With an average audience of 5.2 million viewers on Bell Media’s TSN, RDS, CTV, Noovo and Crave, Canada Soccer’s men’s national team’s 1-0 victory over South Africa on Sunday ranks as the most-watched non-final FIFA World Cup knockout round match on record in Canada, according to preliminary data from Numeris cited by Bell Media in a press release Monday.
Overall, according to the viewership data, 11.8 million unique Canadian viewers tuned in for some part of the match, which saw audiences peak with 8.2 million viewers at 4:53 p.m. ET as Canada midfielder Stephen Eustáquio scored the…
Continue Reading
By Connie Thiessen
A group of minority shareholders has formally filed its opposition to Corus Entertainment’s proposed $500-million debt-for-equity recapitalization plan, urging the CRTC to demand full transparency or reject the takeover entirely.
As part of the recapitalization plan, Corus is seeking to move its CRTC licences to a new company. The majority shareholders of that newco will be lenders who will forgive approximately $500 million worth of debt hanging over the media company. The transfer would end control by the Shaw Family Living Trust and position investment firm Canso Investment Counsel Ltd. as the largest…
Continue Reading
Attracting a record average audience of 5.3 million viewers across Bell Media’s TSN, RDS, CTV, Noovo and Crave, Canada Soccer’s men’s national team’s first-ever FIFA World Cup victory last Thursday evening is the most-watched World Cup group stage match on record in Canada, according to preliminary data from Numeris cited by Bell Media.
In total, 11.7 million unique Canadian viewers tuned in for some part of the historic match — which started at 3 p.m. local time in Vancouver — a viewership increase of 34 per cent compared to Canada’s second match at the 2022 World Cup tournament in Qatar,…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
The Shaw Rocket Fund has filed for a court review of a CRTC decision last month that did not require Rogers to continue paying into the fund beyond August 2025 — and did not find a public hearing was warranted on the matter.
The Federal Court of Appeal application, dated May 21, seeks clarification about whether an administrative renewal of Rogers’s licence – which involved no public consultation – meant that the commission effectively extended for the rest of the term that funding mandate, which was a condition of approving the cable giant’s purchase of Shaw Communications’s broadcasting…
Continue Reading
TVO Media Education Group (TVO) announced Tuesday the appointment of Vanessa Case as the Ontario public broadcaster’s new vice president of media, effective immediately.
Case reports to CEO Pary Bell and serves as a member of TVO’s executive leadership team. She will have executive responsibility for TVO’s programming and editorial strategy, with accountability for the direction, performance and stewardship of TVO’s content portfolio across broadcast and digital ecosystems, TVO said in a press release announcing her hiring.
As vice president of media, Case “will provide ownership and leadership for the development, commissioning, acquisition, and performance of programming spanning…
Continue Reading
The Supreme Court of Canada has dismissed an application for leave to appeal from Canada’s largest broadcasters regarding a Federal Court of Appeal ruling that supplanted a Copyright Board decision regarding rate setting for the retransmission of distant television signals.
The high court does not provide reasons for rejecting leave to appeal applications.
The group of broadcasters who brought the leave to appeal application to Canada’s highest court include Bell, Rogers, Telus, Videotron, Cogeco and the Canadian Communication Systems Alliance (CCSA).
They sought clarification about whether a relatively new judicial…
Continue Reading
Rogers/Shaw generated 34 per cent of all accepted complaints, says mid-year report
Consumer complaints about telecom and TV services have increased by 61 per cent, according to new data from the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS).
According to the latest CCTS Mid-Year Report, released early Wednesday morning, the CCTS accepted 19,157 complaints from wireless, internet, phone and TV customers between Aug. 1, 2025 and Jan. 31, 2026, compared to 11,909 complaints accepted during the same six-month period in the prior year.
Rogers/Shaw had the highest number of complaints…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC ruled Thursday that Rogers does not need to continue putting money into the Shaw Rocket Fund past August 2025, rejecting the fund’s request to extend that date by at least a year.
The Certified Independent Product Fund (CIPF), which bankrolls children’s programming, had asked the CRTC last summer to stop Rogers from pulling the plug on the funding, which was a condition of its acquisition of Shaw. The fund argued that the CRTC’s 2023 renewal of Rogers’s licence to August 31, 2026 is just an extension of the current licence term, which means…
Continue Reading
ACTRA Toronto, the largest branch of ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists), on Tuesday announced Rob Halpin has been appointed as its executive director, effective April 20.
His appointment follows the departure of Alistair Hepburn, who left ACTRA Toronto earlier this year to take on the role of national executive director of the Directors Guild of Canada.
Halpin joins ACTRA Toronto from the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), Canada’s largest provincial labour federation, where he worked for more than 10 years in various positions, including director of…
Continue Reading
Bell Media and the Ottawa Senators announced last week a new long-term broadcast rights extension that will see TSN and RDS continue to deliver live regional coverage of Senators games.
In addition, as part of the renewed agreement, TSN Radio 1200 remains the exclusive English-language radio partner of the Senators, providing live game coverage as well as insight and analysis on the team.
Ottawa Senators regional matchups are available to TSN and RDS viewers located in the team’s designated broadcast region as defined by the NHL, which includes Eastern Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic…
Continue Reading
