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Canadians are spending more time on the web than ever before, according to a new report from Media Technology Monitor. On average, anglophone Canadians surveyed spent 24.5 hours online per week last year, up about two hours from 2015. Young Canadians (18-34) reported spending even more time on the net – an average of 34 hours per week, or nearly five hours per day. Internet use is also increasing among seniors with 74 per cent of people over age 65 using the internet regularly, up from about 54 per cent 10 years ago. The report is based on telephone interviews conducted with 4,157 anglophone Canadians between Oct. 7 and Dec. 12.
YouTube says it’s looking into concerns about its Restricted Mode after facing a social media storm over blocking of LGBT-related content. According to its help page, the setting uses “community flagging, age-restrictions, and other signals to identify and filter out potentially inappropriate content.” Over the weekend, several high-profile LGBT artists including Canadian musicians Tegan and Sara, called out the company over the restrictions.
Videotron is launching Chillico, the first Facebook Messenger chatbot from a Canadian telecommunications provider. Chillico’s mission is to converse with users in order to recommend selections from the illico.tv video-on-demand catalogue.
Vevo has debuted a social viewing option for watching music videos with multiple people. Watch Party offers simultaneous viewing across multiple computers with participants able to contribute to a collaborative playlist. Vevo has also announced plans to launch a new iOS app in April.
The Canada Council for the Arts has announced an $88.5 million Arts in a Digital World Fund to be launched this fall. The fund, set to run until March 31, 2021, will be used to support short-term, small-scale projects for under $10,000 and large-scale initiatives with funding up to $500,000. The fund’s purpose is to serve three main goals related to the union of technology with the arts including digital approaches to increasing public access to arts and cultural engagement.
SOCAN and Audiam are working together to ensure songwriters, composers and music publishers receive their portion of millions in unpaid YouTube royalties generated in the U.S. Until May 31, YouTube is opening a claims process where compositions can be identified that have earned synchronization royalties from U.S. views between Aug. 2012 and Dec. 2015. The right of synchronization is the right to synchronize lyrics and melody to a moving image, such as a YouTube video. You can learn more HERE.
Vancouver-based Hootsuite has announced its third significant purchase in less than two months. The social-media management platform has acquired Los Angeles-based Naritiv’s Snapchat analytics solution to analyze and enhance digital video campaigns. The purchase price wasn’t disclosed. Hootsuite has also opened a Los Angeles office.
Deezer has launched its first global ad campaign to promote its Flow feature. The listening option offers continuous song choices by using additional technology to predict a listener’s activities and location. The Internet-based music streaming service had 16 million monthly active users and six million paid subscribers at the end of January.
