CTV launches broadband news serviceToronto-based broadcaster CTV Inc. had launched what it calls "phase one" of a new TV-over-broadband service, the CTV Broadband Network. The offering currently consists of four dedicated channels: CTV Shows, which features full-length prime-time programming; CTV News and Docs, composed of current affairs and new programs updated hourly; eTalk on Broadband for entertainment news buffs; and Discovery Channel on CTV, for science, nature and travel programming. More programming is anticipated to be added this fall, when phase two of the network gets underway. Kris Faibish, VP for digital media at CTV Television, says the news clips are "edited for length and content to be more concise and phone friendly," adding that CTV has added additional content creation staff to help manage the process. Brighter Minds sees brighter Q1The first three months of the year were kind to Toronto-based Brighter Minds Media Inc., a producer of interactive DVD games, casual games and other multimedia for...
The sad passing of ZeD, CBC’s cutting-edge participatory media experiment, earlier this year has had some happy consequences: namely, the creation of a new interactive shop in Vancouver. Elastic Entertainment’s founding partners are Jennifer Ouano and Rochelle Grayson, the former of whom was senior producer at ZeD. Ouano is also a 15-year veteran of the production game, having worked as a producer, director, journalist, host, entrepreneur, business development strategist and consultant for a variety of clients in the media sector. She has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Woman of Vision award from Women in Film and Video, a Yorkton award for her documentary Burning to Shine, and a Leo award. Ouano’s work has also been nominated for two Gemini awards. She has worked with a variety of media movers-and-shakers, including recording artist k-os as producer and director of a documentary based on his life; action film director John Woo, for whom she created a mobile game; and webcasts of live events for Spike Lee and...
David Farnes, VP of industry and regulatory affairs at the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, recently responded to the CRTC’s call for a new proposed exemption order for mobile wireless television services. In his submission, excerpted below, he says that by exempting the MobiTV-based services of the major...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.Far be it from me to disagree with an icon such as Nolan Bushnell, but it seems that if one objects to violence in video games, one also needs to be prepared to take a stand against pop culture in general. In his keynote speech at the recent Vidfest conference in Vancouver, Bushnell – whose...
The 2006 Banff World Television Festival held special significance – and likely a modicum of sorrow – for the board members of the Canadian Television Fund (CTF). It was here, almost a year ago to the day, that Liza Frulla, then minister of Canadian Heritage, announced her department’s recommendation that the fund surrender its administration to...
A significant component of Canada’s broadcast distribution industry was fundamentally changed on June 2 when the CRTC decided to permit cable broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs) to use 25% of their local availabilities to promote non-programming services (Broadcasting Public Notice 2006-69). On the same day, the commission demonstrated...
Shaw to buy two BC cablecosOn June 14 and 15 Shaw Communications Inc. announced it had entered into agreements to acquire Pemberton Cable, a Coast Mountain Communications property, and Saltspring Cablevision. In what is a fact of life in the cable distribution industry, the big get bigger and the small get acquired. "It’s the way of cable," says Peter Lyman, senior partner at Nordicity Group Ltd. "If you’ve got a small cable system you can’t afford all the infrastructure to go into telephony and into high-speed Internet access, so the way to monetize your investment is to sell to somebody who can. That’s the logic that would [resonate] with anybody who’s [looking at] getting out of the business." With the acquisition, Shaw extends its reach into two separate rural areas of British Columbia. Pemberton is a tourist town 35 kilometres north of Whistler with a population of 2,204, while Saltspring Island, population 10,000, is located in the Straight of Georgia between the mainland and Vancouver Island. In...
Sportscaster Brian Williams has joined CTV Inc. as a member of CTV and TSN’s broadcast teams where he will play a leading role in shaping and delivering Olympic broadcast coverage of the 2010 Winter Games from Vancouver-Whistler BC. Williams first reported on the Olympics at the 1976 Summer Games from Montreal and has covered virtually every Olympic Games since. He began calling university basketball play-by-play in...
Heritage minister Bev Oda delivered her first comprehensive speech on broadcasting on Sunday, June 11, the first day of the Banff World Television Festival. In it, she responded to some of the issues and concerns Canada’s broadcasting community had expressed about increasing competition from unregulated networks and the future of the CBC, among other...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. What to do about Canadian programming? No matter whether it’s television or radio, Canada’s broadcast media are, understandably, obsessed with audience share. Audiences, of course, mean advertising. But when the hottest-selling shows are conceived and created in the US, Canadian producers...
CRTC chair Charles Dalfen revealed the scope of the long-awaited television policy review at the 2006 Banff World Television Festival last week. High on the agenda: finding the most efficient way to fund Cancon, clearing up financial regulations for broadcasters, and promoting production in high-definition (HD). In his...
Members of the top three projects to win production funding at a recent pitch competition might have the Canadian Film Centre’s Habitat New Media Lab to thank for their success, at least in part. Xenophile Media’s Evan Jones, Jacqueline Nuwame of Eventide Media and Rawl Banton of Wa Wow Enterprises presented...
With a record crowd of approximately 550 registered attendees at this year’s Canadian New Media Awards, you’d think the maxim ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ would apply. This is new media, however: striving to remain on the cutting edge is imperative, and Canada’s industry awards are no exception. The CNMAs are all about...
With government interest in reforming the Copyright Act resurgent, a coalition of artists, galleries, curators and others in the fine arts are determined to have their say on "appropriation art" and how it relates to copyright. The Coalition of Art Professionals was founded mid-May expressly to influence the copyright reform...
User-created content is increasingly staking a claim for itself in the mobile space, with indie rock bands and DJ’s using the near-ubiquity of cell phone penetration in the 12-to-24-year-old age group to expand the reach of their brands. One Toronto firm is joining the ranks of those hoping to capitalize on the...
Quebecor Media Inc. properties Canoe.ca and Toronto broadcaster Sun TV teamed up last month to launch a convergence/participatory media project dubbed Canoe Live. The offering aims to give Torontonians a say in how their city gets covered in the media by allowing them to submit video footage and still images covering a variety of subjects. But while its blend of current affairs TV programming and user-submitted content makes for an exciting experiment, Jose Leal, VP and GM at the Canoe.ca portal, says the offering will likely be in beta mode throughout the summer and likely won’t be "real product" for more than a year. Leal says the venture was sparked by the...
Take a trip with Tigga and ToggaImagine a world where every object has a sound waiting to be discovered and every creature has a song. Welcome to the musical world of Tigga and Togga Interactive! The site is based on Tigga and Togga, the 26x3-minute preschool musical series from Cuppa Coffee Studios, which will be debuting soon on TVO with strong support from Head of Children’s Programming Pat Ellingson. Now,...
ONESTOP Media Group, Canada’s largest digital information network, has appointed Paul Bolté executive VP of sales. Bolté brings more than 20 years of corporate entrepreneurship experience in creative and media innovation sales to the position. Prior to joining ONESTOP he was the VP of sales for Cineplex Entertainment. He is also known for spearheading the creation of two media creative boards in Canada: Canada Cannes;...
On June 1, Heritage minister Bev Oda addressed the House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. During the committee meeting, Oda faced questions from Conservative member Chris Warkentin about the emergence of new media, and how Canada’s policies and regulatory environment can adapt to meet the obstacles and opportunities it affords....
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.Sitting here in lovely Banff as an interactive media event closes and a television one opens, I’m struck by the uncertainty that seems to prevail among the broadcasting "old guard" in this digital era. Canadian broadcasters seem most threatened by unregulated content coming from the US,...
A real-time new media project synched to the broadcast of ReGenesis, the cult bioterrorism TV show, made Canadian convergence history on June 11. The finale of the show’s second season featured a reward for loyal members of the audience who had interacted with the characters and storyline throughout the season: simulated security camera footage that, for the most part, synched in real-time with the broadcast feed, giving fans a new perspective of the on-screen action. As impressive as the feat is, it will likely prove impossible to duplicate when the episode eventually re-airs. "We cannot keep the game synched for every rerun – it’s event-based television,"...
Rogers Cable informed its customers this week that as of July 6, The Golf Channel (TGC) will be available exclusively on digital cable. While the move seems a minor step in the complete migration from analog to digital, it says something about the power of Rogers when it can arbitrarily take a channel off the analog dial,...
Interactive television has grown in fits and starts since the first experiments in the 1970s, but a new partnership between Bell ExpressVu and Pelmorex Media Inc. aims to broaden its appeal by harnessing the power of on-demand weather information. In a country like Canada, where the weather can shift dramatically in...
The CRTC put to rest the decade-old debate over the use of local availabilities by Canadian BDUs last week with its decision in Broadcasting Public Notice 2006-69. The commission approved applications from cable operators Rogers Cable Communications Inc., Shaw Communications Inc. and Bragg Communications Inc., who are now free to make more use of...
Rogers Cable Inc. appears to have been bitten by the satellite radio bug, filing an application last month asking to carry satellite radio services on its digital cable network in Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador. The company is requesting permission to carry both the Canadian Satellite Radio and XM Canada services, despite the...
CRTC settles part of inside wiring disputeBroadcast distributors servicing buildings that house transient residents – such as hotels, hospitals and nursing homes – will not have to open up their inside wiring to competitors, according to Broadcasting Public Notice 2006-68. The CRTC ruled on May 29 that its stated goal of increasing end-user choice would not be served by granting access to the inside wiring in such...
The CBC announced that Sally Catto will return from Australia to head up the broadcaster’s English-language drama programming. Catto was a CBC employee from 2001 to 2005, and as such oversaw dramatic production at the public broadcaster. Her roles included development, licensing and production initiatives for drama, working as a story editor on projects in development, evaluating and selecting submitted ideas for...
In Broadcasting Decision 2006-204, the CRTC dismissed a complaint by MTS Allstream which alleged that Shaw Cablesystems and Videon CableSystems had made improper use of local avails to promote non-broadcasting services (see p.6). Below is an excerpt from MTS’ complaint. MTS alleged that Shaw was in violation of its condition of licence by using...
A member of Parliament has introduced a private member’s bill to make closed captioning mandatory for all programming, but two experts on the matter say that while it’s a well-intentioned effort, it may ultimately have little effect as written. On May 19, Bloc Québécois MP Caroline St. Hilaire (Longueuil –...
In what amounts to little less than a slap on the wrist, the CRTC clarified The Sports Network Inc.’s conditions of licence regarding simultaneous distribution of multiple feeds, essentially telling TSN to ask before it multiplexes in future. The CRTC’s ruling concerned a January 17 complaint by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that TSN broadcast NHL hockey games using two simultaneous national feeds at least three times between October and December of last year. By multiplexing their service, TSN allowed analog and digital cable BDUs to broadcast two hockey games at the same time. As the CBC pointed out – and as the commission concurred – this is not allowed under the...
Cambridge ON-based Digital Wizards made history earlier this year as the first Canadian interactive producer to collaborate with an Australian counterpart on a new media project. Erky Perky is a co-production between Digital Wizards and Omnilab Australia on the interactive media side, and Toronto-based CCI Entertainment and Ambience...
When it comes to the adware inserted in many "free" software products such as games and file-sharing applications, standard market controls don’t apply because consumers aren’t viewed as customers – they are the product. That revelation comes from David Fewer, an intellectual property and...
When it comes to advertising, innovation and penetration are key: catch consumers’ attention, create a buzz, and watch your profits soar. Not surprisingly, marketers are always on the lookout for new ways to push their products, and mobile marketing is one new way. A recent study by Decima Research confirms what many of us already knew:...
A Vancouver firm secured US$6.5 million in venture capital earlier this month for its novel approach to online user-generated content: a service that’s part Flickr, part Youtube and part podcasting. "We use a very unique way to allow many people – if not all the people – who want to watch your...
QuickPlay launches Blackberry playerQuickPlay Media of Toronto has launched QuickPlayer for BlackBerry, an audio content player for Waterloo ON-based Research In Motion’s popular handheld device. Although BlackBerries are generally considered a text-based productivity tool rather than a portable media player, QuickPlay VP of marketing Mark Hyland says the profile of the average BlackBerry user is changing. "You’re starting to see them on college campuses and so on and so forth, and I think that speaks to the consumer’s desire to have more multimedia on the Blackberry as well," he says. The new service and software will feature audiocasts as well as personal content, both streaming over carrier networks and focusing on sports, news and financial data. QuickPlayer for BlackBerry is optimized for RIM’s newest offering, the BlackBerry 8700. Ailing Dose goes online onlySlightly more than a year after its launch, CanWest MediaWorks’ Dose newspaper is abandoning its treeware edition. The free paper, owned by the CanWest...
Bill Sweetman, the Toronto-based founder of the Multimediator online directory, has been tapped to lead Internet strategy and planning at the interactive arm of ad agency MacLaren McCann. Sweetman will serve as VP, Internet Strategy at MacLaren McCann Direct & Interactive, a role the company says he’s well-suited for considering his 15 years’ worth of online marketing experience and multimedia savvy. Starting his...
Last month, CBC president and CEO Robert Rabinovitch addressed the Law Society of Upper Canada’s national symposium. While CBC executives have been vocal on their plans for TV programming, the broadcaster’s convergent properties have received less coverage. In his speech, excerpted below, Rabinovitch outlines the...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.Canada’s broadcasters are biting their nails over the pace of technological advance, as evidenced by recent policy hearings. At the Commercial Radio Policy Review hearings in Gatineau earlier this month, Canada’s private radio broadcasters voiced a litany of complaints and concerns about the...
It’s no surprise that Cancon quotas were at the forefront during the Commercial Radio Policy hearings last week, but the importance of emerging artists – and their ability to help broadcasters hit minimum Cancon levels more quickly – was a key talking point in that discussion. As many broadcasters affirmed...
While the Canadian Cable Sys-tems Alliance (CCSA) has announced that it is stepping up to fill the regulatory-assistance void left by the closure of the Canadian Cable Telecommunications Associa-tion, it will have to be much more selective as to which matters it gets involved in. "We want a very focused...
While Canada’s largest BDUs duel it out over the question of multi-address subscriptions (CCR, May 4/06), one smaller cable operator is waging a much grimmer fight against the practice. Bryan Walden, president of Kincardine Cable TV Ltd., a small cablesystem servicing the town of Kincardine ON on the shores of Lake Huron, says his business has...
Panikkar wins approval for more HD licencesHigh-definition TV impresario John Panikkar has won licenses for his fourth and fifth proposed HD specialty channels. AHD and MeridianHD were approved on April 27 and 28 respectively, and will feature content relating to extreme sports and other "high-octane" content in the instance of AHD, and programming relating to culture and human geography in MeridianHD’s case....
The Canadian Film and Television Production Association has named Barbara Whitmer the director of member services and outreach. Whitmer brings previous experience in developing and enhancing membership and member services from her work with the Ottawa International Jazz Festival, the Sierra Club of Canada and the Hospital for Sick Children Foundation. She also holds a Ph. D. from the University of Toronto. In her new...
Telefilm Canada and the National Film Board recently held a Documentary Policy Summit on May 1 in Toronto. At the event, Telefilm Canada executive director Wayne Clarkson pointed to numerous successes in Canadian documentary film production within the last year, but also cautioned that the recent election might dampen longer-term plans. Excerpts from Clarkson’s speech appear below. As everyone here knows, there has been enormous change in the public perception of the documentary over the past number of years, as evidenced by the increasing commercial success of the feature-length documentary... Documentaries such as The Corporation, Shake Hands With The Devil and Les Voleurs...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. After more than 20 years, the status quo in pay television has been broken with the licensing of Allarco Entertainment Inc.’s pay TV service on May 18. But will Canadian consumers necessarily be better off? In green-lighting Allarco, the CRTC refused to entertain the idea of limiting pay TV...
In the competition for new pay TV licences launched last year (CCR, Aug. 9/05), one applicant has finally emerged victorious. Edmonton-based Allarco Entertainment Inc.’s proposed pay TV offering, simply titled Allarco Entertainment, won over the CRTC with its commitments to original Canadian productions, including...
After years of featuring multimedia content throughout its site in various locations, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. has launched a dedicated portal to showcase the wide range and depth of video it creates. "We produce a lot of video," says Bob Kerr, director of business development and digital programming for the CBC, explaining...
Montreal new media distributor Tribal Nova is moving from piecemeal distribution of online games and video to offering a one-stop turnkey kids portal, thus entering a new phase in its content sales strategy. "Kidstudio is a concept that we developed in [partnership] with certain Internet providers or broadcasters, to put online services...
Canada’s two summertime interactive media events have launched new content competitions in a bid to find and promote the best short-form and mobile content. Both the NextPITCH competition at Achilles Media’s NextMEDIA event and the New Media BC-organized Vancouver International Digital Festival (Vidfest)’s Content a Go-Go challenge have a claim to uniqueness: NextPITCH entails coming up with a concept for a 30-second video clip and pitching it to a panel of judges, while Content a Go-Go is a curated art exhibit of sorts, with the content being displayed on iPods rather than in picture frames. Content a Go-Go’s deadline is May 19, while NextPITCH is open to submissions...
As a leading member of Canada’s new media community, Claude Galipeau needs no introduction for most readers. At the end of March he left the CBC, where he had been spearheading their digital content initiatives, and rejoined Alliance Atlantis, where he had served as VP of broadcasting until 2002. Now senior VP of digital media at the...
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...
The membership of Quebec new media body Alliance numériQC brought back Rémi Racine for a second term at the helm of the organization last month.Racine, president of Montreal-based game developer Artificial Mind & Movement (A2M), will also serve at president of Alliance numériQC’s administrative council for another year. With an ever-growing commitment to digital interactive media on the part of Quebec’s...
In Broadcasting Public Notice 2006-48, the CRTC called for comments on a new exemption order for mobile television services. In his submission, excerpted below, Paul Spurgeon, general counsel and VP of legal services at the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) takes the commission to task for...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.The CBC’s recent decision to cancel its cutting-edge ZeD program might allow it to boost its fortunes by allocating that money to produce more commercially appealing content, but it’s a loss for the evolution of digital media. On the face of it one might be tempted to believe that ZeD was just...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. What is a subscriber? Is it a mailbox, or a mobile phone account? A physical location, or an IP address? The recent spat between Vidéotron ltée and Star Choice Communications illustrates the difficulty of answering that question. In its "account stacking" complaint to the CRTC,...
Vidéotron ltée and Star Choice Communications Inc. have been sparring since late last year over a widespread satellite provider policy that the cableco claims is anti-competitive, but the DTH BDU says is a standard practice in the industry. "I think Vidéotron’s just trying to create noise for us," says Ken Stein, senior VP of...
Beleaguered, embattled and even admitting to a certain degree of entropy, Telefilm Canada’s executive director Wayne Clarkson announced a new saviour for English- language feature films Monday 24th at Toronto’s toney King Street West Spoke Club. Michael Jenkinson was anointed as the film fund’s first-ever feature film executive for the...
Did culture get short changed by the Federal Budget?With the release of the first Federal Budget from the newly elected Conservative Party of Canada, those in the arts community say they’re starting to see the realization of their fears about the new government’s indifference towards culture. "Different cast, same script," said Stephen Waddell, president of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), in an news release. "They didn’t talk about culture during the election. They failed to speak of it in the throne speech, and now in their first budget they dedicate seven lines to the arts out of a 302-page document." While Finance Minister Jim Flaherty didn’t deliver the $150 million over three years promised to the Canada Council for the Arts by the previous Liberal government, he did allocate an extra $50 million in funding over the next two years. "Our culture defines us as an independent nation, so it’s troubling that it is barely on this government’s radar," added...
After a year of wooing him, CanWest MediaWorks Inc. has finally named Brett Manlove to the position of senior VP, broadcast sales and marketing. Previously the company’s VP of local sales since 2001, Manlove came to CanWest MediaWorks when it acquired WIC Western International Communication’s television broadcast assets in 2000. Manlove began his broadcast career in the 1980s with an account executive post at WIC’s...
The CRTC began weighing proposals for a nationwide all-channel alert (ACA) emergency system last week on May 1, with Pelmorex Inc., Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) and Bell ExpressVu all vying for the prize. "We have designed a properly managed and operated alerting system that is fully funded and sustainable over...
Telefilm Canada recently released its corporate plan covering the 2006-2007 funding year to the 2010-2011 funding year. In the plan, From Cinemas to Cell Phones: Telefilm Canada Reponds to the Multiplatform Challenge, the funding agency outlines some of the changes surrounding the Canadian Television Fund’s administration – a role Telefilm formally...
Working on tech-intensive projects doesn’t have to mean months of fruitless research and hundreds of billable hours with nothing more than an understanding of what doesn’t work to show for it. Few small and medium-sized businesses take advantage of the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) program...
Canadian musicians have a new voice, consumers have a new ally, and opinions in the music industry have become further fragmented with the formation of the Canadian Music Creators Coalition (CMCC). Members of the new organization, which was founded April 26, feel the major record labels and their industry associations are no longer speaking on their behalf, particularly when it comes to digital music issues such as file-sharing and use of music on multiple platforms. To that effect, the launch of the CMCC – which comes closely on the heels of the withdrawal of a group of independent record labels from the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) – continues a shift in the artists’ alliances. "In the early days it looked like the industry and artists were of...
Students at Toronto’s Centennial College will hone their new media chops next week when they begin podcasting the day’s events from the Hot Docs International Documentary Festival. Starting on May 2, student volunteers and one faculty member at the college’s Centre for Creative Communications will be working...
Bell Fund releases names of 19 winners in Feb. 1 roundSix new media-and-broadcast producers received production grants from the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund in its latest round of funding, including Shaftesbury Films for 11 Cameras, Breakthrough Entertainment for Captain Flamingo, Nelvana Ltd. for Digata Defenders, Productions Pixcom Inc. for Les Superépiciers, and Marblemedia’s This Is Emily Yeung. Also...
The Digital Media Association of Alberta (the organization formerly known as Alberta New Media) held its annual general meeting on April 5. Nigel McEathron of Calgary-based interactive marketer RareMethod was named chairperson of the association, while Ken Bautista, president of Edmonton’s HotRocket, was named to the position of vice-chair. A total of fourteen new directors from a diverse variety of backgrounds...
A group of Canadian recording artists including Barenaked Ladies, Avril Lavigne and Sarah McLachlan have formed a new organization, The Canadian Music Creators Coalition. The group, which has expressed dissatisfaction with organizations such as the Canadian Recording Industry Association, approaches music distribution from...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.The recent creation of a new coalition of Canadian musicians will no doubt find favour with those who believe that user rights figure prominently in the Canadian copyright equation. The advent of the Canadian Music Creators Coalition (CMCC) follows on the heels of a decision in April by six of...
Playing with data, playing with video, flex for everyone and geek art: this year’s FITC (Flash in the Can) Design and Technology Festival offered myriad business, technical, and creative presentations catering to a crowd of enthusiasts of Adobe Systems Inc.’s Flash software. The fifth annual conference,...
The CBC’s quest for a new head of arts and entertainment programming has finally come to an end: Fred Fuchs, an entertainment industry veteran with such productions as Bram Stoker’s Dracula and The Virgin Suicides to his credit, assumed the role of executive director, arts and entertainment programming on April 3. Formerly president of Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope movie studio, Fuchs has worked with...
British Columbia Film, Sask-Film and Manitoba Film and Sound produced a report titled Out of the West: Export, Growth and the Western Canadian Production Industry. Excerpts from the document appear below; the entire report can be downloaded from SaskFilm’s website (www.saskfilm.com). Overall, the Western Canadian...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. As someone who grew up listening to independent Canadian music – acts like 54-40, The Northern Pikes, Chalk Circle – I confess I felt some sadness when writing about the dire straits the Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent on Records, or FACTOR, finds itself in. It’s all the more puzzling that an agency devoted to helping Canadian musicians record their work should find itself threatened at a time when home-grown talent is taking the world by storm. Pierre Lalonde, at Heritage Canada’s Canada Music Fund, agrees that Canadian music has offered "a pretty good return on investment": according to the fund’s 2004 report on the Canadian music industry, the top 10 Canadian acts have grossed roughly $5.4 billion in music sales south of the border over the past decade. It’s important to remember that most of these big-name, multi-platinum acts, such as Sarah McLachlan, Barenaked Ladies and Our...
A 20-year-old funding agency that helps Canadian musicians with recording costs could disappear as a consequence of the CRTC’s Commercial Radio Policy review. The executive in charge of Canadian Heritage’s Canada Music Fund, the largest source of funding for the Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent On Records (FACTOR), says that if a request...
Broadcasters, industry associations and the CRTC have a lot to consider in the upcoming television policy review, including the effect new technologies might have on conventional broadcasting. But no amount of technological advancement will negate the need for quality content, or usurp the commission’s ability to...
Product placement in popular American television programs seems to be resonating with Canadian viewers, according to the results of a new online survey from Decima Research. The data is part of the April 2006 Decima Quarterly. The survey asked an online panel of more than 1,500 English-speaking Canadians whether or...
The big question facing telephone companies as they build networks for delivering IP-based television services is: fibre to the premise (FTTP), or fibre to the node (FTTN)? With FTTN, fibre extends to the last kilometre, but signals travel over copper to reach individual homes. For the time being, copper bonding and...
Conservative election email: CCR exclusiveWith a review of the Canadian broadcasting industry and the CBC on the horizon, speculation abounds as to where the new Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) government stands on these issues. The following is an election-time email to Conservative Party staff obtained by CCR which contains a rote response for inquiries about the state of Canadian broadcasting under a CPC government. It is presented in its entirety – only recipients’ email addresses have been removed.Subject: RE: Canada TV drama needs your helpWe are to use this in response - it is a one size fits all response to broadcasting issues.Garry KellerCandidate Media Support OfficerConservative Party of CanadaDear XXXXXXX:The Conservative Party believes in a stable Canadian presence in a varied and vibrant broadcasting system. The Canadian broadcasting system should offer a wide range of Canadian and international programming, while being respectful of Canadian content. The system should provide audiences with maximum choice and have the...
A lunchtime panel on "the idiosyncrasies of the Canadian marketplace" at the first-ever iSummit on March 31 tackled the difficult issues around what it means to be Canadian in an ever-competitive and open world. Moderator Steve Billinger, senior VP of broadcast at Cookie Jar Entertainment Inc., lobbed...
The federal government is hoping to bring more tourism dollars to First Nations communities with a new Web portal, titled the Virtual Tour of Aboriginal Canada (VTAC). According to David Henley, acting director-general in the economic development branch of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs (DIAND),...
From serious games to self-serve portals, corporate Canada is increasingly making use of interactive media to educate and inform employees and customers alike. But Desjardins Financial Security is using it as a tool to help workforces at the corporate clients it serves adequately plan for retirement – and stay out of...
Get BOOKED with Reel Girls Media Produced by Reel Girls Media, BOOKED.TV is a dynamic, interactive project that exploits the runaway popularity of forensic crime in popular culture. Using the latest in Web technology, BOOKED.TV offers webisodes, podcasts, expert chats and a discussion forum, designed to deliver information straight from Canada’s CSI teams. Our experts include (but are not limited to): Blood Spatter...
Motion simulator manufacturer D-Box Technologies Inc. of Longueuil QC has named Jean-Pierre De Montigny to the position of chairman of the board. In addition to the new role at D-Box, De Montigny is also vice-chairman of the board at Toronto’s Blackmont Capital, an investment dealer and capital markets firm. As well, he was president of Desjardins Securities from 2001 to 2005 and executive VP and CFO at Telesystem...
Last month, two members of the five-person Copyright Board, Justice William Vancise and Stephen Callary, published their disagreement with a decision to licence Breakthrough Entertainment’s use of excerpts from a book with an unlocatable author. Excerpts from the two members’ decision appear below. …From a legal...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.The CRTC’s decision to shy away from regulating mobile video services last week shouldn’t have surprised anyone. After 1999’s landmark decision to not attempt to regulate the way Internet services and content are delivered in Canada, the CRTC had little choice but to make the decision it...
The CRTC has dispelled the cloud of uncertainty hanging over mobile television services since their Canadian debut last year, determining that such offerings do indeed fall under the New Media Exemption Order of 1999. "The commission considers that exempting mobile television services promotes innovation in...
As it did with an earlier plea by Rogers and Shaw (CCR, Jan. 12/06), the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) has lent conditional support to Eastlink Cable’s request to use the permitted 25% of local avails to promote its bundles and telecom services. Below is part of a submission by CAB VP of television and specialty and pay services Wayne Charman. ...The CAB is prepared to offer qualified support for the Eastlink application, provided that the following matters are satisfactorily addressed. The CAB submits that the language of the condition of licence authorizing the use of local avails should be crafted so as to authorize Eastlink to promote only its own Internet and telephony non-programming services… The CAB believes that the commission should ensure that...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. Late last year, Vidéotron complained to the CRTC that Shaw’s Star Choice DTH service was allowing users to buy multiple dishes and receivers for use in locations other than their primary residence, but only charging them for one monthly subscription, a practice dubbed "account stacking"....
Three broadcasters have thrown their respective hats in the ring as potential suppliers of a national television-based alert system for warning Canadians of natural disasters and other emergencies, but at least one constituency is panning all three applications. Paul Temple, senior VP of regulatory and strategic...
Bowing to pressure from an array of opponents, the CRTC has reopened public consultation around an application by nine Chinese-language general interest channels owned by China Central Television (CCTV) after the process had officially ended. The move is an unprecedented one, and the first instance since the...
Two months after issuing its decision regarding terrestrial pay-per-view (PPV), the CRTC has handed Astral Media Inc. another blow with a ruling that allows Shaw Communication Inc.’s direct-to-home (DTH) PPV service to expand beyond its western Canadian power base. Both the terrestrial and DTH PPV services operated...
They say it’s difficult to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes, but telephone service providers and cablecos are doing just that these days: tackling each other’s traditional markets. However, according to representatives from each side, the move is no stroll in the park. Kelvin Shepherd, president, consumer markets at MTS Allstream Inc., explained the challenges his firm – a Winnipeg phone service provider – faced when it started operating in the TV world. Meanwhile Pat Kiely, director, business operations at Mountain Cablevision Ltd. in Hamilton ON, described how difficult it was for his firm to turn on phone service. Both spoke at VON Canada, a technology conference in...
TV profits up, but Cancon lags foreign content: CRTC reportThe CRTC released its annual report on the well-being of Canada’s private television broadcast industry late last month. In the document, titled Television Statistical and Financial Summaries 2001-2005, the commission noted an overall upward trend in revenue and profitability over the five-year period from 2001 to 2005; however, while total revenue increased 15%...
David Goldstein has been named to the position of VP, government and regulatory affairs at CHUM Ltd. in Toronto. The move is an internal one: since 2003, when he joined the firm, Goldstein had served as national director of government affairs, radio and television within the CHUM organization. In his more than 15 years in the broadcast industry, Goldstein has also held the position of director, government affairs and VP,...
A mobile short-movie competition launched this year may not take its place alongside the Toronto and Montreal international film festivals anytime soon, but if comparable events abroad are any indication it will garner its share of critical acclaim. "It’s certainly a new idea in Canada, it’s the first...
What do you do with the empty buildings left behind from government-mandated hospital closures? Well, converting them into artists’ residences seems like a logical, believable choice. Welcome to the Institute, "a professional and residential haven, providing support to some of the leading artists of our...
With the fate of proposed amendments to the Copyright Act of 1985 unsure after the Conservative Party of Canada’s recent victory at the polls, a lunchtime panel made up of law academics, rightsholder group members and a Canadian Idol judge examined the likely course of copyright reform in Canada. When asked by...
Tira Wireless draws US$13M investmentTira Wireless Inc., a Toronto-based provider of technology that enables mobile content development and deployment, recently announced a US$13-million investment by Lehman Ventures in the firm. With its Series C funding, which will be used to round out the firm’s service portfolio and expand global support and distribution, Lehman Ventures joins Brightspark Ventures, Flagship Ventures...
Dynasty Gaming Inc. has hired Mark Billings as the company’s chief financial officer as part of a new strategy to expand its reach in the online gaming sector. Billings comes to the Montreal firm from a VP post at Desjardins Securities, where he worked with small-cap companies to both garner financing and take them public. Prior to working for Desjardins, he worked for online casino operator Golden Palace, where he also...
Industry Canada’s Intellectual Property Policy Directorate recently released a report examining the effects of the current notice-and-notice copyright infringement regime on Internet service providers (ISPs). Once ISPs are notified that infringing activity is taking place through the use of their service, the regime...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.No one was more surprised than I was when CRTC chairman Charles Dalfen announced at the Canadian Film and Television Production Association’s annual conference in February that the commission would be re-examining the New Media Exemption Order (NMEO) of 1999. I was convinced the commission would find itself no more able to address the question of how technology is changing broadcast media now than it was in 1999, but the CRTC is finding it hard to turn a deaf ear to the entreaties of broadcasters who argue they are being broadsided by new digital distribution technologies. The lobby group representing Canadian radio broadcasters has expressed concern about its future in a world of podcasting and peer-to-peer digital music swapping. In response, some of the talent industry associations have proposed that the NMEO be revisited as soon as possible to account for the levels of content found online and on...
