Apple Inc. and International Business Machines (IBM) Corp. on Wednesday announced a new suite of business applications and cloud services for iPad and iPhone users. The companies said in a press release that IBM MobileFirst for iOS includes applications tailored for use in telecommunications, banking, retail, insurance, financial services, air travel and government. The offerings are the result of a partnership Apple and IBM announced in July to develop business applications for Apple's mobile devices. “Our collaboration combines IBM’s industry expertise and unmatched...
Canadian Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien has joined 22 other privacy authorities from Canadian provinces and international jurisdictions calling on mobile-app marketplaces to require easily accessible privacy policies from developers of apps that collect personal information from users. Therrien is among those who signed a letter addressed to operators of application stores, including Google Inc., Apple Inc. and BlackBerry Ltd., that said "an app marketplace operator should, acting as a responsible corporate citizen, make the basic commitment to require each app that can...
Telus Corp. said Wednesday it has launched Canada's "first Internet of Things marketplace" with an online offering of 38 different applications, and more to come, for business operations ranging from transportation...
Sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup and the Wimbledon tennis championship helped push mobile video in the third quarter of 2014, with mobile and tablets views making up 30 per cent of all worldwide online video, according...
ZoomerMedia Ltd., the media company led by Moses Znaimer and that caters to the 45-years-and-older age group, is in talks to buy Quebecor Inc.'s Sun News Network, according to a report. Website Cartt reported Tuesday that...
OTTAWA — Lawyers for Hollywood production company Voltage Pictures LLC told a Federal Court judge in Ottawa on Monday that Teksavvy Solutions Inc. is using a previous judgment to “claw...
Nielsen Co. numbers show that viewership of traditional TV is dropping significantly among Americans 18 to 24. Duncan Stewart, Deloitte Canada’s director of technology, media and telecom, noted on his personal blog the numbers show that while live and time-shifted TV viewing fell 4.6 per cent among all Americans over the past three years, viewing among those aged 18 to 24 dropped 24.7 per cent. “I have been following media trends for a long time. 25% declines are something you normally see over decades, not over three year intervals,” he wrote. He added:...
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...
The $4-a-month price tag for CraveTV, Bell Media’s new streaming service, is part of the company’s attempt to differentiate itself from competitors, according to Kevin Crull, president of BCE Inc.’s media division. “We’re not duplicating what you currently get from your TV subscription....
Wireless data will be the biggest and fastest-growing segment of global telecommunications spending next year, technology research firm International Data Corp. said Tuesday. IDC said in a press release that wireless data...
BCE Inc.'s Bell Media division said Tuesday that customers of its coming video streaming service, code-named "Project Latte," will get a 24-hour head-start on regular TV watchers when it comes to consuming original Canadian programming. Bell Media said in a press release that Corner Gas: The Movie will the...
DHX Media Ltd. said Tuesday it has reached an agreement to purchase Vancouver-based children's content producer Nerd Corps Entertainment Inc. for $57 million. Halifax-based DHX, a broadcaster and producer of television...
BCE Inc. said Monday it will release “full details” of its upcoming video-streaming service, codenamed "Project Latte," on Wednesday. The company’s Bell Media division sent invitations to a media event in Toronto that it said would include a presentation, question-and-answer session and...
The launch of new streaming services from Canada’s biggest TV providers adds yet another option for viewers who want to catch up on or try out a new show, raising the question of whether they will complement — or...
A former marketing professional and now a critic of the industry has identified several BCE Inc. employees he says have been writing positive reviews of one of their own company's products on Apple Inc.'s App Store. Scott Stratten, president of UnMarketing, wrote in a blog post this week that he has linked positive...
A pair of non-Canadian TV services were approved for distribution in Canada by the CRTC on Wednesday, a professional wrestling channel and another specializing in Greek sporting events. One notice on the CRTC website said the WWE Network, originating in the United States, is approved for Canadian distribution. Rogers Communications Inc. was the sponsor, and the CRTC noted many interveners expressed concern that this professional wrestling service would not be available to other service providers. The CRTC said Rogers replied that all TV service providers could negotiate carriage...
Representatives of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) union are in Ottawa this week, trying to drum up federal-government support of Canada's cultural industries. ACTRA said in a press...
Videology Inc., the New York-based provider of video-advertising services, announced three appointments to its staff in Canada on Wednesday. The company said in a press release that Peter Bates in now the senior commercial media...
BCE Inc. has proposed to the CRTC that it pay $16 million in support for TV and radio programming in Canada in relation to divestments required as part of its purchase of Astral Media Inc. last year....
BCE Inc.’s "Project Latte" has signed a deal for several new series that will only be available on the streaming platform, and not on linear television. The company said in a press release Tuesday that it has signed a deal with Lionsgate for Manhattan, a drama that will “only be available to...
More than one-third of U.S. smartphone users conduct video calls over their devices, and this activity is expected to grow in popularity around the world, technology research company Gartner Inc. said Monday. The company said in a press release that a survey indicated that 34.6 per cent of U.S. adult smartphone users used their device for video calling, and this proportion was 53.5 per cent among those aged 18 to 24. "We believe the U.S. market is an important leading indicator for video calling take-up in other global markets," Andrew Chetham, managing vice-president at Gartner,...
Google Inc. is launching a new approach to Internet advertising in the United States that uses a subscriber model to replace ads on certain websites. With Google Contributor, users can choose to pay...
Shomi, the online streaming service owned by Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc., said Friday it has partnered with Twitter Inc. for a marketing campaign. Shomi said in a press release it will be the...
Rogers Communications Inc. on Thursday defended itself against a complaint to the CRTC from BCE Inc. about its online NHL hockey content, saying Bell's application is simply an attempt to "hinder" efforts to provide customers with innovative products. In October, Bell launched an...
Three industry observers, including two academics, have released an open letter to senior government officials that seeks strong measures to temper the power of major players in the telecommunications industry. The letter comes...
BCE Inc.'s Bell Media division cut 80 full-time jobs, the company confirmed Thursday. Bell Media said in an emailed statement that the operation, which includes CTV, CTV News Channel, TSN, and various other TV and radio properties, represents about 1.3 per cent of Bell Media's workforce....
The latest report on Internet usage from Sandvine Inc. shows average monthly data downloaded on fixed-line Internet accounts in North America was up about 30 per cent in the second half of 2014 compared to a year earlier. The...
Yahoo Inc. and Mozilla Corp. announced Wednesday they have reached an agreement that makes Yahoo the default browser on Mozilla's Firefox Internet browser in the United States for desktops and mobile devices. The agreement...
MONTREAL — CBC/Radio-Canada employees grilled CEO Hubert Lacroix over cuts to the public broadcaster during its annual public meeting in Montreal Wednesday. Radio-Canada journalist...
Telus Corp. communicated with high-ranking members of the federal government in October, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper about the company’s health-care operations, according to the lobbying registry. The Oct. 2 contact was one of only three that Harper had with lobbyists in the entire month, the Lobby Monitor reported Wednesday. Telus executive chairman Darren Entwistle is the company official registered in the lobbying activity, though it does not necessarily mean he communicated directly with Harper. Telus is also listed as communicating with Finance Minister Joe Oliver about infrastructure, telecommunications, and taxation and finance, and Heritage Minister Shelly Glover on broadcasting, industry and health, as well as with several other members of Parliament....
Shomi, the new streaming service from Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc., announced Wednesday that it had signed a content deal with the Walt Disney Co. Under the terms of the deal, Shomi will offer a selection of Disney’s film library, as well as current and past TV...
Canadian broadcast distributors need to do more to increase awareness and usage of their TV-everywhere products, according to Gord Hendren, president of Charlton Strategic Research, which produced a report on the subject....
Canada’s largest media companies take it as a given that the current market for advertising on traditional broadcast media is weak, but experts say broadcasting is shifting to a new normal as online advertising becomes the...
Telus Corp. has filed a letter with the CRTC that supports BCE Inc.'s complaint against Rogers Communications Inc.'s online hockey streaming products. In October, Bell said in a filing to the commission that Rogers is...
Google Inc.'s wearable device, Glass, is seeing a decline in interest among the public and application developers, according to an article by Reuters. The article, published Friday, said nine out of 16 app makers it contacted that were involved in projects for Google Glass have put on hold or completely abandoned their work for this device, mostly citing a lack of customers or limitations of the device. It said three others had stopped working on consumer applications in favour of those for businesses. "There’s no market at this point," Tom Frencel, CEO of Little Guy...
Telus Corp. on Monday announced two new products it said can help businesses take advantage of cloud computing. One is called Cloud Collaboration, which Telus said in a press release is a suite of cloud-based communications...
It makes sense that David Cormican is optimistic about the impact new streaming services will have on Canadian producers. He’s halfway through the shoot of a new show called Between. It's a teenager-focused drama about a group of youth quarantined by the government after the outbreak of a mysterious disease. It...
Quebecor Inc.'s broadcasting operation TVA Group said Thursday it has reached an agreement to purchase film- and TV-production company Vision Globale for about $118 million. TVA said the transaction is subject to approval by...
The Jim Pattison Broadcast Group said Wednesday that it has made Rob Bye permanent general manager of its Victoria radio stations. It said in a press release that Bye had been managing CKKQ-FM and CIZN-FM in Victoria on an interim basis for the last six months, and that role has now been made permanent. It said Bye will...
BlackBerry Ltd. on Thursday announced the availability of its latest system for enterprise management of mobile devices. The new system is called BES12, which BlackBerry said in a press release "is the foundation for...
The CRTC said Thursday that it has ordered a Vancouver-area radio station found to be transmitting signals from the United States back to its home base in British Columbia to cease these operations before the end of the day. A...
The software and consulting subsidiary of Numeris has followed the lead of its parent company and dropped BBM from its moniker. BBM Analytics is now known as NLogic, according to a Thursday press release. Its parent company...
Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday released its new Lumia 535 smartphone. The 535 is the first of the Lumia series of phones not to carry the Nokia brand. Microsoft completed its purchase of Nokia Corp.'s devices and services...
The federal government is poised to introduce rules that would ensure retailers can opt out of accepting payments though smartphone applications while still maintaining contactless-payment processing for credit cards, the Wall Street Journal reported online Monday. The measures would give merchants a tool to resist additional fees that credit card companies such as Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. might impose on mobile payments, given their growing popularity. Finance Minister Joe Oliver could announce the new regulations as early as this week, the article said. The Journal reported that fees...
CBC/Radio Canada and The Weather Network announced a content-sharing agreement on Monday. CBC and Pelmorex Media Inc.'s Weather Network said in a press release that, starting Dec. 8, national weather forecasts on CBC News...
Toronto-based wearable technology maker Bionym is partnering with the Royal Bank of Canada and MasterCard for a Canadian test of wristbands that act as payment tools. Kurt Bartlett, a spokesman for Bionym, said in an email that...
The video-streaming service to be launched by BCE Inc. has obtained rights to episodes of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, the company said Monday. Bell said the streaming service, currently...
Instagram, the photo-sharing app owned by Facebook Inc., on Monday launched its advertising program in Canada. The company said in a press release the first ads, or promoted posts, that show up in users’ feeds will be from...
The CRTC is concerned with “much bigger issues with greater ramifications down the road” than the question of whether it will regulate over-the-top (OTT) services like Netflix, CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais said Thursday. As the CRTC makes decisions on issues raised at the Let’s Talk TV hearing earlier this fall, “‘regulating’ Netflix is the least of our concerns,” Blais told the Vancouver Board of Trade in a speech, according to speaking notes provided by the CRTC. The question of whether the CRTC should, or could, regulate such services was...
BCE Inc. on Thursday reported higher revenue and profit numbers for the third quarter as it added subscribers to its its wireless, Internet and TV businesses and saw a jump in mobile-data revenue. The company said in a press...
Quebecor Inc. reported overall revenue growth for the third quarter that was almost flat, as growth in its telecommunications services was offset by decline in its media segment. The company said in documents posted on its website Thursday that overall revenue for the three months ended Sept. 30 was $1.02 billion, down 0.2...
Netflix isn’t the only game in town anymore. In recent weeks, Canadian and American TV giants have made a number of announcements about new over-the-top (OTT) video services — HBO and CBS revealing new streaming...
Janice Smith is the new vice-president of national media sales at Rogers Communications Inc. The company said in a press release Thursday that Smith will be “responsible for delivering the compelling and differentiated...
BCE Inc.'s Bell Media said on Wednesday there are three TV services lined up to carry its recently announced video streaming service, two of which are in the Bell family as well as Telus Corp.'s Optik TV service. Bell Media said in a press release that the service, code-named "Project Latte," will be...
Canadian law enforcement and government agencies asked Facebook Inc. for users’ data more times in the first six months of 2014 than in the same period last year, the social networking platform...
The CRTC has approved an application by BCE Inc'.s Bell Aliant for a licence to operate a pay-per-view service, the commission said Tuesday. It added that “the service will primarily offer live and tape-delayed sports...
Toronto-based Fuse Powered Inc., which runs a mobile-app publishing and monetization platform, said Tuesday it has purchased Corona Labs Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif.-based company that also makes software for developers of...
Television Bureau of Canada (TVB) president and CEO Theresa Treutler will leave the organization by the end of the year, the company announced Tuesday.. TVB said in a press release that her replacement hasn’t yet been named and that Treutler, who joined TVB in 2007, will stay until Dec. 31 “to ensure a smooth transition.” Treutler said in the press release that deciding “to leave was not easy, especially when you love what you do. But it is right for me personally.”...
Shomi, the online streaming service being offered by Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc., will launch Tuesday, the companies said Monday. It will be available initially to TV and Internet subscribers of Rogers...
BCE Inc.'s Bell Media said Monday that Mary Ann Turcke was appointed group president of its media sales division for local TV and radio. Bell Media said, effective immediately, Turcke fills the role that was held by Luc...
BCE Inc. said Monday that its acquisition of Bell Aliant Inc. is complete. It said that on Friday, it gained control through compulsory acquisition of the last 12 million shares of Bell Aliant that had not been tendered. Before...
Shomi, the video-streaming service being launced next week by Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc., said Friday it has signed a deal with BBC’s commercial arm that will grant it exclusive access to some...
BlackBerry Ltd. on Friday announced new privacy measures for its BBM messaging service that will eventually be offered, along with other services, for a fee. One such feature allows users to set a time when their sent messages will expire, BlackBerry said in a press release. The feature does not prevent a screenshot from being taken of the message but users will be alerted if that happens, BlackBerry said. When this feature is used the recipient has to keep touching the screen in order for the message to be visible, the company said. The company also said users will have the option of...
When Rogers Communications Inc. CEO Guy Laurence wore a leather jacket to the announcement of his company's latest project —a $100 million joint venture with Vice Media Inc. —the unconventional outfit emphasized...
Several new options for online television are about to become available in Canada. On Thursday BCE Inc. announced a new streaming service it's currently code-naming "Project Latte." The service, operated by the Bell Media division, will be available to TV service providers across the country, pending...
John Bitove is stepping down as chairman of satellite radio operator Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc., the company said Thursday. SiriusXM Canada said in a press release that Bitove, who among other things is the founder of...
Microsoft Corp. announced a new group of products designed to help customers monitor and track their health on Wednesday, including a fitness band and a cloud platform for health data. The $199 US Microsoft Band wearable device...
Internet and television have become more prominent as primary news sources for anglophone-Canadian adults over the last two years at the expense of print media and radio, according to a new report. Media Technology Monitor (MTM),...
The CRTC has awarded the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) about three-quarters of the costs it had requested for its participation in an ongoing mobile-TV complaint. PIAC had asked for $39,324.66 in costs for its...
CBC/Radio-Canada says it will either break even or earn a profit on its acquisition of the broadcasting rights for the 2018 Olympics in South Korea and the 2020 Olympics in Japan. During a conference...
The CRTC said Tuesday that it will start seeking public comment on applications for new radio stations. In an online notice publishing results of a yearlong review of the commercial radio sector, the commission said it will issue...
The Canadian Internet Registration Authority said Tuesday it has appointed Steven Barry as its director of information technology. CIRA said in a news release that Barry has more than 20 years of experience as an IT executive, working for organizations such as Nav Canada and DataKinetics Inc. Barry's responsibilities will include managing CIRA's software development and information-management operations, being responsible for new product releases and overseeing the IT team that manages the dot.ca domain-name registry....
Google Inc.'s YouTube streaming service is exploring possible subscription models, according to report by Re/code. The technology news website reported Monday that YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said during an on-stage interview...
Amazon.com Inc. said Monday it is introducing a new over-the-top streaming device called the Fire TV Stick. The device is just a few inches long, plugs directly into a television’s HDMI port and picks up a home's WiFi...
On Monday the CRTC denied a request from two Newcap Inc. television stations in Lloydminster, Alta., for lenience on meeting the regulator's quotas for providing local content. The two channels,...
Notwithstanding Guy Lawrence's recent remarks about rival BCE Inc. being a "crybaby," a market analyst says Rogers Communications Inc.’s strategy for NHL streaming could be affected by Bell's recent CRTC complaint. The analysis follows last week’s complaint by Bell that Rogers is contravening...
The CRTC said Friday that it has denied a request by Allarco Entertainment Inc. to modify the licence of its Super Channel specialty channel. The CRTC said Allarco had “proposed a modification to the service’s condition of licence relating to expenditures on script and concept development” on Canadian programming, which Allarco believed would “put it on a more equitable footing with its competitors, which are licensed on a group basis, and allow it to be more agile in terms of responding to changing programming requirements.” It denied the application,...
Stingray Digital Group Inc. has named Stephane Boisvert its senior vice-president of global sales. In a press release Friday, Stingray said Boisvert would “ensure that sales for all our markets continue to grow, and accelerate the growth of Stingray sales worldwide.” Boisvert was previously president and...
Canada's two biggest cable companies on Thursday reported losses of more than 100,000 television subscribers each over the last year. Roger Communications Inc.'s earnings release showed that it had 2.04 million TV subscribers at the end of the third quarter on Sept. 30, down 111,000 from a year earlier. Shaw...
Rogers Communications Inc. said Wednesday that Jack Tomik is stepping down as senior vice-president of media sales at the end of this month and being replaced by Al Dark. Rogers said in a press release that Tomik's departure...
BCE Inc. has filed a challenge with the CRTC against Rogers Communications Inc.’s plan to offer its own customers free access to its NHL streaming product until the end of the year as well as exclusive content while watching games. Bell claims the free trial of Rogers’ NHL GameCentre, announced in September,...
A survey of U.S. consumers shows about 40 per cent of those working for large organizations use their own technology for work purposes at least some of the time. Gartner Inc. said in a press release Tuesday that its study found...
Laura Pearce is the new vice-president of brand strategy and fan engagement at Blue Ant Media Inc. “Her expertise will be a key asset in growing the company’s 10 media brands, including Cottage Life, T+E, Oasis and...
While the announcement that Rogers Communications Inc. and Netflix Inc. are working together on an original TV series marked an unprecedented collaboration between the two rivals, it’s a logical...
Stingray Digital Group Inc. said Friday it purchased Telefonica SA's pay-TV music service, which operates in six counties in Latin America plus Portugal. Montreal-based Stingray said in a press release it is taking over the...
Rogers Communications Inc. announced Friday that Nitin Kawale will head its enterprise unit starting Dec. 1. Kawale, who joins the company after six years as president of the Canadian division of Cisco Systems Inc., will have responsibility for all of Roger’s business customers, the company said in a news release. “Nitin is a proven, accomplished executive who is well-known and respected in the business space," Rogers CEO Guy Laurence said in the release. "Business customers in Canada are currently underserved and we're going to change that.” Laurence...
Canadian telecom service providers got more money from their customers last year largely as a result of increased wireless data usage and demand for faster Internet, the CRTC said Thursday. Overall...
Astral Out-of-Home, the BCE Inc. division that provides street furniture and public advertising, announced Thursday that it is installing 40 4K screens at transit shelters in downtown Toronto. The 84-inch screens will be used for...
Shaw Communications Inc. has reached a sponsorship deal with the operators of the Ottawa Convention Centre, resulting in the venue being renamed the Shaw Centre, effective immediately. Shaw said in a press release that the...
CBS Corp. is the latest U.S. media company to say it will start providing consumers with an online option for accessing video content without the need to subscribe to a television service. The company said in a press release...
Eastlink announced a wireless TV service Thursday that will allow customers to use the company’s Maestro DVRs wirelessly on up to six different TVs. The company said in a news release the DVRs will record up to six programs at once to be watched from anywhere in the home as well as allowing customers to order their own list of channels and pause live TV. “With Eastlink wireless TV, our customers get an unmatched TV experience hassle-free, whether they're rearranging their living room or watching the big game on the back patio or in the garage,” Eastlink CEO Lee Bragg said in the release....
Quebecor Inc.'s Videotron on Thursday announced three senior-level appointments in the marketing department of existing employees, two of which had managers becoming vice-presidents. Julie Brault was named vice-president of...
TD Canada Trust announced Thursday it has introduced a way for customers to deposit cheques in their bank account by taking a photo with their mobile phone through the bank’s mobile app. The bank also said business...
The Internet of Things has been compared to the Industrial Revolution in terms of its eventual impact, though the general public is not yet fully aware of it nor convinced of its value, according to a recent study. That’s...
The Ontario government has renewed Peter O'Brian as chairman of the board for the province's public broadcaster TVO for the next two years, the organization said Thursday. TVO said in a press release that O'Brian has been in this role since 2005. O'Brian is a film producer and director whose works have won 19 Genie awards, the TVO...
Netflix Inc. said Wednesday that subscriber growth in both the United States and internationally was less than it expected in the third quarter. "We added about a million new members in the U.S., ending Q3 with 37.22 million...
When CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais faced off against Netflix Inc. in September, his ordering of the U.S.-based streaming service to give the CRTC information it had previously refused to provide...
Home Box Office (HBO) Inc. will offer an over-the-top service that does not require a paid TV subscription in 2015, CEO Richard Plepler reportedly said on Wednesday. Multiple media outlets reported that Plepler, speaking at an...
French bank Groupe BPCE announced Tuesday what it called a "world first in the payment-media field" in allowing payments to be made via Twitter. It said in a press release it has created, in partnership with its...
BCE Inc. said Tuesday that its chief financial officer, Siim Vanaselja, will retire in the second quarter of next year. The company said in a press release that he will be replaced by Glen LeBlanc, currently chief financial officer of BCE-controlled Bell Aliant Inc. BCE also said the transaction to take control of all shares of Bell Aliant it does not already own is on track to close on or around Oct. 31. Bell said Vanaselja will continue to serve on the board of directors for Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which is the owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors and Toronto FC, and is controlled equally by Bell and Rogers Communications Inc....
