Facebook ‘not aware’ of Canadian applicants for data research program

Media | 03/01/2019 1:41 pm EST

Despite heightened interest in the impact of social media on Canadian elections, Facebook Inc. said it has not heard of any Canadian institutions that have applied to view the social media giant’s...

Distributors ask for Canadian film exhibition quotas on broadcast, OTT

Media | 03/01/2019 12:11 pm EST

Both over-the-top services and broadcasters should be required to show a certain amount of Canadian feature films, the Canadian Association of Film Distributors and Exporters is asking the panel...

Monique Marcotte retiring from CBC

Media | 02/28/2019 2:25 pm EST

Marco Dubé will take over the vice-president of people and culture position at CBC/Radio-Canada when...

Gov’t trending toward requiring online platforms to remove content: Gould

Media | 02/27/2019 10:32 am EST

OTTAWA -- Democratic institutions minister Karina Gould said the government...

‘Long slog’ to get ad registry ready for election, Facebook says

Media | 02/25/2019 5:59 pm EST

OTTAWA — Facebook Inc.’s head of public policy in Canada said the federal government hasn’t fully owned how “significant” an undertaking it is to require social...

Online discoverability a challenge for books, magazines, BTLR hears

Media | 02/25/2019 2:31 pm EST

Organizations representing Canadian publishers are flagging the difficulty...

Federal Court says disclosure motions need ‘best available evidence’

Media | 02/22/2019 6:13 pm EST

Key evidence relied upon by movie studios in a substantial chunk of copyright infringement cases that have yielded vast sums of money from settlements has been ruled insufficient by a Federal Court...

Double CBC funding, CMG tells communications review

Media | 02/22/2019 3:59 pm EST

The real value of the funding CBC/Radio-Canada receives has slipped significantly due to inflation, the...

CACTUS asks BTLR for $150M community TV framework

Media | 02/22/2019 12:53 pm EST

A group representing the Canadian community TV sector is asking the panel reviewing the broadcasting and...

Corus shuffles executive VP roster

Media | 02/21/2019 5:41 pm EST

Corus Entertainment Inc. has promoted Troy Reeb and Colin Bohm to its executive vice-president ranks,...

Majority supports fining social media for not removing fake news: CIRA poll

Media | 02/19/2019 4:50 pm EST

A majority of Canadian internet users say the federal government should impose fines or other sanctions on social media companies that don’t remove fake news from their platforms, according to...

Netflix setting up production hub in Toronto

Media | 02/19/2019 1:09 pm EST

Netflix Inc. will expand its production presence in Canada by leasing space at two Toronto production...

YouTube top source of mobile traffic: Sandvine

Media | 02/18/2019 10:12 am EST

Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube makes up just over 35 per cent of worldwide mobile data traffic, making it the...

Press council warns BTLR of ‘gap’ in complaints process for broadcasters

Media | 02/15/2019 4:16 pm EST

The National NewsMedia Council wrote to the expert panel reviewing Canada’s broadcasting laws to express concern about a “gap in the current public complaints framework...

Language representation at CRTC raised to Yale panel

Media | 02/12/2019 2:37 pm EST

Better representation at the CRTC of official language minority communities is a concern a number of...

OPC’s deindexing position ‘indirect attack’ on CBC, lawyer says

Media | 02/11/2019 6:33 pm EST

OTTAWA — A lawyer for CBC/Radio-Canada who is asking the Federal Court to...

Trish Williams joins CBC

Media | 02/11/2019 3:21 pm EST

Trish Williams is moving from Temple Street Productions to CBC/Radio-Canada, where she will be CBC’s new executive director of scripted content. Starting this week, she...

Rogers challenged disclosure motions after SCC ruling: court docs

Media | 02/08/2019 6:18 pm EST

Rogers Communications Inc. said it was surprised to see two motions for disclosure of subscriber information filed by two movie studios late last year and challenged them because they did not include...

Barbara Williams joins CBC

Media | 02/06/2019 4:46 pm EST

Corus Entertainment Inc.’s former chief operating officer, Barbara Williams, will be CBC/Radio-Canada’s new executive vice-president of CBC. Williams, who retired from Corus last year, will start the Toronto-based job on May 1, CBC said in a press release Wednesday. Michel Bissonnette, who has been in the role on an interim basis since Heather Conway left the public broadcaster in December, will continue as interim VP until May, CBC president Catherine Tait said in an internal message to staff Wednesday. “A visionary leader, Barbara brings with her a wealth of experience with respect to developing future revenue streams and overall content strategies that have consistently resulted in audience growth,”...

Former CBC president Lacroix joins law firm

Media | 02/04/2019 12:59 pm EST

Former CBC/Radio-Canada president Hubert Lacroix has joined the business law firm Blake, Cassels &...

Don’t exclude online services from Broadcasting Act: Private radio

Media | 02/04/2019 12:00 pm EST

Canada’s private radio broadcasters are fighting against a push to keep...

‘Milestone’ digital content meeting to take place next week: Heritage

Media | 02/01/2019 5:39 pm EST

The federal government is organizing a working meeting next week in Ottawa...

TekSavvy launches IPTV service

Media | 02/01/2019 5:11 pm EST

TekSavvy Solutions Inc. is now offering IPTV in Chatham, Ont., and the service will become available in...

Public music should feature Canadian content, Stingray says

Media | 02/01/2019 1:18 pm EST

Music in public establishments such as malls, bars and restaurants should...

Devices ‘no less important’ in Huawei debate: computing professor

Media | 02/01/2019 8:08 am EST

OTTAWA — Debate about whether or not to ban Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. from Canada’s future 5G networks has focused largely on backbone infrastructure, but a professor of...

CBC president likens Netflix to colonialism

Media | 01/31/2019 4:27 pm EST

OTTAWA — CBC/Radio-Canada’s president Catherine Tait compared Netflix Inc.’s worldwide presence to...

Ottawa taps team to warn of foreign digital interference in elections

Media | 01/30/2019 3:49 pm EST

OTTAWA — The Liberal government has set up a new alert protocol and...

MPs demand removal of Lac Mégantic images from Netflix

Media | 01/30/2019 3:14 pm EST

The House of Commons unanimously passed a motion Tuesday condemning Netflix Inc. for using footage of the Lac Mégantic, Que. train disaster in a TV show and a movie. The motion, introduced by NDP heritage critic Pierre Nantel, condemns the use of the images, and demands...

CRTC reviewing capacity of three radio markets

Media | 01/30/2019 2:33 pm EST

The CRTC has launched consultations on the radio market capacity of Vernon, B.C., Grande Prairie, Alta., and Scarborough, Ont. It said in the notices of consultation published Tuesday that it had received applications for new...

Bell’s panel submission calls for CMF to get 20% of foreign OTT revenues

Media | 01/29/2019 3:25 pm EST

BCE Inc. wants to inject the Canada Media Fund (CMF) with a potentially...

CRTC says no Telus licence amendment over community TV

Media | 01/28/2019 5:54 pm EST

The CRTC has denied a requested licence amendment by Telus Corp., citing...

YouTube limiting promotion of conspiracy videos and ‘borderline content’

Media | 01/28/2019 4:47 pm EST

Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube says it plans to tamp down on the spread of misleading, fake or conspiratorial video content that gets recommended for its users to watch by limiting the promotion of...

Gaming companies bristle after review panel suggests they’re broadcasters

Media | 01/28/2019 4:05 pm EST

A meeting with individuals leading the federal government’s review of communications legislation caught the video game industry off-guard, when the panel members’...

New Broadcast Act should ‘unambiguously exclude’ OTT: Netflix

Media | 01/25/2019 4:51 pm EST

Netflix Inc. is defending against calls to rope foreign over-the-top...

Rogers cost for disclosure case set for April

Media | 01/24/2019 3:47 pm EST

The Federal Court has set a spring date to determine how much Voltage Pictures LLC must pay Rogers Communications Inc. to hand over personal subscriber information after the Supreme Court found the telecom was entitled to...

Ever larger wireless data buckets belying consumption, Rogers says

Media | 01/24/2019 2:07 pm EST

Rogers Communications Inc. is pointing to higher data availability...

Might be ‘late’ for regional wireless competitors: Cogeco

Media | 01/23/2019 5:05 pm EST

Cogeco Inc.  is raising caution about the negative impact the government's...

Bell asked gov’t to ban some VPNs: documents

Media | 01/23/2019 4:40 pm EST

BCE Inc. urged the federal government to make virtual private networks (VPNs) used to circumvent...

Shaw calls for removal of 5% BDU content contribution

Media | 01/22/2019 6:17 pm EST

Shaw Communications Inc. is asking the government to drop the five per cent revenue contribution TV service providers make to Canadian content, but says if CanCon needs a subsidy then it should be a direct one from government...

Be ‘wary’ of regulating online speech: Facebook

Media | 01/22/2019 5:57 pm EST

While online misinformation needs to be taken seriously, that doesn’t...

Preventing LGBTQ content discrimination raised in BTLR consults

Media | 01/21/2019 4:15 pm EST

The CEO of an independent specialty TV channel is raising concerns that a lack of regulation could let foreign-based digital companies operating in Canada de-monetize or discriminate against types of...

Daniel Boudreau moves from TVA to CBC

Media | 01/21/2019 2:54 pm EST

Daniel Boudreau, previously vice-president of TVA productions, operations and technology, is leaving the Quebecor Inc. broadcasting division to become executive vice-president of media technology and infrastructure services at CBC/Radio-Canada. “For the public broadcaster to succeed in an increasingly competitive, global market, we need our technology and our infrastructure to stay leading edge. Daniel has the experience to help us do just that,” CBC president Catherine Tait said in a press release Monday. The appointment is effective Feb. 4. At TVA, CFO Denis Rozon will become...

FRPC wants CanCon visibility on search engines

Media | 01/21/2019 12:50 pm EST

As a rule, when Canadians search keywords on the internet, they should be presented with Canadian content...

Groups diverge on handling of net neutrality in comms laws

Media | 01/18/2019 5:25 pm EST

Canada’s current laws implicitly protecting net neutrality are sufficient...

Canadians split between traditional, online viewing: MTM

Media | 01/18/2019 2:16 pm EST

The number of Canadians who consume their video content mostly through...

Iristel getting into cybersecurity

Media | 01/18/2019 1:08 pm EST

Iristel Inc. is becoming a provider of cybersecurity services, the company said in a press release...

Bell offering day access to TSN/RDS for $5

Media | 01/18/2019 12:07 pm EST

BCE Inc. is now selling one-day subscriptions to its TSN and RDS streaming service for $5, the company said Friday. Bell launched the streaming service for the two channels in June, priced at $25 a month, the same price point as rival Rogers Communications Inc.’s...

Fast-track OTT review, clock ticking on CMF ‘top-up’: CMPA

Media | 01/18/2019 10:41 am EST

The Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) wants the government to...

Platforms could pull out of Canadian market if regulated: Google

Media | 01/16/2019 2:17 pm EST

Alphabet Inc.’s Google already contributes to the Canadian creative...

CRTC OKs Quebecor’s Groupe Serdy acquisition

Media | 01/14/2019 6:05 pm EST

The CRTC has approved Quebecor Inc.'s purchase of Groupe Serdy and its Évasion and Zeste specialty channels. The regulator said in a decision Monday Quebecor will have to pay $1.8 million in tangible benefits over the next...

Karine Moses to head Bell Media Quebec

Media | 01/14/2019 4:22 pm EST

Karine Moses has been named president of the Quebec division of BCE Inc.’s media subsidiary, the...

One-in-8 ‘cord jumping’ video services: MTM

Media | 01/11/2019 5:28 pm EST

One-in-8 Canadians have suspended their TV or paid video streaming service while planning to re-subscribe to it later, according to survey information released to media this week by CBC/Radio-Canada‘s Media Technology Monitor...

CBC calls for site-blocking provisions for ‘manipulated content’

Media | 01/11/2019 4:09 pm EST

CBC/Radio-Canada wants the federal government to grant the CRTC the ability...

CRTC asks Ottawa for single regulator on passive infrastructure

Media | 01/10/2019 6:28 pm EST

The CRTC is formally asking the federal government to make one regulatory...

Netflix considering setting up hub in Toronto: report

Media | 01/10/2019 12:34 pm EST

Toronto mayor John Tory said he has been in discussion with Netflix Inc. about setting up a production...

CRTC dismisses bias complaint against Bell Fund

Media | 01/08/2019 5:37 pm EST

The CRTC has dismissed in part a complaint lodged against BCE Inc.’s Bell Fund earlier this year by a coalition of media producers including CBC/Radio Canada and Blue Ant Media Inc., which alleged bias in how it decides on distributing funding. The complainants had...

Bell expanding targeted ads program to all services

Media | 01/08/2019 3:38 pm EST

BCE Inc. is rolling out to more services a pre-existing program that asks its subscribers to consider giving the company their personal information to better target relevant ads to them. The program is an expansion of a...

Stingray to acquire Alberta radio station CHOO-FM

Media | 01/08/2019 12:15 pm EST

Montreal-based Stingray Group Inc.’s radio arm says it has entered into an agreement to acquire the...

44.5% of under-30 households don’t have TV: report

Media | 01/07/2019 5:41 pm EST

A new report using data from Statistics Canada says 44.5 per cent of Canadian households headed by...

Stingray shelves Music Choice buy, citing price ‘disagreement’

Media | 01/03/2019 4:12 pm EST

Stingray Group Inc. said it is aborting its previously announced...

CRTC to require big broadcasters to report on women in production

Media | 01/03/2019 3:18 pm EST

The CRTC plans to soon start measuring the participation of women in television production and how much big TV broadcasters spend on production of Indigenous and official language minority programming. The regulator has launched a consultation to expand the ‘programs of national interest’ (PNI) reporting requirements for large English and French language broadcasting ownership groups, a category that includes BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Corus Entertainment Inc.The public...

Top telecom and media stories to watch for in 2019

Media | 12/21/2018 5:46 pm EST

As the new year begins, the months ahead promise a new spectrum auction, new CRTC announcements on...

Growing CRTC cost awards delays ‘problem for everybody’

Media | 12/18/2018 7:44 pm EST

Increases in how long the CRTC takes to pay public interest groups to...

CBC hires Torstar’s Claude Galipeau

Media | 12/18/2018 3:32 pm EST

Canada’s public broadcaster has hired Torstar Corp.’s Claude Galipeau as its executive vice-president of corporate development. The chief revenue officer of Torstar will join CBC/Radio-Canada on Jan. 7, 2019, the...

Bell must pay $433k in ‘ineligible’ tangible benefits

Media | 12/18/2018 3:20 pm EST

The CRTC has dismissed an appeal by BCE Inc. and ordered it to pay...

CRTC tells wireless providers to offer message relay services

Media | 12/14/2018 3:27 pm EST

Wireless operators will have to begin offering message relay services (MRS) by June 2019, the CRTC said Friday. Message relay serves customers with a hearing or speech disability by allowing them...

Ethics committee calls for new social media rules

Media | 12/11/2018 7:27 pm EST

OTTAWA — A House of Commons committee is unanimously calling for new rules for social media companies...

Corus lost $2.3M in unspent CMF money from failed French channels deal

Media | 12/10/2018 10:14 am EST

Corus Entertainment Inc. had $2.3 million in Canada Media Fund (CMF) money...

Elections bill doesn’t ‘sufficiently protect’ against foreign meddling: senators

Media | 12/07/2018 2:22 pm EST

A Senate committee is concerned that the elections modernization bill introduced earlier this year and ahead of the 2019 federal election won’t do enough to “sufficiently...

Election 2019 still ripe for opinion-shaping, CSE says

Media | 12/06/2018 3:46 pm EST

OTTAWA — Efforts to stanch online misinformation campaigns will not eliminate the very real situation that may see Canadians fall victim to attempts to influence their political opinions, the Canadian Security Establishment said in its cyber threat assessment Thursday. “Although major web platforms are making efforts to curb the negative effects of manipulative information sharing, the opinions of Canadians will remain an attractive target for cyber threat actors seeking to influence Canada’s democratic processes,” the CSE said Thursday. That view came from a national cyber...

CRTC says Quebec City radio market can’t sustain another station

Media | 12/06/2018 2:35 pm EST

The CRTC has rejected two warring bidders who wanted to set up commercial...

English Canadian subs to OTT jumps to 65%: MTM

Media | 12/06/2018 1:17 pm EST

The number of English-speaking adults in Canada subscribing to over-the-top streaming services continues...

CEO says Copyright Board to ‘run tighter ship’

Media | 12/06/2018 12:24 pm EST

OTTAWA — The Copyright Board will work to address long-standing criticism over how long it takes to issue decisions, including by implementing new regulations, CEO Nathalie Théberge told members of the House industry committee....

Ontario’s increasing social media advertising worries AG

Media | 12/05/2018 5:25 pm EST

Ontario’s auditor general is raising concerns about a legal "loophole"...

Bar Association tells committee notice-and-notice falls short

Media | 12/04/2018 5:36 pm EST

OTTAWA — The Canadian Bar Association told MPs Monday Parliament should introduce a new regime to deal with online piracy in the Copyright Act because the current notice-and-notice regime is ineffective. Steven Seiferling, executive officer of the bar association’s intellectual property law section, said at the House industry committee Canada’s notice-and-notice regime isn’t enough to deter infringement if it doesn't result in consequences. He said a copyright infringer could ignore the notice or spoof their location, making it hard for a rights-holder to stop the...

CRTC has no jurisdiction over content on single programs, SCC hears

Media | 12/04/2018 5:18 pm EST

OTTAWA — The CRTC can’t decide what commercials broadcasters can show...

CRTC says yes to new Alta. radio station, no to two Quebec applications

Media | 12/03/2018 3:43 pm EST

In a trio of decisions Monday, the CRTC approved a broadcast licence application for a new station in Cochrane, Alta., and declined both an application for a new station in Lachute, Que. and to renew...

Canadian Netflix had best value-for-money compared to other countries: study

Media | 11/30/2018 4:05 pm EST

A new analysis published by the consumer website Comparitech this week...

Elections chief to Senate: give OPC oversight over party privacy policies

Media | 11/30/2018 3:09 pm EST

The head of Elections Canada is urging the government to give the privacy...

Public Policy Forum to track online disinformation

Media | 11/29/2018 3:13 pm EST

Ottawa-based think tank the Public Policy Forum says it’s launching a new project to track, analyze and eventually find a way to counter "fake news." It’s digital democracy project will start by studying the effects of...

CRTC approves $22.5M budget increase for video relay service

Media | 11/29/2018 1:46 pm EST

The CRTC has approved a budget increase for a service that allows...

Michel Bissonnette to be interim CBC vice-president

Media | 11/28/2018 5:02 pm EST

Michel Bissonnette, the executive vice-president of Radio-Canada, has been named interim head of CBC,...

Telus and Shaw say their customers largely aren’t watching OMNI

Media | 11/28/2018 4:29 pm EST

GATINEAU, QUE. -- Telus Corp. and Shaw Communications Inc. say...

1-in-10 say ISPs should play a role identifying ‘fake news’: survey

Media | 11/28/2018 2:21 pm EST

There’s a lack of consensus over who should help Canadians determine what counts as ‘fake news’, but the government, non-profits and internet service providers (ISPs)...

Google asks MPs for ‘flexible copyright exemption’ for AI

Media | 11/27/2018 1:58 pm EST

OTTAWA — Alphabet Inc.’s Google wants members of Parliament to include...

‘We’re repeating it again’: CCTS sees complaints jump nearly 60 per cent

Media | 11/27/2018 6:00 am EST

The Commission for Complaints for...

Rogers focuses on past shortcomings for ethnic must-carry licence

Media | 11/26/2018 5:55 pm EST

GATINEAU, QUE. -- Rogers Communications Inc. is taking what it learned a year ago and is proposing to rectify what a previous CRTC panel said were shortcomings to run its national ethnic channel for a...

PIAC says CRTC ‘railroading’ internet code, boycotts proceedings

Media | 11/23/2018 2:33 pm EST

The Public Interest Advocacy Centre says it is boycotting the CRTC’s internet code proceedings, a move that comes after the regulator denied an application by consumer groups for a time-extension on...

Stingray in talks with Rogers for music channels on basic TV

Media | 11/22/2018 5:31 pm EST

Stingray Digital Group Inc. is in negotiations with Rogers Communications Inc. to get its HD channels on its basic TV lineup, a spokesman said, following an announcement by the telecom it's removing four Stingray music channels that were in lower definition. The four...

Elections commissioner expects ‘very positive’ relations with tech giants in 2019

Media | 11/22/2018 4:50 pm EST

OTTAWA — Canada’s elections commissioner said...

Budget bill risks ‘compromising’ copyright board autonomy, committee hears

Media | 11/22/2018 12:18 pm EST

An expert in copyright law is asking senators to nix a reform measure in...

OPC on global working group addressing AI challenges

Media | 11/21/2018 4:17 pm EST

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner and its counterpart in Quebec are party to a “permanent working...

Political parties ‘bumbling rubes’ on data: CPC campaign chair

Media | 11/20/2018 4:58 pm EST

OTTAWA —  The head of the Conservative Party’s 2019 national election...

Foreign Affairs says ‘too many’ employees falling for phishing attempts

Media | 11/19/2018 12:49 pm EST

The department of Foreign Affairs is looking for bidders to build a “phishing simulation initiative” to prepare its employees to better deal with such attempts. “Due to the increasingly...

Ottawa paid $2K settlement after consulate shared copyrighted image

Media | 11/16/2018 5:11 pm EST

The federal government paid a $2,000 settlement to a Barrie, Ontario photographer, according to the 2018 public accounts, because bureaucrats shared a copyrighted image on a government Facebook page....

CRTC to hold hearing on Leclerc radio stations acquisition

Media | 11/16/2018 4:54 pm EST

The CRTC will hold a hearing in Quebec City on Feb. 20 that will look into...

Viewing of U.S. kids’ linear TV channels in a freefall: analyst

Media | 11/16/2018 4:30 pm EST

Viewership of children’s TV channels in the United States declined by another 20 per cent in the past year, according to Bernstein Research analyst Todd Juenger. That decline means viewing of...

Most content pirates have TV subscriptions: MTM

Media | 11/15/2018 5:19 pm EST

More than half, or 59 per cent, of Canadians who pirate TV and movie content also have a TV subscription, according to a new report from Media Technology Monitor (MTM). “This likely indicates that pirating content has to do with getting particular content that may not be readily available through the [users’] existing subscriptions,” Thursday’s report outlined. “This may be content exclusive to other services or stations not included in the users’ subscription.” Nearly as many, or 58 per cent, subscribe to over-the-top (OTT) services, the CBC/Radio-Canada agency said....