CNM Update

Hip Interactive Playboy game ships to retailersHip Interactive Corp. has seen its Playboy: The Mansion multi-platform video game shipped to retailers. Available for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC platforms, the game allows players to manage the business of the Playboy empire. The game is published by ARUSH Publishing. In other Hip news, the company has announced that the launch date for its Pariah game will be May 3, 2005. The delay from the original March date is being chalked up to May being the “optimum” time to release the game. The company’s other marquee title, Stolen, will launch on March 11 in Europe, and March 22 in North America. Finally, the first of Hip’s new series of video games based on the work of cult horror director George Romero will be developed by Kuju Entertainment, Surrey, UK, according to a news release.Canada Post launches new marketing serviceCanada Post hopes its position of trust with the Canadian public will translate into success for a new marketing venture it has launched with a consortium of partners. The service, called fetch, allows consumers to send requests for marketing info via SMS or through a web page to companies. Trial partners include Telus, Domino’s Pizza, Royal Lepage and others in Calgary, where a test is now ongoing. Impact Mobile, SUN Microsystems, Pulse, CGI and Innovapost are providing various back-end components. Advertisers will insert a short code into their print and television advertising, or a tone into radio advertising, to which consumers can respond. Canadian NEW MEDIA will have further details in its upcoming issue.IAB Canada announces standards for online adsThe Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada (IAB Canada) will uphold three new online advertisement sizes as standards for its members. The ads, including a leaderboard, big box, and skyscraper, have size, file size, and animation/looping limits. The new standards are being touted as one way to make online ad buying and selling less expensive and time consuming. Canadian NEW MEDIA will have further details in its upcoming issue.New report on music posted to Heritage siteCanadian Heritage posted earlier this month a comprehensive report examining the music industry, The Canadian Music Industry; 2004 Economic Profile. The report details the economic impact of music downloading on the industry, examines the market share enjoyed by Canadian artists here and abroad, and lists the payments to copyright holders through a variety of royalties. The report is available at http://www.pch.gc.ca/pc-ch/sujets-subjects/arts-culture/sonore-sound/music_industry/index_e.cfm.National kiddie porn tip line launchesA pilot project that began in Manitoba in 2002 has launched as a national tip line to report child pornography – Cybertip.ca. The online hotline receives and analyzes tips from the public about potentially illegal online material and activities related to sexual exploitation of children, including kiddie porn, and also including luring, child sex tourism, and child prostitution. The tip line has been sponsored TELUS Corp., in partnership with the Canadian government and Child Find Manitoba. In its first two years of trial operation, Cybertip.ca, received nearly 1,600 reports of criminal acts against children, with the result that nearly 300 web sites were shut down and eight people were arrested.Bell Mobility to enable ONESTOP Wi-Fi and broadbandONESTOP, the Toronto company building a digital, interactive advertising network to serve that city’s subway system (CNM, Oct. 6/04), will use Bell Mobility to provide broadband and wireless connections. In addition to building a broadband network to carry the content feeds, Bell Mobility will work to create an in-building Wi-Fi network to bring the signal to the train cars. The first phase of the network was recently launched when LCD screens were installed on platforms. The on-train screens will be tested later in 2005, according to a news release.Student-developed cell phone games going to marketSeneca College, Ontario, and Vancouver-based AirG have announced that cell phone games developed by four students in Seneca’s computer programming and analysis and gaming programs will go to market. AirG held a competition at the college in which 10 student teams completed the design and implementation of an original entertainment application. Fast Food, developed by David Cheung and Justin Sawchuk was the winning entry. It will launch on the Bell Mobility network in the coming weeks, according to a news release. Second place was given to Dave Daniels and Carlos DaCosta for Mental Blox.Transcontinental Media chooses 24/724/7 Canada Inc. has been chosen by Transcontinental Media as its exclusive web advertising representative and permission-based email list manager for its premier French-Canadian shopping site, Publisac.ca. The site is an extension of Transcontinental’s door-to-door print advertising distribution business. The site attracts 210,000 unique visitors every month, and generates 4 million page views according to data from comScore Media Metrix. 24/7 is no the sites online ad rep, as well as the exclusive list manager for its file of over 75,000 subscribers, says a news release. CPCC wins unpaid levy disputeThe Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC), responsible for administering the levy on blank media to compensate copyright holders for music copied to it, has won an order from the Federal Court of Canada directing BNC Systems Inc. to pay $1.5 million in unpaid levies. On the same day the CPCC announced the victory, it was in federal court again, bringing action this time against First Choice Recording Media Inc.

CNM Update

News | 01/27/2005 5:00 am EST

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