Investment management firm Apollo Global Management Inc. has entered into an agreement to acquire Verizon Media for $5 billion. Under the terms of the agreement announced Monday, Verizon Communications Inc. will receive $4.25 billion in cash, preferred interests of $750 million and retain a 10 per cent stake in Verizon Media. Current CEO Guru Gowrappan will continue to lead Verizon Media, which will be known as Yahoo, the company said in a release. “The past two quarters of double-digit growth have demonstrated our ability to transform our media ecosystem. With Apollo’s sector...
Canada should establish a centralized expert regulator for technology-facilitated gender-based violence, abuse and harassment (TFGBV), as current legislation fails to protect...
Professional networking platform LinkedIn will have its applications for a summary trial heard in the...
Quebecor Inc. executive Jean-François Pruneau announced Tuesday morning that he would be stepping down from his position as president and CEO of Videotron in order to "leave active professional life and devote himself to personal...
The Supreme Court of Canada has decided it will hear an appeal from Music Canada and the Society of...
The House of Commons Heritage committee has moved...
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...
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...
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 Solutions Inc.'s assertion that it will be unfairly burdened by regulations that will require companies to make their services more accessible to Canadians with disabilities.
The CRTC is set to implement...
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, Scott William Brewer sent thousands of emails that focused on “affiliate and web marketing and included the promotion of four online casinos that would compensate him through their affiliate programs for new customers,” without the consent of the people he sent them to, the CRTC said in a release. The regulator said its investigation confirmed Brewer sent out...
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...
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...
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 CRTC proposal that would require Canadian ISPs to block malicious botnet traffic on their networks.
Interventions filed this week in response to a public consultation spelled out a host of concerns...
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, officials from the Department of Canadian Heritage have said. Under the government’s proposed update to the Broadcasting Act, known as Bill C-10, foreign streaming platforms like Netflix, Inc. would be brought under the regulatory framework of the CRTC, though it will be up to the CRTC to...
Cogeco Inc. has responded to a Part 1 from television company Wildbrain,...
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...
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 violence stemming from social media platforms. At the event, focused on protecting democracy in Canada, NDP MP Charlie Angus said that companies like Facebook Inc. have been cut too much slack, considering that numerous instances of political violence have stemmed from its platform in some capacity. “We asked...
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 canadienne-française and the Quebec English-language Production Council both told the committee that the Bill should be amended to specifically reference the communities, which consist of Anglophones in Quebec and Francophones in the rest of Canada. QEPC co-chair Kenneth Hirsch said the legislation reforming the broadcasting sector was “more desperately needed than anything...
On the final day of three weeks of CRTC hearings into CBC/Radio-Canada's...
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...
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 to take advantage of the latest technological developments in television, a cloud-computing infrastructure and a scalable platform,” Cogeco said in the release. The company said a year ago it had begun beta-testing the service, which it initially planned to launch across its footprint by the end of 2019....
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, but that impact was significantly less than public broadcaster’s leadership had feared, CEO Catherine Tait told the CRTC Monday.
That meant six months into the current fiscal year, CBC revenue...
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....
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...
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. However, the regulator indicated that the issue could be raised at the CBC’s license renewal hearings, scheduled for January. The letter from a group of 25 ex-employees (including former anchor Peter Mansbridge, former CBC host and governor general Adrienne Clarkson, and former CBC president Robert Rabinovitch, among others) implored the CRTC to investigate the Tandem branded content...
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 broadcaster adequate notice that it was misallocating its community programming funding towards its own local news programming. In an Oct. 22 decision, the CRTC required Bell to pay $17,924,607 to the Canada Media Fund, "an amount that corresponds to the excess portion of its misallocated contributions to local expression," the CRTC wrote. The regulator further said in the decision that Bell had...
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...
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 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 needs and interests of Canadians, while taking into account increased competition from online services.” Interventions are due Feb. 1. The regulator said that it doesn’t currently intend to hold a public hearing on the consultation, but it could hold one in the future. In the consultation document, the CRTC noted listening to traditional radio has been...
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 received sharp criticism from opposition parties, while some advocates for Canadian content makers...
The Liberal government’s long-awaited update to the Broadcasting Act...
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...
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 Ruby Barber said that a proposed overhaul of Quebec's privacy law -- known as Bill 64 -- is...
