The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the Forum for Research and Policy in Communications (FRPC) are urging the CRTC to come up with an interim plan to “stabilize the finances” of the Broadcasting Participation Fund as they anticipate a shortfall in money for...
“Canada is first world in its input and third world in its output”, according to the chair of the Council of Canadian Innovators Jim Balsillie told the House of Commons Industry committee Tuesday, as he called for the government to “rebuild the Economic Council of Canada to create in-house capacity for the analysis of the contemporary economy”. Balsillie, testified before the House of Commons’ Industry Committee regarding competitiveness in what he called the "intangibles...
The House of Commons Heritage committee has reinstated language protecting...
As the House of Commons Ethics committee considers the protection and privacy of individuals online, advocates criticized its lack of consideration for sex workers Monday and...
The federal government has launched a consultation document to solicit feedback on whether or not it...
Cogeco Inc. announced another increase in revenue with its second-quarter results Tuesday as it awaits...
Internet speeds for rural Canadians continue to remain “well below” the recommended CRTC speeds, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, when people “are counting more than ever on reliable broadband service” according to a report from the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA). A report released by the CIRA on Tuesday revealed that during the year of the pandemic, the gap in rural versus urban internet performance has grown with urban speeds reaching a median speed of 51.09 Mbps compared to 9.74 Mbps for rural areas. In 2016, the CRTC established a Universal Service...
In order for the federal government to best deal with sexual exploitation...
Corus Entertainment Inc. reported Friday that it had begun to recover some of the losses of the earlier stages of the pandemic, with bleeding stopped in its television segment. The company posted second quarter television revenues of $338.5 million, a mere three per cent drop from the $347.8...
BCE Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. are taking issue with TekSavvy...
Numerous advocacy groups and smaller broadcasters are recommending that the...
Panelists reflecting Wednesday on Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault’s...
The CRTC needs to do away with restrictive regulations, argue multiple...
During a hearing on Facebook, Inc.’s relationship with the federal government Monday, multiple members...
An individual who allegedly sent more than 670,000 spam emails is being fined $75,000 - the largest-ever penalty for violating Canada’s anti-spam legislation, the CRTC announced Monday. Between December 2015 and May 2018,...
Asked whether or not the CRTC is up to the task of dealing with broadcasters who may try to circumvent Canadian content regulations if Bill C-10 is passed and brings streaming giants like Netflix, Inc. under the regulator's remit, chair Ian Scott said effectively that they're used to it. Speaking to MPs at a Friday meeting of the House of Commons Heritage committee, Scott told NDP MP Heather McPherson "we're in the business of regulation, so I think we're probably used to parties,...
Is a Nov. 2019 court order mandating a number of...
The CRTC has released the findings from its first phase in the development of a new Indigenous...
CBC/Radio-Canada is once again asking the CRTC to temporarily relieve it of its local programming and described video obligations for the period of this year’s Tokyo Olympics. In its part 1 application to the CRTC, posted...
Organizations representing smaller Canadian broadcasters and telecoms have...
Two people who had been allegedly selling subscriptions to pirated content under the name ShavaTV have been found in contempt of a court order telling them to knock it off.
Imran Butt and Naeem Butt were ordered to stop pirating channels for their own TV service by an...
Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc., and Quebecor Inc.’s collective bid to get back millions in royalties they say they paid to the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada...
As the House of Commons Heritage committee hearings on the government's proposed update to the...
Telecommunications companies big and small have expressed opposition to a...
As news of Roger’s Communications Inc.’s deal to acquire Shaw Communications Inc. sparks discussions on what it may mean for the wireless market in Canada, advocates say competition and other...
The Internet Society (ISOC) has highlighted what it says are “significant risks” in the CRTC’s proposal for Canadian ISPs to be required to block malicious botnet traffic on their networks....
From the perspective of Rogers Communications Inc. CEO Joe Natale,...
Quebecor Inc. CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau told MPs at a Friday meeting of the House of Commons Heritage committee that the government initiative to overhaul the Broadcasting Act, known as Bill C-10, should focus more on deregulating existing traditional Canadian media. "For traditional broadcasters -- those that showcase...
Stakeholders from across the broadcasting sector will have a chance to comment on a draft of the policy direction that will shape how the CRTC applies the forthcoming update to the Broadcast Act,...
Cogeco Inc. has responded to a Part 1 from television company Wildbrain, calling the company’s attempts to invoke the CRTC’s standstill rule “a glaring abuse of the...
MPs on the House of Commons Heritage Committee...
Quebecor Inc. has continued to grow its revenues in spite of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, according to...
A new survey suggests that just over half of Canadians believe that...
People of colour have long been underrepresented on Canadian airwaves, and the government's proposed update to the Broadcasting Act, known as Bill C-10, is a "chance to heal these wounds," according...
The CRTC has renewed the licence for a pair of BCE Inc.-owned radio stations in British Columbia and New Brunswick, though the regulator has decided to keep both stations on a shorter leash because of past non-compliance. In a decision released Friday, the commission wrote that in the case of CHBE in Victoria, B.C., and CIKX in Grand Falls, N.B., the non-compliance merited licence renewal for shorter terms. In Victoria, according to the CRTC, software used by CHBE to report what...
The day after Facebook Inc. made good on its threat to block all news from...
The Bloc Québécois is pushing the federal government to take “urgent” action to support local media by imposing new taxes on web giants such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc. In the House of Commons...
In a Friends of Canadian Broadcasting panel on Thursday, MPs from the three major parties indicated support for additional regulations and enforcement to manage threats of...
CBC/Radio-Canada president Catherine Tait doubled down on its request for greater flexibility to spend on...
In a preliminary study on the government's overhaul of the Broadcasting Act...
BCE Inc. announced Thursday morning that it would increase its typical capital expenditure by between $1...
The facial recognition technology company used by dozens of police...
The government’s draft legislation to reform Canada’s Broadcasting Act must be amended to explicitly include official language minority communities, stakeholders told the House of Commons heritage committee Monday, during its first hearing into Bill C-10. Representatives of the Fédération culturelle...
On the final day of three weeks of CRTC hearings into CBC/Radio-Canada's license renewal, the public broadcaster Thursday tried to push back against some of the criticism levelled at it by intervenors.
CBC's digital spending does not degrade its news coverage, and the...
Rogers Communications Inc. announced a seven-per-cent fall in revenues and...
The Canadian Media Producers Association has called on the CRTC to force...
The new digital initiatives from CBC/Radio-Canada like the English-language Gem and its French counterpart ICI Tou.tv have not yet shown themselves to be good enough to fulfill the broadcaster's...
To begin the third and final week of the CRTC's hearings on CBC/Radio-Canada's license renewal, organizations representing the directors and writers for Canada's film and television industry have...
On the second day of a preliminary hearing into a dispute between Facebook and the federal privacy watchdog Thursday, the social media giant presented arguments to a Federal Court judge that the court should strike from the record a large portion of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner’s key affidavit. The larger case that could ultimately decide whether or not Facebook Inc. is in violation of Canadian privacy law. In arguments extending from the first day of the hearing on Tuesday, lawyers representing the website told judge Jocelyne Gagné that much of the evidence contained in...
The motto of Facebook Inc. is, famously, "move fast and break things." ...
The advocacy group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting has called on the CRTC...
Cogeco Inc. has officially launched its IPTV service, dubbed Epico. Epico, which runs on the MediaFirst platform, is now available to the “majority of Cogeco customers in the territories served by the company,” according to a press release Monday. “This new service will allow customers...
Audience measurement company Numeris will fully roll-out its video audience...
Quebec’s Superior Court has certified a class action lawsuit on behalf of BCE Inc. TV subscribers who lost access to Quebecor Inc.’s TVA Sports after Quebecor cut the signal in the spring of 2019. La Presse reported...
Corus Entertainment Inc. reported Tuesday its first-quarter revenues were $420.3 million, down 10 per cent from the same period a year earlier. Profits, meanwhile, were down three per cent to $178.6 million in the three-month...
The affordability-focused initiatives Navdeep Bains put in place will...
The COVID-19 pandemic dropped CBC/Radio-Canada’s revenues by 11 per cent,...
The CRTC has extended its deadline for interventions to its commercial radio policy framework review following a procedural request from various associations representing the music sector. Interventions, which were initially due on Feb. 1 are now due on Mar. 29, the CRTC announced Monday, with replies due on April 28. In announcing its intention to review the framework last January, the regulator said the review would include media consolidation rules, quotas of Canadian content and limits on the amount of top 40 songs that can be played in Ottawa and Montreal. BCE Inc.’s senior...
BCE Inc.’s Bell Media division is starting off the year with significant changes to its executive roster, including the departures of its vice-president of regulatory affairs Kevin Goldstein,...
The Federal Court of Appeal has rejected an application for leave to appeal by a broadcaster whose radio licence was denied renewal by the CRTC. The CRTC denied the licence renewal for Groupe...
In the lead up to its license renewal hearings in January, CBC/Radio-Canada has declined to provide the CRTC with statistics about the diversity of its in-house production staff. Following a...
A new CRTC study suggests that the decline of broadcast television could be slowed — but not stopped — if TV providers invest in virtual or online broadcast distribution undertakings (vBDUs). ...
In seeking to appeal a $17.9 million fine imposed by the CRTC in October for misallocating local programming spending, BCE Inc. has failed to demonstrate that the CRTC denied it a level of procedural fairness, and the regulator did in fact give it adequate notice before it imposed the fine, the Attorney General's office told the Federal Court of Appeal this week. In arguments filed with the court on Monday, the Attorney General's office points to correspondence between the regulator and Bell, which it said demonstrates that "Bell was aware of and had the opportunity to respond to the...
Prince Edward Island senator Percy Downe has announced that he will introduce an amendment that will prevent CBC/Radio-Canada from publishing or broadcasting sponsored content. Following on from...
President of Cogeco Inc.'s media division Michel Lorrain has stepped down from the position, the company...
The CRTC will not open a new Part 1 or consultation in response to a letter from a number of ex-CBC/Radio-Canada employees criticizing the public broadcaster’s new branded content scheme, Tandem. ...
Impatient with the progress of a month-old Part 1...
A CRTC consultation on paper billing practices in the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors is continuing, with the commission requesting that all major companies respond to a series of...
The federal government plans to begin imposing sales taxes on foreign digital services on July 1, 2021...
In a case that could determine whether a "right to be forgotten" exists in...
BCE Inc. has filed an application for leave to appeal a $17.9-million penalty imposed by the CRTC last month for violations of its broadcasting license, arguing that the CRTC failed to give the...
Rogers Communications Inc. has cut an unspecified number of jobs from its sports and media divisions, citing the effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In a statement emailed to The Wire Report, a Rogers Sports & Media spokesperson explained that the restructuring would allow the company to focus more on “multiplatform experiences,” amid broader shifts in the industry. “We are modernizing our business to position us for growth as we face the continued effects of a seismic shift in the media industry from traditional to digital and the challenges of the global pandemic." A number of reports stated that jobs were cut at CityTV stations in Calgary and Vancouver, and included employees from local Breakfast Television productions, as the company moves towards a national version of the morning show, which is set to premiere in...
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) has responded to the Liberal government’s proposed new privacy legislation for the private sector — while the office “welcomes” Bill...
Canadian content programming relief from the CRTC would allow BCE Inc.'s...
The CRTC will release a report detailing the impact of online services on the state of video and television and video distribution in Canada and some nine other countries before the end of the year,...
The federal government introduced sweeping private-sector privacy law...
The federal government today announced that it is launching a public consultation on reviewing the Privacy Act, Canada's public sector privacy law. In a Monday evening release, the Department of Justice said that members of the public are invited to share their views on modernizing the act until Jan. 17, 2021. The release invited Canadians to comment on privacy topics, including "the rules on when federal institutions can collect personal information, how they can use the information entrusted to them, when they can share it with other federal institutions, and the right of individuals...
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) has issued its...
A group of former CBC employees have asked the CRTC to look into CBC/Radio-Canada sponsored content program Tandem. The Friday Part 1 application, which is not yet available on the regulator’s...
The CRTC has launched a consultation to review its regulatory framework for the commercial radio sector. It said in Thursday’s notice of consultation that it’s looking to “update the regulatory framework to best serve the...
In anticipation of CBC/Radio-Canada’s January license renewal hearings, the CRTC has requested that the broadcaster collect file information about staff diversity on its productions. In a letter...
BCE Inc. CEO Mirko Bibic praised the updates to the Broadcasting Act...
Quebecor Inc. posted its third-quarter earnings on Thursday morning, with revenues slightly up, boosted...
Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault isn’t concerned about potential...
The Liberal government’s proposed updates to the Broadcasting Act have...
The Liberal government’s long-awaited update to the Broadcasting Act confirms that the CRTC is able to regulate online services such as streaming platforms and leaves it to...
In its reply to interventions on the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' request for a policy of "deemed compliance" in Canadian programming expenditures, the Canadian Media Producers Association...
The National Campus and Community Radio Association, Alliance des radios communautaires du Canada and Association des radiodiffuseurs communautaires du Québec have filed a joint intervention arguing...
Facebook Inc. is asking a judge to throw out significant chunks of an...
BCE Inc. misclassified a number of self-promotional productions as community programming, and misallocated $35.9 million to its CTV networks, the CRTC said Thursday. In its decision renewing a...
Rogers Communications Inc. showed a rebound in its third-quarter earnings report Thursday, with media and wireless revenue roughly back to the levels they were at in 2019 following a second quarter that its CFO described as the "most volatile" the business had seen. ...
Corus Entertainment Inc. continues to feel the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the rate of decline...
Whether or not there is a pandemic, large broadcasters want to do away with...
Speaking Tuesday morning at an online event, Bell assistant general counsel...
Rogers Communications Inc. and Altice USA Inc. upped their offer in a joint takeover bid of Cogeco Inc. from $10.3 billion to $11 billion over weekend, a bid that was rejected by the controlling shareholder of the company, the...
The branded content initiative launched by CBC/Radio-Canada last month has been put on hiatus while the...
An announcement Thursday from Alphabet Inc.'s Google that it would put...
Independent producers will be able to access a $50 million insurance...
In Wednesday’s throne speech kicking off Parliament’s return, the...
Given the precarious situation around the now-escalating COVID-19 pandemic, what will actually be included in Wednesday’s speech from the throne, and in the government’s priorities in the following weeks, is more uncertain than ever. With a day to go, even the details of...
