Stingray says its Stingray Music mobile app has topped two million downloads, doubling the number reached in 2016. Over 60 per cent of downloads originated in Canada with 3.3 million monthly visitors spending an average of 9.2 hours a week listening to Stingray channels, up from five hours a week the previous year. The app features over 2,000 channels in 100 genres including 200 channels dedicated to Canadian music.
Vice Media is laying off about two per cent of its 3,000 employees, while the company looks to expand globally and ramp up production of video content. Hitting workers in sales, branded content and editorial, about 10 of the 60 layoffs will affect staff at the recently-unionized Canadian division. The company wants to be operating in 80 countries by the first quarter of 2018, with plans to open offices in Dubai and Mumbai.
Live sports streaming service DAZN has launched in Canada with exclusive NFL Game Pass and NFL Redzone Rights, carrying every live NFL game of the 2017 season, including pre-season, regular season, playoffs and the Super Bowl with no blackouts. Canada joins Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Japan, where DAZN is available on most connected devices including Smart TVs, smartphones, tablets and games consoles.
Corus Entertainment has announced VIKINGS VR – a wholly original virtual reality app – in support of Season 5 of the HISTORY Canada series. Launching in conjunction with Fan Expo Canada, the app offers an immersive, in-world 360° experience where users are enveloped into scenes filmed on the set of Vikings. The free app will be available beginning Aug. 31, exclusively in Canada on the iTunes App Store and Google Play, with multiple ways to enjoy the 360° experience, including Cardboard VR viewers, VR headsets, YouTube, Facebook, and Littlstar.
Nielsen is now counting views of certain programming on Hulu’s live service and YouTube TV, in an attempt to find a solution to the growing problem of monetizing online network TV viewing. Variety reports that there is “a growing concern among executives that the industry could face a breakdown in measurement, with advertisers in some cases devising their own standards for audience reach with specific outlets.”
Google has filed a lawsuit against small Canadian tech company Equustek following a June 28th Supreme Court of Canada ruling that upheld an injunction ordering Google to remove certain websites from its global search engine ruled to infringe intellectual property. The company has filed suit in California federal court against Equustek, whose injunction against Google stemmed from a dispute with a one-time distributor. Google’s suit seeks to prevent U.S. enforcement of the Canadian order.
