CNM Short Takes

Corus acquires major stake in pay TV channelCorus Entertainment Inc. has acquired a 50% stake in The Locomotion Channel, an action-oriented animation pay television service. The service, which targets young adults aged 18-35, is available in more than 27 countries and seven million homes throughout Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula. Corus purchased the interest from Claxson Interactive Group Inc. for US$10.5 million and a holdback in the event of certain economic changes that may impact revenue projections. The remaining 50% interest is held by The Hearst Corp., a diversified communications company. VerticalScope introduces compact car racing portalToronto-based VerticalScope Inc. has launched an information resource portable for the sport compact car industry. Dubbed Modified.com, the portal will provide information on a variety of subjects including timely news, the hottest cars, comprehensive event coverage, industry trends, new and innovative products and photography. In launching its latest portal, the company is building on the success of its 10 other web sites, which serve hundreds of thousands of visitors on a daily basis. Ottawa launches new online brandThe City of Ottawa is rebranding itself online with the domain ottawa.ca. The city’s former web address, www.city.ottawa.on.ca, will be replaced with the new one, as will the email addresses of city staff. In April, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority implemented a new municipal domain name registration policy, which allowed Canadian municipalities to register their official names as top-level dot-ca Internet domain names. Bell Nexxia selects Northland to deliver eLearningBell Nexxia and Northland Training Systems Inc. have signed an agreement to deliver an eLearning content solution. The agreement between the two companies gives Bell Nexxia the added flexibility to drive content online more quickly, while avoiding the significant costs invloved in acquiring eLearning software tools. ILoveTV and Conceptual to develop iTV applicationsConceptual Communications Inc. and iLoveTV Entertainment Inc. have developed a strategic partnership to enhance a number of television properties currently under development. The technology synchronizes television programs with web sites, either information-based or advertiser-related to the program content. This is also done without the need for a set-top box. All the consumer needs is a television and computer linked to the Internet. Conceptual will bring a host of new shows utilizing iLoveTV’s convergence technology to the Banff Television Festival in June. CIFVF changes deadline for submissionsThe Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund has changed the deadline for submissions. The new deadline is July 18, 2002 as opposed to Sept. 19, 2002. Updated application forms, eligibility and selection criteria and guides are available at the group’s web site www.cifvf.ca. Hip Interactive posts preliminary 2002 resultsHip Interactive Corp. has reported preliminary fiscal year 2002 results and has also re-filed financial statements for the nine months ended December 31, 2001. Sales for FY2002 topped the $280-million mark, an increase of more than 50% over last year’s figure of $181 million. The company posted a net loss from operations of $400,000. Due to new accounting standards relating to the treatment of goodwill, Hip has also re-filed its interim financial statements for first nine months of last year. The re-filing consisted of an inclusion note stating that the company had determined that the stated value of goodwill relating to its Interactive Media and Microplay reporting units was impaired as of April 1/01. Quicklaw to be acquired by LexisNexisQuicklaw Inc. and LexisNexis Butterworths Canada are in the final stages of a negotiated acquisition of Quicklaw by LexisNexis. The agreement would bring together Canada’s online legal research service and one of the country’s most respected legal and business information publishers. Both companies expect the deal to be finalized in the near future. Toon Boom Technologies releases v.2 of TBSToon Boom Technologies Inc., Montreal, has released the second version of its Toon Boom Studio (TBS). V2 is an upgrade of the company’s popular 2D animation system for the web. The company’s product lets the user’s eyes be the guide in creating animation. "Like a true director, you view your creation constantly through the camera lens. TBS V2 really is a complete virtual animation studio inside your computer," the company states in a news release. CTF transfers $5 millionThe Canadian Television Fund will transfer $5 million from its Licence Fee Program to its Equity Investment Program in order to support additional productions applied to the EIP this year. The additional money will allow the EIP to support a number of productions initially turned down at the beginning of this month. It will be used to help reduce the significant rejection rate expected in its documentary envelope. The producers affected by this transfer will be contacted by the EIP, which is administered for the CTF by Telefim Canada. Bell Globemedia to take leadership role in TV ratingBell Globemedia is partnering with Nielsen Media Research on a number of initiatives to address the future of television audience research in Canada, despite being satisfied with the current dual TV rating system in place in Canada. One of the projects the two companies are working on is a way to link information about audience viewing and demographics with actual purchase behaviour so that advertisers can better direct their messages to audiences most likely to buy their products. IMagicTV and Thomson complete product integrationIMagicTV and Thomson Multimedia have completed product integration activities that enable service providers to deliver a full bundle of services that include voice, video and data over their existing networks. IMagicTV’s middleware platform and Thomson’s RCA DSL1500 gateway encoder have been integrated. Shandwick retained by CTCThe Canadian Tourism Commission has retained Weber Shandwick to promote tourism to Canada in the United States. The PR firm will be responsible for implementing a multifacetted PR and communications program to generate awareness of and promote Canadian tourism, including marketing partnerships, group and individual media tours, print and electronic media relations and trade show support. The CTC recently awarded a three-year contract to Blast Radius to re-design its web site (CNM, May 16/01) InBusiness sells certain media assets to TranscontinentalInBusiness Solutions Inc. has sold some of its InBusiness Media Network Inc. assets to Media Transcontinental Inc. for $2 million in cash. The money will be used to pay down debt. Properties included in the sale are: the Ottawa Business Journal, special publications, CEO of the Year, 40 Under 40 awards banquet, as well as intellectual property from the Toronto Business Journal and le Montréal Économique. Cold North Wind confirms deal to digitize Globe and MailOttawa-based Cold North Wind Inc. has confirmed a deal to digitize the holdings of The Globe and Mail for posting to its online subscription service (CNM, Feb. 22/02). The 1.4-million newspaper page archive will be stored at http://www.paperofrecord.com with several other papers already digitized by the firm. It’s expected the years until 1976 should be available within two or three months, with the remainder until 2001 up in the new year. Archives posts New France history with 22,000 documentsThe National Archives of Canada, in partnership with the Archives de France and the Canadian embassy in France, has posted more than 22,000 digitized documents relating to the administration of New France. The documents come from the Colonies fonds held at the Centre des archives d’outre-mer in Aix-en-Provence, France. The initiative is part of a partnership between the two archives, and will continue for the next two years as part of the Canada-France 2004 Program to celebrate the more than 400 years of history the countries share. When complete, the project will consist of over 630,000 images.

CNM Short Takes

News | 05/31/2002 4:00 am EDT

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