"The CRTC is continuing on a path of protectionism for the benefit of certain Canadian programmers at the expense of Canadian television customers," said Peter Bissonnette, president of Shaw Communications Inc., in a press release questioning last week's CRTC decision denying Shaw's request to add USA Network to the lists of eligible satellite services for distribution on a digital basis. "Shaw strongly believes that Canadians deserve access to the best national and international sources of programming – that is what the Broadcasting Act promises." The application, which was submitted by Shaw in January, was denied primarily on the basis that it was competitive with the Category 1 specialty service Mystery TV. However, Shaw counters that Mystery TV owner CanWest MediaWorks Inc. acknowledged in its intervention that "USA Network is truly a general interest service. It does not limit itself to any one particular genre but is rather a leading provider of original series, off-network television shows, sports events and block-buster theatrical events."

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A new service from Lypp, a Vancouver-based company operated by Gaboogie Canada Inc., is enabling BlackBerry users to make long distance calls free of charge. The company, which touts itself as a "using the data connections and applications that already exist on cell phones and mobile devices to give users features and pricing that the wireless carriers don't, won't or can't offer" says it can end the high LD prices, as high $.30 per minute, currently being charged by Canada's carriers.

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The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is teaming up with the Sheffield International Documentary Festival in the UK on a new cross-media competition intuitively called the Cross-Media Challenge. The co-production contest calls for innovative, interactive, socially engaged content with applications for mobile and broadband, with the winner receiving a $10,500 co-production development deal with the NFB  Deadline for entries is October 12, 2007. Three semi-finalists will be invited to present their projects at a panel session during the Sheffield Doc/Fest on November 10 and the winner will be announced at the DigiDocs 360 program at the festival. More information can be found at www.nfb.ca/crossmediachallenge.  

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