CNM Short Takes

ClarificationAlliance NumériQC spokesperson Daniel Boismenu has expressed concern that the lead article in the last issue of Canadian NEW MEDIA (CNM, October 18/01) might lead to a perception the association has $30 million in core funding, and that it has plans to ressurect IMPAC. While president Claude Dagenais told CNM that "if all goes well, $30 million will be transited through the association over three years," Boismenu stresses that project funding from Canada Economic Development has not been finalized, and that the Quebec government has announced only $5 million per year over three years in core funding for Quebec’s multimedia industry, roughly $2 million of which is tagged for the Alliance. While the article explicitly stressed that the Alliance would not seek to resurrect IMPAC, the story title may have led to the conclusion that the group would use its funding to create a national association. This is not the case. Canadian NEW MEDIA sincerely regrets any confusion which may have arisen. Miller vows to continue Jump fight to retransmitFarrel Miller, president and CEO of JumpTV.com Canada Inc., says he hasn’t given up the fight over retransmitting North American broadcast signals over the Internet after ministers Sheila Copps and Brian Tobin told a Canadian Association of Broadcasters meeting that they would close a controversial loophole. Reacting to ambiguous language used in a special Canadian NEW MEDIA Update October 29, Miller says he hasn’t conceded defeat on the issue, and doesn’t believe that the federal government will exclude the Internet from section 31 of the Copyright Act. He remains opposed to excluding one technology when cable and DTH are protected by its provisions. In the meantime, industry leaders on the other side of the fence are applauding the ministers’ comments, and urging quick legislation to put the matter to rest. Stephen Stohn, executive producer of Epitome Productions addressed delegates to the CAB conference on October 30, saying: "I believe we are on the verge of a simple and flexible legislative solution that will be in the best interests of all Canadians and indeed will satisfy all the major interest groups. In the face of this wonderful coming together, JumpTV has seen the writing on the wall and has withdrawn its application to the Copyright Board. But while this is a victory of sorts for the broadcasting community, until the revised legislation is actually enacted the harm will continue, so we must remain vigilent. We must introduce the legislation immediately before a new pretender arises from the ashes of the retransmission division of JumpTV...." HRDC to fund New Media dev’t centre in VancouverHuman Resources Development Canada and the Office of Learning Technologies have funded Vancouver’s New Media Development Centre Society to the tune of $149,850 for a project entitled Pathways to Learning at Work: Technology Enhanced Learning in Healthcare. The project will study the effectiveness of learning technologies in providing flexible learning opportunities responsive to the learning needs of healthcare workers. The project will be conducted in the Vancouver-Richmond Health Board where a new training strategy has been developed based on interactive media. The total cost of the project will be $362,993. PQ gov’t funds youth projects in multimediaQuebec’s ministère de la Culture et des Communications is inviting youth aged 18 to 35 to apply by December 15 to the Québec multimédia jeunesse fund for either $15,000 to develop a multimedia project concept, or up to $46,800 to produce a project. Full details are available here.. A ministry spokesperson tells CNM that this year’s program has $1 million in its budget. If renewed next year, the project will have $3 million at its disposal. CTVNEWS.com wins Gemini awardVancouver’s Blue Zone Inc. is trumpeting a Gemini award handed its client CTV News for its interactive web site. The hardware was in recognition for the CTVNEWS.com site built by Blue Zone. The award was in the Most Innovative Web Site category. Callisto launches second phase of CA*net 3 trialHull QC’s Callisto Media Systems has launched a second phase in its broadband video trial in conjunction with CANARIE Inc. and Sun Microsytems (CNM, Feb. 7/01). On October 29, the company announced that any school connected to the CA*net 3 high-speed Internet backbone will be able to use the company’s streaming technology to allow them to network servers and share video content. The technology, dubbed the Voyager Community Architecture will allow professors and IT managers at schools to create content "channels" from a centralized repository of various media. President/CEO Bruce Fischer tells CNM that while the project had originally been aimed at students in the second phase, information management issues forced the company to more narrowly gear the trial for professors and others. He expects the project to be fully instituted in schools by December. Globe offers digital version of print newspaper onlineThe Globe and Mail and NewsStand Inc., Austin TX, have teamed up to offer a complete digital edition of the venerable paper online. The edition will include keyword searches and zoom features. Electronic distribution will be counted by the Canadian Audit Bureau of Circulations, and by its American counterpart. Internet drives need for network shows: McCabeMichael McCabe, president/CEO of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, has raised the spectre of Internet downloads to bolster his organiztion’s call for looser limits on the amount of programming that can be produced by the networks. In a speech to the National Press Club’s Newsmaker Breakfast, October 24, McCabe said that within five to 10 years, consumers will go directly to producers to download episodes of their favourite shows, and that there will be access to every program made around the world, around the clock. "As a result," he says, "an American broadcaster would not have to sell the rights to such money making shows as Friends or The West Wing in order to reach Canadian consumers." He says the answer to protecting Canadian broadcasters is to "take full ownership of their programming, either producing it themselves or entering into alliances with Canadian producers to do so." Under current CRTC restrictions, Canadian broadcasters are limited in the amount of programming they can air that they directly produce. Knowledge House files proposal to creditorsKnowledge House Inc., Halifax, has filed a proposal to creditors under which preferred creditors of the company will receive shares on a dollar-for-dollar basis in exchange for their claims. Other unsecured creditors will receive Class B shares, also on a dollar-for-dollar basis. Chair/CEO Dan Potter stated in a press release: "We believe that it is best for all creditors to have the opportunity for 100% realization in these circumstances based on a successful recovery of Knowledge House Inc… While it will be challenging to rebuild the operations, the amount to be converted to preferred shares, at approximately $2 million, is not too onerous since Knowledge House Inc. has valuable educational programs and technologies upon which to rebuild its business as a result of the extensive $10 million research and development program it conducted over the last three years." Knowledge House closed its doors earlier this fall (CNM, October 3/01). Style mag relaunches web sitePublishing firm Style Communications, working with web designer Qualicom Innovations Inc. has relaunched www.style.ca targeted at readers of Style magazine. The site’s been given a facelift, as well as incorporating new search capabilities, ecom applications, frequent updates and a buyers guide. Sympatico portal to offer globeandmail.com contentSympatico-Lycos Inc. is set to begin integrating content from globeandmail.com into the sympatico.ca site. The content will include national, international, business, sports and technology breaking news. The two portals are sister organizations within the BCE Inc. umbrella. eNblast celebrates debut shows from Electric acquisitionToronto’s eNblast productions inc. has debuted two of the television shows it acquired when it bought Electric Entertainment (CNM, Sept. 20/01). The two shows, Road Scholars and My Escape, launched on YTV and Prime respectively. Road Scholars has also launched an interactive web companion, www.roadscholars.ca. Newswire buys Q1234.comCanada NewsWire, Toronto, has purchased webcast property Q1234.com from Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. for an undisclosed sum. Q1234.com webcasts primarily corporate earnings and news conferences, and should be a good fit for NewsWire. For its part, Alliance Atlantis executives said in a news release, "Alliance Atlantis’ interactive media strategy is focused on its broadcast assets, and these properties are not core to this strategy." Two other properties were also acquired in the deal: InvestorCanada.com and InvestorEurope.com. Q1234.com was first acquired by Alliance when it purchased Salter Street Films. The site was, at one point, a cornerstone in Salter’s evolving business-to-business strategy as it sought to restructure its new media operations after a brief experiment in spinning them into a publicly-traded company was abandoned (CNM, May 31/00).

CNM Short Takes

Broadcast | November 2, 2001

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