The Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) said in a press release Friday it will be responsible for administering the CRTC's new television service provider code of conduct. The new TV code, which was announced Thursday, will take effect in September 2017 and will require broadcast distributors to provide easy-to-understand information about what channels a customer is getting, clarity about the duration of promotional offers and time commitments a consumer must undertake, among other stipulations. In its decision, the CRTC noted it had previously proposed...
Television service providers have another 20 months before they are forced to abide by a new code governing their relationship with customers. The CRTC on Thursday released a finalized version of its television service provider code, which will, among other things, require broadcast distributors to provide easy-to-understand information about what channels a customer is getting, clarity about the duration of promotional offers and time commitments a consumer must undertake, explicit information on charges or taxes that might be applied on top of an advertised price, and provide 30 days notice...
Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron announced Thursday it has acquired Fibrenoire, a company that provides fibre-optic connectivity services to businesses, for $125 million. It said in a press release that acquiring the company would help “meet the growing demand from business customers for...
Shaw Communications Inc. on Wednesday began publicizing the first phase in a transformation of its television service that it hopes gives consumers reason to choose its TV service over competitors and over the option of having no TV service at all. It announced the availability of an application called FreeRange TV, which...
Netflix Inc. announced Wednesday that its streaming service is now available to customers in more than 130 new countries, tripling its international availability. "Today you are witnessing the birth of a new global Internet...
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) announced Wednesday the appointment of Laurie McAllister as the new director of ACTRA's performers’ rights society and its recording artists’ collecting society. It said in a press release that McAllister joins ACTRA with experience in...
BCE Inc. announced Wednesday it has signed a partnership deal with iHeartMedia Inc. in order to bring iHeartRadio, the free digital radio and music streaming service based in the U.S., to Canada this year. It said in a press release that iHeartRadio will provide customers “instant access to the live radio feature,” and will showcase content from Bell’s broadcast and digital-only radio stations across mobile, auto dashes, tablets, smartphones, gaming consoles and wearables. The release added that the partnership would also bring iHeartRadio-brand events to...
Cogeco Inc. has sold its Cogeco Métromédia, which focuses on out-of-home advertising in the public transit sector, to BCE Inc.'s media division, Cogeco said in a press release. The release, issued Tuesday, did...
CraveTV will be available online to all Canadians some time this month, a spokesman from BCE Inc.'s Bell Media division said Tuesday, and access did not open up on Jan. 1, which had previously been the announced plan....
BCE Inc. has opened up its battle against the CRTC's plan to ban simultaneous substitution during the Super Bowl on another front. On Dec. 14, Bell filed for leave to appeal against a particular...
Having premium content on linear TV and on over-the-top (OTT) services can cause adverse effects on revenue growth and will cause consumers to expect lower costs for premium TV content, according to a...
BlackBerry Ltd. did not provide figures on smartphone sales for its third fiscal quarter, leaving it undisclosed how well its first smartphones to run on Android software are selling. The Canadian smartphone-maker and...
Financial analysts said Thursday that the surprising move by Shaw Communications Inc. to buy Wind Mobile means any potential merger between Shaw and Rogers Communications Inc. won’t happen any...
The economics of entering Canada’s wireless market through the acquisition of Wind Mobile today are better than past opportunities Shaw Communications Inc. has had to enter the mobile sector,...
Video-streaming service Shomi is temporarily doubling the length of its free trial offer to new subscribers to two months, it said Wednesday. Shomi, which is jointly operated by Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications...
BCE Inc.’s Bell Media said Wednesday that Kristie Painting will be its new vice-president of digital sales as of Jan. 4. It said in a press release that she was most recently vice-president of sales for Checkout 51, a Toronto-based company that operates a mobile couponing app and was bought this year by News Corp. It added that she has 20 years of experience in media and technology. “I’m thrilled to be joining the Bell Media team,” Painting said in the release. “The power of the Bell Media brands and the breadth of the available Canadian data combine to create...
The Jim Pattison Group announced Wednesday in a press release it has appointed Ross Winters as its new director of programming. It said in the release that Winters will support program directors who are responsible for programming and content on the company's 43 radio stations in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan...
In a survey of Canadian adults, 57 per cent said they are most likely to notice an advertisement while watching TV, compared to 13 per cent who said they were most likely to do so while listening to the radio and only two per cent...
The CRTC has denied a request by BCE Inc.'s Bell Media division to delete a condition of licence for its French-language specialty channel Vrak.TV that requires it to show 104 hours of original,...
DHX Media Ltd. said Wednesday that it has reached a long-term deal with toymaker Mattel Inc. to produce and develop content based on brands such as Bob the Builder, Fireman Sam, Little People and Polly Pocket. DHX said in a news...
Rogers Communications Inc. announced Wednesday a new portfolio of cybersecurity solutions for Canadian businesses to detect and prevent global cyber-attacks. It said in the press release that the service will provide business customers with real-time monitoring of security within businesses’ network infrastructure to detect cyber threats before they occur as well as proactive scanning and security testing to identify any weaknesses within the network infrastructure, and provide a dedicated security team to help customers maintain their network infrastructure. The release added...
The CRTC has denied TekSavvy Solutions Inc.'s request for interim relief in a situation where Rogers Communications Inc. is slated to replace some legacy cable in a Toronto neighbourhood with...
Netflix Inc. is re-encoding its entire library of content in order to provide customers with a better experience for watching content while using less bandwidth to process it. The company said in a blog Monday that the...
The Television Bureau of Canada, which represents Canada's commercial TV industry, has rebranded itself as ThinkTV. Its old name and logo had been in place since the organization started in 1961, it said in a press release last week. “As a resource for advertisers and agencies, [Thinktv]...
Cision, a multinational provider of media-intelligence services, announced Tuesday it has reached a deal to buy PR Newswire from UBM PLC. Cision said in a news release that PR Newswire, which operates a website for hosting news releases and other materials from various organizations, is "the largest distribution...
Channel Zero Inc. said Friday that it has restructured the news operations for CHCH-TV, the Hamilton TV station it owns, and that the company that produced news for the channel, Channel 11 L.P., has filed for bankruptcy. Channel Zero said in a press release that the changes, which include fewer hours of news programming, were made so that the...
Cogeco Cable Inc.’s Canadian cable division has appointed Daniel Boisvert as vice-president of marketing and innovation, and Antoine Shiu as vice-president of business solutions sales, it said...
BCE Inc. announced Monday that subscribers of Bell’s Fibe TV and Bell Alliant’s FibreOP TV will have access to their Netflix Inc. account directly from their TV receivers. It said in the release that all Fibe TV...
Blue Ant Media Inc. announced Monday it has partnered with Smithsonian Networks, a joint venture between CBS Corp.’s Showtime and the Smithsonian Institution, to create Blue Skye Entertainment,...
Yahoo Inc. announced Thursday the launch of its Yahoo Video Guide mobile app for customers in the United States to search for video content across multiple services they have installed on their devices. The company said in a blog that customers will be able to “quickly and seamlessly search” for content in order to find out which over-the-top content provider is streaming programming they want to watch. The post added that customers can click on the content and will be redirected to the app where that content is available. Customers can also browse through the Yahoo app’s...
The Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) announced Friday it has agreed on terms for a new three-year agreement with the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC). It said in a press release that the renewed agreement, which will...
The CRTC on Friday approved requests from BCE Inc. to delete many genre-related terms on its licences for three different specialty channels, but it was denied in all three instances its requests that...
Rogers Communications Inc. announced Friday that its customers will now have access to its customer care service on Facebook Inc.’s Messenger. It said in a press release that the service is available for all consumer...
Canadian millennials, defined as individuals aged 18 to 34, spend 31.8 hours a week on the Internet and are more likely to watch TV and video content online than those aged 34 and above, who...
The CRTC announced Thursday new measures for informing Canadians about charges associating to long-distance calls made from a payphone. The regulator said in a press release that Canadians will be provided with detailed information regarding the costs that come from making such calls when using a credit card or other forms of non-cash payments so that customers can “avoid bill shock.” In a decision posted online Thursday, the CRTC noted that payphone providers need to submit information in six months time regarding how their customers will be notified of long-distance charges made via a payphone, as well as submit information on “how this approach will ensure that all...
DHX Media Ltd. announced Thursday it has been commissioned by BBC’s children's broadcasting arm, CBBC, in the U.K. to produce two seasons of Airmageddon, a new TV show for kids that features competitive radio-controlled...
Amazon.com Inc. announced Tuesday it is launching an over-the-top (OTT) streaming subscription program for video providers to reach out to Amazon Prime members, and will also allow Prime members to add other video subscription...
Three board members of Powermat Technologies Ltd., a maker of wireless mobile-device chargers, are suing the company and CEO Thorsten Heins, accusing them of unauthorized operations that threaten the...
Otono Networks Inc. announced Wednesday it is launching next year in the U.S. a new prepaid wireless mobile service specifically for parents that will include two free lines for their kids. It said...
OTTAWA — Extending copyright terms from 50 to 70 years after the death of the author is necessary to boost investment in creative industries, Robert Hutton, executive director of the Canadian...
A Quebec TV station that focuses on disseminating public-safety and police-related information has filed a complaint against BCE Inc. for its impending exclusion of carriage of the channel, though the CRTC has ordered Bell to keep...
DHX Media Ltd. announced Tuesday it has signed a five-year deal with DreamWorks Animation LLC to produce, broadcast and distribute content across several channels. DHX said in the press release that it will be co-producing 130...
Verizon Communications Inc. would consider buying Yahoo Inc.'s core Internet business, which includes its email, news and sports sites, as well as its advertising technology, according to a report...
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has agreed to pay Apple Inc. more than $548 million US as determined in a court decision earlier this year related to an earlier ruling that Samsung infringed certain Apple patents for the iPhone in the design of its own smartphones, Reuters reported. Quoting court documents, the article said Samsung is continuing to appeal the finding and is reserving the right to be reimbursed if it is successful in an appeal to the Supreme Court that disputes that it illegally copied the iPhone's surface, outer frame and user interface. The article outlined how, in May, a...
Yesterday's actions can have a profound influence on tomorrow. Such a notion might apply to a couple of decisions Shaw Communications Inc. has made in the last half-decade. The first of those was its 2010 move to spend $2 billion to purchase the broadcasting assets of Canwest Global Communications Corp., which included...
Audio and video traffic — or real-time entertainment — now accounts for more than 70 per cent of download traffic on fixed Internet networks during peak periods in North America, with Netflix Inc.'s share now 37.1 per cent, an increase from 36.5 per cent a year earlier, according to a report released Monday...
MONTREAL — A panel discussing discoverability of content at a CRTC event Thursday stressed the importance of recommendations and curation as strategies to help viewers find content in an environment with more options than ever. “Algorithms are necessary but not enough,” said Jean-François Gagnon,...
Worldwide wearable shipments rose 197.6 per cent with 21 million units shipped in the third quarter this year, up from 7.1 million units in the same period a year earlier, according to a new report released Thursday...
Google Inc. is folding its music-streaming service Songza into a new ad-supported, free tier of Google Play Music. Wendy Manton, a Google spokeswoman, said in an email that this is happening everywhere Songza had been available, including in Canada. Google bought Songza last year....
Shaw Communications Inc. announced Wednesday that all customers who are subscribed to its Internet 30, or any broadband Internet plan above that, will have access to download speeds six times faster when connected to any of the...
The CRTC is asking Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron to answer 16 questions regarding its Unlimited Music service, including why it chose to launch a zero-rating service rather than increase data caps....
The Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) announced Wednesday it has appointed Marcia Douglas as the new director for business affairs and digital initiatives. CMPA said in a press release...
Rogers Communications Inc. announced Wednesday it has signed an agreement with the Centre de services partagés du Quebec (CSPQ) to continue its wireless services for up to 10 years with the...
The use of data analytics to build a global audience steered much of the discussion around content discoverability at an event hosted by the CRTC in collaboration with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). The panel of experts...
The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) has granted Eric Baptiste another five-year term as CEO. SOCAN said in a press release that the reappointment will extend Baptiste's tenure with the...
Global tablet shipments will be down 8.1 per cent for 2015 overall, though tablets with detachable keyboards are expected to see strong growth for this year and in 2016, according to International Data Corp. The technology...
Wind Mobile announced Tuesday it is partnering with Lifeline Syria, a non-profit organization that helps Syrian refugees with the relocation process in Canada, to provide incoming refugees with mobile phones and wireless service...
Rogers Communications Inc. announced Tuesday it has acquired Internetworking Atlantic Inc., a Halifax based communications technology company that offers a range of IT products and solutions to government agencies, institutions and businesses. It said in the press release that the acquisition will help Rogers offer local expertise in areas such as cloud computing, data centre services, fibre networking and professional services, such as IT and network solutions. "In today's digital economy, businesses of all sizes and industries are relying on technology to achieve business...
BlackBerry Ltd. said Monday that it will stop operating its BES enterprise servers in Pakistan as of Dec. 30 due to the insistence of the Pakistani government that it get "unfettered access" to communications on the servers. A blog post by Marty Beard, BlackBerry's chief operating officer, initially said BES...
OTTAWA — Canada's major TV service providers argued before the Copyright Board of Canada on Monday that they should pay less for distant-TV signals because these channels are losing value as...
OTTAWA — David Purdy, senior vice-president of content at Rogers Communications Inc., said Monday that he will leave the company and that an official announcement will be issued later this week. Purdy told the Copyright Board of Canada, during a hearing to set the royalty rates that TV...
As the Canadian TV industry approaches an era where customers have more choice over the channels they subscribe to, large broadcasters should “pick their winners” and consolidate into a...
Blue Ant Media Inc.’s international division announced Friday it has made sales of more than 175 hours of content from its catalogue of factual, factual entertainment, nature and wildlife, lifestyle and documentary series to channels in the Asian market. It said in a press release that content was secured by Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd.’s The Times Group in India for its real estate and property business channel, Discovery Communications Inc.’s Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific in South Asia, China Central Television, Next Step Co. Ltd. in Thailand, Comcast Corp.’s NBC Universal International Networks in Asia and by CBS Corp. and RTL Group’s Entertainment channel in South East Asia. “Clients across the region continue to find high quality content in our offering that resonates with their brands,”...
The Supreme Court on Thursday sided with the Society for Reproduction Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers in Canada (SODRAC) in a dispute with CBC/Radio-Canada over whether the latter should pay for “broadcast-incidental copies” of musical works for television or Internet productions CBC had been...
On-demand viewing delivers “bonus audiences for programs,” since the number of people watching on-demand programs amounts to five to 10 per cent of the original broadcast audience,...
BCE Inc.'s Bell Media division said Thursday that the top five entertainment specialty programs in Canada this fall were all on its channels, according to data from viewership tracker Numeris. Bell Media said in a press...
The University of Northern British Columbia said Thursday that former industry minister James Moore has been named its next chancellor. The Prince George, B.C.-based school said in a press release that Moore, who was industry...
Leslie Church, head of communications and public affairs at Google Inc.’s Canadian division, is Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly’s new chief of staff. She said on Twitter Thursday that she was “very...
Television remains the main source of news for most anglophone Canadians, though the Internet is becoming increasingly used as individuals' primary way of getting news, according to survey results released Wednesday. Media...
BCE Inc.'s challenge to the CRTC's decision to ban mobile-TV plans where data used does not count against customers' data caps will be heard before the Federal Court of Appeal on Jan. 19. A notice in the case file on the court's website indicates the hearing will be held in Toronto. Telecom researcher Ben Klass, who launched the...
OTTAWA — Rights holders of programming shown over distant TV signals are seeking to at least double the amount of money they receive from TV service providers, on a per subscriber basis, for...
The CRTC approved an application by Torres Media asking for permission to acquire, from Radio Express Inc., and continue operating CKOD-FM, a French-language radio station located in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Que., about an hour outside Montreal. The regulator said in a decision that between 2005 and 2009 the station had been granted a short-term licence but had “numerous instances of non-compliance,” such as non-payment of Canadian content development (CCD) contributions, failure to submit logger tapes and failure to file annual returns. The regulator noted that it was off the...
Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. announced Tuesday it is introducing new roaming rates and five new roaming add-on plans for customers traveling outside of Canada. It said in a press release that the new rates, part...
Blue Ant Media Inc.’s international division announced Tuesday in a press release that it has signed a multi-year, exclusive distribution deal with Cream Productions Inc., an international factual content creator based in...
The Canadian Media Fund (CMF) said Monday it providing $2.5 million for 10 productions as part of its diverse languages program. CMF said in a press release that the funding will support productions that reflect Canadian diversity and are in languages other than English, French or Aboriginal languages. The 10 productions...
Stingray Digital Group Inc. has appointed Tom Pentefountas as senior vice-president of sales for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. A press release Monday said that the former vice-chairman of broadcasting for the CRTC...
BCE Inc.’s move to acquire exclusive rights to HBO programming on all platforms and become the sole operator of HBO Canada will make its CraveTV over-the-top (OTT) service more competitive against rivals, experts said. Having national HBO rights should “bolster the competitive position of CraveTV relative to other OTT services,” such as Netflix and Shomi, especially when CraveTV launches as a stand-alone service next year, RBC Dominion Securities analyst Drew McReynolds said in a research note. Bell Media announced the deal Thursday, stating the move gives it “the...
Rob Farina has resigned as vice-president of content with Rogers Communications Inc.'s media division, the company has confirmed, following a report he called for a boycott of a record company he...
BCE Inc.’s media division said Thursday that it is now the sole operator of HBO Canada, and that it has reached a deal with Time Warner Inc.’s HBO that will give it exclusive Canadian rights to all HBO programming on...
When Channel Zero Inc. announced the launch of its Bloomberg TV Canada channel this week, it listed every TV-service provider that was carrying it and absent from that list was Canada's biggest provider of TV service. Channel...
Most Canadians who subscribe to TV services do not intend to scale back their TV packages after the CRTC starts requiring $25 skinny-basic packages and pick-and-pay options next year, according to a new survey. Survey results released Thursday by the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing's Canadian...
DHX Media Ltd. announced Thursday it has signed a distribution deal for one of its cartoon shows, called Endangered Species, with seven international broadcasters and video-on-demand (VOD) services. It said in the press release...
Blue Ant Media Inc. on Wednesday announced several changes to its leadership team, including the appointment of Jamie Schouela to the newly created position of executive vice-president of Canadian networks. Blue Ant said in a...
A judge has ordered Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron to pay back $6.4 million it improperly billed its customers, plus $1 million in punitive damages. Superior Court Judge Carole Hallée said in a Nov. 11 decision that...
Google Inc. announced Wednesday it is launching in Canada its YouTube app for children. It said in a blogpost that the YouTube Kids app will be a “safer version of YouTube, a family-friendly place for kids to explore...
Demand for affordable devices helped global sales of smartphones hit 353 million units in the third quarter of 2015, up 15.5 per cent from the same period a year earlier, Gartner Inc. said Wednesday. The research company said in a press release that Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. “refreshed its flagship devices,” in order to address slowing demand for its high-end devices and compete with Apple Inc.’s large-screened iPhones. Gartner reported it sold 83.6 million units in the third quarter of this year, up from 72.9 million during the same period a year earlier. Gartner added that Apple “continued its dominance” in the marketplace with its iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models, and noted that its successful launch of its 6s and 6s Plus models at the end of September...
News anchor Carol Anne Meehan, who has been with BCE Inc.’s Ottawa CTV station for 26 years, is among those who lost their job as part of cuts at Bell Media Tuesday. The Ottawa Citizen reported that Meehan confirmed to the...
Telus Corp. and Cogeco Cable Inc. have filed their opposition to BCE Inc.'s attempt to fight, before the Federal Court of Appeal, the CRTC's wholesale code governing relationships between television stations and TV-service...
Seven out of every 10 Canadian between the ages of 18 and 34 have a subscription-TV service in their home, while that proportion is 87 per cent for those 35 and older, according to a new report from...
A group that previously battled MAtv, the community channel operated by Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron, is telling the CRTC that MAtv is still violating the conditions of its licence months after a...
The National Hockey League's Ottawa Senators announced Tuesday it has partnered with Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., making the Chinese equipment maker the club's "official smartphone supplier." Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, who was visiting Huawei's research-and-development facilities on Tuesday, said in a news release issued by the Senators: “Since opening an office in [the Ottawa suburb of] Kanata in 2009, the Huawei Canada Research Centre, based in Kanata, has grown to over 250 researchers and engineers. More importantly, it has become one of Huawei’s global hubs for the research and development of ground-breaking 5G technology.” The Senators said the sponsorship portion of the agreement will give Huawei a display on the rink boards of the...
Numeris announced Tuesday it has appointed Neil McEneaney as its new CEO. The ratings measurement group said in a press release that McEneaney will be replacing Jim MacLeod, who had announced his retirement in April. Numeris said...
American Express Co. announced Tuesday that Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay is now available for its eligible customers and small businesses in Canada. American Express said that once customers add their American Express card to...
Pandora Media Inc. announced Monday it will be acquiring key assets from music streaming service Rdio Inc. for $75 million US. It said in a press release that it will be acquiring technology and intellectual property, as well as...
DHX Media Ltd. said in its 2016 first quarter results that its revenue in the three months ending Sept. 30 grew 48 per cent to $63.9 million from $43 million during the same period a year earlier. It said Monday that an increase in distribution accounted for 19 per cent revenue growth and "new...
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has directed Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains to increase “high-speed broadband coverage and work to support competition, choice and availability of...
BCE Inc. will cover about 90 per cent of its wireline footprint with fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) in a little less or a little more than a decade, though the issue of whether smaller Internet service providers will get mandated access...
The CRTC denied an application by Groupe Média TFO, Ontario’s French-language public broadcaster, for a must-offer order that would have required TV providers to offer its French-language educational TV service in English-language and French-language markets across the country. TFO had argued in its application that “maintaining and...
Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. said Thursday that all of its TV customers will have access to BCE Inc.’s TSN GO and CTV GO mobile apps for free. MTS said in a press release that the apps are available through Apple...
TORONTO — The newly elected Liberal government has indicated infrastructure will be a priority, and that could include telecom infrastructure, said lawyer Chris Tacit during a panel discussion at the Canadian ISP Summit in Toronto on Wednesday. Tacit, a lawyer for the Canadian Network Operators’ Consortium (CNOC), which organized the conference, said that “there is a likelihood, with this government’s focus on infrastructure, that they might actually turn their focus in a much more meaningful way to broadband infrastructure.” He added:...
