Rogers Communications Inc.’s second-quarter earnings may have foreshadowed a turnaround for cable in 2017, after the company reported its best second-quarter for Internet subscribers in eight years, according to Canaccord Genuity. “While the Telcos may be still edging out the cablecos in terms of overall net adds, the gap is narrowing,” Canaccord analyst Aravinda Galappatthige said in a Friday morning note following Rogers earnings report Thursday. “There is clearly some positive momentum on the Internet front for the cablecos in the East, and we...
A trio of telecom companies are doubling down on their assertion that preloaded set-top box retailers are complicit in TV piracy, according to new court documents filed in their ongoing fight to permanently end the sale of the devices loaded with software they say allows users to access their content for free. In their July 15 reply to a statement of defence and counterclaim filed by one of the retailers, lawyers for BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron not...
Rogers Communications Inc. made it clear that Internet speeds are a key focus for the company on a conference call Thursday, stating Rogers' strategy is to get consumers to a baseline 100 Mbps service in order to encourage future scaling to its gigabit service. “We need to focus on the need for...
The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) has acquired a New York-based company specializing in tracking data of music released on streaming websites. “With Audiam, SOCAN now has a comprehensive database and metadata of all musical works and commercially...
The over-the-air (OTA) market has been slowly growing over the past three years, according to data collected by Media Technology Monitor, a trend industry observers said doesn’t come as a surprise. According to a report...
Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. said in a press release Tuesday that it “strongly disagrees” with a group of shareholders who filed a complaint with the Ontario Securities Commission regarding the...
Subscription video-on-demand service (SVOD) revenues will double by 2021, as broadcasters and TV network providers look to enter the market amid a trend in cord cutting and shaving, according to a new report. Juniper Research Ltd. found that revenues from such services, including those operated by Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., will more than double in five years to $34.6 billion US, from $14.6 billion US this year. The report comes on the heels of Netflix’s second-quarter earnings report on Monday. The streaming service said it gained 1.7 million...
OpenMedia announced Tuesday the appointment of Laura Tribe as its new executive director. According a letter posted on the advocacy group’s website from board chair Phillip Djwa, Tribe was selected to helm the...
Former media executive Phyllis Yaffe has been named to a new diplomatic post. Yaffe was named as the new consul general for the United States, stationed in in New York, among the 26 appointments announced Tuesday by the...
Though the success of Nintendo Co. Ltd.’s Pokémon Go mobile game could be the tip of the iceberg for augmented-reality applications, experts said they don’t expect wireless companies to make any major shifts in...
Manitoba Telecommunications Services Inc. will begin offering Netflix Inc.’s streaming service directly on its set-top box. The company said in a press release Thursday that the move “removes the...
Corus Entertainment Inc.’s first quarterly report since it bought Shaw Media showed the acquisition drove a significant increase in overall revenues, profits and expenses, despite a fall in the division’s revenue due...
The CRTC has added One World Sports to its list of non-Canadian channels authorized for distribution, despite arguments from Rogers Communications Inc. and BCE Inc. that it would...
After receiving radio licence applications for Aurora and Georgina, Ont., the CRTC is asking for comments on the market capacity of the two markets to support an additional station. Interested parties have until Aug....
The television distribution revenues reported by Canada’s telecommunications companies have fallen for the first time in a decade, driven by a decline in satellite subscribers. Numbers released by the...
The CRTC has settled a dispute between BCE Inc. and Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron over wholesale rates for a French-language sports channel in Quebec, selecting Videotron’s offer for the per-subscriber wholesale rate for the distribution of Bell’s Réseau des sports (RDS) by Videotron. In a decision posted to the CRTC’s website Tuesday, the regulator said that Videotron’s “proposed rate increase is more reasonable than Bell’s, given the decrease in viewership share of the RDS services since 2011. In addition, the Commission considers that Bell has not adequately demonstrated that its proposed rate increase is necessary given the increase in programming expenses.” The two companies looked to the commission for...
The majority of Canadians want to turn to technology to navigate their health care, but only a small percentage actually do so, according to the results of a new Telus Corp.-commissioned study. Eighty-nine per cent of respondents to the Telus Health study said they believed digital health technology would lead to better health care, according to a...
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) has announced that Elliott Anderson is its new director of public policy, reseach and communications. Anderson has served in the role on an interim basis since...
ESPN is streaming live coverage of the Wimbledon tennis tournament on Twitter Inc.’s social media service. The website states the live feed is brought to viewers by Wimbeldon and ESPN. It appears to have been made...
Stingray Digital Group Inc. said Tuesday that its mobile streaming music app has doubled its user base in the span of a year, reaching one million downloads. Users spend an average of five hours per week listening...
Eleven more set-top box retailers will have to make their case to the Federal Court after being named as defendants in a legal fight against set-top boxes that can be used to circumvent paid TV subscriptions. On June 20, lawyers for BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron filed an amended statement of claim, adding the companies to the five originally named in the legal action, which started in May. A June 1 order by judge Danièle Tremblay-Lamer temporarily banned the first five companies from selling the boxes...
Nielsen Co. says the season premiere of Netflix Inc.’s Orange is the New Black drew 6.7 million viewers in the United States in its first two days. Netflix doesn’t release its...
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says Canada should follow the example of the European Union and countries like New Zealand and Australia in requiring over-the-top (OTT) services to pay...
Facebook Inc. and AT&T Inc. have waded into the CRTC’s review of differential pricing practices, arguing that the commission should allow carriers to offer zero-rated services...
The BBC will launch a new Toronto bureau and a Canadian edition of BBC.com, the British public service broadcaster announced Thursday. The dedicated site will launch later this year, according to a...
Rogers Communications Inc. announced Wednesday that it has appointed Anne Martin-Vachon as president of The Shopping Channel, effective August 16. She succeeds Steven Goldsmith, who spent four years at the...
Questions around telecoms’ usage of data caps should be at the centre of the CRTC’s proceeding on differential pricing practices, advocacy groups said in interventions, calling for the...
The Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) announced Wednesday that it has appointed a new vice-president of communications and marketing. Andrew Addison will report to president and CEO Reynolds Mastin and “provide strategic direction, leading the development and execution of integrated marketing and communications strategies for the...
Minimal exposure to the United Kingdom and Europe will leave the Canadian telecom and media industries relatively unscathed following the U.K.’s vote to exit the European Union last week,...
Heritage Canada’s announcement of an expert advisory panel for its review of Canadian content in a digital age, which includes representatives from a number of broadcasters, was met with both praise and criticism Tuesday. The panel will “provide advice and ongoing feedback” to the Heritage Minister during the consultations and review, the heritage department said in a press release Tuesday. The 12 members of the panel “represent a cross-section of the Canadian arts and culture sectors,” the release added, noting members were “selected on the...
Blue Ant Media Inc. has sold several original series to international buyers, the company announced Tuesday. In a press release, the content distribution company said four home sales and renovation series will be...
After seven months of vacancy, Canadian Heritage is moving to fill the vice-chair of broadcasting position at the CRTC. Former vice-chair Tom Pentefountas wrapped up his five-year term on Nov. 20. A new posting on...
The CRTC has directed a Truro, N.S., radio station to broadcast a message about its non-compliance with its licence conditions. The commission said that “considering the serious and repeated...
George Stroumboulopoulos is leaving Hockey Night in Canada after two years of hosting the program, Rogers Communications Inc.’s Sportsnet said in a press release Monday....
Rogers Communications Inc. is now using HD radio technology in broadcasting a number of stations in Toronto and Vancouver. The company said in a press release Monday that the stations include Toronto’s Kiss 92.5, 680 News, Sportsnet 590 The Fan, and Vancouver’s 96.9 Jack FM and News 1130. “More than just a heightened listening experience, listeners will also enjoy enhanced digital content on their HD radio devices, featuring song titles, album art, and artist information,” it said. HD radio technology allows broadcasters to transmit...
Sportsnet One and TVA Sports are, for the first time, in the top 10 highest-grossing TV channels, according to the CRTC’s latest stats on Canadian programming—and of those top 10, five are...
The CRTC has approved a proposal by an independent over-the-air (OTA) station that would see it source programming from Accessible Media Inc. (AMI) to fulfill its described-video...
The Fédération des télévisions communautaires autonomes du Québec said the CRTC’s recent decision on local and community TV will harm independent...
Mobile advertising revenue and music streaming activity will see dramatic increases over the next four years, as technological innovation takes hold over traditional methods of media consumption,...
Netflix Inc.’s over-the-top (OTT) service continued to lead peak period network traffic, but the percentage of traffic has declined since late 2015, according to a new Global Internet Phenomena...
The Quebec Superior Court has dismissed a defamation lawsuit against Cogeco Inc., determining the suit was abusive under section 51 of Quebec’s code of civil procedure. The City of Quebec had sued Cogeco, its...
The CRTC has approved a reorganization that will see Rogers Communications Inc.’s media division share control of the Viceland TV channel. According to a notice posted Wednesday to the commission’s...
BCE Inc.’s media division announced Wednesday that Karine Moses, Bell’s vice-president of field operations support, would be taking on the position of president of Astral Out of Home. Moses will replace outgoing Luc Quétel as the head of the out-of-home advertising arm that covers more than...
TORONTO — A reasonable person could make the link between the comments that CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais made as a witness during a harassment investigation concerning a fellow commissioner and bias to his ultimate signing off on the finding of harassment, a federal court justice suggested Tuesday. Judge Russel Zinn pressed Gail Sinclair, the Canadian attorney general's representative, over her arguments that the investigation following a claim by a senior staff member...
CBC/Radio-Canada is teaming up with Netflix Inc. and Halfire Entertainment to produce a miniseries based on a Margaret Atwood book. Production will begin in Ontario in August, the broadcaster said in a...
The CRTC has approved four channels originating in the United States aimed at people of South Asian descent for distribution in Canada. It said in a notice Tuesday that the channels are...
Stingray Digital Group Inc. is expanding its portfolio of properties by picking up four of BCE Inc.’s music channels. The Montreal-based music provider will pick up MuchLoud, MuchRetro, MuchVice and Juicebox,...
The Federal Court of Appeal has upheld the CRTC’s ban on BCE Inc.’s zero-rated mobile-TV plans, a year and a half after the commission ruled the company couldn’t exempt the service from data caps. In a...
MONTREAL — Whether a court decision on BCE Inc.’s appeal of a CRTC decision banning simultaneous substitution for the Super Bowl will come in time for next year’s game and ad sales for its broadcast remained unclear Monday, as the Federal Court in Montreal heard arguments from both sides in the case. Neil Finkelstein, representing the National Football League (NFL), told the court “there is some urgency to this. You don’t start selling ads for the January 2017...
A private members’ bill introduced on the last day of Parliament’s session seeks to extend the current copyright terms for authors and composers, from 50 years after their death to 70 years. Peter Van Loan, the...
The number of anglophones subscribing to TV service continues to fall, according to a new report by Media Technology Monitor (MTM), a project of CBC/Radio-Canada. In the spring of 2016, 73 per cent subscribed to TV...
Rogers Communications Inc. unveiled its new IPTV service to investors Thursday, according to analysts’ notes, though company spokesman Aaron Lazarus declined to comment Friday. Canaccord Genuity analyst...
Millions of people tuned into live broadcasts of the electronic entertainment expo (E3) this week on Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube and Amazon.com Inc.’s Twitch.tv. It’s an event whose...
Louis Lalande, CBC/Radio-Canada’s executive vice-president of French services, is stepping down at the end of the year, the public broadcaster said Thursday. CBC president Hubert Lacroix announced...
The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) has launched and staffed its new radio marketing and advocacy arm, Radio Connect, the organization announced Thursday. The CAB CEO Radio Council said in a press release that...
The Shopping Channel (TSC) has launched an app for Apple Inc.’s Apple TV platform. Rogers Communications Inc., which owns the Mississauga-based retailer, announced the ShopTSC app in a Thursday press release. The...
Stingray Digital Group Inc. said Wednesday that it has acquired the Festival 4K television channel, which broadcasts live performances, including festivals, concerts and theatre productions, according to the press...
The CRTC has established new funding for local television news in a decision on its local and community TV hearing, though advocates expressed concern that the changes won’t happen quickly enough for some stations. In a summary of the decision, issued Wednesday afternoon, the CRTC said independent stations will be able to tap into a $23.1-million Independent Local News Fund (ILNF), while new flexibility could make available up to $66.9 million for stations operated by...
A federal court judge erred in her determination that allowing a group of five companies to continue selling pre-loaded set-top boxes would pose “irreparable harm” to TV service providers, according to court documents...
Another Canadian company is joining the ultra-high-definition field, with Quebecor Inc. announcing its media division was producing its first 4K show. Videotron’s over-the-top (OTT) service Club Illico said in...
When Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly said “there will be no Netflix tax,” at the end of her department’s review of cultural institutions, that leaves both the taxation of...
Solutions Research Group Consultants Inc. estimates fewer than one million Canadian households are currently subscribers to BCE Inc.’s CraveTV and Rogers Communications Inc.’s and Shaw...
Rogers Communications Inc. is changing tack with its beleaguered OMNI ethnic stations, announcing Tuesday it’s applied for a licence for a national ethnic channel, which it asked the CRTC to include in skinny-basic packages, promising to restore previously cut ethnic programming if the proposal is approved. The channel’s business model would change from previously relying on ad revenue from U.S. programming to relying on the subscriber fees that come with mandatory carriage, or 9(1)(h) status, Colette Watson, vice-president of broadcast and TV operations at Rogers, said in a phone...
A trio of major telecom companies have received their first victory in a legal fight against companies selling set-top boxes allowing users to illegally access copyrighted material. On June 1, a...
Microsoft Corp. announced Monday that it has entered into an agreement to buy LinkedIn Corp.’s social networking site for $26.2 billion US. The companies said in a press release Monday that LinkedIn...
Shaw Communications Inc. has introduced a TV channel to keep Fort McMurray, Alta., residents informed as they return to the city following an evacuation due to wildfires. The community channel will broadcast, in a 30-minute...
Advertisers will now have access to Rogers Communications Inc.’s linear TV inventory for programmatic, or automated, advertising, Videology Inc. said in a Wednesday press release. The New...
A Canadian digital music company has responded to a lawsuit containing allegations that it infringed on the patents held by a U.S.-based digital music distributer. Pennsylvania-based Music Choice, a multi-platform video and music network, filed a complaint for patent infringement in a Texas...
TORONTO — Executives from Canada’s telecom companies took aim at a new bill by the Quebec government that would force Internet service providers (ISPs) to block some gambling websites...
Current Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. customers are concerned about the future of their bills if the proposed takeover by BCE Inc. is approved, suggest the results of a new poll...
BCE Inc. has selected the New York-based Videology Inc. to provide software for its programmatic, or automated, TV and video advertising operation. According to the release, Videology’s technology will “look at...
The body that regulates the telecommunications market in the European Union released draft guidelines Monday to ensure providers steer clear of zero-rating policies unless justified, a move that comes ahead of a CRTC discussion on the matter this fall. In a 43-page document, the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) set out to establish “common rules to safeguard equal and non-discriminatory treatment of traffic in the provision of Internet access services and related end-users’ rights,” including handling zero-rating and sponsored...
The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) has signed an agreement with a European partner to manage Canadian rights overseas. In a Friday press release, the French authors’...
The majority of Canadians doesn’t believe that online media, such as Netflix Inc.’s over-the-top (OTT) service or music streaming services like Spotify AB's, should fall under the...
A new J.D. Power survey has found customers who have a skinny-basic TV package with a pick-and-pay option are more satisfied than TV customers with other types of subscriptions. Satisfaction among skinny-basic customers was 761...
Three Canadian media outlets will be able to display their pages faster on smartphones while using less data after adopting a new platform developed by Alphabet Inc.’s Google, according news articles by Corus...
According to a new report, 76 per cent of anglophones used the Internet at the same time as they watched television in 2015. “While multitasking has grown immensely over time, incidence has slowed over the past year,” MTM, a project of CBC/Radio-Canada said. Only 12 per cent of anglophones reported multitasking in 2001, a number that rose to 66 per cent in 2013 and 74 per cent in 2014. Among multitaskers, 37 per cent said they focused equally on the television and their other devices, while 29 per cent focused mostly on the TV and 30 per cent mostly on their devices....
Scott Garvie has replaced Jamie Brown as the chair of the board of directors at the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA). Garvie, the senior vice-president of business and legal affairs at Shaftesbury Films Inc., has served on the CMPA board of directors for 15 years, the organization said in a press release. “Our industry is facing...
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is recommending giving Canada’s economy a boost by removing foreign ownership rules for telecommunications and broadcasting. In an economic forecast...
The attorney general’s office is arguing that the CRTC chairman has the authority to name panels to decide issues in front of the commission, in response to a court case launched by commissioner Raj Shoan challenging his...
BCE Inc.’s media division is commissioning original, scripted 4K content, the company announced Wednesday. In a press release, Bell Media said CTV would become “the first broadcaster in North America to commit to...
The CRTC has issued a call for radio stations with licences expiring next year to submit their renewal applications. Affected licensees, listed on the commission’s website, must submit their applications by Aug....
TheScore Inc. launched its chatbot for Facebook Inc.’s Messenger on Wednesday, making it one of the first sports media companies to build a messaging bot to update users on sports developments....
OTTAWA — Witnesses in the latest round of hearings in the House of Commons’ Canadian Heritage committee’s study of the media and local communities asked parliamentarians to level the playing field when it comes...
The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) has launched an application programming interface (API) portal to help foster new music rights management apps. It said the API portal will enable...
The CRTC has named the winners of its prize for excellence in policy research to master’s, doctoral, and post-doctoral researchers at the University of Toronto, Ryerson University, and York University. Daniel Mackwood at the University of Toronto’s faculty of information and faculty of law won in the master’s category, for a paper “highlighting the challenges within Canada’s telecommunications regulatory framework,” the commission said in a press release Monday. Daniela Mastocola, from the faculty of communication and culture at York University and Ryerson University, won in the PhD category for a paper on York’s campus radio station and community accessibility. The winner in the post-doctoral category was Mary Elizabeth Luka, a Banting post-doctoral fellow at York University. Her paper...
Voltage Pictures LLC is asking federal court to order Rogers Communications Inc. to disclose the identity of an individual who infringed its copyright of five movies. In a motion of...
The CRTC has every right to put measures into place banning simultaneous substation for the Super Bowl, according to new documents filed with the Appeal Court. In separate memoranda of fact and law...
Allarco Entertainment 2008 Inc., which owns Super Channel, is now in creditor protection, the company announced Thursday. It said in a press release that “after consideration of all available alternatives… it is...
A group of Quebec broadcasters say that unless accountability measures are put in place, the increased funding the federal government has slated for CBC/Radio-Canada will be a “blank...
Technological changes to the broadcasting and communications landscape require a similar shift in the regulatory environment, according to authors of a pair of new think-tank reports released Wednesday, both of which call for less focus from the CRTC on Canadian content. According to both Steven Globerman, who authored the Fraser Institute report, and Benjamin Dachis and Daniel Schwanen, who wrote the C.D. Howe Institute report, the requirements for conventional broadcast distributors (BDUs) to make financial contributions and meet programming quotas are too restrictive in an environment...
CBC/Radio-Canada is not the cause of problems facing private broadcasters, CEO Hubert Lacroix said in a speech Tuesday. Speaking at the University of British Columbia, Lacroix said that “at a time when Canadian...
The CRTC said Tuesday it will hold a hearing on the implementation of skinny basic TV packages, though it only asked four companies — BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc., Shaw Communications Inc.,...
The European Union is set to put in place rules forcing streaming services to have a minimum of 20 per cent EU content in their catalogues, according to the Financial Times. The newspaper...
The CRTC is accepting feedback on “standard conditions of licence, expectations and encouragements” for new, consolidated TV licencing categories. Following up on a previously announced decision to...
OTTAWA — CBC/Radio-Canada’s English news division is undertaking aggressive “re-engineering” of its newsrooms, CBC News editor-in-chief...
CBC/Radio-Canada says that its Montreal headquarters will stay at its current downtown location. Three years ago, the public broadcaster issued a request for proposals for the site, and it said earlier this March...
Net neutrality advocates welcomed the CRTC’s launch of a new consultation on “differential pricing practices” for both wireline and wireless data plans Wednesday, a process that will see a public hearing kick off...
CBC/Radio-Canada has applied to the CRTC to continue broadcasting ads on its ICI Musique and Radio 2 networks and stations, according to a notice posted by the regulator Wednesday. The...
Netflix Inc. has teamed up with Univision Communications Inc. in its first deal to bring original programming from the company’s over-the-top (OTT) service to traditional TV in the United States. In a Tuesday press release, Univision — which targets Spanish-speaking audiences in the U.S. — said the first seasons of Narcos and Club de Cuervos will air on the Univision Network and UniMás, respectively, before their second seasons debut on the Netflix platform. “Promoting these original shows on Univision is a great way to further reach...
