Industry Canada’s announcement last week that it is opening up TV white space for the use of "super WiFi" technology could improve broadband availability in rural areas and has the potential be used for Internet of Things connectivity, experts say. Industry Canada said it would put in place measures for the use of television white space, or spectrum designated for over-the-air television signals that is not fully used. A press release said this would bring "super WiFi" service to Canada. Uses of super WiFi include mobile services or home Internet, either for...
International Datacasting Corp., an Ottawa-based provider of technology for the broadcasting industry, said Tuesday it is in talks with an undisclosed party about the sale of the company. International Datacasting said in a press release that the discussions are "preliminary in nature and there can be no assurance that they will result in a transaction." It said it has established a committee of independent directors to assess the potential sale and other "strategic alternatives."...
The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) said Tuesday that collected a record amount of royalties last year, based on preliminary results. The collective representing songwriters, composers and...
David Kleidermacher has been appointed chief security officer of BlackBerry Ltd., the company announced Tuesday. Kleidermacher was previously chief technology officer at Green Hills Software, a maker of embedded operating...
The Canadian government asked Twitter Inc. for users’ personal information 32 times in the last six months of 2014, the social network said on Monday in its latest transparency report. The requests covered 37 different...
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...
There's been a jump over the last year in Canadian marketers using "advanced ad targeting" methods to reach their audiences, which include using information about their purchasing or online behaviour, video advertising platform provider Videology Inc. said in a press release Monday. Videology said 92 per cent of the Canadian advertisers on its platform in last year's fourth quarter used some form of advertising that reached intended audiences using data beyond age and gender demographics. This was up 48 per cent from a year earlier, the company said. It added that 35 per cent of advertisers ran multi-screen campaigns in the fourth quarter, up from 27 per cent in the...
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) on Friday asked the CRTC to prohibit Rogers Communications Inc., Shaw Communications Inc. and BCE Inc. from restricting the availability of their streaming...
Ethnic Channels Group Ltd. has filed an application to the CRTC to have a Nigerian TV channel called 1Music approved for distribution in Canada. The company said in a letter posted on the...
The CRTC issued a decision Friday the denied the operator of a Drumheller, Alta., radio station an amendment to its broadcasting licence that requires it make at least 10 per cent of the music it plays “folk or folk-oriented...
Industry Canada said Thursday it was moving forward with initiatives it says will provide new opportunities for rural Canadians to access "WiFi-like services" through the use of TV white...
Twitter Inc. and Google Inc. have reached a deal that will make posts on Twitter’s social media accounts easier to find through the Google search engine, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. Quoting...
Pierre Karl Péladeau, the controlling shareholder at Quebecor Inc., who was elected a member of Quebec’s national assembly last year, said Wednesday he maintains control of the company, the Montreal Gazette reported....
VMedia Inc. said Wednesday it has become the first independent telecommunications service provider to offer a triple-play bundle of television, Internet and home-phone service in Ontario. The company said its packages start at...
The CRTC said Wednesday that while it found MAtv, a French-language community channel owned by Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron subsidiary, was not in compliance with the conditions of its licence, it...
Valnet Inc., a Montreal-based company that owns several information/entertainment websites, said Wednesday it has bought ScreenRant.com, a website for television and movie news. Valnet said in a press release that it "plans to bolster the site's unique and in-depth film and television content with enhanced features, new digital media and expanded coverage of the industry's biggest events and releases." The release said the site was founded in 2003 by Vic Holtreman, who "propelled the site to become one of the most visited movie and TV news sites in the United States." Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Other websites in Valnet's portfolio include TheRichest.com, TheSportster.com and BabyGaga.com. "Combining the expertise of the existing...
Canada has agreed to extend the copyright term to 70 years after the death of the author as part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade deal currently under discussion, the Japanese Broadcasting Corp. reported Feb. 2....
Five Canadian senators are going to the United Kingdom this month on a "fact-finding mission" as part of a study on the difficulties faced by CBC/Radio Canada. The Senate's transport and communications standing...
Data running on mobile networks in Canada is set to grow an average of 46 per cent a year between now and 2019, resulting in a quantity of data that's seven times what it was last year, Cisco Systems Inc. said in a report...
Solutions Research Group Consultants Inc. (SRG) released results of a survey Tuesday that suggest interest among Canadians in following the National Hockey League declined over the last year. The company said in a press release...
The Pirate Bay filesharing website is back online, website TorrentFreak reported Friday. It said "the look and feel of the site is familiar, and the user accounts are working properly too." The Pirate Bay went offline in December. According to TorrentFreak, the site's "nuclear-proof" data centre in a mountain complex near Stockholm was raided by Swedish authorities that month. There is a lack of clear information on the extent of Internet piracy, The Wire Report reported in December, though there are signs of rising activity among young people....
The CRTC has turned down a request from BCE Inc. to meet and discuss the regulator's decision to get rid of simultaneous substitution for the Super Bowl starting in 2017. Last week, the CRTC said it has decided to maintain...
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...
New data shows that tablet shipments declined year-over-year in last year's fourth quarter — for the first time in the category’s short market history — though a Canadian trends observer says the cultural impact of tablets isn't going away any time soon. International Data Corp. said in a press...
More than half of Rogers Communications Inc.'s and Shaw Communications Inc.’s customers are familiar with their Shomi streaming service, but just five per cent are using it, according to a survey. ...
Google Inc. said in its fourth-quarter results that the average “cost-per-click” for ads on its sites and those of its network members decreased by three per cent over the fourth quarter of 2013. Cost-per-click for...
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s AWS-3 auction ended Thursday, and the regulator announced Friday that it had accepted $41.3 billion US in net bids from 31 bidders for 1,611 spectrum licences. The FCC had...
The CRTC’s ruling on Thursday that BCE Inc. and Quebecor Inc.-owned Videotron can no longer exempt their mobile-TV services from data charges could have implications for the regulation of...
The CRTC said Thursday that it would prohibit the use of simultaneous substitution for the Super Bowl, but would otherwise keep the practice in place, in an approach BCE Inc.’s media division...
Canaccord Genuity analyst Dvai Ghose says concern over hockey viewership is among the reasons he downgraded the stock of Rogers Communications Inc. this week. In a research note Wednesday, the telecom industry analyst pointed to a Toronto Star article that said the National Hockey League all-star game attracted 1.48 million viewers on Sunday, down from 2.54 million when the previous all-star game was played in 2012. The two-year layoff was the result of the Olympics last year and a player lockout in 2013. The Star article quoted Scott Moore, president of Rogers' Sportsnet, as saying...
BCE Inc.'s Bell Media said Wednesday that Tom Hastings has been named its director of independent production. The company said in a press release that Hastings was already a production executive in this division. He is replacing Trish Williams, who is becoming co-executive producer of the CTV original series Saving...
Montreal-based social-TV audience measurement company Seevibes is opening an office in Toronto, the company said in a press release Wednesday. The expansion comes a year after the company opened an office in France. Seevibes also said it named Franz Fontaine as vice-president of strategic...
Rogers Communications Inc. said it has become the first wireless carrier in Canada to become "Category 6 enabled," meaning it has found a way to aggregate signals on both the 2100 and 2600 MHz spectrum bands. Rogers spokeswoman Patricia Trott said in an email to The Wire Report on Monday that this will allow faster downloads and a higher...
CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais will speak to the London, Ont. Chamber of Commerce on Thursday morning about “the future of local television in Canada.” “At the event Mr. Blais will announce certain decisions...
Quebecor Inc.'s Sun News Network is close to shutting down, a report on the news website Canadaland said Monday. The report cited unnamed sources as saying negotiations for its acquisition by Moses Znaimer's ZoomerMedia Ltd. had hit an impasse over severance packages for Sun News executives who would not be staying on after a sale. The Canadaland story said Quebecor spokesman Martin Tremblay would not comment on speculation about Sun News' pending demise. A deal was announced in October for Postmedia Network Canada Corp. to purchase Quebecor's English newspapers, including...
The Concordia Student Broadcasting Corp. has been denied permission by the CRTC to put up a new transmitter in downtown Montreal. CSBC had applied for the new transmitter, which would operate at 107.9 FM, so that reception...
Distributel Communications Inc. announced on Thursday its new television service, which is available in markets throughout Ontario and Quebec. The independent Internet service provider had already began offering TV service last...
The Canadian Media Fund (CMF) said Thursday it would provide $8 million to finance 31 digital media projects, as part of the second round of its "experimental stream" for 2014-15. CMF said in a press release that 23...
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,...
MONTREAL — NDP Leader Tom Mulcair is promising, if elected, to reverse funding cuts imposed on CBC/Radio-Canada in recent years, though political observers do not expect the Conservative...
Canadian video streaming service Shomi said Thursday it has secured the Canadian rights to original content made for Amazon.com Inc.'s Prime streaming service in the U.S. Shomi, a joint venture of Rogers Communications Inc....
VMedia Inc. said it has secured its first specialty-TV channels for the cloud-based PVR service it makes available to IPTV customers. The company said in a news release Thursday that it has reached a deal to include Blue Ant...
Shaw Communications Inc. said Thursday that TMN Go is now available to its cable customers in northern Ontario and satellite-TV customers throughout Eastern Canada, allowing them to watch The Movie Network, HBO Canada, Showtime...
The CRTC on Thursday said on its website that it had denied an application for a commercial ethnic radio station in Winnipeg due to concerns it would hurt an existing radio station in that market. Gill Broadcasting Ltd. sought a licence for an FM station that would broadcast 85 per cent of its content in non-official languages and the rest in English. The CRTC said in an online posting that there was potential for the new station's Punjabi and Tagalog programming to conflict with what's already offered on Dufferin Communications Inc.'s AM ethnic station CKJS....
Documents indicate Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is still interested in buying device maker BlackBerry Ltd. despite denials from both companies that a deal was in the works, the Financial Post...
Millennials, those between the ages of 18 and 34, are using newer technology such as the Internet and smartphones more and traditional media such as television and radio less than older generations, according to a report released Wednesday. The Media Technology Monitor, a project of CBC/Radio-Canada, broke millennials into two subgroups: generation Z,...
On Wednesday Microsoft Corp. announced two new devices as well as more details about the latest version of its Windows operating system, which will be the first to run cross-platform on desktops, tablets and mobile phones....
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...
The telecommunications services sector should weather the storm of economic uncertainty facing Canada right now, though some negative effects are likely, Canaccord Genuity telecom analyst Dvai Ghose. Following the Bank of Canada's interest rate cut Wednesday and its downward revision to its economic forecast for the year, Canaccord Genuity analyst Dvai Ghose said in a research note that most of the revenue generated by telephone and cable companies has "historically been quite resilient to economic pressures" because "these services are considered increasingly essential by consumers." He added that any unemployment that might arise from economic problems could...
Automated vehicles are about to become the most disruptive near-term technology in the average person's life, the Conference Board of Canada said in report released Wednesday. The research group said the impact of driverless...
In the past six months, Canadians’ usage of streaming music services seems to have jumped, in a trend that’s not only good news for streaming services, but wireless companies as well. Nielsen Co. only began...
The Canadian economy saw an economic benefit of about $5 billion US last year thanks to Facebook, according to a new study by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd. commissioned by Facebook Inc. That's out of a global impact from Facebook of $227 billion US, which "enabled" 4.5 million jobs around the world, the study said. It said about 80 were...
Rogers Communications Inc. announced Monday that Dirk Woessner, formerly of Deutsche Telekom AG, has been appointed to head the consumer side of its business. Rogers CEO Guy Laurence reorganized the...
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter published Jan. 15, Voltage Pictures LLC president Nicolas Chartier detailed the motivations behind his company’s ongoing efforts to sue those involved in file sharing. According...
Google Inc. said Thursday it will stop selling the Explorer Edition of its Google Glass wearable product after Jan. 19. The company said in a statement on the Google+ social network: "January 19 will be the last day to get the Glass Explorer Edition. In the meantime, we’re continuing to build for the future, and you’ll start to see...
Electronics maker and retailer Sony Corp. is closing all of its Canadian stores. Robin Powell, a spokesman for Sony Canada, said in a phone interview that all 14 Sony outlets in Canada would shut down over the next six to eight...
Canadian marketers are looking to unify their approach to online and television advertising, according to a new report. Video advertising company Videology Inc. says in the report 85 per cent of marketers surveyed said that “holistic planning and buying” of advertising will soon “become the new...
It became illegal Thursday to install software on another person's computer, smartphone or other device without their consent, the CRTC said. The commission said in a press release that the new rules are part of anti-spam legislation that came into force last July. For instance, the installation of software from a website or updates to a smartphone app will now require the device owner's approval, the CRTC said. “We have been actively informing Canadian businesses about the new requirements for installing computer programs, and our goal is to ensure they comply with these new...
Shaw Communications Inc.'s first-quarter financial figures showed its consumer network and media businesses bringing in less money than a year earlier, while there was some growth in its business-services operations. The company said in a press release Wednesday it had overall revenue of $1.39 billion in the three...
Quebecor Inc.'s Videotron has been sending out copyright-infringement notices to customers, as directed by federal government's new notice-and-notice copyright requirements, that falsely tell users that the rights holder that has alleged a breach cannot be identified, University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist...
The federal government will spend about $100 million to bolster the security of its computers in order to safeguard against breaches like last year's hacking of the National Research Council,...
Corus Entertainment Inc. said Tuesday its revenues in the three-month period ending Nov. 30 were $227 million, up from $226 million in the same period a year earlier. It reported profits of $93.28 million, compared to $92.28...
Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. on Monday reported higher profits, revenue and subscriber numbers for its first fiscal quarter ended Nov. 30. The provider of satellite radio service said in a press release that earnings for the quarter were $8 million, up from $4.8 million in the same quarter a year earlier. Revenue was up 3.3 per cent to $79 million. The company said there were 2.6 million total subscribers at the end of the quarter, a gain of 7.4 per cent from 2.43 million a year earlier. Self-paying subscribers, or those who were not part of a promotion, numbered 1.85 million, up 5.2 per cent from 1.76 million a year earlier. Average revenue per self-paying customer was $12.38 per month in the first quarter, compared to $12.08 a year before, SiriusXM Canada said....
After "significant" investments in time and money to prepare for the notice-and-notice regime that went into effect this month, independent Internet service providers Teksavvy Solutions Inc....
After a decade of consumers being the trendsetters in the adoption of emerging technology, the enterprise sector will take on a bigger role in 2015 as leaders in the use of cutting-edge IT products,...
CBC/Radio-Canada announced Monday that Mary Kreuk has been hired as the public broadcaster’s new executive director of multi-platform media sales for Toronto and Western Canada. Kreuk was previous a sales executive at BCE...
The federal NDP issued a statement Friday calling on the government to prohibit false claims in copyright infringement letters sent under the new notice-and-notice regime. “The Conservatives...
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...
U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler could be hinting toward a net-neutrality policy along the lines of what President Barack Obama has suggested, categorizing broadband...
While a majority of senior anglophone Canadians have cellphones, a minority have smartphones, according to a new report from Media Technology Monitor (MTM). The report, released Wednesday, showed 63 per cent of anglophone...
Apple Inc. is raising prices for applications sold through its App Store in Canada due to the declining value of the Canadian dollar, the Canadian Press reported Thursday. The CP article cites an email Apple sent to software...
Copyright infringement monitoring company Canipre Inc. says it will be using new “notice-and-notice” measures in the Copyright Modernization Act to have those who pirate content online informed of infringements. Canipre has a posting on its website that says it had planned to start its infringement notification program this month, leveraging new measures in Canadian law that require ISPs to pass on to customers notifications about copyright infringements. The provisions came into effect in the new year. “If you hold rights to intellectual property in Canada, please feel...
Canadians are now spending more time accessing the Internet from mobile devices than from computers, the Canadian Press reported Wednesday, based on the latest data from ComScore Inc. A CP article...
TiVo Inc. said Wednesday it is widening availability in the United States of a PVR for capturing over-the-air programing, a product it released on a limited basis in the fall. The TiVo Roamio OTA is meant for people who do not...
BlackBerry Inc. said Wednesday from the CES technology trade show in Las Vegas that it launched an Internet of Things (IoT) platform, and that it will make its BBM service available on smartwatches. The IoT platform, which the...
Recently released results of a survey for the Pew Research Center showed U.S. workers ranked landline phones as more important for their jobs than cellphones but less important than email and the...
WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum said on a Facebook post Tuesday that the service now has more than 700 million active monthly users, up from 450 million when Facebook Inc. announced its intention to purchase the mobile-messaging-app company last February. "Additionally, every day our users now send over 30 billion messages," Koum said in his social media entry. Facebook's cash-and stock deal to purchase WhatsApp was worth about $21.9 billion US when it closed in October, up from the $19 billion US it was announced earlier in the year as a result of gains in the value of Facebook stock....
Sales revenue in the United States of "new" and "emerging" consumer electronics is predicted to grow by 108 per cent, year-over-year, in 2015, the Consumer Electronics Association said Tuesday. The organization, which is responsible for the ongoing International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las...
Verizon Communications Inc.'s CEO on Tuesday denied it is interested in purchasing AOL Inc., despite a report suggesting it was exploring this option. Several news agencies reported Lowell McAdam denied such speculation...
Quebecor Inc.'s broadcasting unit TVA Group said last week that its purchase of TV production company Vision Globale has closed following approval from the federal Competition Bureau. TVA CEO Julie Tremblay said in a Dec. 30...
Dish Network Corp. is launching an over-the-top (OTT) television service that will allow subscribers to access 12 specialty channels for $20 US a month. The U.S. satellite-TV service provider said in a press release Monday...
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...
The CRTC said Friday that it has denied an application by 2188301 Ontario Corp. to renew the broadcasting licence of CFAO-FM in Alliston, Ont., because the station has been off the air since 2009. “As a result, CFAO-FM is...
Kosiner Venture Capital Inc. has asked the CRTC to approve HuffPost Live, a television channel operated by AOL Inc.’s Huffington Post, for distribution in Canada. About 60 per cent of the...
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...
Export Development Canada (EDC), a federal Crown corporation that loans money to foreign companies doing business with Canadian companies, said Tuesday it has loaned $850 million US to British-based telecommunications service provider Vodafone Group PLC. EDC said in a press release that the financing deal "will generate important connections and new business for many Canadian companies." The release noted that Vodafone is an "important" customer of BlackBerry Ltd. However, Carl Burlock, EDC's senior vice-president of financing and investment, said in the release:...
Global patent filings were up nine per cent in 2013 from the previous year, while double-digit growth in first-place China widened its lead in patent filings from the United States and other countries, according to the World...
The Copyright Board of Canada has maintained a levy of 29 cents each on sales of blank audio CDs that will go to a collective representing music copyright owners. The board issued a decision Friday, saying this rate will apply...
Greater consumer interest in wearable technology, growth in over-the-top (OTT) television subscriptions and greater prominence of the Internet of Things (IoT) are among the top trends in technology expected for next year in...
The website Isohunt.to has uploaded a copy of the Pirate Bay, the torrent-sharing website taken offline last week after a raid by Swedish police investigating illegal file-sharing. “We, the Isohunt.to team, copied the...
Small Internet service providers looking to provide TV service should hold off on investment because of the uncertain future of the broadcast television market, according to 3Macs analyst Troy Crandall. At the recent CRTC wireline hearing, representatives from the Canadian Network Operators’ Consortium, a trade group for small ISPs, told the commission that wholesale rates need to drop in order for their members to offer other services, including television, to customers. Some smaller companies, such as VMedia Inc. and Distributel Communications Ltd., already provide IPTV individually...
Nancy Chapelle has been named as the new executive director of the Bell Fund, effective Jan. 5, the fund said in a press release issued Thursday. Chapelle was previously the managing director of content and programming at Ontario public broadcaster TVO, it added. The fund directs money contributed from BCE Inc.’s operations to independent...
Some shareholders in Quebecor Inc.’s TVA Group have filed an “investigation request” with the financial market regulator in Quebec, according to a press release issued Thursday....
CBC/Radio-Canada is making changes to its news operations across Canada, cutting back on the length of its evening TV newscasts and introducing new French-language digital content. The public...
The CRTC said Thursday it has approved the sale of an AM commercial radio station in Saint-Constant, Que., though the licence given is for a shorter timeframe than usual due to non-compliance issues...
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...
OpenMedia, the Canadian-based promoter of open Internet policies, said Thursday one of its representatives will meet with negotiators of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and make demands for more transparency during the TPP...
The Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday upheld the conviction of a man for armed robbery in a case where evidence gathered from his cellphone without a warrant was used in the trial against him....
The Canadian Media Fund (CMF) said Monday it was providing $11.8 million for 24 interactive digital-media projects across the country. The funding is the second round of the CMF's...
Bill C-8, officially known as the Combating Counterfeit Products Act, and Bill C-13, the Protecting Canadians from Online Crime Act, both received royal assent on Tuesday. Bill C-13 has been criticized by many, including Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien, for measures that make it easier for telecommunications service providers to voluntarily provide authorities with customers' personal information. Bill C-8 amends Canada’s copyright and trademark laws to include new civil and criminal charges and give border agents new powers to seize suspected counterfeit goods....
