Look focuses on reducing customer churn Look Communications Inc. experienced a further decline in its digital television subscriber base in its 2002 fiscal second quarter ended June 30, ending the period with 51,000 subscribers, down from the 55,000 at the end of March. According to financials released August 16, Look managed a stronger EBITDA in its second quarter despite the decline in subscribers by migrating both Internet and digital television subscribers to higher value packages. "During the second quarter, we focused on developing and implementing initiatives that should enable Look to reduce the rate of customer attrition and to increase the rate of customer acquisition in both the residential and business markets in the second half of 2002," Look president and CEO Paul Lamontagne said in a media release. Look has already shown a slight increase in subscriber numbers, according to Decima Publishing research. According to the latest Digital Domain report, Look had about 50,500 subscribers at mid-June, which means it grew slightly in the latter part of the month. More details.
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Canada’s Innovation Strategy acknowledges that, "To succeed in the global, knowledge-based economy, where highly skilled people are more mobile than ever before, a country must produce, attract and retain a critical mass of well-educated and well-trained people." At the New Media Innovation Centre (NewMIC) we have an innovative model of industry-academia-government collaborative research and development that aims to do just this. By training a new generation of uniquely skilled new media researchers, attracting high-level research talent to Canada and exposing industry professionals to new ideas and technologies, NewMIC will help to position Western Canada as an international hub for the new media industry.
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Laurie Haines has been named group VP, information technology, at Bell Globemedia. Previously, Haines was VP, information technology at CTV Inc., a position he held since March 2001. There, he was responsible for the integration of CTV and NetStar Communications Inc. (now known as CTV Specialty Television Inc.). He was with the CBC for 17 years, then became VP of information technology and chief information officer of NetStar Communications Inc.
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B.C. organizations win new federal funding A recent influx of funds and tenants bodes well for the rapidly filling New Media Innovation Centre (NewMIC) in Vancouver BC. Late last month, the new media incubator and research facility announced hundreds of thousands of dollars in new funds from the federal government – partly to open even more research facilities – as well as a new co-location agreement with the prominent trade association New Media BC. On August 8, NewMIC announced that New Media BC would take possession of two offices in its facilities at the Harbour Centre in downtown Vancouver. The announcement marks the culmination of a long discussion process. Then-president/CEO Alan Winter told Canadian NEW MEDIA late last November that the move was in the works. The co-location is likely good news for B.C.’s new media industry, since the two organizations are complementary. "(NewMIC) can be perceived as a company’s virtual chief research officer for a small company that wants to know where technology’s going," says Erica Branda, NewMIC’s business development and communications officer. "New Media BC fills the role of a virtual chief marketing officer for a company…We’ve always worked together, looked for ways to help the industry. This just brings us a little bit closer." More materially, it was announced this month that NewMIC would receive $828,000 in further funding for its immersive media laboratory (CNM, Nov. 29/01), and $750,000 in new funding for a human computer interaction lab, now up-and-running, from Western Economic Diversification Canada. In the same August 9 announcement, New Media BC was also the recipient of $81,500 in funding. The human computer interaction lab provides facilities for monitoring how people use new technology using a myriad of sophisticated cameras and analytical equipment. NewMIC is in the process of hiring a new full-time staffer to help companies use the facility, of which the closest counterpart is in Seattle, Branda says.
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Industry Canada has taken a strong stand in favour of users in its latest consultation document on reforming the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) – the international agency responsible for governing the domain name system. This month, the department released its consultation paper with several proposed positions for a meeting of ICANN’s Government Advisory Committee (GAC) to be held in Shanghai in late October. Submissions to the consultation process are due by September 10.
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Several of the largest consumer product manufacturers, retailers and technology companies in North America are in the final stages of creating a new body to fight the federal government’s private copying levy. While many of the members of the newly formed Canadian Coalition for Fair Digital Access (CCFDA) are also members of the Canadian Storage Media Alliance, its hired-gun lobbyist says the group will focus on reforming the law rather than fighting proposed levies on a new class of digital devices now before the Copyright Board of Canada (CNM, June 14/02).
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Tucows Inc., the domain name registry being sued over alleged defamatory statements it made about the Domain Registry of Canada Inc. (DROC) and the Domain Registry of America Inc. (DROA), has fired back with a counter suit of its own (CNM, July 25/02). Late last month, Tucows asked the Supreme Court of Ontario to hear its own case that the business practices of DRC and DRA have harmed its own operations, and is seeking damages to undo some of the harm.
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No one’s betting on the likelihood of the Supreme Court of Canada hearing an appeal of a lower court’s decision on the controversial Tariff 22 online music decision, but a cross-appeal by the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), as well as an anticipated leave to intervene by the Copyright Board of Canada, improves the odds.
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A newly announced Canadian Heritage funding program to assist in the creation of new media research clusters shouldn’t be confused with a similar fund already implemented by the department last December (CNM, Jan. 23/02), says an official with the department.
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