CNM Short Takes

Feds pump $4 million into new Francommunautés sitesIndustry 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. Star Ray TV webcast woes solved, says Jan PachulPirate TV operator Jan Pachul tells Canadian NEW MEDIA that despite earlier assertions that the Internet is a "toy," his local television channel has finally succeeded in viably offering a webcast (CNM, Aug. 23/01). Even as Pachul has pulled his low-power television station Star Ray TV off the air under CRTC pressure, he says technical problems have been solved. "We have been working on a real network stream and we actually got it running. Now, right now it’s down because we’re reloading the computer on XP, but we do have a co-located server with capacity to run digital streams on the Internet. So, we actually did what we were talking about a few years back...But, there was a lot of screwing around because the technology is really unwieldy. But people tell us that it’s the best stream on the Internet now that we’ve got it running....I think the most we’re going to do on the Internet is run one day a week of canned programs, run our marquée programming. We don’t want to screw around too much with programming; we can only support so many simultaneous streams, right?" Over a year ago, Pachul said he had given up on the idea of running a television station on the Internet, choosing instead to use the medium as a platform for making his case for a broadcasting licence. For further details of Pachul’s ongoing battle with the broadcast regulator, please see CNM affiliate publication Canadian Communications Reports, Oct. 24/02. Edmonton’s BioWare wins U.K. academy best PC game awardThe British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has honoured Edmonton-based BioWare Corp. with an Interactive Entertainment Award for Best PC Game. BAFTA noted the game’s graphics, "beautiful lighting, outstanding score and great voices" in awarding Neverwinter Nights the top prize. One-third of e-learning market generated in Quebec: studyA new study produced by the Alliance numériQC and TECHNOCompétences, Profil de l’industrie et de la main-d’oeuvre québécoise en eLearning, finds that the province’s e-learning sector represents 32% of the Canadian market, with a value of $80 million in the spring of 2002. The sector is concentrated in Montreal, where 76% of e-learning companies are located. Details are available (in French) at http://www.numeriqc.ca/Francais/F_Archives/article.asp?Id595. Immersion Studios takes 2002 IMAT Innovation AwardToronto-based Immersion Studios (see article in this issue) has won the 2002 Innovation Award from the Interactive Multimedia Arts & Technologies Association (IMAT) on Oct. 17. The prize was awarded to Immersion over 17 other finalists selected from 80 nominations submitted this fall by a panel of judges comprised of new media professionals and industry experts from across Canada. The IMAT Innovation Award will become a "yearly recognition of the growth and opportunity within Canada’s world-class interactive new media," according to a media release. Fun Key fails, Quebec gov’t on hook for millionsLesAffaires.com reports that the Quebec government, through its investment arm Investissement Québec, stands to lose as much as $5 million on the failure of Fun Key Studios, a multimedia theme park developer (CNM, Sep. 6/01). Fun Key announced in a media release on Oct. 18 that its property had been assigned to trustee Raymond Chabot Inc. LesAffaires notes that the Quebec government had guaranteed 80% of the company’s loans with Banque Nationale, at whose request the company was deep-sixed. Canadian students enjoy high Internet access rates: PISAThe Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has surveyed Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and found that Canadian 15-year-old students had access to one computer per six students in 2002. That’s well above the average of one computer per 13 students in OECD states. The survey also shows nearly universal access to high technology at home. Nearly nine out of every 10 young Canadians had a computer at home, and 70% had access to the Internet. But, the survey shows, boys are more likely than girls to have daily access to a computer at home. Australia, Finland, Iceland and Luxembourg were also shown by PISA to have high rates of school connectivity. Although the U.S. has one of the highest ratio of students per computer in the world, PISA says, only 39% of their school computers were connected to the Internet. That figure stands at 80% in this country. Further data and findings are available at http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/021029/td021029.htm. iMagic retains special financial advisor to evaluate optionsSaint John NB-based iMagicTV Inc.’s special committee of the board of directors has retained CIBC World Markets Inc. in an advisory role to consider strategic alternatives for the company. On Sept. 26, the company announced a net loss for Q2 2003 of $4.0 million, or $0.16 per basic share. Revenue in the quarter was down significantly on a year-over-year basis, from $803,000 in fiscal 2002 to $254,000 in fiscal 2003. "The decrease is the result of a weakening in services revenue as customers continue to delay the transition between trials and commercial deployment," reads a media release. Pixel Systems pushed into bankruptcy protectionMontreal-based Pixel Systems Inc. reportedly sought bankruptcy protection on Oct. 8 to shield itself from creditor demands, notably from the City of Montreal. It has apparently fallen well behind in rent payments at the Cité Multimédia and owes business taxes of $60,804, according to Canadian Press reports. The company was founded in 1998 by Daniel Langlois, founder of Softimage and Ex-Centris. Company officials express hope for a resurrection. Winnipeg Free Press reverts to pay site as strike ends The Winnipeg Free Press has reverted to a largely subscriber-only service as of Oct. 26 as a labour dispute at the journal ended Oct. 17. During the dispute, the paper was published exclusively online and was free to all, but has now reverted to free access only for seven-day and Monday-Friday subscribers, as well as out-of-province visitors. Non-subscribers will have access to some limited editorial material as well as all advertising services. Universal Canada increases artists online royalty ratesUniversal Music Canada has increased by about 25% the Internet royalties due to its artists and will also eliminate some deductions it had previously taken from those royalties. The company says some of its recording artists could see almost double the payments they had previously received for Internet downloads of their songs. In the U.S., a similar policy is retroactive to January 1. The new rate is bumped up as the company now calculates rates based on albums, not singles. Further, Universal is eliminating its new technology/media charge, which was a 20% reduction, as well as its packaging charge, a deduction of up to 25%. The company also stated it would not reduce artist royalties to reflect discounts made to retailers. A media release announcing the change also notes that "Universal Canada will shortly introduce an online subscription service similar to services already in operation in the U.S." Posing nude on Internet a pretty decent proposal, says AsheDanni Ashe, the entrepreneur who started Danni’s Hard Drive, a popular adult web site, says a survey shows one in 12 American women under the age of 25 would pose nude for an average of $20,000. The survey, conducted by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, was unveiled as Ashe announced a new feature to her site, the Danni Girl. Ashe has announced she will pay $20,000 to women to pose nude on her site, and each model will also be given her own subscription web site. "Being a Danni Girl is more than a modeling job...Cute co-eds should think of it as an ‘Endowment for the Well Endowed’, and the chance to add some really interesting extra-curricular activities to their resume," says Ashe in a media release.

CNM Short Takes

Broadcast | October 30, 2002

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