CNM Short Takes

Test your wits as a Ghost TrackerGhosttrackers.tv brings the paranormal world of ghostly entities, ectoplasm, orbs, cold spots, ghostly lights and spirits into your home. Based on YTV’s hit TV series Ghost Trackers (broadcast Thursday, Saturday and Sunday evenings) and produced by CCI Entertainment, the website invites you to test your wits as a Ghosttracker. This website is more than just a Ghost Trackers fan site. Users undergo training and online investigations and actually enter the field. Through a network of remote cameras, Trackers will enter haunted locations via a series of fully equipped security cameras. Each camera is armed with sensors, night vision, thermal-imaging, and a spotlight. By logging auditor, sensor readings and visual evidence, Ghost Tracker trainees will test their skills and their nerves. Users will be left with the feeling that they have gained actual access into the mystical world of the paranormal and are part of an elite network of ghost hunters. The website is produced by Digital Wizards of London ON. Get in touch with your supernatural side at http://www.ghosttrackers.tv Kaboose buys US counterpartOnline destination Kaboose Inc. has signed an agreement to purchase BabyZone.com Inc., a US website focusing on pregnancy and parenting, for US$22 million. BabyZone is North America’s largest independent pregnancy and new parents’ online destinations, and boasts more than two million users and five million visits per month; it generated US$4.27 million in revenues in 2005. "This is the perfect blend of media properties," said BabyZone’s executive VP and publisher Jeanine Cox in a media release. "Our loyal audience of new and expecting parents will have a place to turn when their ‘babies’ grow up."AutoTrader.com video podcast to appear on iTunesNurun Inc., a subsidiary of Quebecor Media Inc., has announced the availability of Advertising Essentials as a video podcast on iTunes. Nurun spearheaded the development and production of Advertising Essentials, a series of training videos that provide automotive dealers with tips and information to maximize their Internet advertising effectiveness, for AutoTrader.com. "With the right content, distribution as a video podcast – and through iTunes – is a great way to increase exposure for a brand," said Michael Koziol, executive VP North America at Nurun, in a press release. "Autotrader.com has been at the forefront of the automotive industry’s push forward toward interactivity, and the company’s willingness to make this particular program available as a video podcast on iTunes is another example of that unique, forward-looking thinking." Tips in the video range from what makes a great vehicle photograph to how to write copy that sells. Phantom Fiber, GTS sign 5-year pactWireless platform software developer Phantom Fiber Corp. has signed a five-year license agreement with GTS Plc, a gaming and virtual sports software provider. The arrangement will allow UK-based GTS’s clients to offer its Internet games to more than 1000 different kinds of cell phones and handheld devices thanks to Toronto’s Phantom Fiber. "The audience for mobile games and gambling is growing rapidly," said Steven Matsell, GTS’s director of business development, in a news release. "Add to that the wider acceptance of mobile gaming globally and the momentum seen from the industry itself, which includes device manufacturers, wireless network providers and service providers. All this led us to recognize that the time was right to help our clients expand their existing businesses with a mobile offering." FUN signs online agreement with skysports.comOnline game provider FUN Technologies Inc. announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Fanball UK Ltd. signed an agreement with British Sky Broadcasting Ltd. to provide content for the Sky sports portal at skysports.com, the UK’s most popular commercial sports website. Fanball will build, host, operate and maintain a fantasy sports website, which will be accessible from the Sky homepage and is scheduled to be launched ahead of soccer’s World Cup finals. "This is a terrific step forward in our drive to extend our leading fantasy platform into the UK and Europe, and is aligned with our overarching goal of expanding the distribution of our games into new geographic markets," said Lorne Abony, CEO of FUN, in a news release. Fanball provides online fantasy sports contests, content, strategy and insight, and has exclusive white-label distribution agreements with organizations such as AOL and NASCAR.com. Look launches mobile TV demonstration, responds to Industry CanadaLook Communications Inc., a 51%-owned subsidiary of Unique Broadband Systems Inc., has made Milton ON the first mobile broadcast town in Canada. Look’s mobile multimedia (M3) van offers live TV to four separate personalized screens, allowing each passenger to choose their own live video or audio channel. The companies feel their mobile TV offering is a major improvement over the streamed, slow-framed television currently offered by Canadian cellular carriers. "Cellular phone TVs are not receiving or providing ‘at home’ TV-quality video since their networks were not designed for broadcasting," said Gerald McGoey, vice-chairman and CEO of Look and chairman and CEO of UBS, in a news release. "Look Mobile TV will have the advantage of a live broadcast network, with content and programs available to Look, which is presently broadcasting over 100 video channels under its broadcast licence." Look Communications has also expressed its pleasure with the conclusions and decisions reached by Industry Canada in Policy Provisions for the Band 2500-2690 MHz to Facilitate Future Mobile Service, which was released March 30. The policy confirmed that incumbents such as Look may continue to operate their existing broadcast and Internet businesses under their existing licenses with their existing terms and conditions as issued by the CRTC. It also allows Look to continue its discussions with potential partners for development of its M3 entertainment and information service in Ontario an Québec. Harlequin On The Go coming to mobile phonesWireless technology company VOCEL and women’s fiction publisher Harlequin Enterprises Ltd. have teamed up to offer daily serialized novels by best-selling authors with Harlequin On The Go. Fans of Harlequin novels will soon be able to download a chapter a day onto their mobile phones, with three new stories being available every month. "Harlequin On The Go means you will never be caught without great reading again," said Pam Laycock, Harlequin’s executive VP, new business development and strategy, in a news release. "This mobile application is a key thrust in our digital delivery strategy which also includes downloadable audio and eBooks." Other content will include games and tips on writing romance novels. Subscriptions will cost $2.49 per month. VRX brings Hard Rock Hotel & Casino onlineVRX Studios Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of VRX Worldwide Inc., has been named an official online content provider of Peter Morton’s Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. VRX will create Web-friendly 360-degree virtual tours and still images of the hotel and casino’s amenities and room types, including their award winning swimming pool, Body English Nightclub and concert venue. "At the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, we have gone to great lengths to mirror the successful rock music theme that has made the Hard Rock Hotel a part of every rock aficionado’s vocabulary for years," said the Hard Rock Hotel’s Spencer Villasenor in media release. "We wanted nothing to be lost in the translation from physical to virtual reality." Shaw supports Kids Help PhoneShaw Communications Inc. has provided a $60,000 grant to enhance the online counselling service offered by Kids Help Phone. Demand for the toll-free phone and Web counselling service continued to grow last year and helped kids in need on the phone and online more than 1 million times. In response to the demand, Kids Help Phone has begun overhauling its online "Help Yourself" sections by making them more interactive and appealing to young people. Improvements have already been made to the bullying section, with more to come as funding becomes available. "It is only with the support of companies like Shaw Communications Inc. that Kids Help Phone can continue to be there by phone and online when young people across the country reach out for help," said Kids’ president and CEO Bill Saul in a news release.

CNM Short Takes

Broadcast | May 15, 2006

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