Sonja Chong has been named a part-time member of the board of directors for CBC/Radio-Canada. Heritage Minister Shelly Glover announced Chong's appointment Monday in a press release that also said Chong would serve at term of five years. Chong has been involved in income-tax consulting since 1985, and is a partner with Harris & Chong LLP, Chartered Accountants, in Toronto, according to the release. She is chairwoman of the Canadian Foundation for Chinese Heritage Preservation, a former president of the Hong Kong-Canada Business Association and a regular media commentator on...
Notices issued by the CRTC on Tuesday and Friday indicated two out of three British Columbia radio stations accused of broadcasting in Canada without a licence will not appear at a scheduled hearing looking into their cases Wednesday. The commission sent out a press release Tuesday confirming that Surrey-based Radio India Ltd. will appear at Wednesday's hearing and argue why it shouldn't be ordered to shut down operations. A notice on the CRTC's website Tuesday said Sher-E-Punjab Radio Broadcasting Inc. of Richmond will not appear, and a separate notice Friday said Radio Punjab...
Rogers Communications Inc. said Tuesday that Jacob Glick will start work next month in the newly created position of chief corporate affairs officer. Previously, Glick headed Google Inc.'s global public policy and government relations team, and before that took on the same responsibilities...
TekSavvy Solutions Inc. said Monday it has purchased an Ottawa-area software company called Openjive Inc. Independent ISP TekSavvy said in a press release that Openjive's programs, including Lingo, integrate platforms from...
Music-streaming service Spotify has launched an app called “Listen like a Canadian” that promotes Canadian music to listeners. The new app from Spotify, which recently launched service in Canada, allows listeners to...
A merger between Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. has been the subject of speculation for years. As the various industries these companies participate in — broadcasting, TV distribution, landline phone services, Internet and, in Rogers' case, mobile — change rapidly, at least one...
Independent broadcaster Blue Ant Media Inc. will make 200 hours of 4K, or ultra high-definition, “nature and wildlife” content each year, the company said in a press release Wednesday. “Over 150 hours of the first year’s slate is currently in production and will be available beginning spring 2015,” Blue Ant said, adding that the programming will be developed “through a combination of in-house production and partnerships with key global content creators.” The Wire Report reported last year that 4K technology was still in its infancy, though some broadcasters around the world used this summer’s World Cup to test the technology....
The Television Bureau of Canada has released what it says are the first statistics on viewership of broadcast distributors’ video-on-demand (VOD) platforms, which show an additional four to nine per cent of viewers use VOD...
OTTAWA — NDP Leader Tom Mulcair on Wednesday denounced Heritage Minister Shelly Glover's statements that ruled out regulation for online video services such as Netflix and YouTube, which...
Quebecor Inc.'s controlling shareholder Pierre Karl Péladeau said he'll put his holdings in the company in a blind trust if he becomes leader of the sovereigntist Parti...
Rogers Communications Inc. has sold out advertising for the opening week of the NHL hockey season, which begins Wednesday, Rogers spokeswoman Jennifer Kett said in an email. “For NHL opening week alone, we’ve closed...
Facebook Inc.'s purchase of instant messaging company WhatsApp Inc. closed Monday, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Details of the filing show the final value as $4.59 billion US in...
The conventional broadcasting sector should be deregulated, a move that should include the elimination of Canadian content rules, preponderance rules and foreign ownership restrictions, Fraser...
Quebecor Inc. says there is no connection between the $316-million proposed sale of its English-language newspapers to Postmedia Network Canada Corp. and its intention of expanding its mobile services...
Rogers Communications Inc. announced it is releasing a new hockey app that will give customers access to new camera angles and additional content like interviews and analysis. “Exclusive to Rogers’ customers, and it...
A coalition of some of the biggest Internet companies in the United States criticized Canada in a report released Tuesday for being a laggard in the usage and development of Internet technology to grow the economy. The Internet Association, which represents companies such as Facebook Inc., Google Inc. and Netflix Inc., said in the report: "Canada has been an early leader in Internet adoption and access. But this advantage is slipping. Other industrialized economies are leaving Canada behind because businesses are under-utilizing digital technologies and missing out on the contributions...
The European Commission said Friday that it has approved Facebook Inc.'s proposed $19-billion US acquisition of instant messaging service WhatsApp Inc. The commission said in a news release that Facebook's Messenger application and WhatsApp "are not close competitors and that consumers would continue to have a wide choice of alternative...
In the past, an aspiring broadcast distributor had no choice but to go to the CRTC and get a licence before they launched their cable or satellite business. Now, in theory at least, they can bypass the entire process by launching...
BCE Inc. and Bell Aliant Inc. said Friday that a vast majority of the common shares of the latter have been tendered to the former, and that the whole deal should be completed on or around the end of this month. The companies...
Shaw Communications Inc. said Thursday its customers can now access TV-everywhere products for BCE Inc.’s TSN and Rogers Communication Inc.’s Sportsnet specialty channels. “Through Sportsnet Now, Shaw Cable and...
Odyssey Television Network Inc., which operates channels in Canada with Greek-oriented programming, is sponsoring a sports channel from Greece to be authorized for distribution in Canada. OTN's application was posted to the CRTC's website on Thursday. It said Sport Plus, the channel it is sponsoring, is a 24-hour sports channel based in Greece that conducts all of its programming in the Greek language. Its letter of application said initial talks with various broadcast distributors have indicated an interest in carrying such a service in Canada....
Netflix Inc. said Thursday it has reached a deal to premiere four movies that will star and be produced by comedic actor Adam Sandler. The announcement comes just days after Netflix revealed plans to release its first original...
The CRTC on Thursday awarded Quebecor Inc.'s Sun News Network a victory in one of two arbitration cases involving its carriage with broadcaster distributors, though it sided with the service provider in another. In a dispute...
Cineplex Inc. says it will not show movies at the same time they are made available by Netflix Inc. This comes after Netflix said it is releasing its first original movie, Crouching Tiger, Hidden...
BCE Inc.'s Bell Media said Wednesday it has invested $5 million in cash in Hubub Inc., and made commitments for millions of dollars more, to develop and promote the company's website and application that facilitates online...
Newcap Inc. has been denied a request to the CRTC to expand the signal strength of a radio station in Kelowna, B.C., on the grounds it would add another station to the market of Penticton, B.C., about 60 kilometres south. The...
Netflix Inc. has gained more than 100,000 subscribers in France two weeks after launching in the country, according to a newspaper report on Tuesday. French newspaper Le Figaro attributed the figure to anonymous sources and drew...
Stingray Digital Group Inc. is getting rid of its Galaxie brand for audio channels on subscription-TV services, putting all its services under the Stingray brand, and launching a new streaming app, the company said in a press...
Netflix Inc. said Tuesday it would have its first original movie next summer. It said in a press release that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend will premiere on Netflix simultaneously with showings in Imax theatres...
EBay Inc. said Tuesday that its EBay and PayPal divisions will split into two separate companies next year. The companies said in a press release the two divisions would spin off from each other in the second half of 2015, subject to regulatory approval and other conditions. "As independent companies, EBay and PayPal will enjoy added flexibility to pursue new market and partnership opportunities," EBay CEO John Donahoe said in the release. "And we are confident, following a thorough assessment of the relationships between EBay and PayPal, that operating agreements can maintain synergies going forward." The company said Donahoe and chief financial officer Bob Swan will lead the split. Neither will be an executive in the separate companies, though they will sit on one or both boards to provide some continuity, EBay said....
Companies associated with Quebecor Inc. were given the go-ahead on Tuesday to add English programming to its French-language pay-per-view service, Canal Indigo. A decision posted on the CRTC's website said the service will...
The CRTC said Monday it will remove all evidence presented by Netflix Inc. and Google Inc., including oral and written presentations, from the Let’s Talk TV process, following the...
The federal government’s pursuit of a consumer-driven broadcasting policy instead of a more comprehensive digital strategy has left the CRTC in a difficult position when it comes to regulating Internet video services, says...
Documents from the CRTC indicate its officials felt that if conventional television broadcasters from the United States had the right to negotiate their carriage by Canadian service providers, they would have "little bargaining power" due to their "marginal viewership" in Canada. "Since Canadian...
The C.D. Howe Institute released a report on Thursday that said the CRTC's proposal to mandate pick-and-pay television is "deeply misguided" and would be "irrelevant at best" and "harmful at worst." The report argued that with increasing competition to TV service providers from alternatives, such as the video streaming offered by Netflix Inc., making a profit from channel bundling will become difficult and market forces themselves will force the conditions for more choice for consumers. "If consumers dislike bundles, they will increasingly be able...
Shaw Communications Inc. said Wednesday that Steve Wilson, its executive vice-president of corporate development and chief financial officer, will retire next year. It said in a press release that Wilson, who has been the...
Bell Aliant Inc. president and CEO Karen Sheriff will retire at the end of the year, BCE Inc., which is buying out Bell Aliant, said in a joint press release with its acquisition target on Wednesday. “Taking over in an aggressively competitive environment, she initiated a plan of corporate transformation and strategic priority-setting, and led...
Experts say that while CRTC must somehow respond to the refusal of Netflix Inc. to give the commission information it had been ordered to provide by CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais during a hearing...
Telus Corp. and technology maker Mojio Inc. announced on Tuesday they will team up to provide a connected-car service in Canada before the end of this year. In a joint press release, the companies said the service will use...
Netflix Inc. will not produce some of the information CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais ordered from it last week. “While Netflix has responded to a number of the CRTC's requests, we are not in a position to produce...
The CRTC has dismissed an undue-preference complaint against BCE Inc. filed by a company that plans to launch an over-the-top (OTT) TV service, though the decision was not unanimous. Leiacomm...
Shaw Communications Inc. has applied to the CRTC for a broadcasting licence for a new national all-news channel. The company said in a press release Monday that the channel would “feature a national newsfeed bookended by...
John Boynton and Shelagh Stoneham, two Rogers Communications Inc. executives who left in the wake of its corporate overhaul this year, have both found other jobs. Boynton, formerly the chief marketing officer at Rogers, is now...
GATINEAU, Que. — During the sometimes-contentious appearance by Netflix Inc. on the last day the CRTC’s two-week hearings on the future of television, CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais repeatedly ordered the U.S. streaming company to provide information to the commission, and at one point threatened to revoke Netflix’ digital-media exemption order if it does not comply. “You operate under an exemption order that requires you to provide information. Failure to provide information puts at risk your exemption order,” Blais said during the proceedings Friday. The...
GATINEAU, Que. — Asian Television Network International Ltd. was one of a number of ethnic broadcasters with Category A third-language channels who on Thursday urged the CRTC, as part...
With Canada's two biggest cable companies on the verge of launching an online streaming service, an Internet analytics company says the market is ripe for a new over-the-top (OTT) service in Canada. Sandvine Inc. issued a press release Thursday with various data about online traffic, including that Netflix...
BlackBerry Ltd. said Thursday that its mobile payment application will be made available to iPhone and Android smartphone users in Indonesia in early 2015. The company said in a press release that...
Rogers Communications Inc. CEO Guy Laurence told a CIBC investor conference in Montreal on Wednesday that his company's upcoming over-the-top (OTT) programming service, Shomi, isn't meant to be the ultimate solution for streaming users. "We're not trying to kill Netflix here," he said. "This is a...
Mobile online video viewing doubled around the world over the last year and accounted for 27 per cent of all online video viewing in this year's second quarter, Ooyala Inc. said in a report released Monday. The report said mobile's share of online video viewing increased 127 per cent over the last year and has quadrupled over the last two years. Ooyala, an online video management company, said this is because of a combination of faster networks and more advanced mobile devices. The report said that there is generally a correlation between the size of screens and the length of videos...
A report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada shows that, for the first time ever, there was more revenue in this country last year in Internet advertising than television. In a report released Wednesday, the IAB...
GATINEAU, Que. — Independent ISP TekSavvySolutions Inc. told the CRTC Tuesday it is considering becoming a TV distributor, on the same day that it announced a “partnership” with Hastings Cable Vision Ltd., an...
A Minneapolis-St. Paul ABC affiliate is asking the CRTC to remove it from its list of non-Canadian programming services authorized for distribution. An application from Hubbard Broadcasting Inc....
Shaw Communications Inc. on Tuesday announced it is promoting Barbara Williams and giving her two new titles. The company said in a press release that Williams is now president of Shaw Media and executive vice-president of...
GATINEAU, Que. —Walt Disney Co. on Monday warned the CRTC against a move toward pick-and-pay television. Susan Fox, Disney’s vice-president of government relations, told the commission that having broad distribution...
Google Inc. on Monday announced a new smartphone, known as Android One, it will make available first in India and other developing countries in the near future. Google said in a blog post that the new product represents the...
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Monday his government is determined not to tax Internet services such as Netflix and YouTube In a wide-ranging speech in Ottawa to kick off the new parliamentary session, he also mentioned the...
GATINEAU, Que. — Telus Corp. says it is “very concerned” Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. are using the beta-test phase of their recently launched over-the-top...
GATINEAU, Que. — You can’t assume that young people who have never had subscription-TV service will eventually get it, Ken Engelhart, Rogers Communications Inc.’s vice-president of regulatory affairs, told the CRTC on Thursday. In the past, the number of subscribers increased at the same rate as the number of homes passed, though for the last four or five years, it has stayed flat and has now started declining, he said during Rogers’ appearance during the commission’s two-week Let’s Talk TV hearing into the future of television. “When digital...
The Jim Pattison Broadcast Group on Thursday announced that Heidi Rasmussen has been made general manager of two radio stations in Winnipeg. It said in a press release that Rasmussen would be...
Gold Line Telemanagement Inc. has been granted licences to operate broadcast distribution services for markets in Ontario and British Columbia, the CRTC said Thursday. Postings on commission's website said the company was...
BlackBerry Ltd. on Thursday announced it had acquired Movirtu, a United Kingdom-based maker of technology that creates "virtual identity solutions' for smartphones. BlackBerry said in a press release that Movirtu's technology helps companies manage cellphones in bring-your-own-device (BYOD) and...
Heritage Minister Shelly Glover says the government will not allow new taxes or regulations on Internet-based television services. Glover, the federal minister responsible for the CRTC, said so in a statement sent Monday night...
GATINEAU, Que. — BCE Inc. executives asked the CRTC Wednesday to put in place a “local specialty” model for local television stations, which it said are no longer financially sustainable. “The economics of an advertising-only revenue stream can no longer pay for the costs,” Bell Media president Kevin Crull told the CRTC during the third day of its two-week Let’s Talk TV hearings into the future of television. Crull said that while viewership of local news has risen over the past five years, it’s “not generating the revenue to pay for the...
Four years after Videotron flipped the switch on a new wireless network, the carrier is launching an LTE network that president and CEO Manon Brouillette says will help the company deliver TV content to its mobile customers....
Viacom Inc. and Sony Corp. said Wednesday they have reached a "landmark agreement" that sees at least 22 Viacom channels being carried on Sony's cloud-based TV service when it launches. The two companies said in a...
Rogers Communications Inc.’s CEO on Tuesday said his competitors underestimate the value of wireless spectrum — something Rogers spent multiple times more money on than any other company in this year’s 700...
GATINEAU, Que. — In the second day of hearings in the CRTC's Let's Talk TV proceeding, a commission member asked Quebecor Inc. why, if over-the-top (OTT) services such as Netflix are such a hot commodity, it doesn't abandon traditional broadcasting in favour of an exclusively online video service. “If the danger is real, why not...
GATINEAU, Que. — A move by the CRTC to regulate over-the-top (OTT) video platforms could set a precedent for regulators in other countries, a Google Inc. lawyer told the commission on the first...
Twitter Inc. said Monday it is testing a program that allows users on its social network to make purchases with the push of a new button that will be included in tweets. The company said in a blog post that a "small...
A company controlled by former Canwest head Leonard Asper has received approval from the CRTC for an extreme-sports television channel. On Sept. 2, the CRTC said on its website that 2380393 Ontario Inc. has been approved for a...
The CRTC on Friday warned those with and those seeking television broadcast licences about "major changes" that could result from Let's Talk TV proceedings, public hearings for which start Monday. The commission said in an online posting that the review "may result in the adoption of major changes to the...
HBO Canada, which is owned by BCE Inc. and Corus Entertainment Inc., said Thursday it has obtained rights to past season libraries of all currently airing HBO shows. “For the first time ever, every episode of every season of all current HBO scripted programming will be available on HBO Canada linear and non-linear platforms,” the companies said in a press release. That means all past seasons for shows like True Detective, Game of Thrones and Girls will be made available immediately to subscribers of The Movie Network and Movie Central. “The deal includes the rights to more...
The latest numbers from the CRTC show Canadians are watching more television on more devices, though fewer people are subscribing to TV services and young adults are tuning out. The broadcasting portion of the CRTC's annual...
The CRTC has ordered Ethnic Channels Group Ltd. (ECG) to file quarterly reports containing its program grids for its specialty services that fall under the CRTC's exemption order for the 2014-2015 broadcast year. The...
Rogers Communications Inc.'s launch of a hockey streaming product shows the company wants to "build up its OTT [over-the-top] capabilities" as more TV viewers move away from linear...
On Wednesday the CRTC approved a move by Quebecor Inc.'s Videotron to drop the analog broadcast of TV channel ICI, an ethnic station from Montreal. The channel had originally signed a contract...
Shaw Communications Inc. announced Wednesday that Paul Robertson, president of Shaw Media, has died at 59. Robertson spent more than 30 years in the media industry, according to his LinkedIn page, serving in his current position since 2010 after spending 11 years at Corus Entertainment Inc., including time as president of that company’s television arm. ...
Netflix Inc. on Tuesday announced a new recommendation feature that works through Facebook Inc.'s social network. The provider of online TV services said in a blog that, after viewing a program, users will be asked it they...
In a little more than a week, the people who make and produce, broadcast and distribute, analyze and report on the Canadian television industry will gather in Gatineau, Que., to spend two weeks talking about its future. The...
The CRTC on Tuesday said it has denied an application for a French-language TV channel that would target viewers aged 50 and older. The applicant was Le Groupe 50+ ltée, which was proposing a specialty Category B service...
Netflix Inc. on Tuesday said it has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to block the proposed merger between Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc. The petition submitted to the...
Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. officials say they’re confident the launch of their Shomi over-the-top video service will not eat into their cable business, though industry experts are less convinced. The companies on Tuesday announced they would launch a streaming service containing TV shows...
Online retailing giant Amazon.com Inc. has acquired game-streaming site Twitch Interactive Inc., Twitch CEO Emmett Shear announced Monday, with the deal coming in at just less than $1 billion US. Twitch.TV, which allows gamers to...
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) said Monday its members have ratified a new three-year collective agreement with the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA) and Institute of Communication...
Shaw Communications Inc. is stepping up its lobbying ahead of the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV hearing in September, meeting with various MPs in their ridings as well senior public servants in...
In documents submitted to the CRTC this week, BCE Inc. said it does not throttle mobile data traffic, though it’s prepared to if necessary, while Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron said it does and there is no contradiction between that and its experiment with mobile-TV plans where the data used does not count against caps. The documents were issued in response to interrogatories put out by the CRTC earlier this month, in which it asked the companies to explain why they need to use traffic-management practices on their networks while encouraging customers to use mobile-TV...
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting warned Friday that adopting proposals for reform of the television industry such as pick-and-pay, as put forward by the CRTC, could cost the economy tens of thousands of jobs and billions of...
Rogers Communications Inc. has changed the pricing of data used by its Anyplace TV app, writing on its website that as of Aug. 18, standard data charges would apply to customers who use the app while on its wireless network....
Quebecor Inc. subsidiary Videotron has named Hugues Simard as its new senior vice-president and chief financial officer. The company said in a press release Thursday that Simard will be responsible for the “execution...
The CRTC is giving the public another chance to make its views known in the review of the national television industry through an online forum, and it has also narrowed down its priorities for discussion to four general areas....
Rogers Communications Inc. said Wednesday that Madeline Ziniak will step down as national vice-president of its OMNI Television network in October. The company said in a press release that Ziniak is recognized as a "trailblazer" for her role in advancing multilingual TV programing in Canada. It said she will "pursue new opportunities in the ethnic media community" and continue in various roles such as chairwoman of the Canadian Ethnic Media Association. “Madeline has been a tremendous advocate for and leader in ethnic media for more than three decades, and is...
Some of the largest software and hardware makers in the world, including Microsoft Corp., Qualcomm Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Intel Corp., are choosing sides in a battle over...
BlackBerry Ltd. on Monday announced the creation of a new business unit comprised of what it called its "innovative technology assets." The company said in a press release that its new BlackBerry Technology Solutions (BTS) division would be comprised of its QNX embedded-software operations, Internet-of-Things...
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. announced on Thursday that it has reached an agreement to purchase SmartThings, a maker of a mobile platform that supports Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications and devices. Samsung said in a...
A Vancouver radio station has received a renewal of its broadcast licence for the next five years, though it has been denied its request for relief on certain content requirements in the music it plays. The CRTC said on its...
The CRTC said Wednesday it will hold a hearing this fall that considers three radio stations it says are in violation of the Broadcasting Act by operating out of British Columbia's Lower Mainland and having their signals...
Almost half of anglophone Canadians aged 18 or older own a tablet, according to a report released Tuesday from Media Technology Monitor. Tablet penetration has grown to 45 per cent of Anglos from 34 per cent in the same period...
Kevin Chan has been appointed Facebook Inc.'s head of public policy in Canada. Company spokeswoman Meg Sinclair said in an email to The Hill Times that Chan will be based in Ottawa and have an "ongoing dialogue with...
BCE Inc.'s TSN said Monday that it will debut its expanded format of five national broadcast feeds on Aug. 25. The sports specialty channel announced in May that its national broadcast channels would expand from two to five,...
The CRTC approved an ownership structure change for three channels owned by independent broadcaster Channel Zero Inc. Friday, and renewed its licences for Category B film channels Movieola and Silver Screen Classics for the next three years. The decision ends a decade-old disagreement and streamlines Channel Zero’s ownership structure, though which the company holds various stakes in Hamilton local TV station CHCH-DT, the two movie channels, and three adult channels. Anthony D’Andrea and Harold Balde, two of the four major shareholders, were bought out for $600,000 each, and...
