Creative groups are standing their ground on spending for programs of national interest (PNI), suggesting that a marginal increase in funding for those programs proposed by the large English-language broadcasters last month is not enough to support Canadian content. “About the only virtue of the proposed 6% level is that it is not 5%,” the Directors Guild of Canada said in its reply to the proposal, which were due last week. “DGC does not believe that the [governor-in-council] sent back these decisions assuming the result would be such a marginal improvement in PNI.” That one...
Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains has released a statement on a call by a coalition of broadcasters, telecoms and creative groups to begin blocking websites hosting pirated content, in which he emphasized the efficacy of the current copyright protection system. The office of Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly pointed to Bains’ statement when asked about the issue, which Bains’ spokesman Karl Sasseville noted in an email was put out “on behalf of the government.” Bains, pointing to the...
A broad coalition made up of Canada’s largest telecoms and broadcasters, as well as groups representing...
The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) has denied BCE Inc.’s request for a...
Proposed legislation intended to combat the marketing of unhealthy food and...
The Canadian government announced Tuesday it has reached an agreement with 10 other countries taking part in the negotiations of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). It said it had...
The CRTC has given Quebecor Inc.’s TVA Sports fewer restrictions on when it can broadcast ads, saying that the channel can now “average the maximum amount of 12 minutes of advertising material offered in each clock hour over the broadcast day.” It noted in Tuesday’s decision that TVA competitor BCE Inc.’s RDS was given the same flexibility in its licence renewal in May 2017. Previous licence requirements stated that the channels “shall not distribute more than 12 minutes of advertising material during each clock hour.” Quebecor had argued that loosening the requirements...
Viceland, a specialty channel targeting millennials launched as part of a...
Corus Entertainment Inc.’s Nelvana is shaking up its core team, with a new appointment and promotions,...
BCE Inc. said Thursday it has signed a deal with Ericsson AB to use its TV platform, following a similar...
Weeks ahead of the 2018 Super Bowl, BCE Inc., along with the National...
The CRTC has settled a disagreement between BCE Inc. and Quebecor Inc. over the wholesale rate Bell pays for Quebecor’s TVA Sports. “The Commission finds that the evidence does not support the...
Stingray Digital Group Inc. and Birch Hill Equity Partners ramped up their lobbying in December, with both submitting their first communications reports for the year in the last weeks of 2017....
Rogers Communications Inc. said it will buy an Alberta radio station after coming to an agreement with Clear Sky Radio Inc. to acquire the licence of the station. The Medicine Hat classic hits music station CJCY-FM at 102.1...
Britbox, a streaming service showcasing British television, will be “coming soon to Canada,”...
The CRTC has approved the acquisition of two Ontario radio stations by Byrnes Communications Inc. from Vista Radio Ltd.
In a decision Monday, the regulator said it would not require the payment of tangible benefits for the ownership transfer of the two stations, 105.1...
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. will unlock FM chips in its newer smartphones, according to a press release...
Nearly half of Canadians are concerned to some degree about the consequences of the phenomenon of fake news, with 31 per cent saying they are “extremely concerned,” according to a new report from...
MONTREAL — Cogeco Inc. is feeling more optimistic about the possibility...
Corus Entertainment Inc. executives emphasized their optimism about future...
In a release on Wednesday, digital media company BroadbandTV Corp. (BBTV) announced the launch of a mobile game development division with an eye to creating content to be featured by its streaming talent.
The Vancouver-based company, which operates a large multi-platform...
Alphabet Inc.’s Sidewalk Labs kicked off the new year by registering to...
BCE Inc.’s Bell Media and Bloomberg LP have announced a joint effort to resuscitate the American financial brand’s Canadian TV presence, with a release on Monday outlining the details of a rebrand...
In a press release on Monday, Blue Ant Media Inc. announced the promotion...
The CRTC launched a survey Thursday to find out why Canadians consume content the way they do, including why many still turn to traditional TV and radio while others go exclusively online. The...
Shaw Communications Inc. said on Wednesday evening that its former CEO, Jim Shaw, has died.
“Jim’s...
Stingray Digital Group Inc. has purchased the New York-based streaming service Quello Concerts in a move...
The CRTC has denied an application by Ethnic Channels Group Ltd. (ECGL) to bring a Polish music channel to Canada after Blue Ant Media Inc. and Stingray Digital Group Inc. said it would interfere with their own services. The...
The Federal Court of Appeal dismissed a case brought forward by BCE Inc. challenging the CRTC’s rule...
Rogers Communications Inc. and CBC/Radio-Canada signed a seven-year sub-licensing deal for the broadcasting rights of Hockey Night in Canada’s Saturday night hockey game and the Stanley Cup playoffs, Rogers said in a press release on Tuesday.
This follows the one-year...
Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly named five new members to the CBC/Radio-Canada board of directors for five-year terms, said a Tuesday press release. Harley Finkelstein, the chief of operations for Shopify Inc., René Légère,...
Canadian programmatic digital ad spending will account for two-thirds of display advertising by 2018, says a recent report from market research company eMarketer Inc. released on Tuesday. Programmatic ads are purchased and...
The CRTC has added the Dutch channel Insight UHD to its list of non-Canadian programming services and stations authorized for distribution, following an application by Ethnic Channels Group Ltd. The English-language channel...
A few months after the emergence of a proposal asking the CRTC to shift...
After a unanimous vote in the House of Commons, the federal government has triggered the long-awaited five-year review of the Copyright Modernization Act, though the timing might cause some challenges for the government, according to David Fewer, director at the Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC). Initially expected to begin at the start of November, the late-December launch for the review means it will occur in a similar timeframe as the negotiations of international trade pacts like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the...
Opposition leader Andrew Scheer isn’t going public with his position on...
The number of Canadians who get their internet access wirelessly — either...
CBC/Radio-Canada has achieved its goal of doubling its digital reach more than two years early, the...
The CRTC granted a request by Bloomberg TV Canada to revoke its broadcasting licence Friday. The channel eliminated its in-house programming this August, according to a report in the Globe and Mail this summer. Its broadcasting...
Shaw Communications Inc. is now offering a video surveillance service aimed...
BCE Inc. and Corus Entertainment Inc. are recommending the CRTC revise the minimum standard for spending for programs of national interest (PNI) and boost it to six per cent of the previous year’s...
Rogers Communications Inc. announced that Edward and Melinda Rogers, the...
Shaw Communications Inc. used the CRTC’s Creative Canada consultation this week to back website blocking as a strategy to fight privacy.
“The rapid growth of the black market for online...
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) is urging the CRTC to mandate service providers to unlock devices even if the customer doesn’t have an active account with the provider, in a Part 1 application submitted on Wednesday. The Wireless Code was revised by the CRTC, effective Dec. 1, to require telecommunications providers to unlock the subsidized devices sold to new and renewing contract customers. The situation in question comes after the CRTC provided advice to consumers on...
The sale of non-core assets Rogers Communications Inc. said it is...
In a memo to its employees on Monday, CBC/Radio-Canada announced it has improved its over-the-top (OTT)...
In a release on Monday, the Quebec government announced $36.4 million over five years in new investments supporting the province’s print media moving to digital. Announcing the funding over a Facebook Inc. livestream, Quebec...
A partnership between BCE Inc. and iHeartMedia Inc., iHeartRadio Canada announced Monday an update to its...
The Canada Media Fund (CMF) has announced a new export project to help Canadian content reach global markets.
The pilot program will focus on “acquiring pre-sale financing from foreign broadcasters, online streaming services, distributors and sales agents” for...
OTTAWA — Canada’s highest court should prepare for consequences wrought on Canadian media in other...
Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly has appointed Monique Lafontaine as the...
The Competition Bureau has confirmed in an email they will review a recent deal between Torstar Corp. and Postmedia, which saw the exchange of 41 commuter, local or community newspapers between the two Canadian media organizations...
The CRTC has denied Rogers Communications Inc.’s request to amend a May...
Amazon.com Inc. announced multiple pieces of Amazon Web Service-based (AWS) video publishing software,...
The House of Commons standing committee on industry, science and technology has outlined a number of ways to improve technology transfer — the move of knowledge developed in academic settings to...
Facebook Inc. has named Garrick Tiplady its new managing director of Facebook Canada and Instagram...
In an emailed statement, Blue Ant Media Inc. has confirmed the resignation of its CEO of television and...
While the total amount of advertising money flowing to Canadian media has largely sustained a flat trajectory over the years, internet giants Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc. have increased their share of internet ads — and consequently the overall advertising...
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has voted to eliminate the boundaries that traditionally...
The union representing employees at 17 local TV and radio stations owned by...
OTTAWA — Policy makers in Canada have become more concerned about the...
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) has released an analysis of privacy enhancing technologies (PETs), but cautions that there are still challenges for the adoption of practises...
OTTAWA — Questions around telecom, intellectual property and media aren’t going to determine whether renegotiations of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) succeed or fail, Sarah Goldfeder, principal at Earnscliffe Strategy Group, said during a lunchtime...
OTTAWA — If BCE Inc.’s suggestion in September that the federal...
Rogers Communications Inc.’s theScore announced Tuesday that chief financial officer Tom Hearne is...
Blue Ant Media Inc. has hired two new executives at its Kids & Global Networks division, the company...
The Canada Media Fund (CMF) last week announced the release of hundreds of Canadian television and...
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) is in danger of having to close...
Quebecor Inc. said its wireless division has eclipsed one million subscribers since posting higher revenues and profits in its third-quarter earnings Thursday. “In the space of 7 years,...
Quebecor Inc.’s TVA Group has requested the modification of a condition...
TORONTO — If there’s one thing radio players can do to be successful in...
TORONTO — The federal government and the CRTC must pick up the pace and do more on critical telecom issues in order to make a much-needed impact when it comes to pricing and...
Sylvie Courtemanche is leaving her post as Corus Entertainment Inc.’s vice-president of government...
OTTAWA — Markets outside of Canada are increasingly important for music...
OTTAWA — Opposition MPs continued their criticism of Heritage Minister...
Piracy of live TV is expected to increase, according to Sandvine Corp., which says it poses...
BCE Inc. CEO George Cope said the company needs to do a better job of finding opportunities in emerging advertising technology, as the company seeks additional revenue growth for its media division.
“We have to play in that space,” Cope said on a conference call with analysts following the...
Distributel Communications Inc. has received the OK from the CRTC to acquire IPTV service...
Just over a week before Parliament is set to embark on its five-year review...
Users of the national video relay service (VRS) for hearing-impaired Canadians can now access the service...
Canada will be the testbed for Facebook Inc.’s new advertising transparency policies, according to a...
Interested parties now have an extra week to submit comments in the CRTC’s consultation on content distribution models. The regulator said in a notice Thursday it is extending the deadline for comments from Nov. 24 to Dec. 1....
In a press release on Wednesday, Pelmorex Corp. announced that Rory Capern will join the company as...
The CRTC said Wednesday that it will consider renewals of new and existing radio licences at a hearing early next year. The hearing will be held on Jan. 11 in Gatineau, Quebec, with interventions...
Creative organizations stepped up and added to a surge in lobbying activity...
Stingray Digital Group Inc. is challenging the validity of patents held by Pennsylvania-based Music Choice as part of a wider conflict between the two parties.
Music Choice, a multi-platform video and music network, filed a complaint for patent infringement in a Texas...
DHX Media Ltd. has appointed Gary Finnegan as vice-president of programming strategy, it said in a press...
On the final day of the CRTC’s broadcast distribution licence hearing,...
Facebook Inc. is teaming up with Ottawa-based digital literacy group,...
Fifty-seven per cent of Canadian anglophones subscribe to over-the-top (OTT) streaming services, with Netflix Inc. as the strong leader, according to the latest report from Media Technology Monitor (MTM), a project of...
Music Canada is asking the government to address the disparity between the value of creative content and the revenues that are generated from it. “The Value Gap challenges the livelihood and sustainability of an entire global social class, and threatens the future of Canadian culture,” Graham Henderson, president and CEO of Music Canada, said in a Tuesday press release. The “value gap” was outlined in what the organization is calling a first of its kind report, released this week. The gap affects publishing, journalism, film and television production and music, it added. Music...
The federal government reiterated a previously held position that it will not implement taxes on internet service providers (ISP) in favour of Canadian content in a review of an earlier Heritage...
Corus Entertainment Inc. announced Tuesday it is selling two...
GATINEAU, Que. — There are still some problems with the implementation...
Corus Entertainment Inc.’s Nelvana and Discovery Communications Inc. have...
The union representing Chinese-speaking media workers at properties owned...
The CRTC will consider mandatory distribution licence renewals for nine television channels when it holds a hearing next year, the regulator said in a Tuesday release. The commission said it will consider the renewal for the...
GATINEAU, QUE. — Some companies in a working group crafted to measure how...
TVA vice-president of programming, France Lauzière, has replaced Julie Tremblay as the president and CEO...
Canadian audience measurement organization Numeris said in a press release Thursday it’s making progress on the development of a new measurement system that incorporates data from multiple platforms.
“Numeris and our partners are responding to our members’...
