OTTAWA — CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais used his opening remarks at a panel discussion Thursday to criticize individuals who are calling for “political interference” in the commission’s decisions. Referring to a speech made earlier in the morning by Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) president Reynolds Mastin at the opening of the Prime Time in Ottawa conference, Blais said that he is “very heartened that you applauded the independence of a very important...
New data shows that the number of anglophone Canadians with TV subscriptions has continued to fall, reaching 75 per cent in the fall of 2016 — a 14-per-cent decline over the past five years. That number is down two per cent from a year earlier, according to a report released Tuesday by Media Technology Monitor (MTM), a project of CBC/Radio-Canada. The report also showed technologies like streaming, wearable devices and 4K are growing. Four per cent of anglophones own a 4K television, up from three per cent in the spring of 2016, while more English-speaking Canadians are also...
A tepid launch of Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime video streaming service in Canada doesn’t seem likely to pose a challenge to existing players in the Canadian streaming market — for...
There isn’t much disagreement between some of the country’s biggest media and telecom service providers over whether foreign entities, such as over-the-top providers like Netflix...
The anglophone generation that is in, or nearing, retirement is consuming more traditional TV than their younger counterparts, as less than a tenth of boomers has cut the cord, according to the latest MTM report...
Amazon.com Inc.’s Amazon Prime Video has entered the Canadian market, as part of a worldwide launch for the streaming service, the company announced in a press release Wednesday. The...
Canadians are “generally satisfied” with the speed of their home Internet service, according to a new report from the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA). “More than 80 per cent of those surveyed said they’re satisfied, although just 34 per cent claim to be very satisfied,” the annual CIRA Internet Factbook report, released Tuesday, said. When asked about the Internet bandwidth included in their home package, 78 per cent of respondents said they are satisfied, with half being “very satisfied.” Less than 10 per cent were dissatisfied,...
Canadians are broadly in support of making domestic film and TV productions successful internationally and being provided the funding to do so, but don’t share a consensus on where that money...
A move by Netflix Inc. to allow users to download some content for offline viewing is part of a wider push for customers among streaming services, according to a research note from Desjardins Capital Markets....
OTTAWA — Canada is involved in international discussions about how to address the issue of foreign digital vendors not being subject to domestic sales tax, a parliamentary committee...
Netflix Inc. viewers will now be able to download content from its over-the-top (OTT) service to watch off-line. The company said in a press release Wednesday that the new free feature is included in all plans and...
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) is asking the government to rescind the digital media exemption order (DMEO) as part of its review of Canadian content in a digital age. The DMEO,...
Canada is one of Netflix Inc.’s top three locations for original productions, and while the company doesn’t play a part in the official Canadian content system, the dollars invested...
Anglophone viewers of Netflix Inc.’s over-the-top (OTT) service now spend 67 per cent of their time on the platform watching TV shows and 33 per cent watching movies and other content, MTM,...
OTTAWA — Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly said Thursday that imposing a tax on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to fund cultural content remains a possible outcome of her sweeping review of Canadian...
Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. said Thursday that subscribers of its infiNET maxTV set-top box will now have access to Netflix Inc.’s over-the-top service (OTT). “SaskTel is excited to be the first television provider in the province to be able to bring this level of integration to our customers,” Ron Styles, SaskTel’s president and CEO, said in a press release. “The way our customers consume content is continuously evolving, and many of our customers already subscribe to Netflix.” The announcement comes a day...
OTTAWA — Creating the oft-asked-for level playing field by making foreign digital services subject to Canadian sales tax would hurt smaller companies trying to break into the country’s market, a House of Commons...
An organization representing four-dozen major online-based companies has reached out to president-elect Donald Trump, congratulating him on his victory while proposing digital policy planks for his administration to consider....
Telus Corp. announced Monday that is making Netflix Inc.’s app available on its Optik 4K set-top box, allowing subscribers to stream Netflix in 4K resolution. “4K is the ultimate way to immerse yourself...
OTTAWA — While traditionally, government funding has been directed to boost fixed Internet service, perhaps there should be some public assistance for improving wireless coverage, a member of...
Even though the CRTC is an arms-length organization, there is “a lot this government can do directly to support artists and creators across this country,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday, in response to a question about the CRTC’s recent changes to the certified independent production fund (CIPF) framework. Trudeau, via a video message posted on Twitter Inc.’s service, was answering a question from Clara Pasieka, vice-president of member services for Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA)’s Toronto branch, who said in a Tuesday tweet that she was supposed to pose the query to Trudeau directly but was usurped by protesters at an Ottawa event. “What can I tell the 1000s of young performers I represent (& others) across the country you will do to...
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is suggesting Netflix Inc. be taxed, as it calls on the government to take action. Netflix is benefiting from Canadian tax exemptions and a lack of regulation, while the...
OTTAWA — CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais defended the rationale and timing of the regulator’s controversial decision to change the eligibility requirements to access certified independent...
While CraveTV should have an easier time competing in the over-the-top (OTT) space now that Shomi will cease operation, Netflix Inc.’s offering still leaves doubt about the profitability...
In the wake of the announced shuttering of its streaming service, Shomi, Rogers Communications Inc. is offering some customers six months of free access to Netflix Inc.’s over-the-top (OTT) service. Rogers...
Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc.’s Shomi had close to 900,000 subscribers at its peak, before the companies decided to shut down the service. “We recently approached...
Shomi, the joint Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. over-the-top (OTT) video service, will shut down on Nov. 30, the service...
Lawyers are asking a Quebec court to allow a class action lawsuit against companies that they allege are violating the province’s consumer protection laws by requiring customers to take the...
Canadian content producers who find audiences internationally are benefitting from over-the-top (OTT) services, according to a report examining the impact of OTT platforms on global video production....
MONTREAL — As technological change accelerates, CBC/Radio-Canada has to keep pace, according to CEO Hubert Lacroix, who said Thursday “we can’t think of the public broadcaster as one driven by legacy assets.” “We can’t stand still,” Lacroix said in an interview at the Public Broadcasters International conference, which is being hosted by CBC in Montreal this week. The focus for this year’s two-day event is how public broadcasters can reach the digital generation. Despite the shift in the federal government following last...
Netflix Inc. argued that data caps are an “unnecessary constraint on advanced telecommunications capability” in a filing with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC)....
BCE Inc. customers can now take advantage of the “world’s first fully wireless [Internet protocol TV] service,” the company said Monday. In a press release, Bell said a wireless 4K Whole Home PVR was...
Netflix Inc. and CBC/Radio-Canada are partnering with Northwood Entertainment for a new TV series based on the classic Canadian novel Anne of Green Gables. The show will be broadcast in Canada on the CBC...
Confusion over what qualifies as watching TV online has led Media Technology Monitor to revise some previously reported data about over-the-top (OTT) services. In a Thursday report,...
Subscription video-on-demand service (SVOD) revenues will double by 2021, as broadcasters and TV network providers look to enter the market amid a trend in cord cutting and shaving, according to a new report. Juniper Research Ltd. found that revenues from such services, including those operated by Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., will more than double in five years to $34.6 billion US, from $14.6 billion US this year. The report comes on the heels of Netflix’s second-quarter earnings report on Monday. The streaming service said it gained 1.7 million...
Manitoba Telecommunications Services Inc. will begin offering Netflix Inc.’s streaming service directly on its set-top box. The company said in a press release Thursday that the move “removes the...
Nielsen Co. says the season premiere of Netflix Inc.’s Orange is the New Black drew 6.7 million viewers in the United States in its first two days. Netflix doesn’t release its...
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says Canada should follow the example of the European Union and countries like New Zealand and Australia in requiring over-the-top (OTT) services to pay...
Netflix Inc.’s over-the-top (OTT) service continued to lead peak period network traffic, but the percentage of traffic has declined since late 2015, according to a new Global Internet Phenomena...
CBC/Radio-Canada is teaming up with Netflix Inc. and Halfire Entertainment to produce a miniseries based on a Margaret Atwood book. Production will begin in Ontario in August, the broadcaster said in a...
The number of anglophones subscribing to TV service continues to fall, according to a new report by Media Technology Monitor (MTM), a project of CBC/Radio-Canada. In the spring of 2016, 73 per cent subscribed to TV...
When Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly said “there will be no Netflix tax,” at the end of her department’s review of cultural institutions, that leaves both the taxation of...
Solutions Research Group Consultants Inc. estimates fewer than one million Canadian households are currently subscribers to BCE Inc.’s CraveTV and Rogers Communications Inc.’s and Shaw...
A U.S. appeals court has denied an industry appeal of the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality rules. The court issued a decision Tuesday in favour of a framework the FCC imposed last year, which, among other stipulations, prevents Internet service providers (ISPs) from blocking Internet traffic or giving priority to content from companies willing to pay to secure “fast lanes.” CTIA-The Wireless Association was among a number of U.S. industry groups challenging the rules in court. In a statement posted on the FCC...
The majority of Canadians doesn’t believe that online media, such as Netflix Inc.’s over-the-top (OTT) service or music streaming services like Spotify AB's, should fall under the...
Netflix Inc. has teamed up with Univision Communications Inc. in its first deal to bring original programming from the company’s over-the-top (OTT) service to traditional TV in the United States. In...
Netflix Inc. subscribers can now regulate how much wireless data they use in the newest version of the company’s Android and iOS application. As of May 5, the mobile app users could take advantage of “added...
OTTAWA — The results of the sweeping review of Canadian content in a digital age announced by Heritage Canada last week could take 10 years to materialize, University of Ottawa law professor...
Next month, long-time Netflix Inc. subscribers will be notified of a price hike to their monthly bill, with subscriptions going from $7.99 per month to $9.99 per month, the company confirmed in an email Monday. The price update will roll out based on member billing periods, Netflix said, adding that customers will have the option of paying $9.99 for a high-definition plan or continuing to pay $7.99 for a standard-definition plan. Netflix originally announced these price increases in a blog post in May 2014, and said in the statement that they “follow a two-year period of holding...
When companies launched TV-everywhere products a few years ago, they did so as part of an effort to compete with then-new streaming services — but now that many of those same companies have...
The federal government will hold a consultation on the Internet's effect on Canada’s media industry. According to a transcript, Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly said in question period...
The Netflix Inc. crackdown on virtual-private-network (VPN) use could provide an opportunity for Canadian providers to carve out more of the over-the-top (OTT) market, though a lack of firm figures makes predictions difficult....
While advertising will remain a key part of the TV ecosystem, the television industry will have to provide better audience data in order to keep up with digital competition, said Barbara Williams, president of Shaw Communications...
According to the Conference Board of Canada, high debt levels and weak job prospects will make it difficult for Canadians to increase spending on telecom services in 2016, limiting industry growth. A...
Following last fall’s election, the government is set to boost CBC/Radio-Canada's funding, but when that will happen and under what conditions is unclear. It also remains to be seen whether...
Netflix Inc. said Thursday that it will soon be employing technology that stops users from bypassing conditions that restrict some content from being seen in certain locations. David Fullagar, its vice-president of...
New CRTC regulatory changes from the Let’s Talk TV decisions could lead to a loss of more than 15,000 Canadian jobs and take $1.4 billion from the Canadian economy annually by 2020, according to a new report released Tuesday...
Having premium content on linear TV and on over-the-top (OTT) services can cause adverse effects on revenue growth and will cause consumers to expect lower costs for premium TV content, according to a new report from Needham & Co. LLC. The report, released Friday, said analysts are “concerned” that when the same content is available on two different revenue streams, consumers will choose to watch on the cheaper platform, causing future revenue-growth problems. It added that in the past five months, the market capitalization for the largest public U.S. content companies fell 13...
Netflix Inc. is re-encoding its entire library of content in order to provide customers with a better experience for watching content while using less bandwidth to process it. The company said in a blog Monday that the...
BCE Inc. announced Monday that subscribers of Bell’s Fibe TV and Bell Alliant’s FibreOP TV will have access to their Netflix Inc. account directly from their TV receivers. It said in the release that all Fibe TV...
Shaw Communications Inc. announced Wednesday that all customers who are subscribed to its Internet 30, or any broadband Internet plan above that, will have access to download speeds six times faster when connected to any of the...
OTTAWA — Canada's major TV service providers argued before the Copyright Board of Canada on Monday that they should pay less for distant-TV signals because these channels are losing value as...
As the Canadian TV industry approaches an era where customers have more choice over the channels they subscribe to, large broadcasters should “pick their winners” and consolidate into a smaller number of channels, a new report from RBC Capital Markets says. “Today, many if not most specialty channels benefit from being included in large BDU packages — particularly outside of Quebec," the report released Thursday said. "For years, BDUs have been...
BCE Inc.’s move to acquire exclusive rights to HBO programming on all platforms and become the sole operator of HBO Canada will make its CraveTV over-the-top (OTT) service more competitive...
Ontario residents are not moving as fast toward newer ways of getting TV content, such as IPTV and Netflix, as other parts of the Canada, according to newly released figures. Survey results released last week from Media...
Most French-speaking Canadians watch some English television and film, and most of those do so at least once a week, according to a newly released survey. CBC/Radio-Canada's Media Technology Monitor said in a report released...
Netflix Inc. reported 30 per cent annual growth in quarterly revenue on Wednesday, though its net profit in the third quarter was half of what it was at the same time in 2014. The over-the-top (OTT) streaming company said in a...
Rogers Communications Inc. on Monday announced it is moving forward with two different kinds of technology — 4K video and gigabit-speed Internet — though one commentator says the success of either of these initiatives...
Canadian customers of Netflix Inc. are theoretically obliged to pay sales taxes on this service, even though Netflix does not collect the tax up front, the Toronto Star quoted a federal official as...
Individuals fighting BCE Inc.’s appeal of a CRTC decision on its mobile-TV service in the Federal Court of Appeal have called it an “over-the-top” or OTT service, along the same lines of what...
Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Wednesday posted a video of himself on Twitter standing in front of a screen with a Netflix logo and criticizing calls for taxes on video-streaming services. In the video, Harper said he is a fan...
The practice of sharing passwords so that more than one person or household can access a streaming service has financial ramifications for the industry, according to a new report, though it could also provide new services with a boost in the market, said 3Macs analyst Troy Crandall. “In a way, sharing credentials can sometimes be somewhat of a marketing tool, especially if you’re just starting out,” he said in a phone interview. “Over time, obviously you do have to get a better handle on it.” He added that “it actually can be beneficial for them when...
BCE Inc. will make its CraveTV streaming service available to all Canadians as of Jan 1., 2016, it said in a press release Monday, in what marks a change in strategy for the company. Bell Media president Mary Ann Turcke said...
“Sharp” price hikes in wireless service over the past year are prompting people to reduce how much they spend on other telecommunications services, according to a Conference Board of...
Netflix Inc. has hired Environics Communications Inc. to lobby the Canadian government on its behalf, The Lobby Monitor reported this week. It has three new filings under Environics, represented by three different Ottawa-based...
New data from Media Technology Monitor (MTM) indicates growth in connections between television sets and the Internet. MTM, a project of CBC/Radio-Canada, said in a report released Thursday that 42 per cent of anglophone...
DHX Media Ltd., announced Tuesday that it will be premiering Degrassi: Next Class, a new series part of the Degrassi franchise, on Netflix Inc. The company stated in a press release that the show will be available on Netflix worldwide in early 2016, except in Canada, Australia and France, where it will be available online at a later date. The release said the new series, which is part of the popular Canadian-based television franchise that began in 1980s, will be filmed at DHX’s studio in Toronto....
OTTAWA — Streaming video services like CraveTV and Shomi can and must be regulated as broadcasting entities in order to ensure funding for Canadian programming, the Canadian Media Production...
Copyright-enforcement company CEG TEK International said recently that it’s seen a significant fall in the piracy of its clients’ content in Canada over the past few months, which it attributes to the inclusion of...
DHX Media Ltd. said Thursday that revenue for its third quarter ended March 31 almost tripled from a year earlier to $85.6 million from $29 million, thanks to a major acquisition and gains in its distribution and production...
Encrypted Internet traffic currently makes up about one-third of North American traffic, a figure that is projected to grow to two-thirds by 2016, after Netflix Inc. begins using encryption, according...
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) has re-launched an undue-preference complaint against Rogers Communications Inc.'s and Shaw Communications Inc.’s Shomi streaming service,...
A new bill in Australian parliament could block virtual private networks (VPNs), while Internet service providers in New Zealand could face lawsuits for a VPN-like service, two articles in the Guardian said. The British newspaper...
Netflix Inc. said in letter to shareholders Wednesday it would be shifting some of its U.S. marketing budget to other parts of the world in the coming months "to take advantage of the substantial available growth...
A 27-year-old entrepreneur wants to offer an alternative to what he calls a monopoly in the market for audio music channels offered through TV service providers in Canada. Evan Kosiner, president and owner of Kosiner Venture...
In the fall of 2014, Canadian anglophones spent an hour more watching online video in a typical week than they did a year earlier, according to new data from the Media Technology Monitor (MTM). MTM, a project of CBC/Radio-Canada, said in a report released Wednesday that respondents in surveys conducted last fall indicated they spent an average of 8.2 hours viewing online video, compared to 7.2 a year before. It also said that 80 per cent of anglophones now watch video online, compared to 76 per cent a year earlier, with streaming video becoming “the most popular form of entertainment...
A case involving BCE Inc.’s mobile-TV service that’s currently winding its way through the Federal Court of Appeal is just one example of how the lines between telecommunications and...
Cogeco Cable Inc. said Monday it is now offering its TiVo Inc. service to customers in Quebec. Cogeco Cable Canada CEO Louise St-Pierre said in a Monday news release that the service ensures “there will always be something...
Nielsen Co., the which measures viewership for TV shows, will start assessing audiences for online streaming services such as Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.'s Prime this year, according to a Bloomberg report. “That...
The CRTC’s proposed new code of conduct for television service providers is at odds with the commission’s stance that it won’t regulate over-the-top (OTT) services, according to...
Small Internet service providers are taking the lead on providing gigabit Internet service in Canada, in contrast to the United States where Internet giant Google Inc. is pioneering efforts to bring this type of ultra-fast web connection to the masses. Heather Burnett Gold, president of the U.S.-based Fiber to the Home Council Americas, said in a phone interview that gigabit connections enable “frictionless” use of current applications such as streaming video and gaming, as well as future Internet-based applications such as remote education and telemedicine. “If bandwidth...
The amount of video watched on smartphones and tablets doubled in 2014, according to a sub-sample used for Ooyala Inc.'s quarterly index. The online-video management company said in a report released Wednesday there had been...
Telus Corp. is spending $100 million to provide access to a fibre optic network to 90 per cent of the homes and businesses in the British Columbia communities of Kelowna and West Kelowna, it said Tuesday. It said in a press...
The Ontario government spent months preparing its position on regulating streaming services like that offered by Netflix Inc., according to documents cited in a blog by University of Ottawa law...
OTTAWA — The retransmission of U.S. networks in Canada is the equivalent of Aereo, the service ruled illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court last year, Kevin Crull, president of BCE Inc.'s media...
OTTAWA — Kevin Crull, president of BCE Inc.'s media division, said Thursday that monetization is currently his organization's biggest challenge, given the usage of over-the-top (OTT)...
Rogers Communications Inc. said Friday that David Purdy, its senior vice-president of content, did not call on government to ban virtual private networks (VPNs) during a media-industry conference in Toronto on Thursday, despite...
Users of Apple Inc.'s iPhone 6 Plus are using twice as much data as those with the iPhone 6, according to a report from Citrix Systems Inc. The U.S. provider of workplace mobility technology said...
About one in three Canadian customers of Netflix Inc. have used a U.S. IP address to access the company's American service because it offers more content than the Canadian version, Media...
Telus Corp. said Wednesday it will be making services from Netflix Inc. available through its Optik TV set-top boxes in the coming weeks. Telus said in a press release that almost half of its Optik TV customers are Netflix subscribers, and this development removes "the inconvenience of having to switch hardware and source inputs or fumble with additional remotes" when watching Netflix on a television. Customers of Optik, an IPTV service available in British Columbia, Alberta and parts of Quebec where Telus is the incumbent telephone company, already have access to BCE Inc.'s...