More than 400 Canadian radio stations across the country are now available on a newly launched app featuring both public and private broadcasters. The free Radioplayer app launched Wednesday “gives radio listeners access to nearly every style of music, news, talk, and entertainment content, in both official languages, on any connected device, at any time of day, from anywhere,” a press release said. The app, which was initially slated to launch late last year, will feature big names including CBC/Radio-Canada, Rogers Communications Inc. and Corus Entertainment Inc. The release noted there will be more stations joining every week. BCE Inc. properties are not currently included in the app. It also said it will facilitate “listener discovery of radio content through search and...
CBC/Radio-Canada reported self-generated revenues that were 0.8 per cent lower than last year, which was off-set by higher advertising in its third quarterly report for the year, released Thursday. For the three months ended Dec. 31, the public broadcaster reported operating revenues of $138 million — revenues not including government funding — were down 0.8 per cent or $1.1 million compared to the same period last year. This was due to fewer subscribers to some specialty channels and lower content sales, CBC said. Those revenues are made up of mostly advertising on TV,...
A private members’ bill to privatize CBC/Radio-Canada was met with vigorous opposition Friday as members of Parliament stood in the House of Commons to defend the...
BCE Inc.’s media division has entered into an agreement with Nashville, Tenn.- based record label Big Machine Label Group (BMLG). Bell Media said in a press release Monday BMLG is the world’s top independent...
CBC/Radio-Canada is putting more money into new content, including emphasising local and digital programming, it said as it outlined annual priorities in a report released Wednesday. The...
BCE Inc.’s media division is “reducing a number of positions” across the country, spokesman Scott Henderson confirmed Tuesday, though he declined to specify the number of people that will be affected. The job cuts are part of a “restructuring that includes local...
Filling all 13 spots allotted to CRTC commissioners could go a long way in addressing what some are calling decades of ongoing disparity between the demographics of those who make decisions about the country’s broadcasting and telecommunications sectors and the rest of Canada, according to advocacy groups, community broadcasters and researchers keeping an eye on the composition of the regulator. There are six vacant positions on the commission, following the departure of Candice Molnar, whose five-year term as the regional commissioner for Manitoba and Saskatchewan ended Jan. 9. With...
Corus Entertainment Inc.’s purchase of Shaw Communications Inc.’s media division again helped it post a revenue increase, this time a 105 per cent increase and a 100 per cent...
On Friday, the CRTC approved two new radio stations for the Edmonton market, granting a licence to an Alberta numbered company for an ethnic commercial AM station and to the Société...
BCE Inc. has named Rob Farina head of iHeartRadio, syndication and strategic initiatives at Bell Media Radio. Farina was previously brought in by the company to help advise on the launch of iHeartMedia Inc.'s free...
More than two-thirds of anglophone Canadians use the Internet to listen to streaming audio, a number that rises to more than 90 per cent among students and those under 35, according to a new report from Media Technology Monitor...
The CRTC announced Thursday that it will go ahead with a hearing on rules governing French-language vocal music on commercial radio stations that had been postponed since last year. The commission is allowing parties,...
The CRTC is collecting feedback on Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc.’s plan to transform into a privately held company. In a notice of consultation posted to its website Wednesday, the commission said it...
The CRTC has approved two new ethnic radio licences — one to a company it previously ordered to stop broadcasting — and a rebroadcast transmitter for another to serve Surrey and...
Unlike his fellow candidates for leadership of the Conservative Party, Alberta MP Deepak Obhrai said he won’t wade into the debate about the future of CBC/Radio-Canada. “Why are...
Conservative Party leadership candidate and Ontario MP Kellie Leitch said she has put CBC/Radio-Canada “on notice” and that if selected to lead her party and form government, she would dismantle the country’s public broadcaster. In a Facebook post, Leitch responded to Wednesday’s announcement by fellow leadership candidate Maxime Bernier that he would reform the CBC to focus on a tighter mandate, with her own intention to “dismantle the bloated, taxpayer-subsidized CBC so that we can level the playing field for Canadian media.”...
The Community Radio Fund of Canada, a national independent not-for-profit organization supporting campus and community radio stations, has appointed a new executive director. Amély Friolet-O’Neil will officially...
CRTC commissioner Christopher MacDonald said radio stations must build on their strengths in order to deal with increasing competition in a speech to the Ontario Association of Broadcasters (OAB)...
Two communities in Ontario’s Hamilton-Niagara region can handle “at least” one radio station, the CRTC said as it issued a call for applications Thursday. The announcement...
The CRTC has denied an application for a new radio station in Nova Scotia because its service area would have encroached that of existing stations. It said in a decision Tuesday that Atlantic Broadcasters...
The CRTC is looking for comment on whether the Brampton, Ont. and St. John’s, N.L. radio markets can support additional stations. It said Friday in separate notices of consultation it has received two applications for new commercial ethnic radio stations in Brampton and one application for a commercial radio station in St. John’s. The deadline for interventions in both proceedings is December 5. The CRTC said it would take the comments “into consideration before making a final determination on whether it should proceed with a call for applications.” It noted that it...
The CRTC is looking for feedback on whether the Ottawa-Gatineau radio market can support additional radio stations. In a notice of consultation posted to its website Thursday, the commission said it received an application...
CBC/Radio-Canada announced that Michel Bissonnette would be taking over as executive vice-president of French services at Radio-Canada. Bissonnette will succeed Louis Lalande, who announced his upcoming retirement...
Ronnie Stanton will leave his current position as vice-president of radio programming for Corus Entertainment Inc.’s Corus Radio Network, though he will continue to consult for the company. Corus spokeswoman Samantha...
The broadcasting sector saw its first overall revenue decrease in the previous decade last year, while traditional TV viewership among youth continued to fall, according to numbers reported by the...
OTTAWA — CBC/Radio-Canada has prioritized a shift to digital platforms to reach all Canadians, but ensuring they are able to access those platforms isn’t part of the public...
The CRTC has issued mandatory orders to stop three radio stations, operating under its exempt licensing rules, from broadcasting in British Columbia. South Asian Broadcasting Corporation Inc., licensee of commercial ethnic radio...
Corus Entertainment Inc. reported Wednesday a 99 per cent increase in revenues for the fourth quarter, despite a decline in radio revenues. The three-month period, which...
The Sudbury, Ont. radio market can’t sustain any more stations, the CRTC said yesterday, citing high unemployment, no projected population growth in the next few years, and below-average profitability of the city’s...
The CRTC has approved a new Native FM radio station in Campbell River, British Columbia, the regulator said in a decision Friday. The station will operate at the 100.7 FM band and will broadcast each week 106 hours of musical content and 20 hours of “community news, sports, weather, traffic and other community information in the English and Comox languages.” The broadcast licence application was filed by the non-profit Aupe Cultural Enhancement Society, the CRTC said....
The CRTC has approved two separate applications to operate English-language radio stations in Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador. On Friday, the commission said on its website it approved an application to operate an FM radio...
iHeartMedia Inc.'s free digital radio and music streaming service is now available in Canada, according to a press release from BCE Inc.’s media division. The free app, iHeartRadio, is available on a preview basis...
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...
A Conservative Party leadership candidate has tabled legislation with the aim of privatizing CBC/Radio-Canada. On Thursday, Saskatchewan MP Brad Trost introduced a private member’s bill, C-308, “to provide for...
Radio stations from some of Canada’s biggest broadcasters—including Rogers Communications Inc., Cogeco Inc., Newcap Inc., and Corus Entertainment Inc., among others—will soon be available through an app. The companies said in a press release Wednesday that the free Radioplayer app will “give listeners from coast-to-coast access to nearly every style of music, news, talk, and entertainment content from close to 500 stations on any connected device, at any time of day, from anywhere.” The app will launch later this year, it said....
Rogers Communications Inc. said Monday the company is buying Tillsonburg Broadcasting Company Ltd., which operates the Country 107.3 and Easy 101 radio stations in southwestern Ontario. "Continuing to...
The CRTC will consider 11 applications for radio stations in the Edmonton area next week. It will hold a four-day hearing starting Sept. 27, the commission said in a press release Friday. The hearing will consider...
MONTREAL — The key to reaching young viewers is to have content made by them, not just for them, panellists at the Public Broadcasters International conference said Friday. “The...
CRTC commissioner Linda Vennard broke conflict of interest rules by accepting a birthday gift from a stakeholder, the ethics watchdog announced Tuesday. “All public office holders should be...
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has given Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. its approval for its proposal to take the company private. In a Tuesday press release, Mark Redmond, Sirius XM Canada president...
The end of August also marked the final day CBC/Radio-Canada could broadcast national advertising on its Radio 2 and ICI Musique stations, following a CRTC decision denying a request to extend their ability to air ads for another...
Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. shareholders approved a move to take the company private Tuesday, the company said in a press release. “With these shareholder approvals in place, we will continue to work to...
The CRTC has denied an application by Durham Radio Inc. to change the transmitter of its FM tower to expand its service into Toronto. In a decision Monday, the commission said that the proposal to modify the CJKX-FM-2, a...
Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. said in a press release Tuesday that it “strongly disagrees” with a group of shareholders who filed a complaint with the Ontario Securities Commission regarding the move to take the company private. The shareholders said in a press release on July 18 that their complaint raised “a number of concerns” relating to “material related-party transactions, potential conflicts of interest, and the proposed acquisition of the assets of Sirius XM Canada and related financing.” It said the offer to take the...
After receiving radio licence applications for Aurora and Georgina, Ont., the CRTC is asking for comments on the market capacity of the two markets to support an additional station. Interested parties have until Aug....
The CRTC has approved a transfer of ownership for CKJN-FM in Haldimand County, Ont. from Vista Radio Ltd. to Durham Radio Inc. In a decision Friday, it also said it approved...
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) has announced that Elliott Anderson is its new director of public policy, reseach and communications. Anderson has served in the role on an interim basis since...
NextRadio LLC is bringing its FM radio app across the border into Canada. The Indianapolis-based company said in a press release Wednesday that its app has been live in the Google Play store since the beginning of the...
Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. had to cough up $650,000 after being investigated by the CRTC for breaking telemarketing rules, the regulator said Wednesday. “Further to an investigation, the CRTC’s Chief Compliance and Enforcement Officer found that Sirius XM Canada hired telemarketers to conduct calls on its behalf,” the CRTC said in a press release. “The telemarketers in question made calls to Canadians who were registered on the company’s internal do not call list.” The penalty was the largest of six the CRTC imposed, as part of settlements...
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,...
After seven months of vacancy, Canadian Heritage is moving to fill the vice-chair of broadcasting position at the CRTC. Former vice-chair Tom Pentefountas wrapped up his five-year term on Nov. 20. A new posting on...
The CRTC has directed a Truro, N.S., radio station to broadcast a message about its non-compliance with its licence conditions. The commission said that “considering the serious and repeated...
Rogers Communications Inc. is now using HD radio technology in broadcasting a number of stations in Toronto and Vancouver. The company said in a press release Monday that the stations include Toronto’s Kiss...
Louis Lalande, CBC/Radio-Canada’s executive vice-president of French services, is stepping down at the end of the year, the public broadcaster said Thursday. CBC president Hubert Lacroix announced...
The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) has launched and staffed its new radio marketing and advocacy arm, Radio Connect, the organization announced Thursday. The CAB CEO Radio Council said in a press release that...
The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) has signed an agreement with a European partner to manage Canadian rights overseas. In a Friday press release, the French authors’...
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is recommending giving Canada’s economy a boost by removing foreign ownership rules for telecommunications and broadcasting. In an economic forecast...
The CRTC has issued a call for radio stations with licences expiring next year to submit their renewal applications. Affected licensees, listed on the commission’s website, must submit their applications by Aug. 31, exactly one year before they expire, the CRTC said Wednesday in a notice of consultation....
CBC/Radio-Canada has applied to the CRTC to continue broadcasting ads on its ICI Musique and Radio 2 networks and stations, according to a notice posted by the regulator Wednesday. The...
Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. is going private in a move it plans to close by the end of the fourth quarter of 2016, the company announced Friday. “SiriusXM and certain Canadian shareholders will form a new company to acquire shares of Sirius XM Canada not already owned by them pursuant...
A collection of radio stations are gearing up for a campaign for easy access to FM radio on smartphones in Canada. Similar to a campaign in the United States, Free Radio on My Phone is looking for collaboration with carriers to...
Former Quebec deputy premier Nathalie Normandeau is suing Cogeco Inc.’s media division for wrongful dismissal, according to media reports. Radio-Canada reported Monday that Normandeau has filed a lawsuit...
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 Jeremy deBeer said Thursday during a panel discussion at the New Developments in Communications Law and Policy conference. “I think [Heritage Minister Mélanie] Joly is on the right track when she says everything’s on the table, because you have to take that sort of...
The CRTC is asking for input on whether the Quebec City market has the capacity to support an additional radio station and on whether it should issue a call for applications. It said in a notice Thursday it has received...
Industry insiders and observers are calling Canadian Heritage’s impending study of Canadian content in the digital age — which could potentially affect CBC/Radio-Canada, legislation like...
Canadian commercial radio stations earned $1.6 billion in revenue in 2015, a 0.7 per cent decrease from a year earlier, according to new data from the CRTC. “Ethnic radio services’ total revenues have recorded an...
The CRTC has approved an application for a radio broadcasting licence in St. Catharines, Ont., while denying a licence for a developmental community station in Mississauga, Ont. The commission said...
BCE Inc. is bringing in a new face to help lead the launch of iHeartMedia Inc.'s free digital radio and music streaming service in Canada. As of May 1, Rob Farina will be Bell Media's senior advisor for the...
In its first budget, the new Liberal government is continuing the previous Conservative government’s practice of setting aside funds for broadband service in underserved areas, cyber security and research frameworks,...
CBC/Radio-Canada said in a French-language press release Tuesday that it hasn’t decided on the future of its Montreal headquarters. It said it is currently studying its options,...
The CRTC approved Friday two radio licence applications from Wawatay Native Communications Society to operate in two Ontario markets. The first is for a Type B Native FM station in Sioux Lookout, Ont. located in northwest...
OTTAWA — News quality came up as an issue at the first day of a study into the news media by the House of Commons heritage committee. Conservative MP Kevin Waugh, whose riding is in Saskatoon, brought up outsourcing of some local news to Toronto. Shaw Communications Inc. announced last year it would move its Global news production and anchor functions for its weekend and late-night newscasts to Toronto for stations in markets east of Alberta. “When I see … someone in Toronto giving me the news in Saskatchewan, who’s regulating the quality and the quantity...
The CRTC said Tuesday it received 12 radio licence applications to serve urban indigenous Canadians through frequencies used by five aboriginal radio stations whose licences were revoked. The CRTC...
OTTAWA — Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly told a Senate committee Wednesday evening that the government aims to have a gender-balanced board of directors for CBC/Radio-Canada, as part of review of the governance...
In response to a media report suggesting privatization is in its future, Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. said Friday that nothing is confirmed and it has not received a “binding proposal.” Sirius XM said in a...
Canadian content development contributions owed by a Newcap Inc. station can be set aside while a CRTC decision is appealed in the courts, the commission said in a decision posted Wednesday on its website. In June, the...
Seven radio stations will have to explain themselves and face public comment before the CRTC renews their licences. The licences, which expire on Aug. 31, were previously renewed on a short-term basis after the stations were found "in non-compliance with one or more of their regulatory requirements during their previous licence term," the commission said Tuesday on its website, adding it "notes the serious and, in some cases, repeated nature of these instances of apparent non-compliance." The CRTC is accepting submissions on the licence renewals until March 15....
The City of Quebec is suing Cogeco Inc., its CEO, Louis Audet, as well as Richard Renaud, director of Quebec’s CJMF FM-93 radio station, for defamation. The municipality said in a French press release Wednesday that...
The CRTC has approved a video-on-demand licence application by Gold Line Telemanagement Inc., a Markham, Ont.-based company that offers over-the-top (OTT) subscriptions to international TV and radio services. The commission...
The CRTC issued Wednesday a call for comments on the market capacity for radio stations in Grimsby and Beamsville, Ont., both located about an hour south of Toronto. The regulator said in the notice...
The CRTC said Tuesday it has set a deadline of Feb. 25 to submit comments on applications to renew radio licences that will expire this year. The CRTC announced new procedures in the radio...
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...
Corus Entertainment Inc. said Tuesday it intends to offer a round of "subscription receipts" as a way to raise money to partially fund its recently announced purchase of Shaw Communications Inc.'s media division....
The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) said Monday that the amount of revenue it collected last year surpassed $300 million for the first time ever. It said in a...
BCE Inc. announced Wednesday it has signed a partnership deal with iHeartMedia Inc. in order to bring iHeartRadio, the free digital radio and music streaming service based in the U.S., to Canada this year. It said in a press...
In a survey of Canadian adults, 57 per cent said they are most likely to notice an advertisement while watching TV, compared to 13 per cent who said they were most likely to do so while listening to the radio and only two per cent who said they were likely to do so watching video content on a mobile device, according to a new survey conducted by Thinktv Inc. that was released Wednesday. Thinktv, which recently changed its name from the Television Bureau of Canada, is an industry association that promotes television advertising. The report said among millennials specifically, or adults aged...
Television remains the main source of news for most anglophone Canadians, though the Internet is becoming increasingly used as individuals' primary way of getting news, according to survey results released Wednesday. Media...
The CRTC approved an application by Torres Media asking for permission to acquire, from Radio Express Inc., and continue operating CKOD-FM, a French-language radio station located in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Que., about an hour...
Rob Farina has resigned as vice-president of content with Rogers Communications Inc.'s media division, the company has confirmed, following a report he called for a boycott of a record company he...
Pandora Media Inc. announced Monday it will be acquiring key assets from music streaming service Rdio Inc. for $75 million US. It said in a press release that it will be acquiring technology and intellectual property, as well as...
CRTC commissioner Raj Shoan told a group of broadcasting professionals this week that radio operators should look at how they can become a bigger presence on smartphones in order to hold their own against an increasing number of new options for audio consumption, such as online streaming. In online text of a speech given at the Ontario Association of Broadcasters' annual general meeting in Toronto, Shoan noted how U.S. radio broadcasters have been lobbying wireless carriers and device makers to unlock chips in smartphones that are capable of picking up FM radio signals. Canadian...
BCE Inc.'s Bell Media will cut 380 jobs in Toronto and Montreal this month, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. There will be 270 jobs axed in Toronto, with 220 in production, editorial and operations, 45 in...
Sylvain Lake, Alta., will remain without any dedicated local radio service after the CRTC denied two applications on the grounds they would hurt stations in other communities — in particular, Red Deer, Alta. The CRTC said...
The Canadian Media Guild said in a press release that it has taken “the unprecedented step of publicly declaring our lack of confidence” in Hubert Lacroix, president and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada, and the public...
The CRTC said in the final installment of its communications monitoring report Thursday that the percentage of households subscribing to TV services fell to 82 per cent in 2014 from 83.7 per cent a...
CRTC announced Wednesday that the Hamilton, Ont. and Burlington, Ont. radio market cannot add any more commercial radio stations, turning away an application filed by Byrnes Communications...
The CRTC has renewed the broadcasting licence for radio station CICR-FM in Parrsboro, N.S., located about two hours north of Halifax, for a shorter 20-month term after finding the station in...
The CRTC granted Radio Humsafar Inc. a broadcasting licence to operate a new ethnic commercial AM radio station in Brampton, Ont. while denying two other applications. The regulator said in the...
An undue-preference complaint against a music streaming service offered by Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron has Rogers Communications Inc. arguing that zero-rating the service is a net-neutrality...
RNC Media Inc. is asking the CRTC to relieve it of a licence condition for its radio station CHLX-FM in Gatineau, Que., that requires it to pay $8,000 a year toward the development of Canadian content, beyond the basic contribution requirements set out in national radio regulations. It said in an application filed in French with the CRTC, which appeared on the commission's website on Friday, that "maintaining this condition of license adds a financial burden to a station that has not yet reached profitability after more than 13 years of operation." The basic requirement for...