The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.

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Ottawa’s initiative in forging a new international trade agreement for culture is finding allies in Europe, and enemies in the United States. As Richard Stursberg, the former head of Cancom and the Canadian Cable Television Association, noted in a recent presentation, U.S. officials have branded Canada’s initiative a "virus".

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Claude Chagnon, Vidéotron president and CEO, and four other senior executives departed as Quebecor moved forward on plans to dismantle the holding company and integrate it into its multimedia division. Chagnon will apparently stay on as director at Vidéotron and TVA Group Inc. Chagnon and his father sold their controlling stake in Quebecor in August after a hostile $5.2-billion takeover. As well, Pierre Simon, resigned as director and chair of the board of Netgraphe, the Internet division of Vidéotron, and Norman Drolet resigned as Netgraphe president and CEO. Monique Leroux, Quebecor first executive VP and COO, has been named chair of Netgraphe’s new board, also consisting of Erik Péladeau, Daniel Lamarre, Marc Lacourcière, Normand Drolet, Jacques Nantel and Pierre Migneault. Quebecor is also consolidating its broadcast unit TVA and the Canoe Internet portal. TVA Group Inc senior VP Andre Provencher left to "pursue new professional goals." Meanwhile, Raynald Brière has been appointed TVA Network general manager while retaining his current position of senior VP of broadcasting. Second in command at TVA Network will be Philippe Lapointee, responsible for programming and some news. Serge Bellerose, recently general manager of TVA’s all-news channel LCN, takes over responsibility for the specialty channels. Marleen Beaulieu has been named executive producer of the new specialty channel team.

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Cable industry contributes $3.1 billion in ICT revenue
Cable TV contributed $3.1 billion of the $116.4 billion in revenue generated by Canada’s information and communications technologies industries in 1998, according to new statistics released by Industry Canada’s ICT branch. The CATV industry ranked #7 on the list, with telecom services hitting the #2 spot with $28.5 billion in revenue that year. The top money-maker was ICT wholesaling, which contributed $38.6 billion in 1998. In comparison, software and computer services generated $15.3 billion, telecom and other communications equipment $11.8 billion and electronic parts and components $6.9 billion. The data also shows that ICT services (cable/telecom services, ICT wholesaling, software/computer services, office machinery rental/leasing) accounted for 73% of all ICT revenues in 1998. Of the $4.7 billion projected to be spent on R&D in 2000, telecom and cable services are expected to contribute the lowest amount, at 2.3%. The largest R&D contributor will be telecom equipment makers, forecast to reach 48.9%.

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