CNM Short Takes

Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund winnersThe Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund has announced winners from its February 1 round. Production grants were awarded to I Love Money (Breakthrough Films & Television); CG Kids (Summerhill Entertainment Inc.); and L’Amerique Francaise (Les Productions Hyperzoom Inc.). Development grants were awarded to: Contents of a Deadman’s Pockets (Trapeze Media & Cellar Door Productions); Enhanced Gemini and Genie Awards (Xenophile Media); Wildfiles.TV (Reel Girls Media); ArtsEtAutres.ca (Entreprises de Creation Panacom); and Un tresor dans mon jardin (Les Productions Tooncan Inc.). Finally, both the Association ISOC Quebec and the Alliance NumériQC were granted professional development funding. Bell Fund mulling next round of application hopefulsThe Bell Broadcast & New Media Fund is examining 22 applications for production funding, and 15 applications for development funding submitted by May 1. Decisions will be made by the fund’s board in the last week of June, and should be announced in early July. New media decision "short-sighted": ACTRAGarry Neil, a policy advisor to the Alliance of Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), took aim at the CRTC’s 1999 new media exemption order at the organization’s appearance before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage on May 9. " very short-sighted," he told committee members examining the Broadcasting Act. "It is absolutely critical that ISPs are regulated as distributors where they act as the distributors of programming." Noise completes Toyota web and CD-ROM projectsVancouver’s Noise Media Inc. has completed two projects for Toyota Motor Sales, USA Certified Used Vehicle division. Noise has finished an online game dubbed the Certified Tacoma Challenge. Players are given the chance to win weekly prizes sponsored by Microsoft Xbox. The other project is a Mix My Certified Celica, which allows users to stock a Toyota Celica with custom performance parts while listening to custom music tracks. The online campaign will be followed with a viral email campaign. Online marketing assets include a game with a flash banner, interstitials and traditional banner ads on various sites. The campaign is intended to reach a youth demographic, and will be supported by the distribution of 40,000 CD-ROMs at auto shows, college campuses and elsewhere. Telefilm at E3 games marketTelefilm Canada will have an umbrella stand at the Electronic Entertainment Expo Conference and Exhibition to be held in Los Angeles from May 22 to 24. This is the fourth year in which the agency will host such a stand. It will play host to over 20 companies from across Canada, with a special profile of nine interactive companies from Quebec presented in conjunction with the Alliance NumériQC. Technology PEI grows as new centre set to launch in AugustTwo companies, Polar Bear Corporate Education Solutions and Toronto’s Trapeze Media, have announced that they will become tenants in the new Atlantic Technology Centre set to open in August in Charlottetown PEI. Trapeze already has a presence in the province having opened its doors in Charlottetown in March of this year. Mainframe seeks licensees for two properties at U.S. showVancouver’s Mainframe Entertainment Inc. will showcase two of its animated properties at this year’s Licensing Show 2002 in New York City, June 11-13. It will be touting a new Wubbies series for pre-schoolers and is introducing the new Dot’s Bots series for the ’tween girl audience. Globemedia divests of ExtendMedia assetsBell Globemedia Inc. has sold its common shares of ExtendMedia Inc. to Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. and MWI Nominee Company Ltd. for the aggregate sum of $105,000. ExtendMedia will also redeem secured debentures owned by Globemedia for $1.07 million. Warrants held by Globemedia to purchase 5.6 million common shares at $0.50 per share will be cancelled. $1.716 million in secured debentures owned by MWI and Alliance Atlantis mature on May 31, but negotiations are underway to convert those into a new form of convertible debenture upon close of the Bell Globemedia transaction. Globemedia, Free Impressions ink partnership agreementBell Globemedia Interactive and Toronto-based Free Impressions Inc. have agreed to pool and offer a discounted inventory of online advertising from across Globemedia’s properites including Sympatico.ca, TSN.ca, CTV.ca and others. The pair will launch the new initiative with an online campaign for the Canadian Cancer Society Relay for Life. Free Impressions serves the non-profit and charity sector. "This arrangement is demonstrative of our commitment to corporate citizenship and supporting important causes," said Gary Fearnall, VP sales at Bell Globemedia, in a media release. DECODE Entertainment wins Daytime Emmy AwardToronto-based DECODE Entertainment’s The Zack Files has won a Daytime Emmy Award for outstanding achievement in sound mixing. Sound mixing on the series was completed at Crunch Recording Studios in Toronto, which handled every aspect of sound on the series including music, special effects and others. The Emmy award is a first for DECODE. New special events interactive service proposed to CRTCA company called World Audio-Visual Entertainment Systems (W.A.V.E.S.) Inc. has applied to the CRTC for a licence to operate a television program undertaking/limited duration special event facilitating undertaking. WAVES is proposing a special event service to broadcast live and pre-recorded entertainment and information programming during sports and other special events (Notice of Public Hearing 2002-6). The service would offer attendees with mobile devices multiple angles and interactive information on four channels consisting of: one channel of live video; a second channel for broadcast signals from a second camera; a third channel for stats and; a fourth channel for interactive display of event-related information. The service would carry a maximum of 12 minutes per hour of advertising. Exact broadcast frequencies for the very low power service would be identified on a case-by-case basis. One potential use might be, for example, to bring stats and second camera angles of major racing events such as the Molson Indy series in Vancouver and Toronto. Adventure train rollsThe Virtual Museum of Canada is featuring The Adventure Train! for the month of May. The site, intended for kids up to 15-years-old, features a series of railway heritage scenes developed by museums across the country. The site also offers a contest sponsored by Via Rail Canada. Rogers unveils new Internet and cable programming bundlesFor the first time Rogers Cable Inc. is offering Ontario residents bundled packages combining various digital cable options with high-speed Internet or high-speed lite. Consumers must own digital boxes to take the bundles. The bundles are priced at $79.99 and $99.99 per month. Lions Gate, Pocket PC Films forge distribution dealVancouver’s Lions Gate Entertainment and Pocket PC Films have struck an accord to domestically distribute Lions Gate’s dynamic film catalog consisting of over 1,300 films in the Pocket PC and Palm device formats. Lions Gate will incorporate, as part of the agreement, titles including Eve’s Bayou, Songcatcher, Leprechaun and Anna Kournikova: Basic Elements. Pocket PC Films’ library consists of over 25,000 titles already. Pocket PC Films is a wholly-owned subsidiary of TuneIn Entertainment LLC. No value for the deal was disclosed. Microsoft, Rogers and CanWest test convergence advertisingMicrosoft Canada has placed a massive new campaign for its Agility business program in the hands of both CanWest Media Sales and Rogers Media Inc. The campaign will include exclusive advertising spots adjacent to a blitz of editorial content on competitiveness to run in the National Post and several other Southam dailies, in Canadian Business magazine and MacLean’s, and on two Rogers radio stations. The editorial content will feature executive forums and in-depth reporting on the state of Canadian competitiveness. The strategic framework for the campaign has been provided by M2 Universal, the Canadian arm of the Interpublic Group of Companies, and co-conceived by Rogers and CanWest. Quebecor magazines acquired by TVA Group for $36 millionTVA Group Inc. has purchased Publicor, the magazines division of Quebecor Media Inc. TVA officials say the $36-million cash acquisition will bolster the company’s core content activities. Publicor publishes 23 French-language magazines distributed mainly in Quebec focused on decorating, business and women’s interests. TVA does not rule out the publication of new magazines in areas where the company is not currently present. It already publishes magazines such as 7 Jours, Le Lundie and Star Inc. TVA owns a 50% share of Trustmedia Inc.,which publishes TV Hebdo. "The magazines acquired through this transaction will be able to rely on TVA’s sales force and marketing strategies in building their own advertising sales volume," said TVA president/CEO Raynald Brière in a media release. TVA Group is a unit of Quebecor Media.

CNM Short Takes

Broadcast | May 16, 2002

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