Google Inc. said Friday that the testing of its self-driving cars will move from its own track to public roads in its home base of Mountain View, Calif. Google said in a blog post that cars on the public roads will not be able to drive faster than 25 miles per hour (40 km/h). Operators will be on board the vehicles to take over the controls if necessary. The company said it's looking to see how the self-driving cars perform when confronted with certain challenges, such as where they will park if its destination is not accessible due to congestion or construction....
Mnubo Inc., a Montreal-based developer of an Internet of Things (IoT) application, said Thursday it has raised $6 million in venture funding. The company said in a press release it would use the financing to improve its product and conduct further development, which will involve hiring more people in its home base of Montreal and internationally. The funding came from White Star Capital, a venture fund operating between Montreal, New York and London, as well as McRock Capital, a venture capital company focused specifically on opportunities in industrial IoT. Mnubo makes an application called SmartObjects. Used by those in the manufacturing sector, its service allows users to "ingest, organize, clean and enrich" data that comes from sensors, Mnubo said. The company said the...
Showing a piece of ID to prove who you are has remained, for the most part, one stubbornly analog interaction in our increasingly digital world. That’s now starting to change, in countries like Estonia and even some...
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...
Music streaming service Rdio Inc. said Thursday it is introducing a new mid-level service option in several markets, including Canada, for $3.99 a month. The company said in a press release that the new option, called Rdio...
Robert Dépatie, former CEO of Quebecor Inc., is resigning as CEO of restaurant operator St-Hubert Group, the company said Wednesday. Dépatie was named the next CEO of St-Hubert in December last year, and his role...
A U.S. affiliate of ABC has been denied by the CRTC its request to be removed from the list of non-Canadian television channels approved for distribution in Canada. The commission turned down an application from Hubbard Broadcasting Inc. to have KSTP-TV Minneapolis removed from the list on the grounds that it would deprive viewers of a valued service, adding that some of the issues brought up by the U.S. broadcaster concern Canadian copyright law and are not under the CRTC's jurisdiction. The CRTC said in its decision Wednesday that Hubbard had argued its signal is not available for...
Facebook Inc. said Tuesday it has introduced a new feature to its mobile app that allows news and public affairs publishers to have content posted directly on Facebook feeds and appear 10 times faster...
The CRTC said in a press release Tuesday it has opened an online discussion forum on a code of conduct for TV providers it proposed in March. At the time, the CRTC said the code would help better inform Canadians and help resolve...
Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. have named David Asch senior vice-president and general manager of their video-streaming service, Shomi. The move is effective immediately, the companies said in a press release Tuesday, adding that Ach “will oversee day-to-day...
Verizon Communications Inc. is buying AOL Inc. for an estimated $4.4 billion US, Verizon said in a press release Tuesday. AOL will become a subsidiary of Verizon once the deal is completed, it added. Verizon noted AOL’s...
Rogers Communications Inc. and Corus Entertainment Inc. are asking the Federal Court of Appeal to dismiss the Canadian Media Production Association's (CMPA's) challenge of CRTC's directive to eliminate the "terms of trade" agreement between the group and large broadcasters. Eliminating terms of trade...
Amazon.com Inc.'s Canadian unit on Monday announced the launch of an online shop for wearable technology. The company said in a press release that customers can now go to www.amazon.ca/wearabletechnology to shop for the...
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner said Monday it is participating in an international "sweep" of websites and mobile applications to help safeguard the privacy of children. The office said in a press release Monday that it will participate in an international initiative by the Global Privacy Enforcement...
While many broadcasters and TV providers expressed support for the CRTC’s proposed changes to its wholesale code, which governs carriage agreements for TV channels, they took differing positions...
The CRTC on Friday approved a new IPTV service from VMedia Inc., despite arguments from some interveners that the proposed service would be transmitted over the public Internet and should therefore not be licensed as a broadcast distributor. The commission said 2251723 Ontario Inc., which is wholly owned by VMedia, was approved for licences to provide TV service in several markets across the country, including St. John's, N.L., Halifax, Quebec City, Montreal, Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Victoria, as well as several other locations in the Atlantic, Quebec,...
The CRTC will allow a complaint by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) against video-streaming service Shomi to proceed, despite requests from its owners that the matter be dropped. A letter from the CRTC to Shomi owner...
Entertainment One Ltd. said in a press release Thursday that Marci Wiseman is its new executive vice-president of global business and legal affairs. “She will direct legal and business affairs activities on a global basis,...
Roger Communications Inc. is cutting about 110 conventional-TV jobs as a result of programming changes at its City and OMNI over-the-air television networks. That number was confirmed by Rogers spokeswoman Andrea Goldstein by...
In the past three years, five per cent of Canadians have gotten rid of their TV service, Media Technology Monitor (MTM) said in a new report. MTM, a project of CBC/Radio-Canada, reported that 16 per cent of Canadians currently do...
BCE Inc. said Thursday that its streaming service CraveTV will be available to subscribers of Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp.'s MaxTV service on May 12. It added in a press release that small Ontario providers TBayTel Inc., NRTC Communications and WTC Communications are also now offering CraveTV to their subscribers. In a separate release Thursday, Bell Media said CraveTV is also now compatible with Google Inc.’s Chromecast. It said CraveTV is the first Canadian streaming service available on the thumb-sized device, which plugs into a television's HDMI port...
The CRTC has ruled in favour of BCE Inc. in a dispute with Quebecor Inc. over carriage fees for Quebecor’s TVA Sports channel in the French-language market. The CRTC said it found that “Bell’s offer to increase...
Oculus VR, the virtual-reality technology company bought by Facebook Inc. last year, said Wednesday that it will start shipping its Rift headset in the first quarter of next year, and pre-orders will be taken later this...
The Digital ID and Authentication Council of Canada (DIACC) has issued a report calling for the creation of an official digital identity for all Canadians, which would be accepted across the country, by government and the private...
The Competition Bureau has approved the purchase of Glentel Inc. by BCE Inc., and will not attempt to prevent a deal that sees Rogers Communications Inc. taking a 50 per cent stake in Glentel from Bell, both Glentel and the...
CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais announced Tuesday that the federal government has appointed Linda Vennard and Christopher MacDonald as regional commissioners for the CRTC. A memo from Blais, forwarded to The Wire Report, said...
BCE Inc. announced Tuesday that its CraveTV streaming service is now available to Canadians on Apple TV, but subscriptions to a participating TV service provider are still required to access the...
Statistics presented by the CRTC on Monday showed Canada's over-the-air TV broadcasters are facing an increasingly tight advertising market. The CRTC's data for private broadcasters, which...
The Competition Bureau said in a press release Monday that it supports the CRTC’s proposed code of conduct governing agreements between broadcasters and TV providers. In March, the CRTC said it would consult on a revised...
Encrypted Internet traffic currently makes up about one-third of North American traffic, a figure that is projected to grow to two-thirds by 2016, after Netflix Inc. begins using encryption, according to a new report from network management provider Sandvine Inc. “There is a growing trend on the Internet, with more and more applications beginning to encrypt their traffic in order to protect a subscriber’s content from prying eyes,” Sandvine said in the report, released Thursday. It said encryption, which it defined as “encoding information such that it can only be...
Despite streaming services eating away at the profits of pay-per-view movies and TV shows, TV providers could see their biggest PPV revenues in history on Saturday as two of boxing’s biggest names fight in front of a...
BCE Inc.’s latest earnings report shows the company made $532 million in profits in the first quarter of 2015, down from $615 million in same period last year. Despite the 13.5 per cent year-on-year drop in profits, the...
A former CRTC commissioner says a court proceeding initiated by current commissioner Raj Shoan, which challenges the findings of an internal report into harassment and seeks to limit Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais' control, could help clarify the rights of and limits to the power of various CRTC players. "It's...
Google Inc. announced a new partnership with European news organizations on Tuesday called the Digital News Initiative. The search and advertising giant said it will work with newspapers including the Financial Times, the...
Google Inc.'s YouTube said Tuesday that it will be partnering with a division of DreamWorks Animation LLC to make feature films in the coming years. It said in a blog post that it will work with DreamWorks' AwesomenessTV to "release several feature length films over the next two years, all driven by YouTube stars and developed and produced by AwesomenessTV’s Brian Robbins." Robbins is CEO of AwesomenessTV and has a vast portfolio of films and TV shows that he's directed or produced since the 1980s. YouTube also said in its blog that it has struck a partnership with four other of its "top creators" — Fine Brothers, Prank vs. Prank, Joey Graceffa and Smosh — to bring in more original content....
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,...
Former Rogers Communications Inc. CEO Nadir Mohamed will lead a new venture-capital fund created by the Ontario government, the office of Premier Kathleen Wynne said on Monday. Mohamed will lead a council of about 30 business...
Facebook Inc. said Monday it has updated its Messenger app to add video-calling capabilities. In a press release, the company said the app, which introduced voice calling in January 2013, now accounts for more than 10 per cent of...
BBC Worldwide North America announced Monday that it has appointed Sandra Mackechnie to the position of vice-president for digital ad sales at BBC.com’s Canadian office in Toronto. Mackechnie...
Stingray Digital Group Inc. has filed for an initial public offering, according to documents filed Friday with Canadian securities regulatory authorities. The Montreal-based company’s products include audio TV channels, as well as music- and video-streaming apps. Stingray said in the...
Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. said Thursday it has launched mobile-payment capabilities for wireless customers who bank with Toronto Dominion Bank and have certain devices. SaskTel said the current service works...
In the wake of the CRTC's recent changes to specialty-TV genres, Corus Entertainment Inc. has applied to change the licence conditions of the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), which it has the licensing rights for in Canada. In a...
Comcast Corp. on Friday confirmed that it is walking away from its proposed $45-billion US buyout of Time Warner Cable Inc. In a statement on Comcast's website, CEO Brian Roberts said: "Today, we move on. Of course, we...
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce announced Thursday it will soon have a banking application for Apple Inc.'s Apple Watch. CIBC said in a press release that its app will allow users to check account balances, transfer funds between accounts, view recent transactions, or find the nearest branch or ATM. It said the app would be available from the Apple Watch App Store on Friday....
The CRTC has denied an application by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the Council of Senior Citizens' Organizations of British Columbia for reimbursement of about $13,500 for their participation in a complaint...
The federal government said in a press release Thursday that it would provide $417,215 for a program aimed at increasing “the number of women in senior executive positions and on the boards of companies in the communications, media and technical sectors across Canada.” The money will go to the to the...
Shaw Communications Inc. said in a press release Thursday that it has named Trevor English its senior vice-president of corporate development and business planning. The release noted that...
Media Technology Monitor (MTM), a project of CBC/Radio-Canada, said in report released Wednesday that the percentage of anglophones using "personalized" audio streaming services over the last year or so has been...
Google Inc. on Wednesday announced it has launched a wireless service in the United States, partnering with T-Mobile U.S. Inc. and Sprint Corp. for coverage on their networks. A website for Google's new service, called Project Fi, showed it is available in most major markets across the U.S. Nick Fox, Google's vice-president of communications products, said in a blog post that text-and-talk service is available for $20 US a month, and data costs $10 US per GB. He said customers will get credit for unused data. The blog post said customers of the service can use their accounts in more...
Pico Digital Inc. of San Diego has reached an agreement to purchase the "key" assets of Ottawa's International Datacasting Corp., the companies said in a joint news release Wednesday. The announcement said Pico would acquire International Datacasting's broadcast products business, which would include its...
Vancouver-based BroadbandTV Corp. announced Tuesday that it has bought a company that bills itself as the world's top producer of digital video content for kids. Broadband said in a press release that the acquisition of YoBoHo New Media Pvt. Ltd., based in Mumbai, India, positions it as "one of the leaders in kids...
The Competition Bureau is looking for experts in the fields of online search and advertising, and experts say it's likely related to its probe into Google Inc.'s advertising practices, the Financial Post reported....
The federal budget, released Tuesday, includes new money for broadband and research networks, satellite communications, securing the government’s own online properties and a dedicated public safety network. The government is...
The main Internet of Things (IoT) market will generate $6.5 billion in revenue in Canada in 2018, representing average annual growth of 18 per cent in comparison to the $2.88 billion the market was worth in 2013, International...
Viewership of the first round of the NHL playoffs is 40 per cent higher than last year at an average of 1.36 million viewers, Rogers Communications Inc. spokeswoman Jennifer Neziol said in an email. Citing data from Numeris, she...
The Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada (IAB) has named Sonia Carreno its new president, the organization said in a press release Monday. The release said Carreno has “more than 15 years of integrated leadership...
BlackBerry Ltd. announced Tuesday that it has reached a deal to purchase a California-based company that makes technology to secure shared documents. The company being bought is called WatchDox Ltd. Terms of the deal were not...
Rogers Communications Inc. on Monday reported a 5.1 per cent annual gain in revenue for the first quarter, driven largely by a 26 per cent jump in its media division that benefited from Rogers' exclusive national rights to NHL hockey broadcasts. The company said in a press release that revenue came to $3.18 billion for the three months ended March 31, compared to $3.02 billion a year earlier. It said revenue in its wireless division was up four per cent, its cable division brought in one per cent more, business services were relatively flat and media saw a gain of 26 per cent. Rogers...
Ken Engelhart, Rogers Communications Inc.’s former vice-president of regulatory affairs, has quietly left the company after 25 years and will be starting his own law firm. His last day at Rogers was April 10, he said in a...
Google Inc.'s Android division on Monday announced several upgrades to its smartwatch technology, including built-in WiFi, making apps visible even when devices are in energy-saving mode, and adding easier functionality for...
Vancouver-based Recon Instruments announced Thursday the release of its new smart goggles for outdoor sports enthusiasts called Recon Jet. It said in a press release that the product is equipped with GPS, a camera, a display...
CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais will give the keynote address to the Banff World Media Festival on June 7, according to a press release from the organizers of the event. Blais will speak to the...
Having five Canadian teams reach the NHL playoffs for the first time in more than a decade is set to translate into a winning season for Rogers Communications Inc. as it completes the first of 12 years of a $5.2-billion rights agreement with the National Hockey League. The inclusion of the Montreal Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks, Ottawa Senators, Winnipeg Jets and Calgary Flames in the playoffs will “spark a number of good outcomes for us,” Rogers Sportsnet president Scott Moore said in a phone interview, citing higher ratings, more advertising revenue and subscriptions,...
BCE Inc. said in a press release Friday that its IPTV customer base has reached one million households. In the release, Bell said IPTV, which it offers through its Fibe TV and FibreOP TV brands, has since its launch in...
Rogers Communications Inc. said Friday that Keith Pelley will leave as president of the company's media division this summer to take over as CEO of the PGA European Tour. Pelley was appointed president of Rogers Media in...
Apple Inc. is negotiating with Canada's major banks about a launch of its mobile-payment service, Apple Pay, in November, according to the Wall Street Journal. An article published online Friday said Apple is negotiating with...
The CRTC on Thursday approved two licences for AEBC Internet Corp. to operate television services in Alberta and British Columbia. The company, which offers Internet, phone and IPTV service, was approved to offer a TV service...
Corus Entertainment Inc. said Thursday it has signed a long-term licensing agreement with Walt Disney Co. giving it the rights to distribute Disney content across Canada in both official languages. Disney had a previous agreement...
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...
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...
Al Jazeera Media Network has won its fight to delete most of the conditions on Canadian distribution of is Al Jazeera Arabic channel, the CRTC said Wednesday, making it easier for Canadian service providers to distribute the...
Network management provider Sandvine Inc. said Wednesday it has launched a smartphone application for mobile service providers to allow customers to manage their plans on their device. The SmartService app gives operators the ability to offer usage monitoring and plan upgrades to their customers, Waterloo, Ont.-based Sandvine said in a news release. “By placing a one-stop-shop for Internet data plans at the fingertips of subscribers, SmartService app provides the opportunity for operators to extend beyond traditional volume-based plans (by megabyte or gigabyte) to value-based plans...
Quebecor Inc.’s Tuesday announcement of nationwide roaming at no charge for its Videotron wireless customers could allow the company to test the waters for a national mobile service, according...
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre said it will not drop a CRTC complaint against BCE Inc.’s targeted ad program, despite the company’s plans to re-launch the program according to...
The federal government said Monday that retailers will be allowed to opt out of accepting payments through mobile devices, without penalty, if higher fees are being charged than for card-based transactions using contactless...
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) said it is “dismayed” by the cuts to the Nova Scotia film and TV production tax credit and the closing of the...
Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) had a small-scale launch in Canada recently, with Rogers Communications Inc. making the service that allows carriers to transmit voice calls on the same networks as data available to a portion of its customers. As the technology grows and becomes more widely available around the world, questions about how it will coexist — or conflict — with net-neutrality laws and principles are on the radar for both net-neutrality advocates and wireless carriers. According to Jeremy Gillula, a technologist with the U.S.-based advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation,...
BCE Inc. on Friday took the next steps in appealing the January CRTC ruling regarding its mobile-TV service, having been granted leave to appeal the matter last week. The date the appeal will be heard has not yet been determined,...
Shaw Communications Inc. said Thursday it has made a number of changes affecting the executive positions at its media division. The company said it appointed Christine Shipton senior-vice president and chief creative...
BCE Inc. said Thursday that Kevin Crull is out as president of its Bell Media division, and a press release appeared to link Crull's ousting to his recent conflict with news staff over coverage of the CRTC's decision on...
Corus Entertainment Inc. reported an $86.8 million loss for its second fiscal quarter, attributed largely to writedowns in the value of radio-broadcast licences and other associated goodwill charges. The company said in a press release Thursday that this compared to a profit of $6.1 million in the...
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,...
Rogers Communications Inc. has launched new wireless plans for customers of its Fido brand that include exclusive content from Vice Media Inc. Rogers said in a press release that its new “Fido Pulse” plans will...
Stingray Digital Group Inc. , the provider of music content over TV subscriptions, has named Stephen Tapp as senior vice-president of business development, the company said in a press release...
The Television Bureau of Canada (TVB) said Thursday Catherine MacLeod is its new president, effective April 13. MacLeod most recently worked for BCE Inc.'s media subsidiary as the senior vice-president of specialty channels and Bell Media production, the industry group said in a press release. “The television experience in Canada has never been better and I am excited and honoured to be leading our team in fulfilling its role of helping advertisers understand the powerful effectiveness of television and how to make it work even better,” MacLeod said in the release. She...
DHX Media Ltd., a Canadian content creator specializing in children's television programming, said it has reached a deal with U.S. distribution company, The Orchard, that will give it a new path...
Canada’s national news channels face new obligations from the CRTC even as the regulator is taking away their place on basic cable, raising questions about their future finances. Last month, as...
BCE Inc.'s Bell Media said Wednesday that the division that operates its MuchMusic channel will launch "a multi-channel network of Canadian and international YouTube creators" this spring. Bell Media said in a press release that the endeavour will be called Much Digital Studios and be based at Much headquarters at 299 Queen St. W. in...
Corus Entertainment Inc. on Tuesday said it has made Mario Cecchini president of Corus Radio, effective immediately. Corus CEO Doug Murphy said in a press release that Cecchini has more than 25 years of experience in the radio...
The CRTC has denied an application by Blackgold Broadcasting Inc. for a country music FM radio station in Ponoka, Alta. In its decision, the CRTC said the station could have an had an “undue negative impact on existing radio stations.” It added that the station’s proposed contours would have overlapped with stations in Wetaskiwin, Lacombe, and Red Deer, Alta. “The Commission has examined the applicant’s revenue projections and is not convinced that none of the projected revenues would come from existing stations, as was stated by the applicant,” the CRTC...
Corus Entertainment Inc. said Tuesday it has secured a long-term agreement with Viacom Inc.'s Nickelodeon division to secure the exclusive Canadian rights to its content for television in digital...
International Business Machines (IBM) Corp. said Tuesday it will invest $3 billion US over the next four years to establish an Internet of Things (IoT) unit. It said in a press release it will use its cloud-based platform to help business clients better integrate data from IoT devices and other...
Shaw Communications Inc. said Tuesday it has named Vito Culmone as its executive vice-president and chief financial officer. The appointment is effective June 1, the company said in a press release. Culmone’s most recent...
The CRTC is proposing changes in the way it deals with broadcast-licence renewals, such as getting rid of reminder letters for each licensee and removing the requirement that it publish a notice of consultation for every licence...
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...
The mobile-app market "may be reaching a plateau," research company Gartner Inc. said in a press release Tuesday. The company said, based on research on U.S. and German consumers, it found that interest in apps is still high, though people are reaching the point where they are satisfied with the apps they already...
A national emergency alert system became operational on Tuesday, according to officials speaking on behalf of the company that will operate the infrastructure behind it. A spokesperson for public relations company High Road,...
The Canadian Media Fund said Monday it will have $375.2 million to fund television and digital-media productions in the 2015-16 fiscal year. That's up $7.2 million from the $368 million it announced was the budget for the...
Corus Entertainment Inc. on Monday announced that Doug Murphy taken over the job of president and CEO from John Cassaday, who has retired after 15 years in this role. The appointment follows the succession plan that was first announced by Corus in January. Corus said in a press release Monday that Murphy has been with Corus since 2003 in a variety of positions, most recently as chief operating officer. Before that, he spent 10 years with Walt Disney Co. in different senior executive roles in Canada, the United States and Japan, Corus said....
