Corus Entertainment Inc.’s consolidated revenues fell by five per cent in its first fiscal quarter of 2013 due to lower revenues across its television sector. In a financial report released Monday, Corus said its consolidated radio and TV revenues for the three-month period that ended Nov. 30, 2012 totalled $226.15 million, down six per cent from $236.89 million in the same period the previous year. Corus—which is owned by the same family that owns Shaw Communications Inc.—said its television revenues fell in the quarter to $173.82 million from $185.03 million the previous year. Radio revenues grew, Corus said, reaching $52.32 million compared to $51.86 million in the same period the previous year. In the report, Corus said its profits rose by two per cent in the quarter to reach $92.7 million, up from $91.2 million in the same quarter a year earlier. Corus said subscriber revenues grew by one per cent in the quarter, as its Movie Central channel finished the quarter with 998,000 subscribers, up 22,000 from the...
Cogeco Cable Inc. recorded higher revenues, increased subscribers and lower profits in its first fiscal quarter of 2013, the company said. In a quarterly report released Monday, Cogeco said its revenues for the three-month period that ended Nov. 30, 2012 climbed to $327.9 million on the backs of increased Canadian subscribers, up four per cent from $315.4 million in the same quarter in the previous year. At the same time, it said its first quarter profits fell to $42.2 million, down from $43 million in the same period a year earlier due to an increase in income taxes, costs associated with its acquisition of Atlantic Broadband Inc., and the disposition of its former Portuguese subsidiary Cabovisao. Cogeco completed its $1.36-billion US acquisition of U.S. cableco Atlantic Broadband in...
Canadian Gamers Organization (CGO) co-founder Teresa Murphy left the group she helped create after a dispute with the group’s other founder over an ongoing copyright case. In a message posted on her Facebook page Monday, Murphy said she and fellow CGO co-founder Jason Koblovsky had differing views about a court case in which Voltage Pictures LLP...
Rogers Communications Inc. may have found the additional mobile spectrum it was seeking to better compete with rival carriers Telus Corp.and BCE Inc. in Western Canada, and at the same time added to its cable business in Ontario. In a deal announced after markets closed Monday, Rogers said it secured an option to purchase,...
A Federal Court judge adjourned a hearing to determine whether TekSavvy Solutions Inc. must turn over 1,100 of its customers’ names to Voltage Pictures LLP as the court prepares to hear arguments as to whether the Canadian...
BCE Inc. will not make any moves to downsize its stable of local television stations while its proposed acquisition of Astral Media Inc. is under consideration by the CRTC, even if the company wishes...
Channel Zero Inc. was shut out of bids for two over-the-air broadcasting licences in Scotland, and may have to wait months to learn the fate of four more licence applications in the United Kingdom. In May 2012, U.K. broadcast and telecom regulator Ofcom said it would accept applications for 21 over-the-air broadcast licences to foster the creation of local television stations in communities across the U.K. In a notice posted on its website Friday, Ofcom said it awarded two available over-the-air licences in Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scotland, to STV Group plc, which operates two regional stations in the country. Channel Zero—which operates local station CHCH in Hamilton, Ont., as well as specialty channels Movieola and Silver Screen Classics—applied in September for the...
Astral Media Inc.'s profits rose to $59.6 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2013, the company said Thursday. In a release, the TV specialty channel and radio broadcasting company, which is seeking CRTC approval for an agreement to be acquired by BCE Inc. for $3.38 billion, said profits were up from $55.8 million in the same period a year...
Limited funds and the complex process of obtaining them are one of the key obstacles making it difficult for Canada’s technology startups to grow and remain in Canada, experts and tech entrepreneurs say. One of the biggest and most common challenges facing Canada’s tech startups is financing, Roberta Fox, chair...
A $100,000 investment from the federal Conservative government will allow Maple Leaf Angels Corp. to connect more angel investors with startups in southern Ontario, said Gary Goodyear, the minister of state for federal economic development in Ontario. A release said the investment will help Toronto-based Maple Leaf Angels, a not-for-profit organization...
Telus Corp.'s Optik TV will no longer carry Viacom Inc. channels Spike TV and BET starting Feb. 28, Telus said. In a notice on its website Tuesday, Telus said “all other channels in the Adventure and Entertainment Extra...
The CRTC approved new specialty licences for a fantasy sports channel and a science, technology and nature channel. In a decision Wednesday, the CRTC said Fight Media Inc. applied to operate a new television service devoted to...
A new working group will promote Canadian film, television and digital media, the CRTC, the Canada Media Fund (CMF) and Telefilm Canada said in a joint release Wednesday. The group was created from feedback drawn at the Symposium on the Promotion of Canadian Films and Television Programs in Canada and Internationally, the release said. Members of the...
Shaw Communications Inc. reported higher profits for the first quarter of its 2013 fiscal year despite further subscriber losses in its cable TV segment. On Wednesday the company reported profit of $235 million for the first...
The Super Bowl will be streamed live for the first time in Canada, through the CTV.ca website, the Bell Media division of BCE Inc. said Tuesday. In a release, CTV said it plans to stream Super Bowl XLVII as well as NFL playoff...
CBC/Radio-Canada should expand its negotiations covering international distribution deals for TV programs to reduce the cost of creating original shows and provide more support for its independent production partners, industry experts say. “If they can get the shows to sell internationally, it helps them to deal with the financial problems,” Richard Stursberg, head of CBC’s English services from 2004 to 2010, said in a telephone interview in December. “If you’re...
Telus Corp. extended fourth-generation LTE mobile services to customers in Sudbury, Ont., the company said. In a release in late December, Telus said more communities will receive access to LTE in the “coming months”...
The Competition Bureau issued a “no action letter” related the proposed acquisition of Alliance Films Holdings Inc. by Entertainment One Ltd. In a release Jan. 3, the bureau said it was initially concerned by the purchase, in which eOne will purchase all of Alliance’s outstanding shares, because the new entity would be in a position...
The Roku Inc. online TV device and streaming platform now has more than 700 channels, or apps, the company said Monday. In a release, Roku said the more than 700 channels means it has more television entertainment content than any other streaming device. The company said it added new channels and...
George Cooney was appointed CEO at Toronto-based consumer analytics company VoodooVox Inc., the company said Monday. In a release, VoodooVox said Cooney, who has more than 30 years of experience in the mobile marketing, communications and Internet technology sectors, will also serve as a board member. Cooney previously held senior management positions at Nortel Networks in the areas of strategy, operations, finance,...
Al Jazeera Media Network will launch a new all-news channel in the United States, called Al Jazeera America, following its purchase of specialty channel Current TV. “The new channel will be headquartered in New York City. In addition to the existing Al Jazeera news bureaus in New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago, Al Jazeera will open additional bureaus in key locations across the United States,” the company said in a release Jan. 2. “Al Jazeera’s expansion will double the network’s U.S.-based staff to more than 300 employees.” The company said there is demand for the channel with 40 percent of online viewing of Al Jazeera English coming from the United States. Bloomberg reported Jan. 3 that Current TV, owned by Current Media LLC...
The CRTC approved Rogers Communication Inc.’s request to acquire Montreal ethnic television station CJNT-DT from Channel Zero Inc. for $10.3 million. In the decision Thursday, the CRTC said it valued the transaction at...
The Supreme Court's decision that quashed the CRTC's value for signal regime narrowed the commission's authority under the Broadcasting Act, potentially affecting a range of policy powers...
U.S.-based Nielsen Co. and Twitter Inc. entered a multi-year agreement to create “The Nielsen Twitter TV Rating” for the U.S. market, the companies said Monday. In a release, the companies said they would deliver a “syndicated-standard metric” about the reach of each TV conversation on Twitter. The release said the service would...
The CRTC will allow small, Category B specialty channels to operate without obtaining broadcasting licences in an effort to get more channels up and running, the commission said. In an exemption order issued Wednesday, the CRTC...
Cogeco Cable Inc. expanded its ethnic channel offerings by adding 25 channels from the Asian Television Network International Ltd. (ATN) and 23 channels from the Ethnic Channels Group Ltd. (ECG), the broadcasters said this week....
CBC/Radio-Canada said its proposal for advertising on CBC Radio 2 and Espace Musique would draw national advertising only and refuse local ad buys. In final reply comments to the CRTC for its licence...
The CRTC infringed the Copyright Act last year when it ordered BCE Inc. to explain how it would make exclusive NHL and NFL mobile sports content available to competitor Telus Corp., BCE said in court...
The CRTC approved Jim Pattison Broadcast Group Ltd.’s acquisition of Bear Creek Broadcasting Ltd.’s CIKT-FM Grande Prairie radio station. In a decision Tuesday, the commission said Jim Pattison will be responsible for making up $18,750 of CIKT’s overdue Canadian content development expenses. CIKT’s licence will expire Aug. 31,...
BCE Inc. subsidiary Bell Media Inc. completed a deal with Cirque du Soleil to create a new joint venture to develop entertainment projects by Cirque, the company said Tuesday. In a release, Bell said the new company, called Cirque du Soleil Media, will be governed by a board with representatives of both companies and will be managed by a programming team that represents both companies' interests. Bell said its “multi-million dollar” investment in Cirque du Soleil Media, first announced in August, is an expansion of the company’s strategy to invest in the “development and distribution of Québec content.” Bell said in August that the new company will develop, sell, licence and distribute entertainment projects around the world, including television...
Laurier LaPierre, a retired senator and a former co-host of CBC/Radio-Canada’s This Hour Has Seven Days, died Sunday at the age 83, the Senate said Monday. Born in Lac Mégantic, Que., on Nov. 21, 1929, LaPierre rose to national prominence in the 1960s as a co-host of the often controversial CBC program, known for mixing news reporting and commentary with social satire. After the show was cancelled, LaPierre...
The CRTC has given Newfoundland Capital Corp. Ltd. permission to acquire, in full, a radio station in Nova Scotia, the company said Friday. In a release, Newfoundland Capital Corp. (Newcap) said the CRTC gave it permission to acquire 70.1 per cent of 3221809 Nova Scotia Ltd., which operates the CKCH-FM radio station in Sydney, N.S. “This...
Rogers Media (owned by Rogers Communications Inc.) and the Alberta Media Production Industries Association (AMPIA) created the new Rogers Development Fund to help independent producers in Alberta and Manitoba, the parties said...
The Supreme Court of Canada said the CRTC does not have the jurisdiction to implement a value for signal policy to compensate local TV stations for the carriage of their signals. A decision issued Thursday said the commission's proposed policy would conflict with the Copyright Act by creating “a new type of copyright” on local TV...
Alain Gourd, an independent broadcasting consultant and former chair of an industry-led working group on over-the-top services, died Dec. 8, a release from his firm Alain Gourd Communications Inc. said Tuesday. In the release, the firm said that after successfully battling cancer for about 10 years, Gourd succumbed to bacteria that caused severe pneumonia. He was 66. Gourd served as president and CEO of BCE Inc.'s satellite services (then called BCE Media) in 1998, the release said. He went on to become executive vice-president, corporate, at the former division Bell Globemedia from 2001...
TekSavvy Solutions Inc. customers who are concerned about their privacy should show up at a court hearing Monday to defend themselves against Voltage Pictures LLC's motion to obtain subscriber...
Corus Entertainment Inc. defended its Oprah Winfrey Network Canada (OWN Canada) channel before the CRTC Tuesday, saying it contributes to learning in Canada. “OWN Canada contributes far more to providing interesting content...
Canadians with children spend more time online and less time in front of the TV, a report from the Media Technology Monitor (MTM) said. MTM, a joint-research project between CBC/Radio-Canada and BBM Analytics, said in a Dec. 1 report, released Monday, that Canadians with children spend an average of 16.4 hours on the Internet each week compared to an...
Telus Corp. put OUTtv Network Inc. at a competitive disadvantage by placing its specialty channel in a low-penetration theme pack on its Optik TV service when a higher-penetration theme pack was available, the CRTC said. In a...
The Supreme Court of Canada will issue a decision Thursday on whether the CRTC has the jurisdiction to implement a proposed value for signal regime to compensate local TV stations for the carriage of their signals. The court said in a notice Monday that the decision will be issued at 9:45 a.m. on Dec. 13. The commission’s proposed...
CBC/Radio-Canada received a grade of “A” from Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault in a report tabled in Parliament Thursday. In a release, CBC said the grade was a “significant improvement” over the “F” it received in the commissioner’s 2009-2010 report. “We had a tough start under Access to...
BCE Inc. added NBA content to its Bell Mobile TV service, the company said Wednesday. In a release, Bell said that, through NBA TV Canada, the company's Mobile TV customers will have access to NBA games and programs such as NBA Game Time, Open Court and The Jump, as well as the NBA All-Star...
Despite rapid growth in smartphone and tablet use, more than 80 per cent of global Internet traffic, as measured in bits, will continue to come from laptops and PC computers in 2013, consulting firm Deloitte and Touche LLP will forecast in its annual media and technology predictions in January. Duncan Stewart, director of...
The Supreme Court of Canada said it will not hear a Charter challenge that sought to enshrine Canadians’ right to access “grey market” satellite signals. The Supreme Court said Thursday it will not hear an appeal by former grey market satellite distributor Richard Rex, who had asked the court to fund his challenge of the Radiocommunication Act and a prohibition on accessing foreign satellite TV signals. “Mr. Rex took the position that the RCA provisions contravened section 2(b) of the Charter by prohibiting Canadian residents from accessing satellite television programming from foreign broadcasters,” a court summary of the case said. “He submitted that...
Former Sears Canada Inc. executive Steven Goldsmith will head The Shopping Channel, Rogers Communications Inc. said Thursday. In a release, Rogers said Goldsmith will be responsible for The Shopping Channel’s...
Blue Ant Media Inc. purchased Cottage Life Media Inc. and its four consumer publications, the company said Wednesday. Blue Ant bought magazines Cottage Life, Cottage, Outdoor Canada, Canadian Home Workshop and their associated websites, a release said, as well as Cottage Life Media custom magazines, books, social-media apps, and bi-annual Cottage Life...
Rogers Communications Inc. will focus its growth on mobile commerce, mobile video and machine-to-machine communication devices over the next two years, Nadir Mohamed, president and CEO of the company,...
GATINEAU, Que.—CBC/Radio-Canada's call for more regulatory flexibility in its broadcasting licences is necessary to deal with an internal “financial crisis” brought about since the Conservative government’s spending-cutting budget was announced last March, said Hubert T. Lacroix, president and...
Ontario cable provider Cable Cable Inc. is offering a free Apple TV boxes for new customers that sign up for a "triple-play" bundle as part of a holiday promotion. Apple Inc.'s Apple TV box is an over-the-top device that provides access to online movies and video and retails new for about $100. The service allows users to play media from their iPhone or iPad devices directly on their TVs. Cable Cable, a broadcast distributor in the City of Kawartha Lakes, Ont., says on its website that it will give a free Apple TV box to the first 200 new customers to subscribe to the company’s television, Internet and home phone services between now and Jan. 15. It offers three triple-play packages that range from $100 a month for lower-tier services, $140 a month for the middle...
CBC/Radio-Canada recorded increased advertising revenues and stronger “net results” despite higher expenses in its 2011-2012 fiscal year, according to the public braodcaster’s annual report. In the report,...
The CRTC opened a consultation on an Ethnic Channel Group Ltd. application to bring a high-definition, 3D channel to Canada. In an application filed with the CRTC Nov. 27, Ethnic Channels Group asked to add a channel called High TV 3D to the list of foreign channels that can be distributed in Canada. It said the channel “provides a mix of...
Shaw Communications Inc. can continue to enroll new subscribers in its Local Television Satellite Solution (LTSS), a free satellite TV program, for another year, and spend $1 million to promote it, the CRTC said. The program, which offers free satellite services and equipment to Canadian households that lost over-the-air...
Toronto-area technology lawyer George Takach said he is running for the federal Liberal party leadership with “super-fast Internet for all Canadians” and a digital bill of rights as key pieces of his campaign platform. In a speech Thursday posted on his campaign website, which declared his candidacy for the federal Liberal leadership,...
TheScore Inc. reported record growth across its digital properties in 2012 and a slight increase in annual revenues. In year-end fiscal results reported Thursday, theScore said active users for its popular mobile device sports applications surged 154 per cent during March 2012, its peak month in the year. The company said its applications had 3.5...
The CRTC should ban CBC/Radio-Canada from collecting local and regional TV advertising revenues in the Kamloops and Prince George, B.C. television markets, Jim Pattison Broadcast Group Ltd. said...
Los Angeles-based Voltage Pictures LLC will launch a broad legal campaign in Canada, the United States and United Kingdom in the next month or two to set an example and “get tough” with unauthorized movie downloaders, Michael Wickstrom, manager of royalties with the studio, said on a...
CBC/Radio-Canada appointed Esther Enkin to the position of CBC ombudsman for English services, the public broadcaster said Wednesday. CBC said in a release that Enkin, who currently holds the position of executive editor at CBC...
More than 220 million smart TV sets will be sold globally in 2017, United Kingdom-based research firm Informa Telecoms & Media said Wednesday. Informa said the number will rise from 54 million smart TVs sold in 2012. In five years time, Informa predicted, 31 per cent of households worldwide will have a smart TV, with the highest penetration in Western Europe at 64 per cent and North America at 63 per cent. “However, while Smart TV connection rates are rising, they will continue to lag the connection rates of games consoles and media streaming devices (such as Apple TV and Roku),” the forecast said. Informa said the number of smart TVs will grow and that the devices key to the digital home experience will be replaceable onces such as smartphones, tablets and gaming...
Startup Canada, a nonprofit created this year, launched a new action plan to drive economic development, job creation and entrepreneurial innovation in Canada, the network said Tuesday. In a release, Startup Canada said the plan aims to make Canada one of the world’s top entrepreneurial economies and that, over three phases, the strategy will be...
The Winnipeg Jets’s success after moving from Atlanta in 2011 “buttresses” the case for relocating another NHL franchise to Quebec City, Forbes magazine reported. Pierre Karl Peladeau, Quebecor Media...
The CRTC will publicly issue BCE Inc.'s reworked application to acquire Astral Media Inc. in the new year and will subsequently hold a public hearing to review the application, two people with...
Corus Entertainment Inc. did not break the CRTC’s rules for vertically integrated companies by giving Shaw Communications Inc. advance access to Movie Central and HBO content for online and mobile platforms, the CRTC said....
Quebecor Media Inc.’s Sun Media online news sites will go behind a metered paywall starting Dec. 4, the company said Tuesday. In a release, Quebecor said it would activate “Sun+” subscriptions for its online newspapers in Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary and Edmonton. “Effective Tuesday, December 4th, visitors to any one of the five SUN websites will be encouraged to register for a SUN+ subscription to enjoy a completely unlimited SUN digital content experience,” the release said. The company said subscriptions will cost 99 cents per month for the first three months and increase to a regular rate of $6 per month. Quebecor said access to news highlights, hot topics, breaking news stories, “an extensive lineup of bloggers,” the daily Sunshine...
The Canada Media Fund said it awarded $10 million to 15 digital media projects as part of its “experimental stream” fund for interactive media content and apps. In a release Tuesday, the CMF said British Columbia-based Jetpack Interactive Entertainment Ltd. was the largest recipient with a $1 million grant for its “Opus Pocus”...
Twelve-week commercialization program ideaBoost will help Canadian digital entertainment startups reach global markets, said Ana Serrano, founding director of new media research training and production think tank CFC Media Lab at the Canadian Film Centre (CFC) in Toronto. Serrano said in a phone interview that ideaBoost,...
Approving advertising on CBC Radio music services would have the same market impact as a new radio station, Doug Kirk, president of the Ontario Association of Broadcasters (OAB) and president of...
CBC/Radio-Canada failed to answer 340 access-to-information requests over five years, a lawyer for Quebecor Media Inc. said Monday. Michel Drapeau, a lawyer and law professor at the University of Ottawa who appeared with Quebecor at a CRTC hearing into CBC’s licence renewals, said that, over the past five years, the company’s news...
The European Union’s demands in trade negotiations with Canada continue to include the elimination of foreign ownership restrictions for Canada’s telecommunications and book publishing sectors as well as removing reviews under the Investment Canada Act for transactions involving European companies, according to...
CBC/Radio-Canada should promote more Canadian cinema by licensing a new Canadian film each month, said Mark Slone, senior vice-president of Alliance Films Inc. “This will make a material difference in the success of English-language films over the next five years,” Slone told commissioners Friday at a CRTC licence renewal hearing for CBC....
Nathalie Cook and Mark Silver, two former employees of Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium, are joining TSN. In a release Thursday, TSN, the country’s most profitable specialty channel, said Cook will join the BCE Inc.-owned channel in the role of vice-president of integrated marketing and partnerships. Silver was appointed the channel’s new senior director of digital, the release said. Both...
The CRTC should bring back a funding mechanism like the former local broadcasting fund but at a lower rate of 0.75 per cent of distributor revenues, the Canadian Media Guild said. In opening remarks at a two-week CRTC hearing for CBC/Radio-Canada’s licence renewals, Marc-Philipe Laurin, president of the guild,...
Canadian documentaries may disappear from CBC television programming without more conditions of licence for CBC/Radio-Canada, said Lisa Fitzgibbons, executive director of the Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC). “Documentaries are worth protecting,” Fitzgibbons told commissioners Thursday as part of a two-week CRTC hearing into the public broadcaster’s licence renewal. In a presentation, Fitzgibbons urged the commission to impose stricter licence conditions on CBC, saying documentary programming hours dropped from 263 in 2003-2004 to 139 in 2011-2012. “We therefore recommend that CBC Television be required, by condition of licence, to broadcast a minimum of four hours a week, on average of Canadian documentaries in the peak period,” Fitzgibbons said....
CBC/Radio-Canada, like other private broadcasters, needs “appropriate flexibility” to compete with new online, over-the-top services, said Paul Robertson, president of Shaw Communications Inc. division Shaw Media. “What we’re seeing most dramatically is an encroachment [by over-the-top] services on the programming that we rely...
The Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) has “serious concerns” about CBC/Radio-Canada being granted greater regulatory flexibility, CMPA president and CEO Michael Hennessy said. Hennessy said at hearing into the CBC’s licence renewals that more flexibility, as CBC has requested, would amount “to virtually no...
GATINEAU, Que.—CBC/Radio-Canada has the financial resources necessary to support its Radio 2 and Espace Musique services without advertising, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) said...
The CRTC tentatively scheduled a public hearing in April 2013 to consider mandatory distribution orders for the carriage of specialty channels, according to the commission's website. The CRTC is considering confidential, new...
Rogers Communications Inc.’s application to bring MLB Network to Canada was approved, the CRTC said Wednesday. The commission said in a decision that it added MLB Network to the list of non-Canadian channels authorized for distribution in Canada, which means MLB Network is expected to be available in TV packages in Canada for the first time. The service would offer 150 live, regular-season baseball games per year as well as some pre-season games, the CRTC said. In June, Rogers said the channel would respond to consumer demand and “help drive additional analog customers to our...
CBC/Radio-Canada should move to an "all-Canadian" broadcasting model to rebuild a following in Canada, the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) said Wednesday. At a CRTC hearing Wednesday to renew CBC’s broadcasting licence, CACTUS spokeswoman Cathy Edwards said CBC...
SaskTel launched a new on-demand video and music streaming service called Max Online. The company said in a release Tuesday that Max Online is available without charge to residential Max TV subscribers. The new service, SaskTel...
The Federal Court ordered four Canadian Internet service providers to disclose the names of Internet customers alleged to have violated copyright related to content produced by studio NGN Prima Productions Inc. The Federal Court in Montreal issued a decision Nov. 19 ordering 3 Web Corp., Access Communications Co-Operative Ltd., ACN Inc., and...
Rogers Communications Inc. has taken steps to resolve issues of non-compliance with its licence for specialty channel G4TechTV, the CRTC said Tuesday. The commission said in a decision that Rogers is no longer scheduled to appear...
CBC/Radio-Canada’s Newfoundland-based drama Republic of Doyle now airs in nearly 100 countries, the Canadian Screenwriter magazine reported in its Fall 2012-Winter 2013 issue. The article said the show, which follows a father-and-son private investigator team in St. John’s, N.L., averages about one million viewers per episode on CBC...
Bragg Communications Inc. provider Eastlink launched a new mobile-ready, multi-device video service called Eastlink To Go. In a conference call Tuesday, Lee Bragg, Bragg’s president and CEO,...
GATINEAU, Que.—CBC/Radio-Canada’s French-language broadcast services are vulnerable to the impacts of a potential economic downturn in a market characterized by consolidated ad spending,...
Company officials and other broadcasting and telecom industry stakeholders should not socialize with CRTC commissioners at regulatory hearings, CRTC Chair Jean-Pierre Blais said. “We’ve...
GATINEAU—CBC/Radio-Canada said it needs regulatory flexibility to innovate under a shrinking budget as the public broadcaster deals with questions about how to avoid operating more like a private broadcaster. A panel of CBC executives appeared before CRTC commissioners Monday, the first day of hearings to renew CBC’s broadcasting licences. CBC has asked the CRTC for more regulatory flexibility and to approve new sources of revenue, including fees for cable and satellite broadcast...
BCE Inc. will court public opinion for support for a renewed application to acquire Astral Media Inc. by focusing on the benefits the deal can provide to local broadcasting, Mirko Bibic, the...
The CRTC gave L S Movie Channel Ltd. a licence for a new Category B specialty channel that would provide feature films from China and Taiwan. In a decision Friday, the commission said the new channel, to be called LS Times 2 can...
The CRTC approved an application by Blue Ant Media Inc. to acquire CBC/Radio-Canada’s digital specialty channel Bold. In its decision Friday, the commission said Blue Ant will be required to pay $1 million in tangible...
BCE Inc. is nearing an agreement to acquire Astral Media Inc. under new conditions in the hopes of appeasing regulatory concerns that caused the CRTC to block its earlier $3.38 billion-bid for the company, the Globe and Mail...
In the fast-moving worlds of media and technology, nothing sits still for long. For a digital start-up, the chance to sit down with an experienced mentor to pick their brain can be the difference between failure and success. The chance to sit down with as many as a dozen mentors over a single weekend is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. London, England-based X Media Lab offers that opportunity through a series of workshops that bring together experienced media managers and digital media startups to forge mentorship relationships. Since 2003, the company has connected hundreds of start-ups with established industry players, technology experts and potential investors through 60 different workshops in cities around the world. Those events have focused on a wide range of digital media...
Adam Ashton, the former head of Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium, is joining BCE Inc. subsidiary Bell Media as senior vice-president of business operations, the company said. In a release Thursday, Bell said Ashton will be tasked with overseeing a “unified approach” to the company’s revenue management, research, and Bell Media agency operations. Ashton was appointed president of the...
Canadian telecom and media regulatory decisions should not be “crowd-sourced,” said Serge Sasseville, Quebecor’s senior vice-president of corporate and institutional affairs at Quebecor Media Inc. “For some, enlightenment can only come from the people. They advocate a crowd-sourced model of...
Major United States technology companies launched a new website Wednesday to promote patent reform. The website, called Patent Progress, was created by the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), whose members...
Marquee, nation-building sporting events like the Olympics or the PanAm Games should be broadcast free to the public, Jeffrey Orridge, executive director of sports properties at CBC/Radio-Canada, said Tuesday. In a panel...
The CRTC approved an application from Asian Television Network International Ltd. to operate a Category B specialty channel called South Asia Television Channel 2. In the decision Wednesday, the CRTC said the channel is licensed to be devoted to South Asian communities across Canada and broadcast a minimum of 90 per cent programming in the Hindi...
CBC/Radio-Canada is one of Canada’s most important cultural institutions and must be protected against attacks on its funding, Canadian authors, actors and directors said during a panel discussion Wednesday. During a discussion in Toronto called “Stars Come Out for Public Broadcasting,” hosted by watchdog group the Friends of Canadian...
Michel Roy was reappointed as chair of Telefilm Canada for a five-year term, Heritage Minister James Moore said Monday. In a release, the Heritage Department said Roy was first appointed to the chair position on Oct. 12, 2007. Prior to his appointment at Telefilm, Roy was a management consultant in the private sector. Roy previously worked as deputy...
Major Canadian mobile carriers launched lawsuit against copyright collective the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), seeking the return of $15 million in royalty...
Quebecor Media Inc. reported lower profits despite a rise in third-quarter revenues and subscriber numbers for its telecommunications services, the company said. In a quarterly earnings report released Tuesday, Quebecor said profits for the quarter totalled $18.6 million in the three-month period ended Sept. 30, down $7.5 million from the same period a year earlier. The drop resulted largely from a $31.8 million “restructuring” cost for its Sun Media Corp. division, which runs the country’s largest chain of newspapers, the company said. In a separate release, Quebecor said it will cut 500 jobs across Sun Media and close publishing plants in Kingston and Ottawa, Ont. to find $45 million in annual savings. Quebecor reported $1.06 billion in total revenues in the...
