BCE Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. are taking issue with TekSavvy Solutions Inc.'s assertion that it will be unfairly burdened by regulations that will require companies to make their services more accessible to Canadians with disabilities.
The CRTC is set to implement...
Numerous advocacy groups and smaller broadcasters are recommending that the CRTC avoid cutting Canadian Content quotas for radio stations.
These views come from a broad group of intervenors, writing in response to the Commission’s consultation on Canadian commercial...
Panelists reflecting Wednesday on Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault’s...
The CRTC needs to do away with restrictive regulations, argue multiple...
During a hearing on Facebook, Inc.’s relationship with the federal government Monday, multiple members...
An individual who allegedly sent more than 670,000 spam emails is being fined $75,000 - the largest-ever penalty for violating Canada’s anti-spam legislation, the CRTC announced Monday. Between December 2015 and May 2018,...
Asked whether or not the CRTC is up to the task of dealing with broadcasters who may try to circumvent Canadian content regulations if Bill C-10 is passed and brings streaming giants like Netflix, Inc. under the regulator's remit, chair Ian Scott said effectively that they're used to it. Speaking to MPs at a Friday meeting of the House of Commons Heritage committee, Scott told NDP MP Heather McPherson "we're in the business of regulation, so I think we're probably used to parties,...
Is a Nov. 2019 court order mandating a number of...
The CRTC has released the findings from its first phase in the development of a new Indigenous...
CBC/Radio-Canada is once again asking the CRTC to temporarily relieve it of its local programming and described video obligations for the period of this year’s Tokyo Olympics. In its part 1 application to the CRTC, posted...
Organizations representing smaller Canadian broadcasters and telecoms have...
Two people who had been allegedly selling subscriptions to pirated content...
Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc., and Quebecor Inc.’s collective bid to get back millions in royalties they say they paid to the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada...
As the House of Commons Heritage committee hearings on the government's proposed update to the...
Telecommunications companies big and small have expressed opposition to a...
As news of Roger’s Communications Inc.’s deal to acquire Shaw Communications Inc. sparks discussions on what it may mean for the wireless market in Canada, advocates say competition and other considerations will be important for the public’s best interests in the future. During an “Affordable Internet Day of Action” panel discussions hosted by multiple groups Tuesday, the day’s conversations centred around affordable Internet access for all and the state of the national market,...
The Internet Society (ISOC) has highlighted what it says are “significant risks” in the CRTC’s proposal for Canadian ISPs to be required to block malicious botnet traffic on their networks....
From the perspective of Rogers Communications Inc. CEO Joe Natale,...
Quebecor Inc. CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau told MPs at a Friday meeting of the House of Commons Heritage committee that the government initiative to overhaul the Broadcasting Act, known as Bill C-10, should focus more on deregulating existing traditional Canadian media. "For traditional broadcasters -- those that showcase...
Stakeholders from across the broadcasting sector will have a chance to comment on a draft of the policy direction that will shape how the CRTC applies the forthcoming update to the Broadcast Act,...
Cogeco Inc. has responded to a Part 1 from television company Wildbrain, calling the company’s attempts to invoke the CRTC’s standstill rule “a glaring abuse of the...
MPs on the House of Commons Heritage Committee...
Quebecor Inc. has continued to grow its revenues in spite of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, according to...
A new survey suggests that just over half of Canadians believe that...
People of colour have long been underrepresented on Canadian airwaves, and the government's proposed update to the Broadcasting Act, known as Bill C-10, is a "chance to heal these wounds," according...
The CRTC has renewed the licence for a pair of BCE Inc.-owned radio stations in British Columbia and New Brunswick, though the regulator has decided to keep both stations on a shorter leash because of...
The day after Facebook Inc. made good on its threat to block all news from...
The Bloc Québécois is pushing the federal government to take “urgent” action to support local media by imposing new taxes on web giants such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc. In the House of Commons...
In a Friends of Canadian Broadcasting panel on Thursday, MPs from the three major parties indicated support for additional regulations and enforcement to manage threats of...
CBC/Radio-Canada president Catherine Tait doubled down on its request for greater flexibility to spend on digital services, saying it was needed in order for the CBC to be “a relevant 21st century digital media company”.
In an interview at the Canadian Media Producers...
In a preliminary study on the government's overhaul of the Broadcasting Act...
BCE Inc. announced Thursday morning that it would increase its typical capital expenditure by between $1...
The facial recognition technology company used by dozens of police...
The government’s draft legislation to reform Canada’s Broadcasting Act must be amended to explicitly include official language minority communities, stakeholders told the House of Commons heritage committee Monday, during its first hearing into Bill C-10. Representatives of the Fédération culturelle...
On the final day of three weeks of CRTC hearings into CBC/Radio-Canada's license renewal, the public broadcaster Thursday tried to push back against some of the criticism levelled at it by intervenors.
CBC's digital spending does not degrade its news coverage, and the...
Rogers Communications Inc. announced a seven-per-cent fall in revenues and...
The Canadian Media Producers Association has called on the CRTC to force...
The new digital initiatives from CBC/Radio-Canada like the English-language Gem and its French counterpart ICI Tou.tv have not yet shown themselves to be good enough to fulfill the broadcaster's...
To begin the third and final week of the CRTC's hearings on CBC/Radio-Canada's license renewal, organizations representing the directors and writers for Canada's film and television industry have...
On the second day of a preliminary hearing into a dispute between Facebook and the federal privacy watchdog Thursday, the social media giant presented arguments to a Federal Court judge that the court...
The motto of Facebook Inc. is, famously, "move fast and break things." ...
The advocacy group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting has called on the CRTC...
Cogeco Inc. has officially launched its IPTV service, dubbed Epico. Epico, which runs on the MediaFirst platform, is now available to the “majority of Cogeco customers in the territories served by the company,” according to a press release Monday. “This new service will allow customers...
Audience measurement company Numeris will fully roll-out its video audience management (VAM) nationally in mid-2023 after delivering preliminary datasets to members for its Ontario and Quebec panels.
The non-profit organization announced last week in a release that the...
Quebec’s Superior Court has certified a class action lawsuit on behalf of BCE Inc. TV subscribers who lost access to Quebecor Inc.’s TVA Sports after Quebecor cut the signal in the spring of 2019. La Presse reported...
Corus Entertainment Inc. reported Tuesday its first-quarter revenues were $420.3 million, down 10 per cent from the same period a year earlier. Profits, meanwhile, were down three per cent to $178.6 million in the three-month...
The affordability-focused initiatives Navdeep Bains put in place will...
The COVID-19 pandemic dropped CBC/Radio-Canada’s revenues by 11 per cent,...
The CRTC has extended its deadline for interventions to its commercial radio policy framework review following a procedural request from various associations representing the music sector. Interventions, which were initially due on Feb. 1 are now due on Mar. 29, the CRTC announced Monday, with replies due on April 28. In announcing its intention to review the framework last January, the regulator said the review would include media consolidation rules, quotas of Canadian content and limits on the amount of top 40 songs that can be played in Ottawa and Montreal. BCE Inc.’s senior...
BCE Inc.’s Bell Media division is starting off the year with significant changes to its executive roster, including the departures of its vice-president of regulatory affairs Kevin Goldstein,...
The Federal Court of Appeal has rejected an application for leave to appeal by a broadcaster whose radio licence was denied renewal by the CRTC. The CRTC denied the licence renewal for Groupe...
In the lead up to its license renewal hearings in January, CBC/Radio-Canada has declined to provide the CRTC with statistics about the diversity of its in-house production staff. Following a...
A new CRTC study suggests that the decline of broadcast television could be slowed — but not stopped — if TV providers invest in virtual or online broadcast distribution undertakings (vBDUs). ...
In seeking to appeal a $17.9 million fine imposed by the CRTC in October for misallocating local programming spending, BCE Inc. has failed to demonstrate that the CRTC denied it a level of procedural...
Prince Edward Island senator Percy Downe has announced that he will introduce an amendment that will prevent CBC/Radio-Canada from publishing or broadcasting sponsored content. Following on from...
President of Cogeco Inc.'s media division Michel Lorrain has stepped down from the position, the company...
The CRTC will not open a new Part 1 or consultation in response to a letter from a number of ex-CBC/Radio-Canada employees criticizing the public broadcaster’s new branded content scheme, Tandem. ...
Impatient with the progress of a month-old Part 1 application at the CRTC, a group of some 500 current and former CBC/Radio-Canada employees have authored an "Open Letter to...
A CRTC consultation on paper billing practices in the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors is continuing, with the commission requesting that all major companies respond to a series of...
The federal government plans to begin imposing sales taxes on foreign digital services on July 1, 2021...
In a case that could determine whether a "right to be forgotten" exists in...
BCE Inc. has filed an application for leave to appeal a $17.9-million penalty imposed by the CRTC last month for violations of its broadcasting license, arguing that the CRTC failed to give the...
Rogers Communications Inc. has cut an unspecified number of jobs from its sports and media divisions, citing the effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In a statement emailed to The Wire Report, a Rogers Sports & Media spokesperson explained that the restructuring would allow the company to focus more on “multiplatform experiences,” amid broader shifts in the industry. “We are modernizing our business to position us for growth as we face the continued effects of a seismic shift in the media industry from traditional to digital and the challenges of the global pandemic." A number of reports stated that jobs were cut at CityTV stations in Calgary and Vancouver, and included employees from local Breakfast Television productions, as the company moves towards a national version of the morning show, which is set to premiere in...
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) has responded to the Liberal government’s proposed new privacy legislation for the private sector — while the office “welcomes” Bill...
Canadian content programming relief from the CRTC would allow BCE Inc.'s...
The CRTC will release a report detailing the impact of online services on the state of video and television and video distribution in Canada and some nine other countries before the end of the year,...
The federal government introduced sweeping private-sector privacy law...
The federal government today announced that it is launching a public consultation on reviewing the Privacy Act, Canada's public sector privacy law. In a Monday evening release, the Department of Justice said that members of...
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) has issued its...
A group of former CBC employees have asked the CRTC to look into CBC/Radio-Canada sponsored content program Tandem. The Friday Part 1 application, which is not yet available on the regulator’s...
The CRTC has launched a consultation to review its regulatory framework for the commercial radio sector. It said in Thursday’s notice of consultation that it’s looking to “update the regulatory framework to best serve the...
In anticipation of CBC/Radio-Canada’s January license renewal hearings, the CRTC has requested that the broadcaster collect file information about staff diversity on its productions. In a letter to CBC executive director of corporate and regulatory affairs Bev Kirshenblatt, the commission asked the broadcaster to provide statistics about the number of individuals from marginalized groups who held key roles (such as producers, editors, directors, writers, and lead performers) on all CBC...
BCE Inc. CEO Mirko Bibic praised the updates to the Broadcasting Act...
Quebecor Inc. posted its third-quarter earnings on Thursday morning, with revenues slightly up, boosted...
Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault isn’t concerned about potential...
The Liberal government’s proposed updates to the Broadcasting Act have...
The Liberal government’s long-awaited update to the Broadcasting Act confirms that the CRTC is able to regulate online services such as streaming platforms and leaves it to...
In its reply to interventions on the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' request for a policy of "deemed compliance" in Canadian programming expenditures, the Canadian Media Producers Association...
The National Campus and Community Radio Association, Alliance des radios communautaires du Canada and Association des radiodiffuseurs communautaires du Québec have filed a joint intervention arguing...
Facebook Inc. is asking a judge to throw out significant chunks of an...
BCE Inc. misclassified a number of self-promotional productions as community programming, and misallocated $35.9 million to its CTV networks, the CRTC said Thursday. In its decision renewing a...
Rogers Communications Inc. showed a rebound in its third-quarter earnings report Thursday, with media and...
Corus Entertainment Inc. continues to feel the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the rate of decline...
Whether or not there is a pandemic, large broadcasters want to do away with...
Speaking Tuesday morning at an online event, Bell assistant general counsel...
Rogers Communications Inc. and Altice USA Inc. upped their offer in a joint takeover bid of Cogeco Inc. from $10.3 billion to $11 billion over weekend, a bid that was rejected by the controlling shareholder of the company, the Audet family. The offer, in which Rogers would take over Cogeco's Canadian operations while Altice takes over assets south of the border, would see Rogers increase its own offer by $300 million, from $4.9 billion up to $5.2 billion. "As we did on September 2nd, 2020, following the announcement of their first unsolicited proposal, members of the Audet family...
The branded content initiative launched by CBC/Radio-Canada last month has been put on hiatus while the...
An announcement Thursday from Alphabet Inc.'s Google that it would put...
Independent producers will be able to access a $50 million insurance...
In Wednesday’s throne speech kicking off Parliament’s return, the...
Given the precarious situation around the now-escalating COVID-19 pandemic, what will actually be included in Wednesday’s speech from the throne, and in the government’s priorities in the following weeks, is more uncertain than ever. With a day to go, even the details of...
Some 214 "camera-ready" film and television projects, employing 19,500...
The CRTC Thursday launched a consultation on a request submitted by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters in mid-July that asked for emergency regulatory relief to address the impacts of the...
The production slowdown stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns has created a crisis for Corus Entertainment Inc. in terms of meeting its CRTC-mandated Canadian programming expenditures (CPE),...
Privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien has urged Federal Court to find the...
After the CRTC refused to renew its broadcast licence earlier this summer, Groupe Médias Pam Inc. has turned to the Federal Court of Appeal, asking it to overturn that CRTC decision. In July, the regulator denied the renewal...
New Conservative leader Erin O’Toole shuffled his shadow cabinet Tuesday, with new faces appointed to...
Louis Audet, former CEO of Cogeco Inc. and current executive chairman of...
BCE Inc. has asked a Federal Court of Appeal judge to throw out an appeal of Canada's first ever site-blocking court order, saying that TekSavvy Solutions Inc.'s appeal of the order is grounded in...
Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault Wednesday denounced what he called "threats" from Facebook Inc. to block the sharing of news content on its platforms if an Australian proposal to force the company to pay local news outlets for content makes its way into law.
In a...
