OTTAWA — Consumer advocacy groups are cautioning MPs against proposals that would make site-blocking in Canada easier, after a push for those anti-piracy policies failed at the CRTC failed last month. Representatives from the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) warned MPs on the House of Commons industry committee Monday against proposals similar to FairPlay Canada’s CRTC ask for a new website-blocking regime to deal with internet piracy. John Lawford, executive director at PIAC, said “expedient judicial...
CBC/Radio-Canada’s executive vice-president of English-language services, Heather Conway, is leaving the public broadcaster next month, the Crown corporation announced Monday.
Conway will leave her role on Dec. 7 to “pursue other opportunities,” following five years working at Canada’s public broadcaster, according to a CBC press release.
“It is with very mixed emotions I write to tell you that I will be leaving CBC at the end of this year (December 7, 2018),” Conway wrote in an internal note to CBC staff....
The comment period for the government-appointed, blue-ribbon panel that’s reviewing Canada’s communications laws is being extended into next year. It is being lengthened to January 11, 2019, the panel has confirmed to The...
CBC/Radio-Canada has named Jack Nagler its new English services ombudsman.
Nagler, who is currently CBC’s senior director of journalism, replaces Esther Enkin in the...
Cogeco Inc.’s implementation of a new customer management system, which...
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) has made a change to its breach notification guidance to address wording that some lawyers warned could lead to multiple organizations sending out notices...
OTTAWA — Corus Entertainment Inc. CEO Doug Murphy told an industry conference Thursday the company has been experimenting with artificial intelligence, including for...
OTTAWA — Members of the panel tasked with providing recommendations to...
OTTAWA – Conservative senators doubled-down on a previously-raised...
MPs in Canada and the United Kingdom have stepped up their efforts to get the chance to grill Facebook Inc.’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg at a parliamentary committee hearing. The chairs of two...
OTTAWA — The billions of dollars Rogers Communications Inc. says it’s...
A year away from the next federal election, a majority of Canadians are...
OTTAWA — The head of Canada’s telecom regulator says clarity on where...
VMedia Inc. has come to an agreement Tuesday to buy a small company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange in a move that will allow it to become publicly traded without having to go through an initial public offering (IPO). The...
The Supreme Court of British Columbia has ruled that Telus Corp. can’t stop a former employee from immediately joining Rogers Communications Inc. despite signing a contract that forbids him from...
Corus Entertainment Inc.’s chief operating officer, Barbara Williams, will retire at the end of this month.
The company said in a press release Wednesday that it won’t be appointing anyone to replace her in the role, since Williams has “led and developed a strong...
GATINEAU — Consumer protection and seniors advocacy groups told the CRTC...
Colin McKay, head of public policy and government relations for Alphabet...
The Canadian Communications Systems Alliance (CCSA) is asking the Senate...
Stingray Digital Group Inc.’s move to enter the Canadian radio market has...
GATINEAU— CRTC Chairman Ian Scott opened public hearings on aggressive and misleading telecom sales practices by saying the commission is "concerned" by the information...
Corus Entertainment Inc.’s wild ride through the unpredictable TV ad...
A new report from the Angus Reid Institute indicates that the cost of services is the main driver behind...
OTTAWA -- BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. are asking the House heritage committee to amend parts of the copyright and telecommunications acts to compel a number of intermediaries to take down websites that make available...
Steve Ladurantaye is leaving CBC/Radio-Canada after two and a half years at...
Canada has been “pushing hard” to speed up development of a plan for...
Stingray Digital Group Inc.’s Stingray Business division, which provides background music and digital signage to businesses, is expanding in Europe.
It said Friday it has purchased Belgian company DJ-Matic, which also...
While services like Perform Group’s Dazn and Rogers Communications Inc.’s Sportsnet Now have been emerging in recent years, they “haven’t yet caught on in the Anglophone market,” Media...
CBC/Radio-Canada saw a nearly six per cent boost in its total ad revenue...
Blue Ant Media Inc. is acquiring Saloon Media, a Toronto production company “specializing in globally relevant factual television,” it said in a press release Thursday. Saloon Media’s shows include Mummies Alive and Hunting Nazi Treasure, which aired on the History channel in Canada, and The Kennedys, a mini-series that was broadcast on CNN. “The purchase is a key step in the expansion of Blue Ant Media’s North American production business, which will see the media company rapidly expanding its original content business in the Canadian and US markets,” Blue Ant said. That strategy also includes a number of new hires the company announced yesterday, it noted....
The CRTC has approved Cogeco Inc. to purchase 10 radio stations from RNC Media Inc., it said in a decision Thursday. “The Commission considers that the RNC stations integrated into Cogeco could...
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) said it is gathering more information about whether the personal information of Canadians was implicated in a leak involving an Alphabet Inc. social network. “Google has contacted...
Blue Ant Media Inc. has named Julie Chang its new vice-president of...
A multi-million dollar class action claim has been filed in Ontario Superior Court against television content producer Cineflix Media Inc. and its affiliates, claiming workers were denied minimum...
A new online radio service from Quebecor Inc. indicates the company is “putting convergence back at the forefront of its strategy,” Desjardins analyst Maher Yaghi said in...
Streaming video platforms in the European Union will have to ensure 30 per...
OTTAWA — Alphabet Inc.’s Google wants to see the Copyright Board of Canada tariff setting process...
OTTAWA — Two senators on the Senate transport and communications...
Nearly a dozen content producers have obtained a court order banning set-top box software developed by an individual in Canada that allows users to watch their content for free, according to court...
Internet traffic is “more encrypted than ever,” with a “conservative estimate” suggesting more than half of all internet traffic is encrypted, according to Sandvine Corp.’s 2018 Global...
The Federal Court of Appeal said in a Monday decision that the CRTC lacks the jurisdiction to implement its Wholesale Code -- governing the business relationships between TV service providers and...
OTTAWA -- There is an “urgent need” for Canadian lawmakers to set out a new communications framework now that Canada has hammered out a new trilateral agreement on trade to replace the North...
The CRTC has no jurisdiction to implement a system to block websites...
OTTAWA -- Fraudulent copyright infringement claims made through Canada’s notice-and-notice system can be dealt with by forcing the party making the claim to pay a fee to...
The new trade pact forged by Canada, the U.S. and Mexico to replace the...
The CRTC has opened up a comment period after it received applications from Vista Radio Ltd. for two new commercial radio stations in North Bay and Timmins, Ont. Vista radio currently operates 41...
Netflix Inc. says it’s “on track to exceed” its $500 million pledge...
Some of the battles taking place before the CRTC related to site-blocking...
Quebecor Inc. is urging Quebec political parties to pledge that they’ll keep a provincial film and TV tax credit and support the province’s film industry, the company said in a press release Wednesday. Quebecor president and CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau said in the release that Quebecor has been making its case to Quebec’s Liberal government for “more than a year” that it needs “fiscal predictability” so it can invest $40 million into building new studios. “Without such guarantees, studios such as MELS are at the mercy of shifting government policies, such as the cuts in...
The Competition Bureau is calling for online video streaming services to review their marketing practices, terms and conditions after it found they’re sometimes unclear and hard to understand....
OTTAWA — Canada’s private broadcasters are defending Canada’s existing copyright laws and tariff...
Hélène Laurendeau will be the new deputy minister at Canadian Heritage, the Prime Minister’s Office announced Friday afternoon. Laurendeau is currently deputy minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs, a...
Rogers Communications Inc. and the University of British Columbia are joining forces on a multi-million dollar venture to build out a 5G hub on the university’s campus over the next three years. The telecom said in a...
Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez has met with creative groups in his first registered lobby...
Stingray Digital Group Inc. has appointed Ryan Fuss its new senior vice-president of advertising sales,...
OTTAWA -- Lawmakers need to make net neutrality a major priority and...
Facebook Inc. will introduce a pilot project aimed at securing election campaigns for the United States midterm elections this fall. The company said in a blog post that past elections have shown that candidates, politicians...
OTTAWA -- Canadian rock legend Bryan Adams is asking Canadian lawmakers to change the Copyright Act so it gives artists more control over their copyright.
Adams told reporters on Parliament Hill Tuesday that he had approached two prime ministers – Stephen Harper and...
Canada's federal, provincial and territorial privacy watchdogs collectively...
Facebook Inc. is facing another class action suit in Ontario over how it...
Facebook Inc. is adding verification of photos and videos to its fact-checking of content on its social...
As politicians file back into Parliament Hill’s Centre Block for the...
OTTAWA --- In a decision that could serve as a deterrent to copyright infringement lawsuits against Canadians, the Supreme Court of Canada said Friday that internet service...
The European Parliament passed its copyright directive Wednesday, with some amendments to the...
Former Blue Ant Media Inc. content executive Vanessa Case has joined the ranks of Vice Media Inc.'s...
Opposition Conservative leader Andrew Scheer has shuffled his caucus's shadow cabinet in the lead up to...
The federal government has quietly been testing the security of communications equipment used by Chinese-owned telecommunications company Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., The Globe and Mail reported...
As cultural protection emerges as a last-stretch NAFTA sticking point,...
The CRTC said Thursday it is considering taking action on potential changes it outlined in a May report looking at programming distribution models. The Harnessing Change report recommended a number...
Long-time Liberal insider and Bluesky Strategy Group principal Tim Barber has registered formally to...
The CRTC should focus its efforts on taking action against telecoms that have been directly accused of unethical sales practices instead of applying blanket rules on the entire industry, smaller...
After this summer’s cabinet shuffle, the Heritage minister will gain two new parliamentary secretaries, effective Aug. 31.
In a press release Friday, the Prime Minister’s Office announced 39 updated or renewed positions, including MPs Gary Anandasangaree and Andy...
The CRTC published its reassessed baseline spending requirements for programs of national interest (PNI)...
The Canada Media Fund (CMF) has confirmed that its vice-president of...
In a blog post on Wednesday, Facebook Inc. announced the global launch of...
In the three years since the last Canadian federal election, emerging...
According to the latest numbers from Statistics Canada, 67 per cent of adult Canadians purchased a digital product, such as a subscription to a streaming service, ebooks or online newspapers, between July 2017 and June 2018. That number grew to 79 per cent of all adults when including free versions, according to StatCan’s inaugural digital economy survey, released on Wednesday. Overall, Canadians spent upwards of $8.1 billion on electronic items over the course of the year, according to the report. StatCan found that computer software, apps and games commanded spending to the tune of...
The Canada Media Fund (CMF) released its 2017-2018 annual report on Monday,...
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) has...
The CRTC outlined Monday the details of an online public opinion survey concerning the regulator’s efforts to look into the allegedly unethical sales practises of the country’s telecoms. The information the Commission...
CBC/Radio-Canada has appointed Gave Lindo to lead the public broadcaster’s over-the-top (OTT) content...
The Canadian Association of Broadcasters registered to lobby the federal government on its review of the Copyright Act in July, which was otherwise a sleepy month in telecom and media government...
Conservative MP Maxime Bernier announced Thursday that Montreal Economic...
Canadian Heritage has posted the job application for the CRTC’s regional commissioner for Quebec, a year before the incumbent’s term is up. Yves Dupras, a Quebec lawyer, began a five-year term as the current commissioner...
Media organizations owned by Quebecor Inc. have gone to court to push back against judgements made by a press oversight group in Quebec, according to a release on Wednesday. Le Journal de Montréal, Le Journal de Québec, 24...
Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. (SaskTel) announced the launch of a new TV service using Ericsson AB’s MediaFirst-powered IPTV platform in a press release on Wednesday. Dubbed the maxTV Stream, according to the release, it will come standard with 55 channels, live TV replay, voice control, app-based mobile viewing and integrated over-the-top (OTT) streaming services. The Regina-based provider launched the new service in 11 rural areas over DSL connections and in urban centres in Saskatchewan that are supported by its infiNET fibre internet service. It said it hopes to expand to 350 communities by 2020. While rural areas will receive upgrades to support the new service over DSL lines, according to an email from SaskTel spokesman Greg Jacobs, the company has chosen to focus instead on building out fibre connections in...
More than a dozen movie studios have sued Canadians in recent months in a...
Stingray Digital Group Inc. has named its first chief revenue officer, appointing David Purdy — who previously worked at Rogers Communications Inc. and Vice Media Inc. — to the role.
“David’s experience in driving growth and revenue generation within the television and media industries...
The latest report from CBC/Radio-Canada’s Media Technology Monitor (MTM) project outlined 24 per cent of anglophone Canadians said they have listened to a podcast in the last month. Interest in...
The Senate transport and communications committee said Tuesday the...
The Canada Media Fund (CMF) announced a new financing program to encourage television co-developments by Canadian and South African producers on Tuesday. The total amount of funds being allocated is $120,000, with individual projects able to qualify for up to $40,000 each, according to the release. Projects looking to participate need to submit a company profile through the CMF’s website. The release also outlined that documentary, children or drama television program projects are eligible for contributions under this effort. The submission deadline is Oct. 10....
Canadian households spent an average of $222.83 a month on communications services in 2016, the CRTC said...
BCE Inc. and Vice Media Inc. have reached a deal that will see new and previously produced content from...
There is no need to set thresholds for jitter as part of the basic service standard, telecoms said in interventions to a CRTC consultation Monday. The regulator launched the consultation in July, when it issued...
The Jim Pattison Group of Companies is adding to its stable of radio...
The CRTC has approved the sale of a Fort McMurray, Alta. radio station and granted an exemption to the requirement to pay tangible benefits. It approved an application by United Christian...
Guylaine Roy, who was named associate deputy minister of Canadian Heritage last May, is leaving the department, according to a press release from the Prime Minister’s Office Friday.
Effective Monday, Roy will become the...
The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) will not hear an appeal from an American movie studio challenging a Canadian court’s decision forcing it to pay court costs upfront for a defendant it is looking to sue for copyright...
According to a recent report from the CBC/Radio-Canada Media Technology Monitor (MTM) project, 72 per cent of English-speaking Canadians have used a social networking service in the past month, with just over half of those using...
Perform Group’s Dazn sports streaming service will licence the NFL Sunday Ticket service to most of the major traditional television providers in Canada, according to a release on Tuesday. The release outlined Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc., Shaw Communications Inc., and Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. are amongst the providers which will offer live broadcasts of the football games included in the NFL Sunday Ticket lineup. It also said Telus Corp. will sublicence the rights from Bell, and the service will also be available through other unnamed providers. That's...
