If industry and regulators spent much of 2014 talking about the future of TV in Canada, 2016 will provide the first glimpse of what that future might look like. “If 2015 was the year for announcing changes, I guess 2016 will be the year for actually making the changes and implementing them, because there are a lot of things that the CRTC had put out last year and a lot of them come into effect this year,” 3Macs analyst Troy Crandall said in a phone interview. The biggest of those will be the CRTC’s implementation of the new skinny basic and pick-and-pay rules, which came out of its Let’s Talk TV proceeding on the future of television. By March, TV providers will be required to offer a skinny basic TV package, priced at no more than $25 a month, and either...
BCE Inc.’s move to acquire exclusive rights to HBO programming on all platforms and become the sole operator of HBO Canada will make its CraveTV over-the-top (OTT) service more competitive against rivals, experts said. Having national HBO rights should “bolster the competitive position of CraveTV relative to other OTT services,” such as Netflix and Shomi, especially when CraveTV launches as a stand-alone service next year, RBC Dominion Securities analyst Drew McReynolds said in a research note. Bell Media announced the deal Thursday, stating the move gives it “the...
Most Canadians who subscribe to TV services do not intend to scale back their TV packages after the CRTC starts requiring $25 skinny-basic packages and pick-and-pay options next year, according to a new survey. Survey results released Thursday by the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing's Canadian...
Ericsson AB announced on Thursday that its cloud-based TV platform, MediaFirst, is now commercially available to operators and content providers, noting that Telus Corp. will be utilizing the service to enhance service for its TV...
Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron announced Tuesday it will be releasing an ultra-high-definition (UHD) set-top-box for its customers, making it the first Canadian telecom provider to commercially release such technology. Videotron...
Rogers Communications Inc. and BCE Inc. both used Numeris data Tuesday to proclaim their sports channel is No. 1 in the market, a virtual tie that Rogers said was enabled by its hockey content....
Having five Canadian teams reach the NHL playoffs for the first time in more than a decade is set to translate into a winning season for Rogers Communications Inc. as it completes the first of 12 years of a $5.2-billion rights agreement with the National Hockey League. The inclusion of the Montreal Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks, Ottawa Senators, Winnipeg Jets and Calgary Flames in the playoffs will “spark a number of good outcomes for us,” Rogers Sportsnet president Scott Moore said in a phone interview, citing higher ratings, more advertising revenue and subscriptions,...
Canada’s national news channels face new obligations from the CRTC even as the regulator is taking away their place on basic cable, raising questions about their future finances. Last month, as...
The CRTC’s proposed new code of conduct for television service providers is at odds with the commission’s stance that it won’t regulate over-the-top (OTT) services, according to...