The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.
 

Late last year, Canada’s broadcasters had a chance to comment on an Industry Canada consultation paper examining the emerging technology of broadband over powerline (BPL), which allows high-speed networking over electrical wiring. In its comment, an excerpt from which appears below, the Canadian Broad-casting Corp. urged Industry Canada to examine BPL’s impact on it and other broadcasters before allowing deployment to proceed.

The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) has appointed its new board of directors for 2006. Chairing the Winnipeg-headquartered network’s board this year is Judy Gingell of the Kwanlin Dun First Nation in the Yukon Territory. Judy is a five-year member of the board, a founding director of Northern Native Broadcasting Yukon, ex-chair of the Council for Yukon Indians, and an ex-Commissioner of the Yukon. More recently, she was the recipient of a 2005 National Aboriginal Achievement Award for community development, and is also the current president of the Kwanlin Dun Development Corp. Of the 16 directors currently sitting, 11 are returning and 5 are new arrivals. New to the board are: Chris Robertson (South British Columbia); Alanis Obomsawin (South Quebec); Linda Simon (South New Brunswick); Daniel Vandal (South Manitoba); and Brian Smith (South Nova Scotia).

OMNI TV arrives in Winnipeg
Rogers Media Inc. will bring its OMNI brand of multicultural television to Manitoba next month with the launch of multi-faith channel OMNI TV Manitoba. Approval for the deal was granted in May last year when Rogers applied for permission to acquire NOWTV BC (CHNU-TV Fraser Valley) and NOWTV Manitoba (CIIT-TV Winnipeg), as well as for licenses to operate both stations as religious programming undertakings (CCR, June 8/05). Rogers expects to retain the 900,000-strong viewer base the old NOWTV Manitoba broadcast undertaking enjoyed. As specified earlier this year (CCR, Jan. 12/06), Rogers will contribute a maximum of $250,000 a year for the next seven years to fund the production of faith-based documentaries in the two provinces.