shomi, the Rogers video streaming service that was supposed to take on Netflix, will go dark Nov. 30. The company announced Sept. 26 they were going to wind down operations, admitting the business was more challenging than they expected. There are 74 full time and 33 contractor/temporary/part-time jobs affected. Rogers is actively trying to place people within its organization where there are roles. Rogers said it expects to incur a loss on investment of approximately $100-140 million in its third quarter, which ends Sept. 30. Current customers can continue to stream shomi until the end of November.
The BBC opened a Canadian bureau on Sept. 22, with a small, online-focused Toronto news operation. The move paves the way for a Canadian edition of BBC.com. Jessica Murphy, a former Washington correspondent for Sun Media, is news editor for the Canadian operation. She is joined by video producer Dan Lytwyn, formerly of Huffington Post Canada, and audience engagement producer Robin Levinson King, who was most recently a digital reporter at the Toronto Star.
City has become the first over-the-air broadcaster in Canada to be available on Apple TV. On Sept. 22 Rogers launched the City Video app to watch programming in HD. Rogers said City content was already available across mobile, tablet, and desktop devices so the move to Apple TV was the natural next step.
DHX Media has inked a deal with Amazon Prime Video to provide more than three-dozen of its kids’ shows through subscription-video-on-demand to the UK and Germany. In the UK, content includes Teletubbies, Messy Goes to Okido, Looped, Hank Zipzer, In the Night Garden and Caillou. In Germany, Amazon Prime Video has licensed Messy Goes to Okido, Teletubbies, Slugterra, Hank Zipzer and Fireman Sam.
The CRTC has turned to Reddit to get Canadian’s feedback on differential pricing as the regulator prepares to set rules on the controversial practice. A five-day discussion thread on the online forum was launched Sept. 26. The CRTC is hoping to hear from people who normally would not participate in a government process. Differential pricing is a practice where internet and mobile providers charge different prices for different types of data traffic. Opponents say it hurts competition and net neutrality.
DHX Media Ltd. is reporting positive growth with fiscal year-end results for the period ending June 30. Full year revenue grew 15 per cent to $304.8 million with adjusted EBITDA up 15 per cent to $103.7 million. Net income rose 42 per cent to $27.7 million. The Q4 results for the three months ending June 30 were also released. Revenue was $75.3 million and adjusted EBITDA rose 9 per cent to $24.8 million while net loss was $1.7 million. The losses were blamed on currency exchange fluctuations with the British Pound.
