Tuesday’s Major League Soccer (MLS) game between the Montreal Impact and Toronto FC was Canada’s most-watched MLS game ever, BCE Inc. said in a press release. The game, part of the league’s Eastern Conference Championship, was broadcast on Bell’s TSN and RDS channels. It drew an average audience of one million, while 3.6 million watched some part of the game, Bell said. Those numbers are nearly double the “previous all-time record of 587,000 on TSN and RDS for the TFC-Impact playoff match on October 29, 2015,” the release noted....
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) conference Thursday. He noted “the growing popularity of streaming services and satellite radio among Canadians continues to erode listenership” and said the numbers of Internet-connected cars are projected to grow, according to a transcript. In response, radio stations must “must leverage the competitive advantages provided by the intimacy they foster with listeners...
Federal Court has granted BCE Inc. leave to appeal the CRTC’s decision not to allow simultaneous substitution for the Super Bowl, though it declined to delay the implementation of the decision until the court...
TVA Group Inc. reported a smaller net loss in the third quarter compared to the previous year, as revenues were lifted by the World Cup of Hockey event this fall. In the three-month period ended Sept. 30,...
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...
Twitter Inc. will partner with Buzzfeed Inc. to provide live coverage of the United States presidential election next month. The Nov. 8 election night special will be streamed exclusively on Twitter, the companies...
BCE Inc. hasn’t demonstrated enough evidence that a court should postpone the implementation of the CRTC’s decision to eliminate simultaneous substitution for the National Football League's (NFL) Super Bowl, and the evidence it has provided is “limited to bald and speculative assertions,” the attorney general is arguing. The 2017 Super Bowl is set to be the first in which simultaneous substitution will be prohibited and Canadians will be able to watch commercials from the United States. Bell, whose CTV network has the rights for the game, asked for...
BCE Inc. has filed a new motion petitioning the Federal Court of Appeal to hear its case against the CRTC decision banning simultaneous substitution during the Super Bowl. In a notice of motion...
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...
Twitter Inc. has launched apps that allow viewers to access its live-streaming video through Apple Inc.’s Apple TV, Amazon.com Inc.’s Fire TV and Microsoft Corp.’s XBox One. The Xbox and Apple TV apps...
The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed BCE Inc.’s appeal of the CRTC’s move to ban simultaneous substitution for the Super Bowl, deciding that the case, which was launched before...
The 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were the most-watched Summer Games in Canadian history, CBC/Radio-Canada said Tuesday of the two-week event that wrapped up Sunday night. In a...
The CRTC has made official a long-announced policy to ban simultaneous substitution from next year’s broadcast of the Super Bowl. In a distribution order posted Friday, the regulator removed...
The first 10 days of Olympic coverage were watched by about 30.4 million Canadians “across all networks and platforms,” CBC/Radio-Canada said Tuesday. The ongoing Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,...
While digital and mobile options for watching the Summer Olympics are gaining in popularity and engagement, television continues to own the podium for the Canadian outlet broadcasting the two-week multi-sport tournament happening now in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In an April press release marking 100 days until the start of the Games, CBC/Radio-Canada, which holds the Canadian broadcasting rights for the event, said its coverage would be “the most digitally-accessible Games experience in Canadian history, available across more platforms than ever before.” Greg Stremlaw,...
The Competition Bureau said in a press release Monday that customers signing up for sports streaming websites should make sure they understand what they’re getting when they subscribe...
A poor showing by the National Hockey League’s Montreal Canadiens helped to usher in a $5.7 million net loss for TVA Group Inc., the broadcasting and magazine publishing arm of Quebecor Inc. According to a report on...
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...
Canadians will be able to watch some Major League Baseball (MLB) games on Twitter Inc.’s social media service. The company said in a press release Monday that it would live-stream out-of-market games from the...
Corus Entertainment Inc.’s first quarterly report since it bought Shaw Media showed the acquisition drove a significant increase in overall revenues, profits and expenses, despite a fall in the division’s revenue due to a drop in its conventional TV audience and advertising. “I wouldn’t attribute the softness to anything but market conditions,” Doug Murphy, Corus’ president and chief executive officer, said on a Wednesday morning conference call with analysts. He made the comment in response to a question from National Bank Financial analyst Adam...
The CRTC has added One World Sports to its list of non-Canadian channels authorized for distribution, despite arguments from Rogers Communications Inc. and BCE Inc. that it would...
ESPN is streaming live coverage of the Wimbledon tennis tournament on Twitter Inc.’s social media service. The website states the live feed is brought to viewers by Wimbeldon and ESPN. It appears to have been made...
George Stroumboulopoulos is leaving Hockey Night in Canada after two years of hosting the program, Rogers Communications Inc.’s Sportsnet said in a press release Monday....
Sportsnet One and TVA Sports are, for the first time, in the top 10 highest-grossing TV channels, according to the CRTC’s latest stats on Canadian programming—and of those top 10, five are...
TheScore Inc. launched its chatbot for Facebook Inc.’s Messenger on Wednesday, making it one of the first sports media companies to build a messaging bot to update users on sports developments....
The CRTC has every right to put measures into place banning simultaneous substation for the Super Bowl, according to new documents filed with the Appeal Court. In separate memoranda of fact and law...
CBC/Radio-Canada’s coverage of the summer Olympics in Brazil will incorporate some virtual reality content. The broadcaster said in a press release Wednesday that “it will provide viewers with both...
Lawyers for BCE Inc. and the National Football League (NFL) fired back at the claim their legal action against the CRTC’s simultaneous substitution decision is premature in new legal documents filed with the Appeal Court....
The CRTC granted Tuesday Shaw Communications Inc.’s request to revoke broadcasting licences for Fox Sports World Canada and Global Reality Channel. In two separate applications dated March 15, Shaw said its media division “ceased operations” of Fox Sports World Canada, an English-language Category B service, and Global Reality Channel, an English-language specialty Category 2 service, in 2012. Hayley Waldman, corporate communications co-ordinator at Corus Entertainment Inc., said in an email that the channels “are no longer in use.” Corus took ownership of Shaw’s media division earlier this month....
The National Football League (NFL) announced Tuesday a new deal with Twitter Inc. to stream NFL games on the social media platform, and though Canadians won’t have access,...
Rogers Communications Inc. will begin offering its Sportsnet channels without a TV subscription for $24.99 per month, the company announced Thursday. Scott Moore, president of Sportsnet and NHL...
Rogers Communications Inc. will make two dedicated 4K sports channels available this week, the company announced Monday. Sportsnet 4K and Sportsnet ONE 4K will be available as of April 1, the day before the first...
The CRTC shouldn't be moving forward with its plan to end simultaneous substitution of the Super Bowl next year until related court challenges are settled, according to BCE Inc. The Federal Court...
Commercials aimed at Canadians had the biggest impact during this month's Super Bowl, according to a study commissioned by BCE Inc. According to a Bell press release issued Wednesday, 14 out of the 20 most-engaging ads in the Feb. 7 CTV broadcast came from "advertisers exclusive to the Canadian broadcast, while another four had a unique ad targeted to Canadians." "This study confirmed that ads specifically created for the Canadian audience are a meaningful part of the Super Bowl experience for Canadian viewers," Jeff Hersh, Bell's vice president of strategy,...
There hasn’t been an increase in ad sales for Sunday’s upcoming Super Bowl, Perry MacDonald, senior vice-president of English television and local sales at BCE Inc.’s media division, said in a...
Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron announced Thursday it will be offering live sports in 4K quality to its Illico ultra-high-definition set-top-box customers. The company said in a press release that it will stream 12...
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...
Canada's Gusto TV on Tuesday announced that has sold one of its original shows to a South Korean 4K channel. It said in a press release that 30 episodes of A is for Apple — a cooking-challenge program — had been...
BCE Inc. has opened up its battle against the CRTC's plan to ban simultaneous substitution during the Super Bowl on another front. On Dec. 14, Bell filed for leave to appeal against a particular...
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...
The Office of the Attorney General, participating on behalf of the CRTC in BCE Inc.’s appeal of the commission’s decision to eliminate simultaneous substitution for the Super Bowl, has asked the Federal Court of Appeal...
The CRTC on Thursday granted BCE Inc.'s request that the regulator revoke the broadcasting licence for the NHL Network. BCE's Bell Media division had licensed the rights to the NHL Network in Canada, which operated as a...
Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. said Thursday that Nelson Millman is its new program director for NHL Network Radio. The satellite-radio operator said in a press release that Millman has 42 years of experience in radio, including as general manager of Toronto sports radio station The Fan 590, which is part of Rogers Communications Inc.'s Sportsnet family. "We're very pleased to have Nelson on board," John Lewis, senior vice-president of programming and operations at SiriusXM Canada, said in the release. "With so many years of sports radio under his belt and his...
Rover Labs Inc., a Toronto-based maker of mobile engagement technology, announced Tuesday it is partnering with the Pittsburgh Penguins to bring fans exclusive content to their mobile devices at games through a new app. The...
CBS Corp.’s sports division said Tuesday that next month it will live-stream a regular-season National Football League game for the first time. The game featured is an Oct. 4 matchup between the New York Jets and Miami...
The Federal Court of Appeal has approved the National Football League as an intervener in the appeal BCE Inc. has made against the CRTC's decision to ban simultaneous substitution during the Super Bowl, starting in 2017. An...
The National Football League shouldn’t be granted leave to intervene in BCE Inc.’s challenge of the CRTC’s decision to eliminate simultaneous substitution during the Super Bowl, the...
The National Football League has filed for permission to be an intervener in BCE Inc.'s appeal against the CRTC's decision to start banning simultaneous substitution during the Super Bowl. A motion filed by the NFL with the Federal Court of Appeal this week said it has a direct financial interest in this matter. The partially redacted filing said it entered an agreement in 2010 with Bell's CTV network to provide Super Bowl coverage in Canada, and that agreement was updated and extended in 2013. The league said that if the ability of Canadian broadcasters to have U.S. feeds of the...
Rogers Communications Inc. said Tuesday that Rick Brace will become president of its media division later this summer, replacing outgoing media president Keith Pelley. Rogers said in a press release that Brace will assume the new...
Shareholders of broadcasting-technology maker International Datacasting Corp. have rejected the proposed sale of its key assets to a San Diego-based company. International Datacasting,...
In recent years, it has almost become conventional wisdom in the industry that sports content is a good way for broadcasters to buffer themselves from trends toward cord-cutting and online video, and...
Rogers Communications Inc. and BCE Inc. both used Numeris data Tuesday to proclaim their sports channel is No. 1 in the market, a virtual tie that Rogers said was enabled by its hockey content....
The CRTC has ruled in favour of BCE Inc. in a dispute with Quebecor Inc. over carriage fees for Quebecor’s TVA Sports channel in the French-language market. The CRTC said it found that “Bell’s offer to increase...
Statistics presented by the CRTC on Monday showed Canada's over-the-air TV broadcasters are facing an increasingly tight advertising market. The CRTC's data for private broadcasters, which...
Despite streaming services eating away at the profits of pay-per-view movies and TV shows, TV providers could see their biggest PPV revenues in history on Saturday as two of boxing’s biggest names fight in front of a...
The CRTC has denied an application by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the Council of Senior Citizens' Organizations of British Columbia for reimbursement of about $13,500 for their participation in a complaint...
Viewership of the first round of the NHL playoffs is 40 per cent higher than last year at an average of 1.36 million viewers, Rogers Communications Inc. spokeswoman Jennifer Neziol said in an email. Citing data from Numeris, she said the games between the Ottawa Senators and the Montreal Canadiens are attracting an average of 3.22 million viewers, which is 58 per cent higher the first round series between the same two teams in 2013, "and the highest average for either team in five years.” The games between the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames are attracting an average of 1.9...
Rogers Communications Inc. on Monday reported a 5.1 per cent annual gain in revenue for the first quarter, driven largely by a 26 per cent jump in its media division that benefited from Rogers' exclusive national rights to NHL...
Having five Canadian teams reach the NHL playoffs for the first time in more than a decade is set to translate into a winning season for Rogers Communications Inc. as it completes the first...
Rogers Communications Inc. said Friday that Keith Pelley will leave as president of the company's media division this summer to take over as CEO of the PGA European Tour. Pelley was appointed president of Rogers Media in...
BCE Inc. announced Wednesday it has extended its deal with the French Tennis Federation to broadcast the French Open through 2024. TSN and RDS will remain the exclusive Canadian home of the tennis Grand Slam tournament, the...
Jeffrey Orridge, former head of CBC/Radio-Canada’s sports division, has been named the new commissioner of the Canadian Football League. Orridge takes over for Mark Cohon, who served in the position for eight years. According to a news release, the new commissioner has a degree from Harvard Law School and has worked in sports marketing and licensing with Time Warner Co. and Reebok International Ltd. Orridge officially starts with the league on April 29....
BCE Inc.’s appeal of a CRTC decision to ban the use of simultaneous substitution for the Super Bowl in future years could be a sign of more conflict and court challenges to come as the...
On Wednesday Rogers Communications Inc. announced a new brand of broadband Internet, Ignite, that comes bundled with subscriptions to two of Rogers' online video-streaming services. The company...
BCE Inc. is launching a court challenge of the CRTC’s ban on the use of simultaneous substitution during the Super Bowl. Bell Media spokesman Scott Henderson said in an email Monday that “the CRTC erred in law,...
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...
BCE Inc.’s Bell Media division said Thursday it has reached a 12-year agreement with FIFA for soccer tournaments including the men’s and women’s World Cups. “With this extension, Bell Media’s CTV,...
Solutions Research Group Consultants Inc. (SRG) released results of a survey Tuesday that suggest interest among Canadians in following the National Hockey League declined over the last year. The company said in a press release...
The CRTC has turned down a request from BCE Inc. to meet and discuss the regulator's decision to get rid of simultaneous substitution for the Super Bowl starting in 2017. Last week, the CRTC said it has decided to maintain...
BCE Inc. said Friday that it will use its broadcast of the Super Bowl on its CTV network this Sunday to promote its original Canadian programming, including 19-2, Orphan Black and Masterchef Canada, which will air directly...
Canaccord Genuity analyst Dvai Ghose says concern over hockey viewership is among the reasons he downgraded the stock of Rogers Communications Inc. this week. In a research note Wednesday, the telecom industry analyst pointed to a Toronto Star article that said the National Hockey League all-star game attracted 1.48 million viewers on Sunday, down from 2.54 million when the previous all-star game was played in 2012. The two-year layoff was the result of the Olympics last year and a player lockout in 2013. The Star article quoted Scott Moore, president of Rogers' Sportsnet, as saying...
For the first time, Google Inc.’s YouTube streaming service is hosting a live Super Bowl halftime show of its own that will stream during the break of the NFL championship game on Feb. 1. Hosted by Harley Morenstein,...
As new over-the-top (OTT) services continue to be launched both in Canada and the United States, online alternatives for live sports have also been increasing. But in a world where live sports...
Sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup and the Wimbledon tennis championship helped push mobile video in the third quarter of 2014, with mobile and tablets views making up 30 per cent of all worldwide online video, according...
A pair of non-Canadian TV services were approved for distribution in Canada by the CRTC on Wednesday, a professional wrestling channel and another specializing in Greek sporting events. One notice on the CRTC website said...
Telus Corp. has filed a letter with the CRTC that supports BCE Inc.'s complaint against Rogers Communications Inc.'s online hockey streaming products. In October, Bell said in a filing to the commission that Rogers is giving its own subscribers undue preference by making GamePlus, which offers exclusive content such as extra camera angles, advanced statistics, interviews and expert analysis, only to subscribers of Rogers' telecommunications services. It also took issue with the fact that free trials of Rogers' NHL GameCentre Live, its online streaming service for games, was...
CBC/Radio-Canada says it will either break even or earn a profit on its acquisition of the broadcasting rights for the 2018 Olympics in South Korea and the 2020 Olympics in Japan. During a conference...
Rogers Communications Inc. said Friday it has become the first Canadian wireless carrier to combine spectrum bands for enhanced LTE service, a move it said will improve the mobile-video experience of...
Customers of Telus Corp.’s Optik TV service can now access content from BCE Inc.’s TSN channels mobile devices, Telus said Friday. “TSN's five national feeds are now available through Optik on the go,”...
Rogers Communications Inc. has sold out advertising for the opening week of the NHL hockey season, which begins Wednesday, Rogers spokeswoman Jennifer Kett said in an email. “For NHL opening week alone, we’ve closed...
Rogers Communications Inc. announced it is releasing a new hockey app that will give customers access to new camera angles and additional content like interviews and analysis. “Exclusive to Rogers’ customers, and it...
Shaw Communications Inc. said Thursday its customers can now access TV-everywhere products for BCE Inc.’s TSN and Rogers Communication Inc.’s Sportsnet specialty channels. “Through Sportsnet Now, Shaw Cable and...
GATINEAU, Que. — You can’t assume that young people who have never had subscription-TV service will eventually get it, Ken Engelhart, Rogers Communications Inc.’s vice-president of...
Four years after Videotron flipped the switch on a new wireless network, the carrier is launching an LTE network that president and CEO Manon Brouillette says will help the company deliver TV content to its mobile customers....
Rogers Communications Inc.'s launch of a hockey streaming product shows the company wants to "build up its OTT [over-the-top] capabilities" as more TV viewers move away from linear television and toward streaming options, RBC Dominion Securities analyst Drew McReynolds said. McReynolds noted in an email that new streaming services, such as the NHL GameCentre Live service Rogers announced Wednesday, "contribute to subscriber growth but also data consumption. Expect Rogers to make additional announcements around its NHL deal as we move forward." He added Rogers'...
BCE Inc.'s TSN said Monday that it will debut its expanded format of five national broadcast feeds on Aug. 25. The sports specialty channel announced in May that its national broadcast channels would expand from two to five,...
In 1985, a Los Angeles Times article explained that U.S. TV providers were planning to compete with “the burgeoning home-video business” that had “savaged” them by launching...
Rogers Communications Inc. announced Thursday that it has signed a 10-year broadcast deal with wrestling promoter and entertainment company WWE that will make Rogers the exclusive distributor for the company’s pay-per-view...
Quebecor Media Inc. announced Wednesday that Benoit Robert will join the company on Aug. 19 as president and CEO of its sports and entertainment group. The company said in a news release that Robert,...
The Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group, which owns the CFL's Ottawa Redblacks, said this week it has reached a 10-year deal with Telus Corp. to provide, among other things, free WiFi at the Redblacks' home stadium. OSEG said in a posting on the Redblacks' website Monday that Telus is the "official communications supplier" for TD Place, the team's newly renovated stadium. Bernie Ashe, OSEG's chief executive, said in the release that visitors to the stadium, which also hosts the North American Soccer League's Ottawa Fury FC, will be able to "exchange...
CBC/Radio Canada said the 2014 FIFA World Cup was the most watched ever in Canada, with 30.7 million people viewing at least a portion of the month-long tournament. The broadcaster said in a release Monday that the July 13 final...
BCE Inc.'s Bell Media division said Monday that its TSN Radio network will have the radio rights to the FIFA World Cup that starts this week. Bell said in a press release that TSN Radio's coverage would kick off on...
Rogers Communications Inc. on Tuesday announced the launch of an online streaming service and mobile application for Sportsnet programing. The company said in a press release the service is called Sportsnet Now, and for the time...
When the World Cup begins in Brazil in two weeks, 3.2 billion people around the world will tune into the tournament, according to FIFA’s estimates. And while many of them will cheer on their team through a high-definition...
Rogers Communications Inc. on Wednesday announced a six-year sponsorship agreement with Scotiabank for its various hockey programs in the upcoming season, which the broadcaster said is the first sponsorship agreement related to...
Broadcast distributors across the country are likely to pay for a big chunk of the billions of dollars for which Rogers Communications Inc. is on the hook as a result of the deal it struck for 12...
OTTAWA — CBC/Radio-Canada will stop over-the-air broadcasts of its Radio 2 service and make it an “exclusively on-line music offering,” advocacy group Friends Of Canadian Broadcasting said at a news conference on...
The CRTC is considering an application to approve for distribution in Canada a U.S.-based channel that specializes in African soccer. The channel in question is called Africa Sports, according to a posting that appeared on the...
BeIN Sports Canada, the sports specialty television network owned by Qatari Sports Investments, said Tuesday that it is adding its channel to the East Coast and Quebec markets through Eastlink and Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron. BeIN Sports announced its launch in Canada last year, and was previously only available in France and the United States in the summer of 2012. "It is comforting to see how fast it is growing. In addition to the channel's current distribution on Rogers, Bell TV, Bell Fibe and MTS, we are proud to add Eastlink and Videotron to our family of...