kind of service. BCE Inc., meanwhile, said its...
Microsoft Corp. said in an Internet security advisory Saturday that it is aware of attacks that attempted to exploit vulnerability in Internet Explorer that could potentially corrupt a user's memory and result in an attack on...
If the CRTC ends the practice of simultaneous substitution, as it has suggested it could as part of its review of television, conventional broadcasters would be in for a “huge financial...
Netflix Inc.’s video streaming service is poised to be a feature of some providers of television service in the United States, as opposed to just competing with them. RCN Telecom Services LLC, Grande Communications LLC and...
The CRTC has officially endorsed a move toward pick-and-pay television, though it has admitted the transition to such a model is unlikely to be pain-free. The commission proposed in a report Thursday...
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Thursday proposed new net-neutrality rules that would allow Internet service providers to charge content providers for faster and more reliable connections to end users. Under the proposed rules, ISPs would be allowed to charge a “commercially reasonable” fee to...
Shaw Communications Inc. and music streaming service Rdio Inc. have entered a “marketing, content and promotion partnership,” the companies said Thursday in a release. Shaw CEO Brad Shaw said Rdio is “a great complement to our leading broadband and Shaw Go WiFi services.” He added that the partnership “will develop great offers that will enable Shaw customers and everyone across the country to enjoy this service.” The partnership also involves a financial investment by Shaw’s ventures division in Pulser Media Inc., Rdio’s holding company, the...
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday that Facebook Inc. has been given the go-ahead to purchase virtual-reality technology maker Oculus VR Inc. Facebook announced its intention last month to buy the company, which is...
For the coming year, CRTC has prioritized issues including the ongoing review of Canada’s television-broadcasting system and looking into what telecommunications services should be accessible to...
Time Warner Inc.'s HBO pay-TV service has signed a multi-year licensing deal with online retailer Amazon.com Inc. to bring its back catalog of shows, including critically acclaimed hits such as...
Rogers Communications Inc. said Phil Lind, the company’s executive vice-president of regulatory affairs, is retiring after this year. In an email to The Wire Report, Rogers spokeswoman Jennifer Kett said Lind has been with...
Netflix Inc. will put in place “a one- or two-dollar increase” for new members later this quarter, the company said in a letter to shareholders Monday. It said that existing members would keep their current pricing “for a generous time period,” while the changes “will enable us to acquire more content and deliver an even better streaming experience.” Netflix said in the letter that its revenue in the first quarter of 2014 was $1.07 billion US, compared to $781 billion US a year earlier, while its net income grew to $53 million US from $3 million US. It...
Rogers Communications Inc. took a hit in this year’s first quarter in both revenue and profit numbers, according to results released Monday. The company said it had $3.02 billion in operating revenue for the three months...
The CRTC has approved an application to add The Satellite Channel of Southern Television Guangdong to the list of non-Canadian programming services authorized for distribution, following its removal...
The incoming and outgoing CEOs of Rogers Communications Inc. racked up almost $40 million in total compensation last year, according to an information circular filed ahead of its annual general meeting next week. That included a...
Twitter Inc. said Thursday it is opening up more opportunities for developers to promote their mobile applications to Twitter users, and up to a billion others not on the social network through a mobile-ad exchange. The company...
The number of Canadian TV subscribers will fall 0.31 per cent this year, and then begin increasing in 2015 at an average rate of 0.25 per cent annually until 2019, according to a new study by research company Strategy Analytics....
The most recent episode of Game of Thrones set a new record this week for having a single file shared by the greatest number of people simultaneously on BitTorrent, according to a report. A website called TorrentFreak said...
Twitter Inc. said Tuesday it is acquiring social media analytics provider Gnip Inc., a move one analyst said could cause trouble for other companies that analyze and monetize the social...
Hubert Lacroix, CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada, discussed at last week’s town hall meeting the possibility of having a levy attached to bills of cable- and satellite-TV customers and using that money to support the network. The...
The Digital Privacy Act, the government’s most recent attempt to update the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), has experts disagreeing about the effect it could have on disclosure of information by telecommunications companies and whether the legislation would open the door for “U.S.-style copyright trolls.” The act, also known as S-4, was tabled in the Senate last week, and allows an organization to disclose "personal information without the knowledge or consent of the individual ... if the disclosure is made to another organization...
The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), which manages the dot-ca domain, on Tuesday announced a “registry lock” to combat incidents of “domain hijacking.” CIRA said in a press release its new...
Shaw Communications Inc. said Monday it is reorganizing the company’s telecommunications businesses into two units that will focus on either consumer or business services. It said in a press release it would consolidate its...
The CRTC on Monday said it has approved two third-language television stations, and both were granted permission to use local advertising for six of the 12 permitted hourly minutes of advertising. One station approved will be...
The CRTC is forcing the owner of a Quebec radio station to sell its broadcasting licence within the next 90 days or have it revoked after years of ignoring the regulator’s orders. CJMS Saint-Constant, an AM country station...
As CBC/Radio-Canada on Thursday announced another round of job cuts and other reductions throughout its organization, observers expressed impatience over the lack of a fundamentally different vision emerging from the public broadcaster. CBC said Thursday that more than 650 jobs and $130 million in spending would be cut over the next two fiscal years. Hubert Lacroix, CEO of the CBC, said in a press release that the cuts announced represent an “accelerating [of] the process of reinventing Canada's public broadcaster to meet the future needs of Canadians, taking into account a much...
The CRTC said Thursday that it had denied a licence for a new commercial radio station in Cobalt, Ont., a town about 500 kilometres north of Toronto, because of the effect it could have on another radio station in the area. The...
The CRTC on Thursday issued a decision approving a broadcast licence for a new specialty channel to be based entirely on user-generated content, though it denied the broadcaster’s request for allowance to show local...
In its first quarterly report since the company took full control of the Teletoon channel and two Ottawa radio stations, television and radio broadcaster Corus Entertainment Inc. reported revenues up more than 10 per cent from the same period a year earlier. Corus posted a profit of $59.3 million on revenues of $191.4 million in its second-quarter...
Shaw Communications Inc.’s second quarter earnings released Thursday showed gains in both overall revenue and profit, though a decline in TV subscribers was noted, as was a dip in revenue from its media business. The...
Rogers Communications Inc.’s OMNI stations, which the company described as being in “financial crisis” during a CRTC hearing Tuesday, are making profits on its ethnic programming, two organizations said in information presented to review broadcasting licences for Rogers stations. Rogers Media president...
The CRTC on Wednesday said it had denied requests by both BCE Inc.’s Bell Media division and CBC/Radio-Canada to calculate local-programing hours for their conventional TV stations differently. Both are generally required...
George Burger wants to give Canadians a more streamlined television experience, yet analysts say the high-tech Internet-protocol TV offerings from his VMedia Inc. might have limited appeal. The IPTV service from VMedia now...
GATINEAU, Que. — Other conventional television stations in Canada could soon be affected by the same factors that have led to a “financial crisis” for Rogers Communications...
The federal government on Tuesday announced it has introduced the new Digital Privacy Act in the Senate, which, among other things, proposes fining companies up to $100,000 for not informing Canadians when their personal data is breached. The tabling of the legislation was promised last week when Industry Minister James Moore revealed the government's digital strategy, entitled Digital Canada 150. A press release from Industry Canada on Tuesday said, in order to give Canadians confidence in activities such as online shopping, organizations would be required, under the legislation called...
The president of a collective for Canadian music performers and recording companies wants the federal government to revoke an exemption radio stations have on paying royalties for the music they broadcast. Ian MacKay from Re: Sound Music Licensing Co. made the pitch Tuesday in front of the House of Commons heritage...
More job cuts are expected at CBC/Radio-Canada as CEO Hubert Lacroix is scheduled to address all employees at a town hall meeting Thursday, according to a report by the Financial Post. An article that appeared on the Post’s...
An annual report from Convergence Consulting Group Ltd. says Canadians are increasingly moving away from television subscriptions, and the trend is accelerating this year. The report’s summary, on the company’s...
The CRTC announced Monday it has approved national broadcast licences for two third-language niche television channels from the same company. Ethnic Channels Group Ltd. was granted a licence for a channel called South Asian Food...
The CRTC has sent out a series of questions to be answered by telecommunications service providers at the centre of a complaint over undue preference in providing mobile-TV services for flat fees. In a questionnaire sent Friday, BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Quebecor Inc. were asked questions such as: how their mobile-TV services differ for people that subscribe to their TV services versus those that subscribe just to their mobile services; how the costs of providing the service are recovered through the $5 monthly starting fee that all three companies implement; and details about...
A document released by Industry Minister James Moore Friday that outlines the government’s long-promised digital strategy includes “nothing new and nothing bold,” according to...
Rogers Communications Inc. made it clear Thursday that there was a connection between the several billions of dollars it spent separately on National Hockey League content and wireless spectrum in...
GATINEAU, Que. — The reviews the CRTC will be holding over the coming year, which include proceedings covering wholesale access to wireless and fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks, the future of...
Online retail giant Amazon.com Inc. announced a new television set-top box at an event in New York on Tuesday, pledging to improve the over-the-top (OTT) experience for customers frustrated by the limitations of rival offerings...
Cisco Systems Inc. announced Wednesday it is investing $1.6 million in a video network to bring educational and health services to Canada’s North. The project is called Connected North, and uses high-definition, two-way video, along with other technology, Cisco said in a press release. Cisco said that a pilot project that began in September...
OTTAWA — Canada’s regulatory environment doesn’t promote technological innovation in the music industry, and that’s part of the reason why streaming services here are lagging...
Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron unit said Thursday it has launched a new app that allows users of Apple Inc.’s iPhone 4 or 5 access content through its Illico program for online video content. It noted in a press release...
Blue Ant Media Inc., a Toronto-based media group, said Tuesday it has struck a partnership with Omnia Media, which it said is the third-largest largest music-focused network on Google Inc.’s...
Communications lawyer Bram Abramson has joined Teksavvy Solutions Inc. as chief legal and regulatory officer. Abramson left McCarthy Tétrault, a Toronto-based business law firm, where he specialized in telecommunications and regulation. Abramson received his law degree from McGill University in 2007, according to his LinkedIn page....
