The CRTC has approved a new Native FM radio station in Campbell River, British Columbia, the regulator said in a decision Friday. The station will operate at the 100.7 FM band and will broadcast each week 106 hours of musical content and 20 hours of “community news, sports, weather, traffic and other community information in the English and Comox languages.” The broadcast licence application was filed by the non-profit Aupe Cultural Enhancement Society, the CRTC said....
BCE Inc. hasn’t demonstrated enough evidence that a court should postpone the implementation of the CRTC’s decision to eliminate simultaneous substitution for the National Football League's (NFL) Super Bowl, and the evidence it has provided is “limited to bald and speculative assertions,” the attorney general is arguing. The 2017 Super Bowl is set to be the first in which simultaneous substitution will be prohibited and Canadians will be able to watch commercials from the United States. Bell, whose CTV network has the rights for the game, asked for...
Amazon.com Inc. has launched a stand-alone music streaming service in the United States. While it has offered music streaming for its Prime customers since 2014, the new Amazon Music Unlimited is available to...
OTTAWA — Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains said Wednesday three areas have stood out so far in its Innovation Agenda consultations—talent, the need to work on emerging technologies, and investments in...
Corus Entertainment Inc. is making seven of its news talk radio stations available for free internationally on Apple Inc.’s Apple Music streaming service. The company said in...
The CRTC has approved two separate applications to operate English-language radio stations in Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador. On Friday, the commission said on its website it approved an application to operate an FM radio...
iHeartMedia Inc.'s free digital radio and music streaming service is now available in Canada, according to a press release from BCE Inc.’s media division. The free app, iHeartRadio, is available on a preview basis ahead of its official launch on Oct. 10. The app “showcases an unparalleled amount of music, news/talk, comedy, and sports content from Bell Media, Canada’s largest radio broadcaster with 105 licensed English and French radio stations, plus more than 100 additional curated streaming music channels to suit every taste,” Bell said in the release Thursday. “iHeartRadio is an enormously successful brand that will represent Bell Media’s radio strategy in Canada, in many incarnations, including must-see live concerts, events, and more,” Randy Lennox, Bell Media’s...
OTTAWA — Raising the level of broadband Internet service for Canadians would go far in levelling the playing field for both media producers and consumers, a House of Commons committee...
BCE Inc. is asking the Ontario Superior Court to grant an interim and permanent injunction to stop VMedia Inc. from delivering Bell's CTV channels on its over-the-top (OTT) service. VMedia began offering the...
Canadians rely mostly on word-of-mouth and paid advertising to find TV new shows, according to a new Media Technology Monitor report. In its latest release published Tuesday, the CBC/Radio-Canada research project...
A Conservative Party leadership candidate has tabled legislation with the aim of privatizing CBC/Radio-Canada. On Thursday, Saskatchewan MP Brad Trost introduced a private member’s bill, C-308, “to provide for...
VMedia Inc. is asking an Ontario court to step in and declare that its recently launched over-the-top (OTT) streaming television service is not infringing copyright, as claimed by BCE Inc., which wants the provider to...
The Association québécoise de l'industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la video (ADISQ) is asking for regulatory action to help support the music industry as it deals with the...
Users of Reddit Inc.’s website have largely railed against differential pricing in a discussion initated by the CRTC, with an overwhelming number of comments on the social platform expressing...
Rogers Communications Inc. is downsizing its print division, reducing the publication schedules of three magazines and eliminating the print runs of four publications entirely, the company announced Friday. “We...
While CraveTV should have an easier time competing in the over-the-top (OTT) space now that Shomi will cease operation, Netflix Inc.’s offering still leaves doubt about the profitability of BCE Inc.’s service, says a Desjardins analyst. “We believe Netflix’s strength derives from its large library of self-produced content, which BCE cannot replicate —hence, long-term, we continue to question the profitability of the CraveTV service,” despite...
In the wake of the announced shuttering of its streaming service, Shomi, Rogers Communications Inc. is offering some customers six months of free access to Netflix Inc.’s over-the-top (OTT) service. Rogers...
An American film production company is looking to identify 12 Canadians it says infringed its copyright by file-sharing its content. In a statement of claim filed with the federal court on Tuesday, Cell Film Holdings LLC said it...
Facebook Inc.’s platform is by far the dominant social network among Canadian anglophones, with almost all — 92 per cent — of social networkers using the site, according to a new report...
Radio stations from some of Canada’s biggest broadcasters—including Rogers Communications Inc., Cogeco Inc., Newcap Inc., and Corus Entertainment Inc., among...
CBC/Radio-Canada CEO Hubert Lacroix said during the public broadcaster’s annual meeting in Moncton, N.B., that “27 months after launching our 2020 strategy, we are past the disruption stage.” The plan was released in June 2014 and outlined the CBC’s plans to focus its priorities on digital and mobile. Lacroix reiterated in an interview with The Wire Report earlier this month that the broadcaster is choosing to stick with that plan even though it was developed when the previous government was in power and the CBC was dealing with funding...
Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc.’s Shomi had close to 900,000 subscribers at its peak, before the companies decided to shut down the service. “We recently approached...
Shomi, the joint Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. over-the-top (OTT) video service, will shut down on Nov. 30, the service...
The CRTC is consulting on whether it should merge the rules for specialty and pay channels into a single set of regulations. It said in a notice of consultation Monday that having two...
Lawyers are asking a Quebec court to allow a class action lawsuit against companies that they allege are violating the province’s consumer protection laws by requiring customers to take the...
The CRTC will consider 11 applications for radio stations in the Edmonton area next week. It will hold a four-day hearing starting Sept. 27, the commission said in a press release Friday. The hearing will consider...
The federal government will unveil a new consultation process for appointing members to the CBC/Radio-Canada board of directors “in the next few weeks,” Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly...
Canadian content producers who find audiences internationally are benefitting from over-the-top (OTT) services, according to a report examining the impact of OTT platforms on global video production....
BCE Inc. has filed a new motion petitioning the Federal Court of Appeal to hear its case against the CRTC decision banning simultaneous substitution during the Super Bowl. In a notice of motion...
Canada’s biggest telcos told investors Wednesday that they are seeing growth in wireless data usage on the first of a two-day conference hosted by CIBC World Markets. BCE Inc. and Telus Corp., alongside Cogeco Inc. and Corus Entertainment Inc., participated in a discussion with CIBC analyst Robert Bek at the annual Eastern Institutional Investor Conference in Montreal about wireline and wireless trends and how the companies have been able to meet the...
The CRTC has responded to a request by the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) that it reconsider its new framework for local and community TV. It told...
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...
VMedia Inc. has rolled out live TV to Canadian users of Roku Inc.’s devices, Roku said in a press release Friday. Canadians can “watch up to 20 live TV channels, including Canadian and US networks such as...
Critics of the CRTC’s recent changes to the certified independent production fund (CIPF) policy pointed to Canadian actress Tatiana Maslany’s victory at the Emmy Awards Sunday night as evidence changes were...
Steve Maich’s role within Rogers Communications Inc.’s media division has been expanded, as he becomes the company’s senior vice-president of digital content and publishing, the company announced Monday. Rick Brace, president of Rogers Media, said in a press release that Maich will be “responsible for driving the media company’s digital strategy and growth, including digital content creation, monetization, and data development.” He will continue to...
The CRTC will host a public discussion on differential pricing practices for Internet data plans on Reddit Inc.’s website, the regulator said Monday. The commission said in a notice it...
After 13 weeks off from the Parliament Hill routine, MPs returned en masse to Ottawa Monday for the start of the House of Commons’ fall session, where the stage is set for forward...
MONTREAL — The key to reaching young viewers is to have content made by them, not just for them, panellists at the Public Broadcasters International conference said Friday. “The...
Television is still the dominant way English-speaking Canadians consume news, with 60 per cent tuning in to a news specialty channel, according to a new Media Technology Monitor (MTM) report....
MONTREAL — As technological change accelerates, CBC/Radio-Canada has to keep pace, according to CEO Hubert Lacroix, who said Thursday “we can’t think of the...
The need for upload speed is growing among Canadian consumers and businesses, though it’s too early to tell whether there’s real demand for symmetrical Internet plans that some companies have begun offering, according...
Twitter Inc. has launched apps that allow viewers to access its live-streaming video through Apple Inc.’s Apple TV, Amazon.com Inc.’s Fire TV and Microsoft Corp.’s XBox One. The Xbox and Apple TV apps...
Rogers Communications Inc. CEO Guy Laurence said the government’s ongoing review of Canadian content in a digital age should lead to more focus on promoting and selling content...
The CRTC has approved TerraTerra Communications Inc.’s application to distribute a Portuguese-language channel as a non-Canadian programming service. In a notice posted to its website Wednesday, the regulator said the A Bola TV channel is a “24-hour niche service” offering Portuguese and international news and sports originating from Lisbon, Portugal....
Members of the public and cultural stakeholders don’t see eye to eye when it comes to identifying the biggest challenges facing the country’s cultural sector, according to info released...
CRTC commissioner Linda Vennard broke conflict of interest rules by accepting a birthday gift from a stakeholder, the ethics watchdog announced Tuesday. “All public office holders should be...
Netflix Inc. argued that data caps are an “unnecessary constraint on advanced telecommunications capability” in a filing with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC)....
The CRTC has approved the Portuguese-language channel TVI Internacional for distribution in Canada. The general-interest service from Lisbon, Portugal broadcasts “a range of programming including news, entertainment,...
Former CRTC commissioner Raj Shoan won’t be reinstated while awaiting appeal of the order-in-council that removed him from his position, a Federal Court judge ruled Friday. According to Justice Anne Mactavish’s reasons for decision, Shoan, who asked the court for a stay of his termination until the appeal is decided, didn’t satisfy all three elements required for the temporary reinstatement. Those three elements were that there was a serious issue to be tried in the appeal, he would suffer irreparable harm in the interim, and that the balance of convenience...
The Urban Alliance on Race Relations (UARR) and the Community Media Advocacy Centre (CMAC) have written to Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly to ask her to look into allegations of...
GATINEAU — On the final day of a two-day hearing, consumer groups told a CRTC panel that the regulator should set standards for how companies present information about their skinny-basic packages, while CRTC commissioner...
Bragg Communications Inc.’s Eastlink unveiled its new TV Everywhere offering Thursday, Eastlink Stream, offering a one-stop-shop for television subscribers to access content from multiple networks and over-the-top (OTT)...
GATINEAU — A CRTC panel pressed Canada's largest TV service providers on whether they were doing enough to bring attention to new skinny-basic services, raising concerns that higher-tier...
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has given Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. its approval for its proposal to take the company private. In a Tuesday press release, Mark Redmond, Sirius XM Canada president...
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA)’s Toronto branch is asking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly to “call on...
OTTAWA — Last week’s decision from a Federal Court judge setting aside an investigation and decision that former CRTC commissioner Raj Shoan committed workplace harassment should weigh heavily in his favour for...
As the CRTC is set to look into the implementation of its skinny basic TV package rules by industry, telecoms are arguing the proceeding is largely premature, given that the commission’s skinny...
A group representing community TV stakeholders solidified its discontent with June’s policy framework with a letter to the CRTC asking it to reconsider its decision to give companies the ability to move funds away from community TV. The Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) said in a press release Tuesday that the decision to give companies the ability to move three-quarters of community media funding to their private properties is based on “inadequate data about community TV channels operated by large vertically integrated...
The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed BCE Inc.’s appeal of the CRTC’s move to ban simultaneous substitution for the Super Bowl, deciding that the case, which was launched before...
GATINEAU — As of June 30, about 177,000 TV subscribers had a skinny basic package, according to information given to media at a CRTC technical briefing Friday. That was four months after the CRTC mandated that TV providers...
A Federal Court judge has overturned a 2015 CRTC decision that former commissioner Raj Shoan harassed a senior staff member, ruling he was denied procedural fairness in the investigation leading up to the decision. In...
The CRTC has admitted it made an error in a recent decision by attributing an argument made by Rogers Communication Inc.’s group of funds to the Canada Media Fund (CMF). In a press release Thursday, the...
A CRTC decision to deny an application by VMedia Inc. to carry U.S. shopping channel QVC will be scrutinized by a judge after the independent provider was granted leave to appeal the decision in federal court. VMedia is asking the court to throw out the commission’s April decision, saying that the CRTC made mistakes in its rationale for not adding QVC to the list of non-Canadian programming services and stations authorized for distribution. In its decision, the CRTC said “if authorized, QVC would be carrying on a broadcasting undertaking in whole or in part in Canada,” which would require a licence and that broadcasting licences can’t be issued to non-Canadians. By making this decision, the CRTC “failed to consider what constitutes ‘broadcasting’ or a ‘broadcasting...
CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais has responded to criticism by the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) of its recent decision on Canadian Independent Production...
Rogers Communications Inc. is defending its proposal for a new national OMNI channel with mandatory carriage, arguing that the plan it submitted to the CRTC was the best option out of the multiple alternatives it considered....
The end of August also marked the final day CBC/Radio-Canada could broadcast national advertising on its Radio 2 and ICI Musique stations, following a CRTC decision denying a request to extend their ability to air ads for another...
Stingray Digital Group Inc. has responded to a patent infringement lawsuit filed by competitor Music Choice and filed its own suit against Music Choice alleging illegal business activities. In June, Music Choice, a...
Telecom service providers should look towards improving video quality across their networks if they want to increase customer loyalty, according to a new joint report from Huawei Technologies Co....
Josée Girard, CBC/Radio-Canada’s vice-president of people and culture, is leaving the public broadcaster after a year in the job, and will be replaced by Monique Marcotte,...
By lowering the requirements for obtaining Canadian content funding, the CRTC is pushing Canadian content creators to the curb, according to opponents of the regulator’s move last week to rejig...
BCE Inc. customers can now take advantage of the “world’s first fully wireless [Internet protocol TV] service,” the company said Monday. In a press release, Bell said a wireless 4K Whole Home PVR was...
BCE Inc. has “unclean hands” in its effort to have the Wholesale Code overturned by the federal Appeal Court while simultaneously applying to have removed certain conditions of licence imposed on vertically integrated entities in 2013 by the CRTC during the ongoing licence renewal process, lawyers argued in court documents responding to Bell’s appeal. In a memorandum of fact and law filed at the end of July, lawyers for a group of respondents that...
A parliamentary secretary has apologized after sending a letter of support for BCE Inc.’s licence renewal application, the Canadian Press reported Thursday. Kate Young, Liberal representative for a London, Ont....
The CRTC announced changes to its policies governing certified independent production funds Thursday, aimed at fostering a “robust Canadian production sector” with the “flexibility necessary to operate in an...
Messaging service WhatsApp is entangling itself more closely with owner Facebook Inc. by giving the social media giant access to users' phone numbers. In a Thursday blog post on its website, WhatsApp said “by connecting your phone number with Facebook’s systems, Facebook can offer better...
A Canadian company is suing Snapchat Inc. alleging it is infringing on its patented technology. Vancouver-based Investel Capital Corp. filed a statement of claim in federal court Wednesday claiming that the social media giant...
Some companies are adding more selection to their cable TV packages by going the theme-pack route in preparation for the mandatory full pick-and-pay rules coming into effect this winter. The CRTC laid out the rules for unbundling cable packages last year. In March, the regulator required companies to provide skinny-basic packages for no more than $25 per month and give customers the choice of pick-and-pay for channels or smaller, reasonably priced packages. By Dec. 1, however, companies will be required to offer all of these options. Last week, Rogers Communications Inc. launched...
The company behind Ashley Madison, a website aimed at adulterous interactions that suffered a massive customer data breach last year, had “inadequate security safeguards and policies,”...
The 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were the most-watched Summer Games in Canadian history, CBC/Radio-Canada said Tuesday of the two-week event that wrapped up Sunday night. In a...
Cogeco Inc. said Monday it appointed Luc Noiseux as the company’s new senior vice president and chief technology and strategy officer. Noiseux, whose appointment was effective Monday, joined the company...
Rogers Communications Inc.’s and Shaw Communications Inc.’s Shomi has had more than 143 million video plays since Aug. 20, 2015, the over-the-top service (OTT) announced Monday in a press release marking...
Netflix Inc. and CBC/Radio-Canada are partnering with Northwood Entertainment for a new TV series based on the classic Canadian novel Anne of Green Gables. The show will be broadcast in Canada on the CBC...
Paul Johnson has been named as the Competition Bureau’s leader of economic analysis, where he will play a key role in merger reviews, the competition commissioner said Monday. In a Monday press release,...
Twitter Inc.’s Canadian division announced Monday it had hired Jennifer Hollett as the company’s new head of news and government. Hollett, who began her new role Monday, stepped into the...
Confusion over what qualifies as watching TV online has led Media Technology Monitor to revise some previously reported data about over-the-top (OTT) services. In a Thursday report,...
Burgeoning Ottawa-based TV app maker You.i TV has hired its first chief operating officer, the company announced this week. In a Tuesday press release, the company said Dan Beer’s appointment was made “in order to fuel the company’s continued rapid growth and global adoption of its enabling technology for transformative user interfaces and applications.” Over its less than 10-year history, the company has made apps for projects like Rogers Communications Inc.'s and Shaw Communications Inc.'s Shomi service, Corus Entertainment Inc.'s Treehouse channel and a Crackle app for Roku Inc. devices. Beer comes to You.i TV from IBM Corp. where he was most recently managing director of its performance management division. He also previously worked for software...
The CRTC has made official a long-announced policy to ban simultaneous substitution from next year’s broadcast of the Super Bowl. In a distribution order posted Friday, the regulator removed...
Rogers Communications Inc.’s proposal for a new national ethnic programming service is neither innovative nor appropriate in today’s TV environment aimed at providing consumers more...
The first 10 days of Olympic coverage were watched by about 30.4 million Canadians “across all networks and platforms,” CBC/Radio-Canada said Tuesday. The ongoing Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,...
Media-distribution company Entertainment One Ltd. has acquired the rest of digital studio Secret Location, completing an investment dating back to 2014. The company said in a Wednesday press release that Secret Location, which eOne describes as a content studio for emerging platforms, continued to see success since it first purchased a stake...
The CRTC has approved an application from Stornoway Communications LP to revoke the licence of its iChannel offering, the regulator said Tuesday. Stornoway applied in June to voluntarily revoke the licence “due to the inability to secure sustainable packaging by Canadian BDU’s,” the application said. It listed Aug. 15 as the last day of operation for the channel which was described on its website as an information channel exploring the political and social issues that affect the lives of Canadians. The channel’s removal from a BCE Inc. TV theme package prompted a Part 1 complaint by Stornoway against Bell last year, which was dropped at the beginning of this year. ...
While digital and mobile options for watching the Summer Olympics are gaining in popularity and engagement, television continues to own the podium for the Canadian outlet broadcasting the two-week...
The head of Cogeco Inc.’s Canadian division is retiring after more than 17 years with the company, the company announced Friday. Louise St-Pierre, Cogeco Connexion president and CEO, will step down as...
Facebook Inc. said Tuesday that users of the desktop version of its social network will no longer be able to circumvent advertising through ad-blocking software. In a blog post from Andrew Bosworth, vice-president...
Ontario Appeals Court judges have ruled that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy for text messages once they’ve been sent, according to a recent decision. Last month, a majority decision ruled that Nour Marakah,...
The Competition Bureau said in a press release Monday that customers signing up for sports streaming websites should make sure they understand what they’re getting when they subscribe...
The CRTC has approved Arabic-language channel Medi1 TV for distribution in Canada. The channel “offers programming dedicated to news, news magazines and entertainment from Morocco targeting the Arabic-speaking...
The Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) said Wednesday it’s unhappy with the CRTC’s decision to put off complaints about alleged broadcast distribution undertakings’...
BCE Inc.’s media division is shuffling its senior management following the departure of the head of its content sales, marketing and digital products team. In a Tuesday press release,...
The CRTC has denied an application by Durham Radio Inc. to change the transmitter of its FM tower to expand its service into Toronto. In a decision Monday, the commission said that the proposal to modify the CJKX-FM-2, a rebroadcasting transmitter of the English-language commercial country music radio station CJKX-FM Ajax, to expand the service to an additional 654,000 residents in the west side of Toronto and east side of Mississauga is not warranted because “the primary market that Durham is licensed to serve is Ajax and Oshawa.” Interveners who opposed the move said it...
