Alliance Atlantis, CBC to jointly commission TV projects Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. have reached a three-year agreement to jointly commission Canadian television projects, ranging from dramatic series to children’s shows. The shows commissioned under the agreement will be broadcast on CBC and Alliance Atlantis’ channels. The agreement also allows Alliance Atlantis to broadcast on its channels a number of CBC programs, such as This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Made In Canada. More details.
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The one hundredth American Assembly was held February 7-10 in Harriman, New York to discuss the relationship between art and technology. Below is an excerpt from the report that resulted, Art, Technology & Intellectual Property. Two books were commissioned as part of the project, and will be published next year by Rutgers University Press. The report is available for free by email request to amassembly@columbia.edu.
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Jean-Pierre Blais is leaving the CRTC as executive director, broadcasting, to become assistant deputy minister, international and intergovernmental affairs at Canadian Heritage, effective Dec. 2. International and intergovernmental affairs is one of five sectors in the department and is responsible for Sport Canada, Vancouver’s 2010 Olympic bid, trade and investment issues and intergovernmental affairs matters. Blais replaces Hélène Gosselin who joins the Privy Council Office as deputy secretary of intergovernmental policy, intergovernmental affairs.
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Feds pump $4 million into new Francommunautés sites Industry Canada and Canadian Heritage have announced 36 winners of the $4-million Francommunautés virtuelles program contest for 2002-2003. The project will encourage use of state-of-the-art Internet technologies and the creation of French content for francophone and Acadian communities. Popular themes among the winning projects included women, ethnocultural minorities, lawyers, small- and medium-sized enterprises, artists, professionals and students. This year, the initiative is providing non-refundable financial contributions equal to 50% of eligible costs, to a maximum of $75,000, for regional projects and up to $250,000 for national projects. A full list of winners is available at http://francommunautes.ic.gc.ca.
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The threat of legal action should be one reason why new media designers must incorporate accessibility for individuals who are visually impaired or face other challenges surfing the web, says one consultant in the field.
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A newly opened Immersion Studios digital production facility in Prince Edward Island could have a commercial product on the market within six months, hopes the company’s president and CEO. Stacey Spiegel was on hand at the Atlantic Technology Centre in Charlottetown on October 17 to open both the new workspace and one of the company’s interactive theatres – expected to become an important tourist draw in the provincial capital.
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The Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA) continues to call for a light regulatory approach to interactive television (ITV) in the wake of a newly released report by the CRTC and the announcement of another public process into the subject now underway. In comments to Canadian NEW MEDIA, Michael Hennessy, the CCTA’s senior VP of policy and regulatory affairs, says the report backs up the association’s assertions that the industry is too young to contemplate too many hard and fast rules.
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The Canadian Broadcasting Corp.’s digital archives web site has grown significantly since its soft launch this spring (CNM, July 10/02), but the expansion hasn’t been without significant headaches, a group of delegates to the International New Media Festival in P.E.I. heard on October 17. Project managers Mark Mietkiewicz and François Boulet told participants in a workshop demonstrating the site that rights management, in particular, has been a problem – though not all rights holders have been reticent to have their content posted online.
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Andrew Cochran, the hired gun consultant to CTV Inc.’s Groundbreaker Fund, says despite industry objections to some of its guidelines, he believes a requirement to work with companies outside Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal shouldn’t be a hurdle to anybody’s participation (CNM, July 25/02). In a frank session with delegates at the International New Media Festival in P.E.I. on October 18, Cochran said he believes that the requirement to give up copyright control by big city companies is a red herring in any discussion of restructuring the fund and that companies in Canada’s largest urban centres would have to look for outside partnerships to create the innovative content CTV is seeking anyway.
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