England’s biggest soccer league has been granted a court order to block computer servers that host and deliver content to a set-top box (STBs) application that allows users to watch its games for free, according to a BBC report Wednesday. “For the first time this will enable the Premier League to disrupt and prevent the illegal streaming of our matches via IPTV, so-called Kodi, boxes,” a league spokesperson told the BBC. Kodi is a software application that...
Taxing foreign digital services such as Facebook Inc., Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime service, Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube and Netflix Inc. could provide the federal government with up to $1 billion per year, according to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). The recommendation was included in the progressive think tank’s alternative federal budget, released Thursday. The annual document “brings together 85 economists and sectoral experts to produce a detailed, fully costed progressive economic plan,” a CCAP press release said,...
The federal budget will be presented March 22, Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced Tuesday. Morneau will rise to give the budget speech at 4 p.m. that day in the House of Commons, marking the Liberal...
About half of Canadians who watch TV online are cord-cutters, but there are more of their ilk among those who have chosen to rely on over-the-air (OTA) transmission, according to the latest report from Media Technology Monitor...
Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly is meeting this week with digital platforms, telling a CBC morning radio show Friday that she was in the Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont., region Thursday meeting...
Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube will be launching a live and on-demand TV service that will enable subscribers to watch more than 40 traditional TV channels online without the need for a subscription from a telecom provider, it...
The federal government should require foreign providers of digital services to remit tax on sales in the jurisdiction where the final customer is located, the C.D. Howe Institute said. In a report released Thursday containing suggestions for the federal government ahead of the release of the 2017 budget, C.D. Howe said the measure would increase annual revenue by about $200 million and “level the playing field for domestic and foreign providers of digital products and services in Canada.” The issue of taxing foreign digital services has been raised as...
According to a new survey commissioned by Internet advocacy group OpenMedia, while half of Canadians support creating a new revenue source for Canadian content, there is strong opposition to taxing Internet service and more...
OTTAWA — If Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly was clear about anything during a Thursday afternoon appearance at the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) Prime Time in Ottawa conference, it was that the...
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...
Phasing out CBC/Radio-Canada’s sale of digital ads and tweaking tax laws to prevent companies from claiming exemptions for advertising on foreign digital platforms are among the...
GATINEAU, Que. — There are unique considerations for wireless carriers when contemplating the switch to next-generation 911 (NG911) services, a CRTC panel was told on the penultimate day of a...
Starting Monday, Twitter Inc.’s live-streaming app will host a nightly showing of a Canadian media program for the first time. The Agenda with Steve Paikin, a current affairs program produced by the publicly funded...
Last month, Amazon.com Inc. announced that its data centre business was expanding into Canada, a move that illustrates what some say is the need for more data points as an increasing amount...
Vancouver-based multi-platform network (MPN) BroadbandTV Corp. has launched in Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Egypt, the company...
A former chairman of the CRTC is backing the concept of levying a new tax on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) as the heritage minister mulls ways to rejig the country’s cultural institutions. In a memo published Thursday for the C.D. Howe Institute, in which he serves as a senior fellow, Konrad von Finckenstein argued that current legislation used to regulate communications won’t work in the broadband age and that “subsidization and promotion of Canadian content is the only meaningful way for government to support Canadian content.” Von Finkenstein, who led...
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...
BCE Inc. has dropped its second lawsuit alleging copyright infringement against a small Internet protocol TV (IPTV) provider, following changes the company made to its service. Bell Media launched the action against Zazeen Inc. in November, alleging that the company was...
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...
BCE Inc. has signed on to test a platform developed by AT&T Inc. that would allow it to carry more, and better manage, traffic on its network. The software — called...
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 released Wednesday. About 86 per cent of the demographic — defined as those between 50 and 70 —pay for a TV service like cable, satellite or IPTV, according to the report from Media Technology Monitor, a project of CBC/Radio-Canada. Younger Canadians are twice as likely as boomers to have cut the cord, MTM said. About 66 per cent of older boomers and...
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...
Zazeen Inc. is facing legal action from BCE Inc. over its Internet protocol TV (IPTV) service, with the incumbent calling the small provider’s service copyright infringement. In...
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...
GATINEAU, Que. — BCE Inc. has to take both offensive and defensive positions when facing off against international competitors, the company told the CRTC Tuesday, as it took its...
GATINEAU, Que. — Rogers Communications Inc. said it understands the irony of asking for mandatory carriage for its proposed new regional OMNI service, but that it’s the only way forward. The company started off the CRTC’s four-day public hearing on TV licence renewals for English-language groups Monday in front of a five-person panel of commissioners, who questioned the company on its proposal for a new national ethnic programming service. The proposal has faced criticism from other ethnic broadcasters as well as...
Rogers Communications Inc. is proposing a tax credit-based federal program to support Canadian content of all types and on all platforms. In a submission to the Heritage Minister Mélanie...
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,...
BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron are asking a federal court judge to dismiss an appeal of an injunction banning sales of “pre-loaded”...
The Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) is asking the federal government to “modernize” and require both over-the-top (OTT) services and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to contribute to the CanCon system....
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 in productions classified as CanCon serve to “multiply the impact of public support,” according to a submission from the company to Canadian Heritage’s sweeping cultural review. In a document filed with the department on Thursday, Netflix said that CanCon producers receive...
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,...
VMedia Inc. is permanently prohibited from broadcasting BCE Inc.’s CTV channels on its over-the-top skinny basic service, an Ontario Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday. Judge Frederick...
The Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) has appointed Erin Finlay as its new chief legal officer to provide legal advice and strategic direction. Her areas of expertise include entertainment litigation, policy...
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...
An Ericsson AB report is projecting that more than 550 million subscribers will be on 5G networks by 2022. The latest Ericsson Mobility Report, released Tuesday, said that...
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...
Multi-channel networks (MCNs) have carved out a space in the online video ecosystem in recent years, leading traditional broadcasters to move into MCNs as a relatively low-risk way to reach younger...
Canadian anglophones between the ages of 35 and 49 are, more than other generations, drawn to tablets and TV-enhancing technologies, according to a Media Technology Monitor (MTM) report released Tuesday. In its second...
Corus Entertainment Inc. has launched History Vault, a subscription over-the-top (OTT) service featuring programming from its History channel. The service, which costs $5.49 a month, “features hundreds of hours of content within the [History] library, including series, documentaries, and specials,” Corus said in a Thursday press release. The service, which it said is “designed for information junkies, history lovers” and fans of the channel, is available as an app for Apple Inc.’s products and will be available on Alphabet...
TORONTO — The heritage ministry and the CRTC should engage in a more balanced discussion on what to do about taxes in support of cultural content, as both seem to be moving in...
The creation of a new federal agency to handle government funding for Canadian content could help the heritage minister’s goal of boosting exports of domestic cultural products, according to a report sponsored by Rogers...
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...
GATINEAU, Que. — Those who innovate shouldn’t be penalized because their competitors can’t keep up, the CRTC heard Friday from representatives of the telecom company...
Telus Corp. reported strong wireless revenues and subscriber additions Friday, as data helped propel overall revenues up to $3.23 billion. For the three months ended September 30, the company’s overall revenues were slightly higher, with a 2.6 per cent increase, than the $3.15 billion it earned in the same quarter last year. Net income, however, was down slightly by 2.7 per cent to $355 million against the comparable period last year. Wireless revenues did the heavy lifting, increasing 4.9 per cent to $1.7 billion compared to the same quarter last year. This was...
Quebecor Inc.’s telecommunications services boosted its third quarter, as it posted an $8.3-million loss, the company said in its quarterly financial report Thursday. The loss from the three months ended Sept. 30,...
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...
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...
A potential merger between AT&T Inc. and Time Warner Cable Inc. highlights a move by United States-based companies toward vertical integration, just as developments in Canada...
BCE Inc.’s over-the-top (OTT) service CraveTV will be the new launching pad for Showtime programming in Canada, the company announced Monday. In a press release, Crave said new and returning shows will debut on the OTT...
Anglophone millennials spend more than 30 hours a week on the Internet, and about four-fifths of that generation watch TV online, according the latest report from Media Technology Monitor, a project of CBC/Radio-Canada. The...
Shudder, an over-the-top (OTT) service focusing on the horror genre, has launched in Canada, a year after it became available in the United States. According to a press release, the AMC Networks Inc.-owned...
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...
OTTAWA — On the same day that a new report was released arguing the CRTC’s role and authority should be reduced in response to technological change, CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais defended the relevance of the commission in the digital age in front of a Parliamentary committee. “The Internet and its wide range of applications and opportunities has changed the landscape and yet Ottawa’s digital policy and legal framework has failed to keep up,” the Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI) report said. “Regulating how much Canadian content is shown...
Canadian multi-platform network (MPN) BroadbandTV Corp. (BBTV) has signed a deal to manage the Hispanic content of Univision Communications Inc. The Vancouver-based media company will provide the management services for...
In an unexpected move, Rogers Communications Inc. has announced Guy Laurence is no longer CEO of the company and will be replaced by former Telus Corp. CEO Joe Natale, a choice...
VMedia Inc. said in a court document it has removed BCE Inc.’s CTV channels from its over-the-top (OTT) skinny basic service pending the resolution of a legal dispute between the two...
In the days after the CRTC issued a decision that lowered wholesale wireline Internet rates proposed by large Internet Service Providers (ISPs), financial analysts said the large telecoms could...
OTTAWA — Raising the level of broadband Internet service for Canadians would go far in levelling the playing field for both media producers and consumers, a House of Commons committee heard Thursday, as it continued its study of the media and local communities. Since beginning its study, the standing committee on Canadian heritage has heard a variety of suggestions on ways in which the government could play a role in the supporting the struggling news media industry — some of which concerned Michael Geist, who holds the Canada research chair in Internet and e-commerce law at...
BCE Inc. is asking the Ontario Superior Court to grant an interim and permanent injunction to stop VMedia Inc. from delivering Bell's CTV channels on its over-the-top (OTT) service. VMedia began offering the...
Canadians rely mostly on word-of-mouth and paid advertising to find TV new shows, according to a new Media Technology Monitor report. In its latest release published Tuesday, the CBC/Radio-Canada research project...
VMedia Inc. is asking an Ontario court to step in and declare that its recently launched over-the-top (OTT) streaming television service is not infringing copyright, as claimed by BCE Inc., which wants the provider to...
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...
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....
Adoption of skinny-basic television has been low because consumers demand more content, BCE Inc. president and CEO George Cope told an investors’ conference on Tuesday. “Subscriptions for [skinny basic] have probably met our expectations. It’s been fairly low, but that’s because of the desire of the consumer for [enormous amounts] of content now, so it’s really what’s in it,” Cope told Goldman analyst Jiorden Sanchez at the investment bank’s...
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...
The need for upload speed is growing among Canadian consumers and businesses, though it’s too early to tell whether there’s real demand for symmetrical Internet plans that some companies have begun offering, according...
Rogers Communications Inc. CEO Guy Laurence said the government’s ongoing review of Canadian content in a digital age should lead to more focus on promoting and selling content...
Members of the public and cultural stakeholders don’t see eye to eye when it comes to identifying the biggest challenges facing the country’s cultural sector, according to info released...
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). “Data caps on fixed-line networks do not appear to serve a legitimate purpose: they are an ineffective network management tool,” Netflix said, adding that they’re also redundant “as a method of price discrimination” when compared to speed tiers. The company made the comments in a document submitted last week as part of the FCC’s review of the deployment of advanced...
Bragg Communications Inc.’s Eastlink unveiled its new TV Everywhere offering Thursday, Eastlink Stream, offering a one-stop-shop for television subscribers to access content from multiple networks and over-the-top (OTT)...
Telecom service providers should look towards improving video quality across their networks if they want to increase customer loyalty, according to a new joint report from Huawei Technologies Co....
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...
Some companies are adding more selection to their cable TV packages by going the theme-pack route in preparation for the mandatory full pick-and-pay rules coming into effect this winter. The CRTC...
Rogers Communications Inc.’s and Shaw Communications Inc.’s Shomi has had more than 143 million video plays since Aug. 20, 2015, the over-the-top service (OTT) announced Monday in a press release marking...
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,...
English-speaking sports fans are more likely to have TV subscriptions, according to new research from Media Technology Monitor (MTM). In a report released Thursday, the CBC/Radio-Canada research project said...
The over-the-air (OTA) market has been slowly growing over the past three years, according to data collected by Media Technology Monitor, a trend industry observers said doesn’t come as a surprise. According to a report released Wednesday by the CBC/Radio Canada research project, eight per cent of English-speaking Canadian adults indicated in a spring 2016 survey that they watched TV over-the-air. This was an increase from the seven per cent who said the same in the fall of 2015 and from six per cent in the fall of 2014. In the three years prior to 2014, the number remained stable at...
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...
Eleven more set-top box retailers will have to make their case to the Federal Court after being named as defendants in a legal fight against set-top boxes that can be used to circumvent paid TV subscriptions. On June 20, lawyers...
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...
Facebook Inc. and AT&T Inc. have waded into the CRTC’s review of differential pricing practices, arguing that the commission should allow carriers to offer zero-rated services and sponsored data. In its intervention, Facebook argued that “it is axiomatic that well-functioning services offering popular consumer benefits should not be restricted without concrete proof of harm. There is no justification to impose a ban on differential pricing practices because there is no concrete evidence of harm.” The company said that it’s not inconsistent to...
AT&T Inc. has finalized a deal to purchase a Canadian video-streaming platform, the company announced Tuesday. The American telecommunications company announced in May its intention to purchase...
The BBC will launch a new Toronto bureau and a Canadian edition of BBC.com, the British public service broadcaster announced Thursday. The dedicated site will launch later this year, according to a...
Minimal exposure to the United Kingdom and Europe will leave the Canadian telecom and media industries relatively unscathed following the U.K.’s vote to exit the European Union last week,...
Heritage Canada’s announcement of an expert advisory panel for its review of Canadian content in a digital age, which includes representatives from a number of broadcasters, was met with both praise and...
Mobile advertising revenue and music streaming activity will see dramatic increases over the next four years, as technological innovation takes hold over traditional methods of media consumption,...
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...
The Federal Court of Appeal has upheld the CRTC’s ban on BCE Inc.’s zero-rated mobile-TV plans, a year and a half after the commission ruled the company couldn’t exempt the service from data caps. In a...
Millions of people tuned into live broadcasts of the electronic entertainment expo (E3) this week on Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube and Amazon.com Inc.’s Twitch.tv. It’s an event whose...
Another Canadian company is joining the ultra-high-definition field, with Quebecor Inc. announcing its media division was producing its first 4K show. Videotron’s over-the-top (OTT) service Club Illico said in a Tuesday press release that new police series Victor Lessard, based on books by author Martin Michaud, would premiere in the winter of 2017 in 4K. In addition to being the first Quebecois series entirely produced in the ultra-high-definition format, Victor Lessard was also touted in the press release as the service’s first original series based on a literary...