TORONTO — The growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) also presents a chance for telecoms to monetize the data coming from IoT devices, said Michael Cihra, vice-president of IoT and emerging markets at Telus Corp.
“The one area that we also spend some time on now that...
BCE Inc.’s properties have scored the broadcast rights to the National Football League’s Thursday Night Football games, Bell Media announced Wednesday. The regular-season games will air on TSN, CTV Two and RDS as of the 2017 season, the company said in a press release. Bell is taking over the rights after Rogers Communications Inc. didn’t renew its contract after last season. As Scott Moore, president of Sportsnet and NHL properties, told The Wire Report in April, “the overall NFL package had been significantly diluted without inclusion of the digital rights.” Bell said its...
The Canadian Film Centre (CFC) and BCE Inc.’s media division have teamed up to develop virtual and augmented reality projects, the duo said in a Wednesday press release. "We're very excited to...
An additional nine local CTV stations across the country will begin airing an early evening newscast this fall, BCE Inc.’s media division said Wednesday. “Local news is an essential institution that unites communities...
Rogers Communications Inc. announced Tuesday its media sales division had signed two deals that “expand reach and deliver brand-safe, premium-content environments to advertisers.” In a press release, the company said the...
TORONTO — Products like new streaming TV services and sports-focused TV-everywhere offerings will help...
Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly is facing more calls to order the CRTC to review its licence renewal decision, this time from the Bloc Québécois. On Monday, Bloc MP Xavier Barsalou-Duval noted during question period in the House of Commons that celebrated film director Xavier Dolan had “openly criticized the CRTC” at the Gala Québec Cinema in Montreal on Sunday. “Its decision regarding the licence for Séries+ and Historia jeopardizes the future of Quebec television,” Barsalou-Duval said, according to a transcript, before asking Joly if she would “do something to support our...
Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron made its bed and now it has to lie in it, according to consumer and digital rights advocates who opposed the company’s request for a delay in complying with the CRTC’s...
Rogers Communications Inc.’s media division will be expanding its CityNews program outside of Toronto...
Radio still factors heavily into the daily lives of anglophone Canadians, with local stations providing some of the most popular content, according to a new Media Technology Monitor (MTM) report. The Thursday report by MTM, a...
Twice-fired CRTC commissioner Raj Shoan has filed his application for judicial review, appealing his second removal from his post as the regional representative for Ontario. In a notice of application filed at the Federal Court...
Allowing customers to only select TV channels à la carte after they’ve taken advantage of one 10-channel small package doesn’t comply with the CRTC’s pick-and-pay rules, BCE Inc. was told....
OTTAWA — Before any right to be forgotten rules are instituted in Canada, there needs to be a fulsome public discussion, Colin McKay, head of public policy and government relations at Alphabet...
The CRTC has called for those holding TV service broadcasting licences that expire at the end of August 2018 to apply for their renewal. In a notice posted Thursday, the commission said licensees...
NorthVu Inc. has abandoned an appeal it filed with MediaTube Corp. in a dispute with BCE Inc. NorthVu filed a notice of discontinuance on May 23 in an appeal the two parties launched in February, against a January Federal...
Canada Media Fund (CMF)-supported content has seen a healthy export market in Europe, rivalling Canada’s number one export market in the United States, according to a new report sponsored by the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA). Data released in the Tuesday report tracking Canadian television pre-sales found that Europe only marginally trailed the U.S. in purchases, with $155.1 million compared to the latter’s $155.3 million over a 10-year period, between 2006 and 2016. The United Kingdom led Europe with $90.4 million. Pre-sales from the U.K. alone made up 29 per cent of...
Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly told a parliamentary...
The Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC) said in a press release Monday Judy Gladstone is taking over as its executive director. She replaces Pepita Ferrari in the role. Between 1997 and...
Conservatives elected Saskatchewan MP Andrew Scheer as party and official Opposition leader over the...
Both CBC/Radio-Canada and Netflix Inc. saw dramatic improvements in how Canadians view their brands over the past year, according to the latest edition of the Gustavson Brand Trust Index. The annual University of Victoria...
Rogers Communications Inc. has begun marketing itself as the Internet service provider (ISP) of choice for gamers, acquiring exclusive e-sports content for its Sportsnet streaming service and entering into peering agreements with gaming platforms.
Charlie Millar,...
Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron is asking the CRTC for more time to comply with...
Blue Ant Media Inc. has acquired Racat Group, with international assets that include production houses and mobile game developers. As part of the deal, announced Wednesday, Blue Ant gets Racat’s New Zealand-based natural...
The Canadian public and the Conservative Party of Canada members have differing views when it comes to...
Guylaine Roy has been named associate deputy minister of Canadian Heritage, according to a press release from the Prime Minister’s Office Friday. Roy had been the assistant deputy minister for cultural affairs at the...
The parliamentary secretary to the innovation minister was a popular target for lobbyists last month, as...
CBC/Radio-Canada’s president and CEO Hubert Lacroix said the Crown corporation’s competition comes...
Pressure from Quebec could lead Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly to consider imposing taxes on foreign over-the-top (OTT) services, according to Desjardins Capital Markets analyst Maher Yaghi....
Facebook Inc. will live stream 20 Major League Baseball (MLB) games this season on its social media...
Netflix Inc. is setting up “download zones” in certain areas in Ontario to help the data starved pre-load movies and TV shows onto their devices, according to a Canadian Press report. WiFi hotspots will be set up at Bass Pro Shop at Vaughan Mills on Friday and the Farmers Market in Collingwood on Saturday and Sunday, the report said. Employees of Netflix will be on site to guide users through the steps, according to CP. Netflix said it will have these zones at “various Ontario cottage country locations on every holiday weekend until Labour Day,” the story noted. Netflix...
Radio will continue to thrive in a competitive environment because it...
The CRTC will hold a hearing on a number of broadcast distribution undertakings’ [BDUs] licence renewal...
While about a tenth of Canadians have used a virtual reality (VR) headset, only about two per cent of them actually own one, according to a new Media Technology Monitor...
A day after the CRTC released its decision on broadcast licence renewals for large ownership groups, three organizations representing the country’s production sector said they are concerned the new...
While the primary goal of BCE Inc.’s new television product is to tackle TV sub losses, it could also be used as an “offensive tool” against its cable competitors, according to Canaccord Genuity....
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) has elected David Sparrow as its national president for a two-year term.
Sparrow, who from 2013 was...
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...
Rogers Communications Inc. will get a three-year window to run its new national ethnic channel before having to compete with other proposals for its mandatory carriage, the CRTC announced Monday. The regulator partially...
Manon Brouillette, president of Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron, downplayed the effect that BCE Inc.’s recent move to deploy fibre-to-the-home...
Mark Slone has been elected president of The Canadian Association of Film Distributors and Exporters. The lobby group announced the election of Slone, who is currently Entertainment One Ltd.’s executive vice-president of theatrical distribution and marketing, in...
The Federal Court of Appeal has granted Voltage Pictures LLC its appeal challenging the costs Rogers Communications Inc. was asking for to disclose customer information in...
Despite not operating in Canada, the country’s competition watchdog has reviewed the proposed merger of AT&T Inc. and Time Warner Cable...
Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and Peppermint Patty are joining Halifax-based DHX Media Ltd.’s stable of properties, as the company announced Wednesday its bid to acquire the Peanuts brand from an American management company. The deal with Iconix Brand Group Inc. includes an...
The number of anglophone Canadians who have smartphones climbed up to 80 per cent in the fall of 2016 from 77 per cent a year earlier, according to a new report from Media Technology Monitor (MTM). At the same time, the percentage of anglophones who specified they had basic phones dropped from 11 per cent to eight per cent over that time. “Although they are still available for purchase, the vast majority of Anglophones are opting to get a smartphone when getting a new phone,” the report said. Half of anglophone smartphone owners now use their devices to stream music,...
The CRTC’s offices in Gatineau, Que., remained shut down for a second day Tuesday due to flooding in the area, according to the commission’s website. Among the releases the regulator was scheduled to issue...
Canadian viewers will get to watch a National Football League (NFL) game that will be played out of London, England, this fall after Verizon Communications Inc. purchased the streaming rights to the game. The one-game...
OTTAWA — The future of wireless spectrum in Canada won’t be about who holds the largest amount of it, but rather who wields it in the...
The CRTC has approved two applications for new radio broadcasting licences, for a community FM station in Kingston, Ont., and a commercial ethnic FM station in Toronto. It granted an application for the Toronto station to a...
Raj Shoan, the CRTC’s regional commissioner for Ontario who was fired again just four days after a return to his post, said he will be heading back to court to challenge the second order-in-council removing him from the regulatory body. In a statement issued Friday, Shoan said he was informed late Thursday that his governor-in-council (GIC) appointment, which he regained after 10 months following an April 28 Federal Court decision, would again be terminated as of midnight Friday. Justice Cecily Strickland’s decision — stemming from...
Rob Farina will take on the role of head of radio content, strategy and iHeartRadio for BCE Inc.’s media division, the company announced in a Thursday press release. The position, effective May 29, will...
NDP heritage critic Pierre Nantel is raising the alarm that cultural protection could be on the chopping block if a wholesale renegotiation of the country’s trade agreement with the United States and Mexico occurs, and is asking the heritage minister to take a stand. In an opinion piece published in French-language...
A new report from broadband equipment maker Sandvine Corp. says about six per cent of households in North America “currently have a Kodi device configured to access...
A private member’s bill to privatize CBC/Radio-Canada met a decisive defeat Wednesday night, after members of Parliament voted 260-6 to send it to the legislation graveyard. Saskatchewan MP and Conservative Party...
Canada’s big three wireless providers have not spoken with the minister for Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. about the potential partial sale of the company, even though last week he said he met with a major telecom, according to a Tuesday Regina Leader-Post report. SaskTel Minister Dustin...
Raj Shoan, the once-former CRTC commissioner, returned to work Monday, following a 10-month gap in his role as the regional representative for Ontario. As Shoan put it in a statement issued over the weekend, his tenure was...
Stingray Digital Group Inc. has named Valery Zamuner to the position of senior vice-president of mergers, acquisitions and strategic initiatives, effective May 23. “With her...
Twitter Inc. and Bloomberg LP have come to an agreement that will see the financial news outlet provide round-the-clock streaming content for the social media platform as part of 12 streaming deals...
Artificial intelligence is a tool telecoms will increasingly use to manage networks and enhance various products, but its susceptibility to hacking will also pose big security-related concerns, especially if used for critical infrastructure, according to experts. AI, which is software programmed to think and operate like humans, is a fast-growing technology that will help automate functions in the economy previously done by humans. It’s also a technology that’s been drawing government attention. The federal budget, which committed to growing “Canada’s advantage...
Raj Shoan was denied procedural fairness when he was fired from his job as the CRTC’s regional commissioner for Ontario last summer, three years into a five-year term, a Federal Court justice...
Facebook Inc. received 773 requests for customer information from Canadian law enforcement and government agencies in the second half of 2016, down from 1,004 requests in the...
OTTAWA — Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly said she found a receptive audience for her message of cultural diversity on digital platforms among the executives of the digital media giants she...
The Ontario government said it will support the latest technologies in the coming years, with funding for artificial intelligence and 5G networks included in its 2017 budget. Finance Minister Charles Sousa tabled Ontario’s...
The CRTC will explore the topic of generating more participation of women in media production, according to Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais. Speaking at the annual awards gala for Women in Communications and Technology Wednesday night in Ottawa, Blais said the regulator will “use its convening power to initiate a broader discussion” on having women fairly represented in production activities, according to a copy of his remarks. “In the coming months, we will be planning an event on women in production, with a particular emphasis on women in leadership positions.”...
Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. received the final nod required in its bid to privatize, with the CRTC granting its approval Wednesday for the transaction it said was worth $479 million. The deal is in the public...
BCE Inc. will introduce a new television service aimed at customers who have been turning away from traditional TV to online alternatives, president and CEO George Cope said on a conference call with analysts discussing the...
Shaw Communications Inc. and Corus Entertainment Inc. will close three Shaw local TV stations in Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary, and redistribute the annual funding to Global News...
Canada has become the world’s sixth-largest market for recorded music, according to a new report from the International Federation for the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The group’s 2017 Global Music Report said...
Rogers Communications Inc. said Tuesday it intends to purchase a Vancouver radio station from Newcap Inc., adding it to its stable of all-sports stations. In a press release, the company said the transaction...
Telus Corp. announced Monday a new investment of $80 million in its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network in Quebec. It said in a French-language press release that the investment would affect almost 20 communities in...
Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. has to pony up more than $300,000 to make up a deficit in its Canadian content development contributions, the CRTC said. In a letter dated April 5, the regulator...
The Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (CCSA) led the telecom field for lobbying the federal government in March, logging 15 communication reports for the month, according to the federal lobbyists’ registry. Those...
Telus Corp. has quietly launched an IPTV service that will allow subscribers to watch live TV and on-demand content for $20 a month with no contract. The box itself, which is powered by Alphabet Inc.’s Android, will cost $100 and is currently available to subscribers in seven communities in British Columbia and Alberta, according to an email from Telus spokesperson Richard Gilhooley. Gilhooley said the service will officially launch in Alberta and B.C. “in the coming months.” A Telus community manager announced the service’s availability on a forum...
The CRTC’s decision Thursday to ban most forms of zero-rating means telecoms will have to rely on service in order to stand out from the competition, analysts said. The...
CBC/Radio-Canada is leading a collaboration between public broadcasters and other media distributors to boost video exports via a new online platform, it said Tuesday. The platform, called Panora.tv “aims to...
As the CRTC banned most forms of differential pricing practices Thursday — including declaring that telecoms can’t pick and chose Internet content to zero-rate and...
Annual subscription revenue from over-the-top (OTT) providers is estimated to be inching toward the billion-dollar mark in Canada, according to a new report from Convergence Consulting Group Ltd., which estimated a...
In his first day on the job, newly minted Rogers Communications Inc. president and CEO Joe Natale gave few details about his priorities, but said he’ll be working on a strategy in the coming weeks. “To be clear, it’s not my intention to set up my plan today,” Natale said during the company’s annual general meeting in Toronto on Wednesday. “Over the next few weeks, I want to hear from our team, from our customers and our shareholders to formulate our...
The federal government has signed an audiovisual coproduction treaty with Luxembourg. “This treaty will further position Canada as a partner of choice in audiovisual coproductions, and strengthen our cultural and...
The CRTC may very well complete the record on net neutrality policy in Canada when it releases its decision Thursday afternoon on differential pricing practices,...
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) has released a schedule and details how it plans to shift the use of 600 MHz spectrum from over-the-air (OTA) television to wireless. ISED...
BCE Inc. is asking the CRTC to reinsert a phrase into its terms and conditions removed in last month’s decision on mobile wholesale mobile wireless roaming service tariffs that the company...
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) has hired Cathia Badiere as its national director of research. Effective immediately, Badiere will oversee the organization’s collective bargaining, policy and industry research “to support ACTRA’s objective of...
MONTREAL — Digital advertising will continue to evolve into new forms we can’t yet predict, Richard Gingras, vice-president of Alphabet Inc.’s Google News,...
The CRTC will begin measuring the books of digital media operations in the country, with the aim of eventually publishing data on their finances, the regulator said in its new three-year plan. Published on its...
After a series of high-profile departures from the company, Rogers Communications Inc. announced Thursday that it will welcome its new president and CEO next week. Former Telus Corp. head Joe Natale...
Rogers Communications Inc. has extended its deal with CBC/Radio-Canada to broadcast its flagship Hockey Night in Canada program for one more year, spokesman Andrew Garas confirmed to The Wire Report. Rogers and CBC struck the deal when it signed its 12-year deal with the National Hockey League in 2014 for the public broadcaster to continue to air the Saturday night show for four years. According to a Monday Globe and Mail report, Sportsnet president Scott Moore said “he would like to extend the relationship with CBC beyond the 2017-18 season...
Analog and digital cable’s share of the TV market declined from 40 per cent to 36 per cent in 2016, while IPTV subscriptions picked up among English-speaking Canadians, according to new research from Media Technology Monitor...
Canadian advertisers are catching up to their American counterparts, with the market share of digital ad spending on mobile platforms forecast to hit 77.6 per cent by 2021, according to research firm eMarketer Inc. This...
The CRTC can’t retroactively apply regulations established almost a year after the fact to justify its prohibition simultaneous substitution during the broadcast of the National Football...
Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly will travel to California later this month to meet with representatives from Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc., her office has confirmed....
The CRTC has resolved a dispute between Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. over 4K content, telling the companies in an April 5 letter that Rogers has to provide its 4K content to Telus immediately. Telus argued that the 4K version of Sportsnet is defined as a “new programming service” under regulations that specify companies must make new services available to other companies even without a commercial agreement. It also said “that if the Commission does not act quickly, [Telus] subscribers who have invested in 4K television sets will not be...
OTTAWA — A Conservative backbencher’s bill to privatize CBC/Radio-Canada found a little more support from party colleagues in the House of Commons Monday, but it likely...
Amazon.com Inc.’s Twitch is asking the Supreme Court of British Columbia to order five companies, including Shaw Communications Inc., to identify a customer Twitch is accusing of “malicious spambot...
Cogeco Inc. CEO Louis Audet said Friday that he’s not concerned about customers substituting wireline Internet service with wireless with the advent of 5G, and that the company...
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with the CEO of Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube Thursday, and used the opportunity to express “his appreciation for Google and YouTube’s continued investment in Canada and...
Getting rid of digital advertising on CBC/Radio-Canada online platforms would undermine its television arm, the public broadcaster said Wednesday. It argued in a posting on its website that “going ad-free on only one platform is a half measure. It doesn’t provide any of the advantages of being completely ad-free, and it...
Canada Media Fund (CMF) is providing $2 million for 10 web series as part of a pilot project. The organization said in a press release Thursday the funding is “the result of the pilot program the CMF had put in place to...
The Canadian Wireless Telecommunication Association has hired Chris Jones as its new director of regulatory affairs, policy and research. Jones replaces Kurt Eby, who left the role at the CWTA in January to take a position in Toronto. According to emails from CWTA spokeswoman Sophie...
The fallout from Alphabet Inc.’s placing of advertisements next to unfavourable content is in line with an ongoing trend of some advertisers shifting money from digital back to traditional...
Amazon.com Inc. has secured the streaming rights to 10 Thursday Night Football games from the National Football League (NFL), according to a Wall Street Journal report. The deal is reportedly worth $50 million US and will only be available to subscribers of Amazon's $99-per-year Prime service, the report said. CBS Corp. and Comcast Corp.'s NBC Universal each have broadcasting rights to five of the games in the U.S., and the games will also be broadcast on television. The fate of both the broadcast and digital rights in Canada to...
