Ontario public broadcaster TVO is cutting 35 to 40 positions to help with a budget reduction of $2 million, the broadcaster said Tuesday. In a release, TVO said its operating grant will be reduced by five per cent as of April 1, 2013. “In the March 2012 provincial budget announcement, the Ontario government indicated that TVO, like other public agencies, needs to reduce its reliance on government funding to help reduce provincial deficit,” the release said. The broadcaster said it will cut programs Allan Gregg in Conversation, Big Ideas, and Saturday Night at the Movies, which has run for 38 seasons. “With entire TV networks and on-line services now dedicated to movies, TVO’s limited resources will focus on content that is not available anywhere else in the...
BCE Inc. understands the CRTC's concerns about the company’s $3.38 billion deal to acquire Astral Media Inc., Siim Vanaselja, executive vice-president and chief financial officer at BCE, said Tuesday. “As much as we were disappointed with the CRTC's decision, we do understand now the concerns that were expressed by the CRTC and we appreciate there's a process for addressing those concerns [that] we're in the midst of pursuing at this moment,” Vanaselja said at the Scotiabank Telecom & Cable 2013 Conference in Toronto, webcast live. “We'll have to see how it plays out.” The CRTC blocked Bell's proposed deal in a decision Oct. 18, citing concerns about competition, Bell’s market power, and the public interest. The decision...
Copyright collectives reached a settlement Friday related to broadcast distributors' carriage of television program copyrights. The settlement led the Copyright Board to cancel a hearing on the...
Canadian Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. subsidiary SiriusXM Canada Inc. appointed Suzanne Morris to its board of directors, the company said Monday. In a release, SiriusXM said Morris will replace Michel Tremblay as CBC/Radio-Canada’s nominee to the board of directors. Morris’ appointment follows the resignation of Tremblay as a director,...
It was a rare, even unprecedented event. On a chilly day in Ottawa in February last year, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Twitter page posted a message about the CRTC. The PM was “very concerned” about the regulator's controversial decision on wholesale usage-based billing, the message said. He had asked...
The CRTC’s licence renewal hearing for CBC/Radio-Canada's broadcasting services will start Nov. 19 with presentations from the public broadcaster, the commission said. According to an agenda on the CRTC website, the...
The CRTC approved an application from numbered company 7954689 Canada Inc., registered as Tietolman Terault Pancholy Media, to operate an English-language commercial AM radio station in Montreal. In the decision Friday, the CRTC said the proposed station would operate at the 600 kHz frequency with a transmitter power of 10,000 watts during the day and 5,000 watts at night. The commission said the talk radio station would target Montreal’s English-speaking 25 to 54-year-old demographic. The station will feature news, public affairs, debates and open-line programs, the CRTC said. The...
Commercialization centre Wavefront received funding for a second year through the Government of Canada’s Global Opportunities for Associations program, the company said Thursday. In a release, Wavefront said that through a partnership with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, it designed foreign market entry programs to help...
Telus Corp. reported rising revenues and profits powered by higher wireless data revenue and consumer appetite for smartphones, the company said in a third-quarter financial statement Friday. Telus said third-quarter revenues rose 5.8 per cent to $2.78 billion in 2012, up from $2.62 billion in the same period a year...
Broadcast company Newfoundland Capital Corporation Ltd. (Newcap) reported a net loss during the third quarter of 2012 mostly due to the CRTC's decision to phase out the Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF) for local...
OTTAWA—Microsoft Corp. is not concerned about entering the tablet market now to compete with rival company Apple Inc., said Mario Coculuzzi, director of sales for Microsoft Canada’s Eastern region. At a device demonstration event in Ottawa Thursday, Coculuzzi said in an interview that competitors do not have as...
A coalition of American local TV stations said the CRTC's distant television signal policy denies them the “equitable and nondiscriminatory right of remuneration” for the retransmission of their signals in Canada. “Our channels deliver value for Canadians,” Chris Musial,...
The Conservative government introduced regulations to bring Canada's new copyright law into force and exempt microSD memory cards from a possible copyright levy. The regulations were published Wednesday in the Canada Gazette, the government's official regulation publication, and implement most of copyright reform Bill C-11, which received royal...
The increasing popularity of “real-time entertainment” caused average North American monthly Internet use to double over the past year, Sandvine Inc. said in a report released Wednesday. Sandvine said its "Global Internet Phenomena Report" for the second half of 2012 found that the average amount of...
Leonard Katz, the CRTC's former vice-chair of telecom, says the federal government should step back from legislating Canadian control of the country's telecom and broadcasting systems. Katz,...
The CRTC approved CBC/Radio-Canada’s request to convert an existing AM radio station in Yellowknife to the FM band, the commission said Wednesday. In its decision, the CRTC said the converted station would operate at 98.9 MHz on the FM band. It will “broadcast programming from the CBC Radio One network as well as a minimum of 56 hour of local programming during each broadcast week,” the CRTC said. The commission said CBC can simulcast the AM and FM versions of the station for a period of three months and that the licence for the new FM station will expire March 1, 2013 to coincide with other CBC licence renewals....
GATINEAU, Que.—Rogers Communications Inc.'s $10.3 million acquisition of Montreal ethnic TV station CJNT-DT and its conversion to an English-language station is necessary to the...
TORONTO—Independent Internet service providers (ISPs) should work together to pressure the CRTC to lower wholesale Internet access costs and ensure they can offer IP-based broadcast distribution services, broadcasting and telecom consultant George Burger said. In a speech Monday at a conference called the Canadian...
Monterey, Calif.-based SNL Kagan forecasts television station owners’ revenues from retransmission carriage fees to reach $5.5 billion US by 2017 and $6 billion US by 2018, the firm said Monday. In a release, SNL Kagan said the increased projections are “due to the success of a wider range of TV station owners in securing sequentially...
Five in 10 anglophone television viewers consume sports content weekly and four in 10 do not follow sports at all, a new report from the Media Technology Monitor (MTM) said Tuesday. The MTM report, a product of CBC/Radio-Canada...
BCE Inc.'s Bell Media division will move MTV Canada from the Masonic Temple to Bell Media's Toronto headquarters at the end of the month, the Canadian Press reported Friday. The company will also eliminate 11 full-time and 16 contract positions from MTV operations, CP reported. Bell Media told CP that “duplicate production positions” would be affected but not those of executives or on-air personalities. MTV Canada will be moved to the Queen and John streets complex, which now houses MuchMusic, CP24 and the Business News Network, Bell told CP. “As the last remaining brand operating out of the Masonic Temple, MTV employees were more or less orphaned there, and could not benefit from the support services and resources provided to the rest of our employees and brands at our renovated 299 Queen Street...
MTS Allstream Inc. launched its MTS Fion fibre-to-the-home network in Neepawa, Man., the company said Monday. MTS said in a release the new fibre optic network will bring high-speed Internet and MTS' IPTV service, Ultimate...
Apple Inc.’s growth in the tablet market slowed in the third quarter of 2012 as the company competed with devices made by Samsung Electronics Co. and Amazon Inc., the International Data Corporation (IDC) said. The firm...
Conservative MP Brent Rathgeber tabled a private member’s bill in Parliament that would prevent CBC/Radio-Canada from denying access to information requests based on an exception for records related to its “journalistic, creative or programming activities,” the MP said. Rathgeber said in a release Monday that the private members'...
Quebecor Media Inc. television subsidiary TVA Group Inc. reported a rise in advertising revenues during the third quarter of 2012. Quebecor said in a release Monday that operating income during the quarter rose due to an 8.6 per cent increase in advertising revenues and the company's decision, effective July 1, 2012, to report separate financial...
Cogeco Cable Inc. founder and president emeritus Henri Audet died Saturday at the age of 94, the company said. "In the name of the board of directors of COGECO inc. and Cogeco Cable inc., as well as in the names of all the employees, I wish to convey our most sincere condolences to the whole Audet family. Mr. Henri Audet was and remains a great...
Cogeco Cable Inc.'s revenues rose 7.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2012 to $356.7 million as profits declined year-over-year, the company said in a quarterly and year-end financial statement Friday. The company said...
BCE Inc. appointed David Denison to its board of directors, the company said Thursday. Denison, a chartered accountant with a degree in mathematics and education from the University of Toronto, previously served as the president and CEO of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and president of...
BCE Inc.'s fibre IPTV customer additions grew the highest ever for a three month period during the third quarter of 2012 with 42,973 net subscriber additions, the company said. Bell said its fibre-based Fibe TV customer...
Astral Media Inc. is still looking for ways to gain regulatory approval of BCE Inc.’s $3.38-billion proposal to buy the company, Ian Greenberg, Astral’s president and CEO, said Wednesday. “We are still committed to see if there’s a way to complete this transaction,” Greenberg said on a conference call with analysts following the release of the company’s fourth quarter and 2012 fiscal year financial results. “Until we get more colour going forward, that is our focus.” The CRTC rejected Bell's bid to acquire Astral on Oct. 18, citing concerns about the company's growing market power. Bell, in response, filed a request with the federal...
The Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA) is ceasing operations immediately as a result of a loss of government funding, the organization said Tuesday. In a release, the conference said it became aware of the Conservative government’s intention to end its funding a year-and-a-half ago. In response, the CCA said it intended to transform itself...
The House of Commons could debate the Conservative government’s bill to amend the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) as early as this week. Bill C-12, formally called the Safeguarding Canadians' Personal Information Act, was scheduled to come up for debate Wednesday, according to the House of Commons...
Most of the Conservative government's copyright reform bill, C-11, will come into force next week as other sections are expected to be delayed until next year, industry sources and observers said....
OTTAWA—Internet service gaps in Canada’s North could be solved within 12 months if the CRTC and all levels of government came together on a funding strategy, Daniel Goldberg, president and CEO of satellite provider Telesat Canada, said Tuesday. “We have the capacity to solve this...
Broadcasters that exceed their annual Canadian content spending requirements can now carry over into future years overspending of more than five per cent, the CRTC said. In a decision Tuesday, the commission said it was removing restrictions on how much Canadian content overspending can be carried over from one year to the next. Those restrictions, imposed as a part of the commission’s 2010 and 2011 group-based licensing decisions, said broadcasters could carry up to five per cent of overages from one year to the next and could not carry any credits for more than a year. The CRTC said its decision to remove the restrictions came after BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. complained that the limitations did not provide broadcasters enough flexibility to invest in large Canadian...
Rogers Communications Inc.’s Sportsnet reached a three-year deal to extend its coverage of the Barclays Premier League through the 2015-2016 soccer season, the company said Monday. In a release, Sportsnet said the new agreement covers up to 190 matches for each season starting with 2013-2014 and includes a “comprehensive suite” of...
Broadcasters need incentives to air more Canadian feature films across all platforms, David Reckziegel, president of eOne Films North America, said Monday. In a panel discussion at the International Institute of Communications’ annual conference in Ottawa, Reckziegel said Canadian feature films don’t receive...
The C.D. Howe Institute announced the appointment of Lawson Hunter to the position of senior fellow specializing in regulatory and competition policy. In a release Tuesday, C.D. Howe said Hunter has been a long-time associate of the institute and served as counsel in the competition and foreign investment group at Stikeman Elliott LLP. The institute...
The CRTC approved applications for two hockey-themed Category B specialty channels. In two decisions, the commission said it approved requests by Paul Girouard to operate French- and English-language hockey specialty services called Canal Hockey and Hockey TV. The channels “would be devoted exclusively to all aspects of the game of hockey,...
Canadian magazines can now be purchased from the Google Play app store, Google Inc. said Monday. In a blog post, Google said magazines such as Maclean’s, Canadian Living, Style at Home and Canadian Geographic may be instantly delivered to Android tablets and smartphones through an app called Google Play Magazines App. The company also announced...
ZoomerMedia Ltd. reported a rise profits and a decline in revenues for its fourth quarter and year-end finances. In a release last week for the company’s financial results for the period ending June 30, 2012, Zoomer reported fourth quarter revenues of $15.1 million, down from $15.2 million in the same quarter of 2011. Zoomer said year-end revenues reached $56 million in fiscal 2012, down from $60 million in 2011....
The CRTC will not hesitate to intervene with regulatory changes in cases where there is market failure or a need for consumer protection, commission Chair Jean-Pierre Blais said Monday. “We have confidence in the business sector. For the most part, we will get out of your way,” Blais...
The Toronto Star will launch a “paid-subscription program” next year for online access to the newspaper's content, publisher John Cruickshank said in a column Monday. Cruickshank said the decision was necessary to supplement the newspaper's circulation and advertising revenues. “We will have more stories, videos, podcasts and...
Workers with the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP) voted Thursday to accept a collective agreement with BCE Inc., the union said in a release Friday. Voting took place by 112 members of CEP Local 79M, who were locked out since July 11 and in negotiations with Bell's satellite and fibre television distribution division since April 2011, the release said. The unionised technicians are responsible for the transmission of broadcast signals and the company's video on demand service, the release said. The CEP is now working to create a new, merged union with the Canadian...
Broadcasters should develop “second screen” apps associated with their top shows and content to better draw in viewers and sell more effective advertising, said a new report by Evolumedia Group and co-published by the Canada Media Fund (CMF). To reach as many personal connected device owners as possible,...
Microsoft Corp. released its new Windows 8 operating system for computers and mobile devices. Microsoft said in a release Thursday that, as of midnight Friday, Windows 8 will be available for...
Corus Entertainment Inc.'s fourth-quarter television revenues fell three per cent as advertising revenues for its specialty channels rose seven per cent, the company said in a quarterly and year-end financial statement...
Canada's largest two cable companies are trying to offset subscriber losses in their television segments by cutting costs and focusing on growing their Internet customers, the companies and...
Non-Canadian feature films and other foreign programming is an important source of revenue and part of the public broadcaster’s mandate, CBC/Radio-Canada said. In advance of its CRTC licence renewal hearing scheduled to start Nov. 19, CBC filed reply comments with the commission to respond to about 8,000 interventions. In the 55-page reply, CBC said one aspect of its mandate is to bring “the best of foreign programming” to Canadian viewers. Shaw Communications Inc. and the Directors Guild of Canada, in submissions filed with the CRTC, argued that CBC’s new licence...
Law firm Fasken Martineau reached a deal to merge with South African firm Bell Dewar, the company said Wednesday. In a statement issued by Fasken Martineau managing partner David Corbett, the firm said the merger “will create one of the largest law firms operating in Africa” and will give the company “the largest international...
Netflix Inc.’s revenues continued to outpace content acquisition costs in Canada during the third quarter of 2012, the company said in a financial statement released Tuesday. “We expanded our profitability in Canada...
The global subscription television service market will grow 19 per cent over the next five years on cable, satellite, and IPTV platforms, research firm ABI Research said Tuesday. The firm issued new data and said in a release Wednesday that cable TV will maintain the largest share of the market through 2017 “although it is losing market share to...
Rogers Communications Inc. reported rising revenues driven by its wireless division as the company continued to bleed thousands of cable TV subscribers. For the third-quarter of 2012 ending Sept. 30, the company said net postpaid wireless subscriber additions were 76,000 during the quarter, 2,000 more than the 74,000...
The CRTC did not follow “general rules” outlined in its diversity of voices policy but did not violate any laws or regulations in its decision to block BCE Inc.’s $3.38-billion bid to acquire Astral Media Inc., regulatory experts say. On Monday BCE issued a formal request to...
Gary Goodyear, the minister of state for science and technology, encouraged Canada’s private sector to take better advantage of tools and incentives provided by the federal government that encourage growth in the information and communications technology sector. At the World Technology Information and Services...
BCE Inc. filed a formal request to the federal cabinet, asking it to issue a government policy direction to the CRTC as part of the company's plan to re-file a regulatory application to acquire Astral Media Inc. Bell filed the formal request Monday, asking cabinet to direct the commission to abide by its 2008 diversity...
Jim Kozak was appointed to the position of director of sales for CBC/Radio-Canada’s Olympic and sports partnerships, the CBC said Friday. In a release, CBC said Kozak will assume the role on Oct. 29, reporting to Alan Dark, general manager of CBC's revenue group. CBC said Kozak brings 15 years’ of sponsorship experience to his new...
The CRTC approved an application by Vista Radio Ltd. to acquire the AM and FM radio assets of Haliburton Broadcasting Group Inc. for $33.2 million. In a decision Friday, the commission said the acquisition will give Vista ownership of Haliburton’s AM and FM stations in 24 Ontario municipalities, including urban centres such as Niagara Falls, North Bay, St. Catharines and Timmins. It said Vista will pay $2 million in tangible benefits related to the sale to go into the Canadian broadcasting system. All of the licences will expire on Aug. 31 2018 or 2019, the commission said....
The CRTC approved an application by Evanov Communications Inc. subsidiary Dufferin Communications Inc. to operate a new adult contemporary and easy listening radio station in the areas of Hudson and St.-Lazare, Que. In a decision Friday, the CRTC said the new English-language FM station would offer weather content, sports, health, business segments, a...
BCE Inc. said it would call on the federal cabinet to "intervene" in the CRTC's decision to block the company's $3.38-billion deal to acquire Astral Media Inc. as Industry Minister Christian Paradis said he respects the regulator's ruling. In a release, Bell said it would...
GATINEAU—The CRTC blocked Bell Canada Enterprises Inc.'s $3.38-billion deal to acquire Astral Media Inc., citing concerns about competition, Bell's market power, and a proposal that did not appear to benefit the public interest. “The proposed transaction would not only remove the last major independent,...
Songza Media Inc.’s music streaming application has more than one million registered users in Canada since its launch in August, the New York-based company said Thursday. In a release, Songza said its Music Concierge service reached had surpassed one million users within its first 70 days of operating in Canada, and that those users have used...
Canadians still rely on traditional media sources for their daily news, said a new poll from Ipsos Reid commissioned by the Canadian Journalism Foundation. According to the Ipsos poll released Wednesday, 40 per cent of Canadians “always” consult a television station in the evening or later for daily news content. Another 23 per cent “always” consult a daily newspaper to which they have a paid subscription, the report said. The poll found that 13 per cent of Canadians consult daily newspaper websites for content and that ten per cent consult television news websites for daily content. Another seven per cent consult daily news aggregators such as Google News, Ipsos said. Ipsos said the results are from an online survey of 1,006 Canadians conducted Oct. 4-15, 2012,...
The CRTC closed its file on a BCE Inc. complaint that said MTS Inc. gave itself an undue competitive advantage by repackaging two Bell specialty services. In February, Bell complained to the commission that MTS gave itself an unfair market advantage by repackaging the Bell-owned Discovery Channel and E! specialty services while the two sides negotiated...
The Globe and Mail will launch a digital advertising network with three other major American news services, publisher Phillip Crawley said in an interview with Harvard University’s Nieman Journalism Lab. In an interview published on the Nieman Lab website Tuesday, Crawley said the Globe will partner with The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and...
The CRTC will announce its regulatory decision on BCE Inc.’s $3.38 billion bid to acquire Astral Media Inc. on Thursday, the commission said in a media advisory. The commission said in an advisory Wednesday that the decision will be posted on its website at 4 p.m. and that CRTC chair Jean-Pierre Blais will address the media following its release....
Boxee Inc. released a new online TV device at half the price of its previous one with the option for an unlimited, cloud-based video recording service for $15 per month, the company said. “So...
An exclusive distribution deal between online TV provider Roku Inc. and U.S. broadcast distributor Dish Network Corp. for all international content on Roku's system would escape regulatory...
Score Media Inc.’s shareholders voted to approve Rogers Media Inc.’s $167 million bid to acquire the company, the Score said Monday. Rogers said in August that it reached an agreement to purchase the Score and its...
CBC/Radio-Canada’s French-language Le Téléjournal news program disproportionately focuses on Quebec instead of national Canadian news, Liberal Senator Pierre de Bané said. In an Oct. 5 submission to the CRTC in advance of the CBC’s licence renewal hearing scheduled to start Nov. 19, De...
CBC/Radio-Canada's new licence should bar the public broadcaster from airing American programming in the high-ratings period of 6 p.m. to midnight, Shaw Communications Inc. said. In a 12-page intervention submitted to the CRTC as part of CBC’s licence renewal hearing, scheduled to start Nov. 19, Jean Brazeau,...
Quebecor Media Inc. hired firm Ensight Canada to lobby the federal government for mandatory distribution of its all-news specialty channel Sun News Network, the federal lobbyist registry shows. Ensight Canada consultant Michelle Mackenzie registered Oct. 10 to lobby the Heritage Department and members of the House of Commons to receive “mandatory distribution on analog and digital basic service in Canada” for Sun News, according to the registry and as first reported by The Lobby...
The Globe and Mail will introduce a new metered paywall system requiring online readers to pay for access if they read more than 10 stories a month, the newspaper said Monday. In a release, the paper said its new “digital subscription service,” called Globe Unlimited, permits “casual” readers to access up to 10 free articles or...
KINGSTON, Ont.—CBC/Radio-Canada can boost a weakened “core” of supporters by being less obsessed with ratings and focus on informing and enlightening viewers instead of entertaining them, a panel of broadcasting experts said. On Thursday, at the final of a series of meetings called “The CBC We...
The CRTC approved two Fifth Dimensions Properties Inc. applications for adult-themed Category B channel licences named Ebabe TV and Skinemax TV, the commission said in two decisions Friday. In one decision, the CRTC said adult entertainment channel Ebabe TV would feature Internet-related programming and some animated...
Corus Entertainment Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. will appear at a Dec. 11 CRTC hearing in Gatineau, Que. to defend two Category A specialty channels from apparent breaches of licence...
The Copyright Board issued a decision on new online music tariffs for the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) covering the years 2007-2010 and for CMRRA/SODRAC Inc. (CSI) covering 2008-2010. The Copyright Board said in a decision released Oct. 6 that online music services must pay CSI 9.9 per cent of consumer or subscriber payments received for permanent and limited downloads, and that, for on-demand streams, the services must pay CSI and SOCAN a total of 12.7 per cent of the amounts paid by subscribers. The board said that the decision related to online...
Telus Corp.'s mobile, on-demand access to Corus Entertainment Inc.'s Movie Central and HBO programming was delayed by the complicated nature of multi-platform rights agreements and other licensing issues, Corus said in regulatory documents filed with the CRTC. In September, Telus accused...
BCE Inc. subsidiary Bell Media gave independent Internet protocol TV (IPTV) provider VMedia a “draft agreement” for carriage of Bell-owned specialty channels, VMedia said in a document filed with the CRTC this week....
The CRTC did not renew the licence for CJRN Niagara Falls, operating at 710 AM, due to non-compliance issues, the commission said Wednesday. In its decision, the CRTC said it found the station, owned by Radio 710 AM Inc.,...
The CRTC denied an application by Rogers Communications Inc. for permission to use “simultaneous substitution" for its Citytv Toronto signal. In several local licence areas where Rogers...
Jack Tomik, general manager of CBC/Radio-Canada's revenue group, is leaving the public broadcaster for a new position at Rogers Communications Inc., the broadcasters said Wednesday. Tomik's departure from CBC is effective...
Hubert T. Lacroix was reappointed as president and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada, Heritage Minister James Moore said Friday. In a CBC release, Lacroix said he was pleased with the minister’s announcement. “In 2010,...
Canada’s entertainment industry must better reach international audiences outside of its borders to help compete with online TV services, Pierre Karl Peladeau, president and CEO of Quebecor...
CBC/Radio-Canada's annual revenues would fall by up to $200 million if the public broadcaster does not secure the rights to Hockey Night in Canada in 2014, watchdog group the Friends of Canadian...
Google Inc.'s YouTube video service expanded its “original channels” program to Europe with at least 60 new channels in France, Germany and the U.K., the company said. In a post Sunday on YouTube's blog, Robert Kyncl, a vice-president and global head of content at YouTube, said programming on the new YouTube-owned channels would range “[f]rom local cuisine, health and wellness and parenting to sports, music, comedy, animation and news.” He said the channels are “backed by some of the biggest producers, well-known celebrities and emerging media companies...
A major U.S. association of software, film, TV and music companies is lobbying the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to address Canadian “trade barriers” related to Canadian content regulations and copyright law, according to a consultation document filed with the USTR. The...
OTTAWA—Breaking up public broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada into a “constellation” of specialty channels and online pay services would not result in more high-quality or Canadian programming, said Mark Starowicz, executive director of documentary programming at CBC Television....
OTTAWA—The CRTC will inform the public about their telecommunications options in an effort to build an “informed and empowered” constituency of consumers, new CRTC chair Jean-Pierre...
CBC/Radio-Canada's online music service is not profitable as advertising revenues amount to about one seventh of costs, said Chris Boyce, executive director of English-language radio and audio services at CBC. “The advertising revenue covers a fraction of the expenses associated with the operation of the...
Online platforms will overtake television as the most popular source for Canadian advertising dollars in the next four years and the trend is not necessarily bad for traditional TV broadcasters, said Conference Board researcher Michael Burt, one of the authors of a new report. The report by the Conference Board of Canada, released Tuesday and commissioned by the Canadian Marketing Association (CMA), said the Canadian online advertising market will grow at an average rate of 11.7 per cent from now through 2016, when it will be worth $4.501 billion. “As a result, the Internet will become...
Operating revenues for Canada's private radio sector reached $1.6 billion in 2011, Statistics Canada said Wednesday. In a release, Statistics Canada said total revenues rose 3.7 per cent from 2010 with the “vast majority,” 97.7 per cent, coming from advertising. Statistics Canada said the FM sector’s operating revenues totalled...
Citytv gained more than 20 per cent year-over-year growth in audience share for fall television's premiere week, the TV network said Tuesday, partly as a result of the network's expansion. Citytv's national market share for the week Sept. 24 to 30 rose 22 per cent from the same period a year earlier, the broadcaster, owned by Rogers...
Bill Roberts, president and CEO of ZoomerMediaTV (owned by ZoomerMedia Ltd.), will step down from his role on Oct. 31, Roberts said in a statement Monday. “After 12 years at the helm of VisionTV, S-BOX (the holding entity brand we invented), and latterly ZoomerMedia (TV), I will be stepping down as president and CEO,” Roberts said in a...
The CRTC on Tuesday approved specialty channel licences for two proposed “personal development” services and rejected a Rogers Communications Inc. application for a new entertainment news channel. In two decisions, the commission said it approved applications by MOTV Media Inc. to operate English- and...
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)'s new working document for a Broadcasting Treaty includes a reference to online signals, a sticking point at committee discussions in Geneva...
The CRTC posted a notice of vacancies for the positions of vice-chair of telecommunications and regional member for Ontario. The CRTC said in the posting Monday that the successful candidate for the vice-chair position, which ranges from $196,800 to $231,500 in salary, will have “extensive” experience providing corporate direction and...
Sun Media Corp. appointed Eric Morrison to the position of vice-president of editorial, the Quebecor Media Inc. news company said last Thursday. In a release, the company said Morrison will lead the reorganization of Sun Media across all platforms. Morrison’s prior experience includes the position of president of The Canadian Press. He is also...
The presence of unregulated online competitors in the Canadian broadcasting market and a CRTC decision to open up sports specialty channels to competition have fuelled a “dramatic” increase in the cost of licensing content in Canada, BCE Inc. said in regulatory documents filed with the commission Friday....
The CRTC approved adding CCTV 9 Documentary to the list of TV services available for distribution in Canada. The Canadian Chinese Media Network's CCTV 9 service is a “primarily” English-language documentary channel with Mandarin-language programming, the CRTC said in its decision Monday. It features cultural information and documentaries from mainland China and around the world....
