Representatives from Canada’s digital music industry don’t seem particularly worried about competition from Spotify, the popular European music streaming service reportedly coming to this country. But that doesn’t mean the Canadian players are sitting still. Corus Entertainment Inc. is making mobile moves, and Puretracks Inc. has forged a bricks-and-mortar partnership. Toronto-based Corus recently announced that its new Alan Cross program ExploreMusic is now available via Viigo, a mobile content application platform for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices. Launched last October, ExploreMusic delves into news about, interviews with and opinions from emerging and established rock artists. The Viigo decision is another step in radio’s digital transformation, says...
Almost a year after it was first broached, the CRTC has officially authorized the operations of the Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF), paving the way for private and public over-the-air broadcasters in small markets to benefit from the $100 million subsidy starting Sept. 1. The authorization comes in a series of regulatory decisions released this week. It compels broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs) to contribute 1.5% of their gross revenues to the LPIF, a figure which has increased from the 1% earlier suggested by the commission. The decision also mandates the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) to manage the fund. Stakeholders in the broadcast sector, who have long...
There will be no shortage of reading material this week for Canada’s broadcast regulatory lawyers. The CRTC is scheduled to release several decisions this week that will determine, among other things, new targeting advertising options for BDUs, public disclosure of financial data and issues...
As FreeHD Canada Inc.’s application winds its way through the CRTC’s assessment mechanisms, industry observers wonder if the new satellite TV service will be and do everything it says it will. “It’s not any different from what Shaw Direct and Bell are offering,” says...
The popular networking site Facebook is taking steps its executives say will offer more protection to the rights of users within the next 12 months. The technical and privacy policy changes contain several initiatives designed to sooth concerns raised by the Privacy Commissioner in July....
Negotiating a fair market value for local signals, Canadian content levels, and worries about a two-tier broadcasting system are among the top concerns raised in 103 interventions filed in response to the CRTC’s review of group-based licensing for television services. In June, the CRTC...
The fact that Vancouver-based video-over-IP company Broadbandtv Corp. just landed a deal to promote the National Basketball Association (NBA) on Google Inc.’s YouTube tells us the company must be doing something right. In an interview with Tech Media Reports, the firm’s CEO provides pointers for content owners looking for a leg up in the digital world. “Instead of monetizing one copy of an asset, let’s monetize thousands of copies,” says Shahrzad Rafati. “Why focus only on the YouTube channel? Monetize all the legitimate copies of the clips across YouTube.” That was one major piece of advice she offered in an...
International Datacasting Corp.’s purchase of Comtech Telecommunications Corp.’s money-losing broadcast division Tiernan Video comes with risks, warn analysts, but it could be what’s needed to accelerate the Ottawa company’s move beyond radio and into the higher demand – and higher value...
British Columbia commercialization centre, Wavefront, celebrated the grand opening of its new facilities this week in Vancouver with the unveiling of two major agreements that forge closer ties with the Chinese and Japanese markets and strengthen Canada’s position as a go-to country for mobile content development....
Asset acquisition and a scramble for category 2 licences are two main issues that will dominate a marathon hearing at the CRTC next month, where 27 applications will be under the microscope. Of the applications the CRTC will be examining, seven deal with asset acquisition. The applications were filed by big names in...
Rob Chaplinksy, the managing director of a California-based private equity firm that’s set to open a branch in Toronto this summer, says poor returns on early stage venture investments in Canada’s tech sector is due to lack of quality managers. “The money is there but it has not been going to great...
CRTC vice-chair Michel Arpin says it was a convincing business case – and not political pressure – that prompted the regulator to change its mind and grant a licence to a French-language community radio station in Ottawa. “I am not saying that we have caved in. To the contrary, I think it is a...
If there is anything that is “beyond everybody’s wildest dreams” it is that citizens and consumers in 2009 would be paying as much as $50 per month for television they mostly got for free three decades ago. The cable and satellite business is protected by regulation. Moreover, that public policy...
If there is anything that is “beyond everybody’s wildest dreams” it is that citizens and consumers in 2009 would be paying as much as $50 per month for television they mostly got for free three decades ago. The cable and satellite business is protected by regulation. Moreover, that public policy...
Facing criticism from new media organizations, the president of the Canadian Television Fund (CTF) says her organization is doing all it can to ensure the new Canadian Media Fund (CMF) meets the needs of both new media and the television companies. “I don’t think the new media community or the television...
Television services and the wireless and Internet sectors are crucial factors that have fuelled revenue growth totaling $54 billion last year for the broadcast and telecommunications industries, according to figures in the second annual Communications Monitoring Report released by the CRTC this week. Telecommunications The largest revenue growth was seen in telecommunications. According to the report, revenues increased by 5.5% or $2.1 billion to stand at a total of $40 billion for last year. “This improvement of $2.1 billion, or 5.5%, in one year was achieved on the strength of the wireless and Internet sectors,” said the report. Wireless telephone services garnered...
The Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS) is calling on Ottawa to eliminate income tax for information and communication technologies (ICT) workers as well as taxes on technology sold in Canada in an effort to stimulate the ICT sector and kick-start a national ICT strategy. Greg Lane says there’s need for...
A recent Canadian Media Guild (CMG) survey showing that only 6% of residents of Kamloops, BC watch over-the-air (OTA) television doesn’t tell the whole story and the federal government shouldn’t allow broadcasters to discontinue OTA service in cities with small populations, says Lise Lareau, president of the CMG. “This idea of...
The Canadian Television Fund will kick off an online consultation process with industry stakeholders on Aug. 6 to map the way forward for a new Canadian Media Fund (CMF).The process will focus on key policy issues that will guide the newly created CMF. The CMF is an amalgamation of the Canadian Television Fund and the Canadian New Media Fund and is...
The Canadian Hearing Society (CHS) is criticizing a recent CRTC ruling on access to telecommunications and broadcast services for not mandating video relay service (VRS). Disability groups praise several directives but the provision exonerating companies from a mandatory VRS is not one of them. Released July 21, the...
BitTorrent Inc. has shot back at ISPs arguing that peer-to-peer (P2P) traffic is hogging the network and therefore requires them to perform application-specific throttling. In a letter to the CRTC, the company says that while “network management is essential to the preservation of Internet-based business models, it is our view that these management practices are not required to be, nor should they be, discriminatory in nature.” The P2P application provider says Comcast got it right in the wake of the Federal Communications Commission’s decision declaring the company’s previous traffic management practices illegal. Following the ruling, Comcast switched from...
Apple Inc.’s App Store features 70,000 applications for download. How can individual app developers stand out in such a big crowd? According to a researcher at the MaRS Centre in Toronto, patience is the name of the game. “The benefit of thinking long-term and releasing new content on a fixed schedule is to discourage get-rich-quick...
Balance between the rights of consumers and creators are some of the top concerns expressed by a number of parties to Industry Canada’s online consultation on copyright reform. The first two days of the public consultations, which began last Friday in Vancouver, elicited 35 formal...
Industry Canada and Canadian Heritage are reviving efforts to update the Copyright Act, announcing on Friday that it would begin a new round of public consultations starting today in Vancouver. The consultations run across the country until Sept. 13. The framing of the consultation is as follows: “The...
Few details have been publicly released on the Government of Ontario’s $263 million perk to French video game maker Ubisoft, and the promise of 800 jobs over 10 years. Tech Media Reports provides an insider look at how the money will flow, and why one business lobby group views the subsidy as anti-competitive. On...
The specialty television sector, for the first time ever, has dislodged private conventional broadcasters as the top revenue generator in the Canadian broadcast industry, according to an industry report released by Statistics Canada. In fact, every segment of the broadcasting sector earned more money in 2008 over 2007,...
If many community and campus (C/C) radio stations have their way, broadcasters, BDUs and even telecom companies will be forced by the CRTC to begin subsidizing community radio. It’s a controversial proposal, and one of many that will be hotly debated at a November hearing to consider new funding models, micro-radio...
The last two days of the CRTC’s hearing into traffic management practices saw the large ISPs reveal details on how they throttle peer-to-peer traffic – practices that might prove illegal for at least one of those ISPs, according to an Ottawa law professor. Speaking with Tech Media...
The volume and quality of independently produced Canadian programming is expected to get a major boost as a result of the CRTC’s decision to shift from individual broadcast licences to a single group licence for integrated corporations. Television and film producers are also lauding a new rule that will force...
An online telethon for sick children last year went offline periodically because the ISP treated the broadcast’s video stream as an unwanted peer-to-peer (P2P) upload, according to the telethon’s producer. At the CRTC hearings into Internet neutrality today, Brad Fox argued that it’s time for the government to put an end to packet-throttling practices. Speaking on a panel with representatives from the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA) and the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA), Fox explained how the fundraiser issue occurred. On short notice, his production company Rocket Ace Moving Pictures teamed up with Hamilton ON-based sketch...
Canada will not follow the US lead in converting all over-the-air television stations to digital. The CRTC stated Monday that only major markets, including capital cities, will be mandated to do the switch by August 31, 2011, leaving smaller markets to consider alternative delivery mechanisms. Broadcasters have long...
BDUs across Canada will have to pony up $102 million over the next year towards local programming, but whether or not they pay a monetary “fee” for carriage of broadcast signals will be decided by the parties involved, not the regulator, says CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein. However,...
Some digital media industry executives are worried that the new Canada Media Fund (CMF) won’t support interactive media projects as well as it could because it lacks digital media representation on its board of directors, and the consultation process for fund management might not be as comprehensive as hoped....
An Ottawa company has unveiled plans to bring the first large-scale movie download service to Canada. Its announcement on Friday comes just days before a CRTC hearing begins into internet throttling and other bandwidth management practices. Company executives are preparing to make their case before...
The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto this June made one thing very clear: the mobile internet will change our world in ways we are only beginning to understand. Specifically, traffic management will be a necessity, and advertising will increasingly be pushed to mobile users who are well-known based on their location and consumption habits. Most notable in the break-out sessions and the keynotes was the emphasis on data mining and marketing in mobile environments. This conversation had no limits: it involved carriers, ICT vendors, enterprises, content providers, government, and educators. In a break-out session Rebecca Prudhomme, director of interactive products at Amdocs...
Executives from Canada's biggest private broadcasters lobbied Heritage minister James Moore for "immediate relief" from Part II fees and "a negotiated settlement" out of court, prior to a Supreme Court fall hearing on the contentious fees, according to Access to Information...
Industry Minister Tony Clement wound up a major digital conference Monday with a promise that Canadians will start to see segments of an action plan for a digital economy in the fall, although he also stressed that the task of making Canada a leader in the digital economy is huge and that it might...
Where are they now? Nine and six years after winning financial support from the Quebecor Fund, TV/new media firms Galafilm Productions Inc. and Decode Entertainment Inc. (respectively) are still going strong, and they’re getting ready to launch new digital projects. Tech Media Reports catches up with the companies as...
Rogers Cable’s broadband television portal, pitched early this year to the CRTC as alternative that will keep subscribers paying for cable services, is set to launch between now and September, with a tiered service of premium content and pay and specialty channels to follow early next year....
Armed with $25-million from the sale of VisionTV and other television assets to a company owned by CITY-TV pioneer Moses Znaimer, the charity (VTV) that controlled the services is looking to digital content creation and unregulated media channels as just two of the potential money-makers to fill its...
The federal government should remove regulatory and fiscal barriers and offer incentives if it expects the telecom industry to build the broadband infrastructure required to underpin a digital economy. Executives from Bell Canada and Telus Corp. made the comments a week before Industry minister Tony...
The federal government should depart from previous practices of funding broadband and take a more creative approach to allocating funds under its $225-million broadband stimulus program, according to one of the organizers of the Canadian Telecom Summit. Speaking with Tech Media Reports, Mark Goldberg said that it would be a...
A top Rogers Cable executive says broadcasters need to think beyond advertising for the lion’s share of their revenue and stop giving away their content for free online. Speaking at the 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto on Monday, David Purdy called giving free...
Atlantic Canadian new media companies seem to be doing better than the national average, according to a recent report. But this east-side industry is also in flux, and some say what happens with the provincial governments and their support for the sector could make or break the fledgling scene. “This really is a fast-growing sector,” says Mark Sandiford, head of the Interactive Media Alliance of PEI (IMAPEI), and producer at film/animation/software development house Telos Productions Inc. in Charlottetown. “All of the companies are looking to expand. There have been other companies sniffing around to move here as well. But all of that could really slow down and dry...
Pelmorex Communications Inc. won a critical battle today in its decade-long effort to launch a national emergency alerting system. The CRTC approved its application for the national service, but now the tough task begins to convince BDUs and broadcasters to carry its emergency weather information service. The CRTC...
If recommendations for a national digital strategy are embraced by the federal government, Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty says he’s ready to lend his government’s support and collaborate with his federal counterparts to make Canada a leader on digital issues. “First of all, I think if we put our ear to...
Senior executives in the digital sector yesterday welcomed Industry Minister Tony Clement’s promise at the Canada 3.0 Conference in Stratford ON to work with industry to develop a strategy to make Canada a leader in digital media. But they cautioned that challenges still remain. In a...
This week’s decision by the CRTC to exempt new media platforms from regulation was one that was not surprising if the testimony by several groups on various sticking points was anything to go by. Even before the new media hearing kicked off, the question of determining whether broadcast activities on the Internet constitute broadcasting as it...
The CRTC has decided to keep its hands off regulating broadcast activities on the Internet, at least for now. Speaking with Tech Media Reports in the wake of the decision, CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein says there wasn't enough evidence to support regulating broadcasting on the Internet and mobile devices, but notes a shorter time span for reviewing new media next time is necessary because of its constantly changing nature. “We want to make sure we don’t miss anything, so that’s why we said at least in five [years], may be earlier we will have another review,” von Finckenstein tells Tech Media Reports. The CRTC also called for a holistic national digital...
Industry minister Tony Clement, Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty and industry heavyweights will meet in Stratford ON June 8 for what organizers hope will become a catalyst for spurring both government and industry to embark on a digital media strategy for Canada. Organizers say Canada’s...
Inspired by the successful launch of three African specialty channels in the UK, four Toronto area investors hope before winter to launch Canada’s first specialty channel catering to a growing African and Afro-Caribbean population – assuming the CRTC approves their application....
What started out as essentially as a 10-year reunion for the people who helped bring competition to Canada’s long distance telecommunications market in 1992, the Canadian Telecom Summit has evolved over the past eight years into an annual conference many consider a must-attend event. Taking place from June 15 to 17,...
Forget “new media.” The future lies with “digital” pursuits, according to one Canadian visionary. Sara Diamond, president of the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD), has tossed the old moniker and says we should get on with the job of making this industry a veritable...
The chair of the CRTC appears to be softening his demand that Canadian broadcasters convert all their over-the-air signals to digital by 2011. Konrad von Finckenstein told a Parliamentary committee yesterday that a hybrid solution – one that sees urban areas receiving digital OTA and smaller markets continuing to rely...
A Canadian IPTV pioneer is considering a partnership with U.S. satellite TV companies as a way to break into the multi-dwelling unit market, according to G. Scott Paterson, NeuLion Inc./JumpTV Inc.’s Toronto-based vice-chair. It also hasn’t given up hopes of further expansions into the Canadian market....
Not all small cablecos deserve to be treated equally. That’s the conclusion of both Telus Corp. and the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA) which are urging the CRTC to not create a loophole that would allow Canada’s largest cable operators to bypass production...
Bell Canada’s 11-year-old Bell University Laboratories (BUL) program has been cancelled and replaced by a smaller fund that targets skills development and telecom technologies more likely to generate a return on investment. The new Bell Innovation Fund (BIF) has been implemented in Quebec and negotiations are ongoing...
Nearly a decade since his short-lived web company iCraveTV.com set the broadcast establishment on its ear, William Craig is back, and he’s preparing a new business venture. “It relates to technology, and it’s a brilliant idea,” he says. “It will take me into the States, as well as Canada.” He isn’t giving many details – “I’d have to shoot you if I told you about it” – but in a wide-ranging interview with Tech Media Reports he did explore his past, the impact iCraveTV had on the industry, and what he’d have done differently to avoid his company’s disastrous end. You might remember Craig as the Canadian businessman who started the whole Internet TV business rolling with iCraveTV, founded circa 1999....
CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein told MPs this week that CTVglobemedia and the CBC should be able to reach an agreement that will allow CBC to broadcast the 2010 Vancouver Olympics to Francophones communities in Quebec. Testifying before the Standing Committee on Official Languages on Tuesday, von...
As the CRTC awaits comments on the distribution of Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera English (AJE) in Canada, two of Canada’s major BDUs have expressed interest in carrying AJE if the CRTC approves the move, according to the president of a company that is acting on AJE’s behalf....
The newly appointed president and CEO of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA) says his policy directions will mainly centre on pushing for more shelf space for Canadian content and encouraging independent producers to exploit new digital platforms - but not at the expense...
Bell Canada says it’s prepared to spend $5 million annually to convert analog broadcast signals to digital, but it wants concessions in return from both broadcasters and the CRTC, the Commons Heritage Committee heard yesterday. “Broadcasters would avoid the massive cost of upgrading their analog transmitters...
Proposals from Industry Canada to give additional satellite frequencies to direct-to-home (DTH) television services and to allocate more bandwidth for tactical systems are being criticized by the wireless industry. The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) tells the department that giving portions of the 15 GHz band to tactical common data link (TCDL) systems will throw a wrench into backhaul activities for wireless carriers. “More than 1,000 fixed service links are at risk of being displaced from the 15 GHz band, with few alternatives for operators,” reads the CWTA’s submission in response to DGTP-004-08. The wireless association acknowledges that...
A year after Remstar Broadcasting Inc. bought cash-strapped TQS, the president of the Quebec-based company has told the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage that TQS’ bad days are behind it – but the network still needs another revenue stream to stay afloat. Maxime Rémillard said TQS’...
Ten years in business. Nearly two million subscribers. No profit. This is Bell TV today. It begs certain questions: Is satellite broadcasting a viable business model? If so, what’s wrong with Bell? Around the world, most direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV providers “of the size and scale of Bell TV…are...
The next few weeks could represent the broadcast industry’s best chance yet for convincing regulators and legislators that fee-for-carriage is the only salvation for Canada’s ailing broadcast industry. The president and CEO of CTVglobemedia, Ivan Fecan, even went so far yesterday as to assure CRTC...
Financial trend-spotters and digital media companies say a new BC-based venture capital fund started by people with serious electronic know-how is excellent news for the industry – especially in light of a dismal 2008 for Canadian venture capital overall. “The investment community is small and young in...
An independent consultant’s report commissioned by the CRTC puts the cost of converting over-the-air (OTA) transmitters to digital at more than $424 million, a figure likely to raise the ire of broadcasters who have long argued that OTA conversion is too expensive and not justified since most Canadians receive...
American stations are baffled by a CRTC rule that allows cable and satellite companies to re-transmit local TV stations – a situation that is creating unfair competition for local stations and undermining their financial survival, CTVglobemedia president and CEO Ivan Fecan told the House of Commons Heritage Committee...
Corus Entertainment Inc. has inked an agreement with MySpace Canada that will deliver Corus’s 50-plus radio stations to the popular networking site via a new web portal ( www.MySpace.com/radio). The move is designed to offset a drop in advertising revenues that shows no sign of reversing anytime soon. The Montreal...
Rogers Communications Inc. took its battle against fee-for-carriage to Parliament Hill yesterday, hoping this time to convince legislators that carriage fees are effectively a consumer tax that will prove unnecessary once the current advertising crisis is over. Rogers executives were the first industry representatives to...
Tapping into its strength as one of Canada’s largest carriers of popular television shows, Global Television has unveiled a redesigned website—its biggest digital makeover yet—equipped with a robust video centre that is expected to enhance user experience, attract more online traffic, and boost advertising. Unveiled April 16, the new GlobalTV.com is markedly different from the old site, which was relatively light in terms of interactivity. The new site offers viewers more in-depth coverage of individual shows on the network’s repertoire of 32 shows, some of them prime-time favourites. The video centre, where most of the shows can be found, features an improved...
If BDUs want to keep as much as $109 million in new revenues from ads inserted into the two minutes per hour of local avails on US programming, they should be prepared to hand over half to support Canadian programming, organizations representing actors, producers and film directors tell the CRTC....
Amidst the backdrop of the global economic meltdown and dwindling ad revenues for the broadcast industry, Canada’s big cablecos are calling on the CRTC to allow advertising on local avails, arguing that the move will open up a new stream of income that will benefit the whole broadcasting system. But the move is...
Canadian companies, already laggards when it comes to integrating social media into their marketing, need to start developing plans for the next technology wave: mobile searches, warns search engine expert Jeff Quipp. Google is already leading the way with its launch in March of a free business locator “411”...
Two of Canada’s big cablecos are cautioning the CRTC against changing the existing video-on-demand regulatory framework and adopting rules that restrict the growth of VOD and its expansion onto digital platforms. Cable giants Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc....
Canwest Television Ltd. wants the CRTC to make it easier for broadcasters to access a new $60-million local programming fund by eliminating complicated allocation formulas, and allowing funding to go to expenses other than strictly local news. The CBC disagrees, saying new money should only reward broadcasters who spend the most on local programming. For the CRTC, it appears that announcing the Local Improvement Programming Fund has been the easy part. The more difficult challenge will be determining who is eligible, how awards should be calculated, which expenses should be eligible and how the new fund should be administered. There are no shortage of ideas from industry players who...
The CRTC should not use its regulatory might to bail out CTV Inc., Canwest Television Ltd, and Rogers Broadcasting Ltd. for financial woes that have been largely self-inflicted, warns Canada’s actors, producers and screen writers. One union blames the problem on an “orgy of self-indulgence” that has seen...
Three of Canada’s largest broadcast distributors are attempting to stave off any further moves by the CRTC to hike cable and satellite TV bills as a way to subsidize money-losing local television stations. Instead, the companies are using the OTA licence renewal proceeding (2009-113) to pitch other ways in which local...
As other middle power countries like Britain, France and New Zealand gear up to create national digital strategies, there are calls in Canada for the federal government and industry leaders to create a similar strategy here – one that encompasses everything from broadband infrastructure to content creation and...
Canada’s biggest telecom players – including BCE Inc., Telus Corp. and Bell Aliant – as well as smaller ICT and digital media companies will face some stringent new reporting rules when applying for research tax credits this year, warns Canada’s largest technology association. Some companies will be...
Francophone and Anglophone minorities will have to rely on the Internet to get more programming in their own language, following a March 30 CRTC report to the federal government that rejects demands from some community groups that broadcasters and BDUs offer more minority language content. Released this week, the report...
Ontario’s interactive media industry – tagged as one of the province’s growth sectors – says the Ontario government is doing the right thing in providing a $100-million boost to tax credits, increasing funding to the Ontario Media Development Corporation and creating a new venture capital fund....
“Will the broadcaster portal survive?” This was the last question at the last session of the Interactive Exchange conference held earlier this month in Toronto. And while nobody yet knows the answer, broadcasters admit the learning curve is steep and difficult. “The business of television is...
While conventional broadcasters struggle to stay solvent, discretionary services continued to enjoy stable returns in 2008, primarily as a result of nearly $1.9 billion in subscriber fees from BDUs -- a regulatory concession broadcasters have been lobbying to get for years. More than 65% of the discretionary services...
CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein told MPs yesterday his agency is doing everything it can to help cash-strapped broadcasters over the next year, but points out that other measures – including allowing drug ads and eliminating Part II licence fees – could generate more cash and in a shorter timeframe than any regulatory concession, including carriage fees. Insisting there are no “magic bullet solutions”, he said systemic changes are needed to deal with structural problems in the industry, although those changes won’t come into force until at least 2011. All the commission can do, he said, is ease the financial burden by relaxing licensing conditions through...
Before announcing massive layoffs at its ‘A’ stations in early March, CTVglobemedia Inc. was involved in a busy lobbying campaign targeting Heritage minister James Moore, leader of the official opposition Michael Ignatieff, Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae and a host of opposition critics on the Heritage...
When nearly everyone in the communications industry is shrinking under heavy debt loads and a weak economy, Canada’s digital media industry is bucking the global trend with 2008 revenue results that exceed even the most optimistic predictions. Overall, the industry generated $4.7 billion in 2008 – a 50.9%...
Guy Mayson, outgoing president and CEO of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA), says despite the country’s economic woes, he remains optimistic that smart policies and incentives will continue to fuel demand for independent productions. “The reason I am optimistic is that,...
The CRTC has summoned the CBC for a public hearing on June 2 to answer charges that the public broadcaster is flouting regulations by enacting an unauthorized change in the licence conditions of a television service catering to rural Canadians. The CRTC says CBC’s broadcast of the television service, called Bold,...
Private broadcasters are hinting the CRTC may have to lower its expectations for local programming in light of the global economic meltdown. Responding to the commission’s request for a framework for the proposed Local Programming Improvement Fund, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters says the CRTC’s “unrealistic” expectations could result in broadcasters cutting spending in all programming categories. Born out of the BDU framework decision released last October, the LPIF garnered criticism and praise. Proponents hailed it as a lifeline for local programming in areas with small populations. Critics slammed it as an unnecessary demand on BDU subscribers, who...
Bell Aliant’s ability to compete with EastLink for TV customers in Atlantic Canada could be severely curtailed if the federal Cabinet doesn’t overturn a recent CRTC decision on speed matching – a ruling that gives competitors wholesale access to next-generation facilities. Speaking with Canadian...
Quebecor Media Inc.’s Internet business is still making money but that could change if the CRTC decides to impose a levy to support the creation of Canadian content online. Quebecor’s chief executive Pierre-Karl Péladeau made the comments yesterday during an appearance...
After 18 months of behind-the-scenes work, cable giant Rogers Communications Inc. is launching a broadband television portal by mid-year that it says will keep subscribers paying while offering pay and specialty services a chance to expand audience reach at minimal additional cost. “This service will improve the...
In the wake of CTVglobemedia Inc.’s payroll purge across its “A” TV stations earlier this month, some people now wonder if the layoffs were as much a political ploy as an economic necessity. Bob Smith, former a.m. news anchor at A London – one of the stations affected by the cuts – figures...
The head of regulatory affairs at Rogers Communications Inc. slammed Pelmorex Media Inc. for saying his company makes it difficult for consumers to view a broad variety of wireless content on its devices. Ken Engelhart, senior VP of regulatory affairs at the media and communications giant, said what Pelmorex and others are...
Governments need to work more closely with banks, venture capitalists and multinational companies to create a bigger funding pipeline for Ontario’s nascent mobile industry, and collaborate with post-secondary institutions to develop a mobile workforce strategy, recommends a new draft...
The Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA) is urging the CRTC to extend the new media exemption regime to allow time to test a new partnership that could dramatically boost the amount of video advertising on the Internet. Online video advertising in Canada represents less than 1% of all online advertising, generating...
The Canadian Media Guild (CMG) says it has come up with a cost-effective plan for implementing digital over-the-air in small markets but claims broadcasters are ignoring the proposal because they want to abandon OTA transmissions altogether. The union, which represents 6,000 workers in public and private broadcasting,...
Facing what it calls an “immediate” threat from unregulated Internet radio, Sirius Satellite says CRTC should use its regulatory powers to force ISPs to block audio content that does not comply with Canadian content requirements in order for satellite radio to be competitive. “The reason I bring it up is to give the commission some insight into the threat we perceive to our business from unregulated Internet radio that is currently not expected to contribute to the broadcast system and just how unlevel the playing field is for us,” Sherry Kerr, Sirius’ VP and general counsel told the CRTC new media hearing this morning. (CCR, Dec. 15-08) Kerr said...
