TAGGED AS PETER MILLER
Billions of ad dollars leaving Canada through “tax loophole”: Friends of Canadian Media
Internet and Governance | 04/09/2024 8:11 pm EDT
Advertising on foreign digital media like Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook and Alphabet Inc.’s Google has led to over $13 billion of revenue leaving Canada, a report from...
GoT glitches show challenge in streaming high-viewership events
Media | 05/10/2019 6:23 pm EDT
When the Game of Thrones series premiere aired in 2011, streaming services were still in their infancy. Now, as the HBO ratings juggernaut wraps up its final few episodes, it draws the kind of massive live audiences that are becoming increasingly rare in an over-the-top...
Media sector, senator back change to ad tax exemption
Media | 06/06/2018 3:47 pm EDT
OTTAWA — A proposal to eliminate a tax exemption for advertising on foreign digital media received...
Experts to ‘find solutions’ in broadcast, telecom review: Joly
Media | 06/05/2018 8:10 pm EDT
OTTAWA — The expert panel appointed by the federal government to...
Optics for gov’t could hamper tax on foreign ads proposal: Friends
Media | 05/22/2018 5:15 pm EDT
OTTAWA — A media advocacy group calling for changes that would upend the...
New CEO’s content background indicates shift at CBC: experts
Media | 04/03/2018 5:19 pm EDT
OTTAWA — Catherine Tait’s appointment as head of CBC/Radio-Canada is...
Creative Canada ‘cultural policy, not tax policy’: Joly
Media | 11/02/2017 9:39 pm EDT
OTTAWA — Opposition MPs continued their criticism of Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly’s cultural strategy during Joly’s appearance at the House standing committee on Canadian Heritage late Thursday afternoon, including questioning the minister about imposing sales tax...
How big a threat are OTT sports services?
Media | 10/10/2017 5:55 pm EDT
Sports remains one of the last bastions of defence for traditional TV against a wave of over-the-top...
New OTT offerings pose threat to BDUs, opportunity for producers
Media | 08/17/2017 4:47 pm EDT
A proliferation of new streaming TV competition in Canada is set to benefit...
Interactive Ontario makes changes to board, staff
Media | 06/22/2017 3:20 pm EDT
Interactive Ontario has added three new directors to its board, the industry trade association said in a press release Wednesday. Joining the board are Sean Skelton, a software engineer at Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Emma...
Alt TV managed service, doesn’t violate CRTC rules: Cope
Media | 05/15/2017 5:45 pm EDT
MONTREAL — BCE Inc. has launched a new TV product hoping to appeal to a segment of the market that’s less likely to subscribe to...
Tax deduction change would boost ad revenue $250-$450M: Friends
Media | 01/23/2017 9:24 pm EST
Removing tax deductions for advertising on non-Canadian online media outlets could help the beleaguered local media and news sectors, while saving the government money, according to a new paper from...
Amazon little threat to Netflix, Crave for now: analyst
Media | 01/05/2017 9:44 pm EST
A tepid launch of Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime video streaming service in Canada doesn’t seem likely to pose a challenge to existing players in the Canadian streaming market — for...
Bell targets second small IPTV provider over copyright claim
Media | 12/13/2016 7:28 pm EST
Zazeen Inc. is facing legal action from BCE Inc. over its Internet protocol TV (IPTV) service, with the incumbent calling the small provider’s service copyright infringement. In...
Pick-and-pay still has many ‘pitfalls’ for consumers: PIAC
Media | 12/01/2016 10:24 pm EST
As the CRTC’s rules requiring all TV providers to allow customers to sign up for channels individually came into effect Thursday, the regulator emphasized that consumers have to take...
Jeffrey Elliott takes over as Interactive Ontario chair
Media | 09/21/2016 3:59 pm EDT
Jeffrey Elliott, TableRock Media CEO, is the new chairman of Interactive Ontario, the association announced Tuesday. Elliott, a long-time member of the board of directors, was elected to the position to replace outgoing chairman Peter Miller, according to a press release from Interactive Ontario, a trade association for the digital content industry. “Jeffrey Elliott is a visionary in the field of interactive digital media,” Christa Dickenson, Interactive Ontario’s executive director, said in the release. “Interactive Ontario has benefitted from his...
What does the growth of video-game streaming mean for TV?
Media | 06/17/2016 5:32 pm EDT
Millions of people tuned into live broadcasts of the electronic entertainment expo (E3) this week on Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube and Amazon.com Inc.’s Twitch.tv. It’s an event whose...
CRTC ‘rebalances’ TV system funds; up to $90M available for local news
Media | 06/15/2016 10:44 pm EDT
The CRTC has established new funding for local television news in a decision on its local and community TV hearing, though advocates expressed concern that the changes won’t happen quickly...
Pre-loaded set-top boxes piracy, BDUs say as court orders temporary ban
Media | 06/13/2016 8:25 pm EDT
A trio of major telecom companies have received their first victory in a legal fight against companies selling set-top boxes allowing users to illegally access copyrighted material. On June 1, a...
Sweeping government review to include CRTC, Broadcast Act, CanCon
Media | 04/25/2016 10:56 pm EDT
Industry insiders and observers are calling Canadian Heritage’s impending study of Canadian content in the digital age — which could potentially affect CBC/Radio-Canada, legislation like...
TV regulatory changes could cost 15,000 jobs: report
telecom | 01/05/2016 4:15 pm EST
New CRTC regulatory changes from the Let’s Talk TV decisions could lead to a loss of more than 15,000 Canadian jobs and take $1.4 billion from the Canadian economy annually by 2020, according to a new report released Tuesday that was co-authored by independent TV consultant Peter Miller and research company Nordicity. The report predicted that, in the next five years, decisions from Let’s Talk TV, particularly on the unbundling of services, will affect specialty channels and services with a loss of subscribers. It added that the changes could result in a $970-million decrease in...
HBO deal bolsters CraveTV against Shomi, Netflix: experts
Media | 11/20/2015 10:15 pm EST
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...
29 local TV stations at risk of closing by 2020: report
Media | 11/10/2015 7:52 pm EST
A report from independent consultant and lawyer Peter Miller and research company Nordicity says that 50 per cent of Canada’s small- and medium-market local TV stations could...
IPTV, Netflix adoption lower in Ontario: MTM
Media | 11/09/2015 10:11 pm EST
Ontario residents are not moving as fast toward newer ways of getting TV content, such as IPTV and Netflix, as other parts of the Canada, according to newly released figures. Survey results released last week from Media...
TV wholesale code finalized, takes effect in January
Media | 09/24/2015 9:00 pm EDT
The CRTC on Thursday released a final version of its anticipated wholesale code governing the business relationships between TV-service providers and channel operators, which, among other things, bans provisions that would prevent...
Shomi’s open access doesn’t equal white flag for TV services: expert
Media | 08/20/2015 8:21 pm EDT
As of Thursday, any Canadian with Internet was able subscribe to Shomi without being a customer of other services from its owners, Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc., though one industry observer said this does not mean these companies have given up on their TV services. Shomi announced Thursday in a...
‘Golden age of TV’ facing changes: panel
Media | 06/03/2015 11:43 pm EDT
TORONTO — There has never have been a better time than now to be a consumer of television, it was said during a panel discussion Wednesday at the Canadian Telecom Summit, but it was also discussed how big changes are afoot,...
Shomi stand-alone proposal could be financially feasible: analyst
Media | 05/27/2015 9:38 pm EDT
At some point this summer, Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc.’s Shomi streaming service will be made available to customers of other TV and Internet service providers...
News channels face funding challenges after CRTC decision
Media | 04/01/2015 8:22 pm EDT
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...
Proposed BDU code inconsistent with unregulated OTT: consultant
Media | 03/26/2015 9:04 pm EDT
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 broadcast consultant Peter Miller. He said it was “interesting that this regulator still wants to get involved in this level of detail with respect to traditional providers while still saying they’re going to do nothing with over-the-top providers.” The CRTC proposed the consumer code Thursday in its final Let’s Talk TV decision, which it said in a press release would help...
New VOD rules’ effect on Shomi, CraveTV unclear
Media | 03/12/2015 5:01 pm EDT
OTTAWA — The CRTC introduced a new category for video-on-demand services Thursday that allows them to offer content exclusive to certain TV service providers and operate under the digital-media exemption order, as long as they also offer that content online to all Canadians, though the consequences for Shomi and CraveTV remained unclear. In...
Is broadcasting heading for more litigious environment?
Media | 03/09/2015 5:00 pm EDT
BCE Inc.’s appeal of a CRTC decision to ban the use of simultaneous substitution for the Super Bowl in future years could be a sign of more conflict and court challenges to come as the...
Ratings, revenues never enough to make Sun News Network worthwhile: experts
Media | 02/13/2015 9:59 pm EST
Quebecor Inc. said it took Sun News Network off the air early Friday morning due to “a series of barriers to carriage,” while some experts said the long-struggling channel’s...
Videotron launches original content for Club Illico streaming service
Media | 02/02/2015 9:29 pm EST
MONTREAL — Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron hopes that producing original content exclusively for its Club Illico streaming service will help the company attract and keep subscribers, said...
CRTC decisions, new streaming services top TV agenda for 2015
Media | 12/17/2014 12:50 pm EST
It seems all eyes are on the two newest services in the Canadian TV industry. This fall, the country’s biggest telecom and media companies launched streaming services meant to compete with Netflix Inc.’s, and how they end up performing in the coming weeks and months is “the thing that everyone’s watching,” said broadcasting consultant Peter Miller. The industry will be looking at how Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc.’s Shomi and BCE Inc.’s CraveTV develop, and “whether they do what proponents of those...
What happens to VOD in an OTT world?
Media | 11/28/2014 4:50 pm EST
The launch of new streaming services from Canada’s biggest TV providers adds yet another option for viewers who want to catch up on or try out a new show, raising the question of whether they will complement — or...
Streaming services present ‘exciting’ opportunity: production exec
Media | 11/14/2014 10:03 pm EST
It makes sense that David Cormican is optimistic about the impact new streaming services will have on Canadian producers. He’s halfway through the shoot of a new show called Between. It's a teenager-focused drama about a group of youth quarantined by the government after the outbreak of a mysterious disease. It...