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 heard Thursday, as it continued its study of the media and local communities. Since beginning its study, the standing committee on Canadian heritage has heard a variety of suggestions on ways in which the government could play a role in the supporting the struggling news media industry — some of which concerned Michael Geist, who holds the Canada research chair in Internet and e-commerce law at...
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...
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...
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....
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 — 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 public broadcaster as one driven by legacy assets.” “We can’t stand still,” Lacroix said in an interview at the Public Broadcasters International conference, which is being hosted by CBC in Montreal this week. The focus for this year’s two-day event is how public broadcasters can reach the digital generation. Despite the shift in the federal government following last...
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)....
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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 taxes in Canada. If Netflix Inc. were to pay a 13-per-cent HST tax, that would amount to “some $62.4 to $90.48 million per year in value-added taxes,” the centre’s June 21 report said. Canada is “missing out on millions of dollars in uncollected income and...
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 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...
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...
Netflix Inc. subscribers can now regulate how much wireless data they use in the newest version of the company’s Android and iOS application. As of May 5, the mobile app users could take advantage of “added...
Corus Entertainment Inc., which holds to the Canadian rights to Viacom Inc.’s Nickelodeon content, said it has sold the digital streaming rights for a number of shows to Netflix Inc.’s Canadian division. Corus said in a press release Wednesday that the deal includes “Nickelodeon’s classic hit series such as iCarly, Sam & Cat and Victorious, among others,” as well as “exclusive streaming rights to the...
Next month, long-time Netflix Inc. subscribers will be notified of a price hike to their monthly bill, with subscriptions going from $7.99 per month to $9.99 per month, the company confirmed in an email Monday. The price...
When companies launched TV-everywhere products a few years ago, they did so as part of an effort to compete with then-new streaming services — but now that many of those same companies have...
Rogers Communications Inc. will begin offering its Sportsnet channels without a TV subscription for $24.99 per month, the company announced Thursday. Scott Moore, president of Sportsnet and NHL...
The federal government will hold a consultation on the Internet's effect on Canada’s media industry. According to a transcript, Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly said in question period...
While advertising will remain a key part of the TV ecosystem, the television industry will have to provide better audience data in order to keep up with digital competition, said Barbara Williams, president of Shaw Communications...
The majority of anglophone Canadians still subscribe to traditional television services, but an increasing number are taking an online-only approach, according to a new report on media technology adoption by the Media Technology...
According to the Conference Board of Canada, high debt levels and weak job prospects will make it difficult for Canadians to increase spending on telecom services in 2016, limiting industry growth. A...
Following last fall’s election, the government is set to boost CBC/Radio-Canada's funding, but when that will happen and under what conditions is unclear. It also remains to be seen whether...
Netflix Inc. said Thursday that it will soon be employing technology that stops users from bypassing conditions that restrict some content from being seen in certain locations. David Fullagar, its vice-president of content-delivery architecture, said in a blog post that "in coming weeks, those using proxies and unblockers will only be able to access the service in the country where they currently are." Research has found that about one-third of Netflix users in Canada use technology to access the U.S. version of Netflix, which has some content that is unavailable on the Canadian...
According to a new report on media technology adoption of baby boomers released Wednesday by the Media Technology Monitor, a project of CBC/Radio Canada, 89 per cent of baby boomer anglophones aged 50 to 69 have a paid TV service...
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...
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...
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...
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 receivers have been upgraded to access the video streaming service, and added that customers have to press the apps button on their Fibe or Fibre OP TV remote. Netflix will consume data from a customers’ Internet service even though it streams over the set-top box, Caroline Audet, a spokeswomen for Bell, said in an email. Telus Corp. announced earlier...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
T-Mobile US Inc. announced Tuesday it will be launching a new service for its Simple Choice mobile plan customers that allows free video streaming from several services without it cutting into their...
Ontario residents are not moving as fast toward newer ways of getting TV content, such as IPTV and Netflix, as other parts of the Canada, according to newly released figures. Survey results released last week from Media...
The European Commission voted Tuesday to set net neutrality rules for the first time in the European Union law. The new law, which was detailed in a fact sheet on the commission’s website, will include no blocking or throttling of online content, applications and services. The fact sheet said that “every European must be able to have access to the open internet and all content and service providers must be able to provide their services via a high-quality open internet,” adding that blocking certain websites or asking for extra money for certain services, such as...
Canadian Netflix Inc. subscribers will be the only ones able to stream Walt Disney Co.'s Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2016. A Netflix representative confirmed in a phone call that the seventh installment, and latest...
Canaccord Genuity analysts Aravinda Galappatthige and Sanford Lee said Tuesday that they expect a Liberal majority government, as elected Monday, to take a “softer pro-wireless new entrant...
Netflix Inc. reported 30 per cent annual growth in quarterly revenue on Wednesday, though its net profit in the third quarter was half of what it was at the same time in 2014. The over-the-top (OTT) streaming company said in a...
Netflix Inc. has raised pricing for new Canadian customers signing up for its standard package by $1, to $9.99 a month, according to its website. The increase applies to the package that includes high-definition content and...
Prices for TV subscriptions in the coming pick-and-pay era will be one of the main factors determining how over-the-top (OTT) video services are affected, say experts, noting that competitive pricing in TV packages might curb the cord-cutting trend. Earlier this year, the CRTC announced that TV providers will have to offer skinny basic TV packages, starting in March of next year, for no more than $25 a month. This package will include public-interest, educational, some community, and local and regional channels. Emilia Zboralska, a researcher of communication and culture at...
Rogers Communications Inc. on Monday announced it is moving forward with two different kinds of technology — 4K video and gigabit-speed Internet — though one commentator says the success of either of these initiatives...
Apple Inc.’s iPhone owners stream audio and video content more than any other device owners, according to a new report released by Media Technology Monitor (MTM), a project of CBC/Radio-Canada. The report said that among...
Advocacy group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting said in a press release Tuesday that a Nanos Research poll it commissioned found the NDP is the party “most trusted by voters to protect the CBC,” followed by the...
Telecommunications and media have not been prominent issues in this year's federal election campaign, taking a backseat to things such as the Mike Duffy trial, the deficit and Syrian refugees. The Wire Report has made...
A new report from Ericsson AB shows that while people are increasingly consuming video on mobile devices, the cost of data limits many from taking advantage of what the technology makes possible. The report released Thursday from...
Sony Corp. announced Wednesday at IFA Berlin, one of the world’s largest consumer electronics trade shows in Europe, the release of the world’s first 4K smartphone. Sony said in a press release that the Xperia Z5...
Seven technology companies announced on Tuesday a new alliance to develop next-generation media formats, codecs and technologies to meet demand for better video, audio, imagery and streaming quality across all platforms and...
Netflix Inc. will not renew its licencing agreement with Epix — a joint venture by Paramount Pictures Corp., Lions Gate Entertainment Inc. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. — because it...
As of Thursday, any Canadian with Internet was able subscribe to Shomi without being a customer of other services from its owners, Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc., though one industry observer said this does not mean these companies have given up on their TV services. Shomi announced Thursday in a press release that it is now available to all Canadians over the Internet. It's something that Shomi had already announced would happen some time this summer. Access to the service was previously restricted to those who subscribed to either TV or Internet service from Rogers or Shaw. "Today is an epic day for Canadian entertainment lovers as we deliver on the...
The tendency of major players in Canada's television industry to be involved in both content and distribution is helping the sector deal better with issues such as cord cutting and a declining...
Canadian customers of Netflix Inc. are theoretically obliged to pay sales taxes on this service, even though Netflix does not collect the tax up front, the Toronto Star quoted a federal official as...
Individuals fighting BCE Inc.’s appeal of a CRTC decision on its mobile-TV service in the Federal Court of Appeal have called it an “over-the-top” or OTT service, along the same lines of what...
Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Wednesday posted a video of himself on Twitter standing in front of a screen with a Netflix logo and criticizing calls for taxes on video-streaming services. In the video, Harper said he is a fan...
Netflix Inc.'s growth in subscriber numbers and revenue continued on an upward trajectory in the second quarter, yet its profit was cut to about a third of what it made last year as international expansion costs added up. Netflix said Wednesday in a letter to shareholders that revenue in the three months ended June 30 was $1.48 billion US, up 29.2 per cent from a year earlier. Total memberships came to 65.6 million, with 62.7 million being paid subscriptions, up from 50.1 million memberships a year before, of which 48 million were paid. Net income for the second quarter was $26 million...
Netflix Inc. has hired Environics Communications Inc. to lobby the Canadian government on its behalf, The Lobby Monitor reported this week. It has three new filings under Environics, represented by three different Ottawa-based...
Netflix Inc.'s audience is already on par with two out of the three major U.S. television networks and will be bigger than all three in about a year, U.S. investment analysts said last week. Chase White and Barton Crockett of FBR Capital Markets & Co. said in a note issued June 24 that Nielson Co. does not issue...
Rogers Communications Inc. will launch its IPTV service at about the same time it starts adjusting to new rules that require service providers to provide skinny-basic TV packages for no more than $25...
DHX Media Ltd., announced Tuesday that it will be premiering Degrassi: Next Class, a new series part of the Degrassi franchise, on Netflix Inc. The company stated in a press release that the show will be available on Netflix...
Netflix Inc. announced it will be expanding its video-streaming services to Italy, Spain and Portugal. The company announced in two separate press releases on Thursday and Saturday last week that it would be available in the...
In North America, Netflix Inc. now accounts for 36.5 per cent of peak period, downloaded network traffic, a new report from network management provider Sandvine Inc. said, up from 34.9 per cent...
At some point this summer, Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc.’s Shomi streaming service will be made available to customers of other TV and Internet service providers...
OTTAWA — Streaming video services like CraveTV and Shomi can and must be regulated as broadcasting entities in order to ensure funding for Canadian programming, the Canadian Media Production...
Copyright-enforcement company CEG TEK International said recently that it’s seen a significant fall in the piracy of its clients’ content in Canada over the past few months, which it attributes to the inclusion of settlement demands in its copyright infringement notices. CEG TEK was cited in a press release from a group called the Internet Security Task Force last week as saying peer-to-peer piracy of content owned by its 125 clients dropped among the five largest Internet service providers (ISPs) in Canada over the past 13 weeks. The most dramatic decline was on BCE Inc.’s...
DHX Media Ltd. said Thursday that revenue for its third quarter ended March 31 almost tripled from a year earlier to $85.6 million from $29 million, thanks to a major acquisition and gains in its distribution and production...
The rates large telecom companies charge small Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to access their wireline networks have reached extreme levels and are eroding competition “with every passing day,” according to a CRTC application filed by the Canadian Networks Operators Consortium (CNOC). “The amount of...
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) has re-launched an undue-preference complaint against Rogers Communications Inc.'s and Shaw Communications Inc.’s Shomi streaming service,...
A new bill in Australian parliament could block virtual private networks (VPNs), while Internet service providers in New Zealand could face lawsuits for a VPN-like service, two articles in the Guardian said. The British newspaper...
Netflix Inc. said in letter to shareholders Wednesday it would be shifting some of its U.S. marketing budget to other parts of the world in the coming months "to take advantage of the substantial available growth opportunities." In the same letter, the company said it added a record 4.9 million subscribers during this year's first quarter to reach 62.3 million overall, with gains of 2.3 million coming from the U.S. and 2.6 million coming from elsewhere. Overall, its U.S. subscriber base stood at 41.4 million and it was 20.9 million elsewhere. Besides breaking out the U.S....
A 27-year-old entrepreneur wants to offer an alternative to what he calls a monopoly in the market for audio music channels offered through TV service providers in Canada. Evan Kosiner, president and owner of Kosiner Venture...
Microsoft Corp. announced Wednesday that users of its Xbox One gaming console in Canada and the United States that are subscribed to its beta updates program will now be able to receive over-the-air broadcast television with an...
In the fall of 2014, Canadian anglophones spent an hour more watching online video in a typical week than they did a year earlier, according to new data from the Media Technology Monitor (MTM). MTM, a project of CBC/Radio-Canada,...
A case involving BCE Inc.’s mobile-TV service that’s currently winding its way through the Federal Court of Appeal is just one example of how the lines between telecommunications and...
Nielsen Co., the which measures viewership for TV shows, will start assessing audiences for online streaming services such as Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.'s Prime this year, according to a Bloomberg report. “That...
The Ontario government spent months preparing its position on regulating streaming services like that offered by Netflix Inc., according to documents cited in a blog by University of Ottawa law...
OTTAWA — The retransmission of U.S. networks in Canada is the equivalent of Aereo, the service ruled illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court last year, Kevin Crull, president of BCE Inc.'s media...
OTTAWA — Kevin Crull, president of BCE Inc.'s media division, said Thursday that monetization is currently his organization's biggest challenge, given the usage of over-the-top (OTT)...
Rogers Communications Inc. said Friday that David Purdy, its senior vice-president of content, did not call on government to ban virtual private networks (VPNs) during a media-industry conference in Toronto on Thursday, despite suggestions on Twitter to the contrary. Broadcasting consultant Kelly Lynne Ashton, commenting on proceedings at the Content Industry Connect conference, posted Thursday: "Purdy - need the govt to shut down VPNs, enforce copyright then can have a viable business." Marcia Douglas, program manager for the Bell Fund, at about the same time, posted on Twitter:...
Users of Apple Inc.'s iPhone 6 Plus are using twice as much data as those with the iPhone 6, according to a report from Citrix Systems Inc. The U.S. provider of workplace mobility technology said...
About one in three Canadian customers of Netflix Inc. have used a U.S. IP address to access the company's American service because it offers more content than the Canadian version, Media...
Telus Corp. said Wednesday it will be making services from Netflix Inc. available through its Optik TV set-top boxes in the coming weeks. Telus said in a press release that almost half of its Optik TV customers are Netflix...
Netflix Inc. said Monday it is now offering service in Cuba. "Bienvenida Cuba! Netflix is now available," Netflix said in a Twitter post. The move follows the December announcement that the U.S. government is restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba after more than five decades. Netflix...
U.S. Federal Communications Commissioner (FCC) chairman Tom Wheeler said on Wednesday that he will propose new rules this week to enshrine net neutrality in law and ban paid prioritization and throttling of “lawful content and services” on both wireline and, for the first time, wireless connections. In a post on the website of Wired, Wheeler said the regulations would redefine ISPs and mobile providers as common carriers using the FCC’s so-called Title II authority. “Using this authority, I am submitting to my colleagues the strongest open internet protections ever...
MONTREAL — Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron hopes that producing original content exclusively for its Club Illico streaming service will help the company attract and keep subscribers, said...
BlackBerry Ltd. CEO John Chen said the battle for net neutrality in the United States should not only focus on service providers' traffic management practices, but should also include companies,...
Netflix Inc. can expand to pretty well everywhere in the world while staying profitable over the next two years, the company said in a letter to shareholders Tuesday. “Acceleration to 200 countries is largely made possible...
Cogeco Cable Inc. has quietly rolled out home spotting, or the use of multi-signal routers in people's homes to provide both private WiFi signals to residents and separate public signals to...
As new over-the-top (OTT) services continue to be launched both in Canada and the United States, online alternatives for live sports have also been increasing. But in a world where live sports...
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will vote on a net-neutrality proposal in February, the Washington Post and other news outlets reported late last week. The Post said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told other commissioners...
It seems all eyes are on the two newest services in the Canadian TV industry. This fall, the country’s biggest telecom and media companies launched streaming services meant to compete with...
On Wednesday, the Australian government said it would allow the blocking of foreign websites that offer illegal downloading and streaming, the same day that the file-sharing website Pirate Bay was...
Some TV-industry analysts who are among the early adopters of Rogers Communications Inc.'s and Shaw Communications Inc.’s Shomi are detailing problems they've experienced with the streaming service in its first weeks. Broadcasting consultant Kelly Lynne Ashton said in an email she experienced problems setting up the online streaming version of the service due to issues with cookie recognition, though that was later fixed. She added that the recommendation engine will also offer irrelevant suggestions, like out-of-order episodes of a TV series that is already being...