Telesat Canada is shopping a solution around that it hopes will solve some of the bandwidth constraints associated with the signal delivery of high-definition (HD) channels. It is proposing to use the wider C-band coupled with a DVB-S2 demodulator to allow up to five HD channels to be relayed through one satellite transponder to cable companies across the country. Industry players have long complained that HD demands could cause capacity constraints during the migration to digital; while digital channels take up a fraction of the space of their analog cousins, HD digital content is bandwidth-intensive (CCR, Feb. 14/05). Some HD channels can take up as much space as an analog...
The CRTC is remaining silent for now about the date and scope of a potential radio review, although Canada’s private broadcasters are pushing for a delay. "The commission will make its determination with respect to the timing and content of any review of commercial radio policy shortly," states the CRTC in an October 6 letter to the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB). "The CAB and other interested parties will be informed of this decision in the normal course." The commission’s letter is in response to a September 30 request by the CAB for a further delay in the regulator’s radio policy review - which subtly questions the CRTC’s recent licensing of...
Cable companies will be the next advertising power brokers, according to business technology futurist and radio and TV host Tod Maffin. "As a cablevision company you have a role to play as truly a power broker in the advertising world," he said during his address at the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (CCSA)...
Aurora Cable Internet (ACI) is looking to become the first cableco in Canada to use the wind to generate power at its headend. The cable company serving about 13,000 customers in Aurora and Oak Ridges, north of Toronto, has contracted Newmarket ON-based Hybridyne Power Systems Inc. to construct three wind turbines at...
HITS QT Plus, which will allow small cablecos to offer video-on-demand and other new applications, won’t be introduced to Canada unless supplier Canadian Satellite Communications Inc. (Cancom) can ink a bulk deal with the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (CCSA). Representatives from Cancom tell Canadian...
UPDATE - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 Telefilm’s New Media Fund full-application winners namedTelefilm Canada’s Canada New Media Fund announced winners of funding for project development and marketing programs in both official languages last week. In May, 123 expressions of interest were received from projects looking for funding under the program; 65 were asked to follow up and submit a full...
A panel of new media practitioners issued a clear message to the traditional broadcast animation industry at the recent 2005 Ottawa International Animation Festival: get ready for the future. "We are the innovators – we’re the ones that are the big challenge to TV broadcasters," said moderator Andra Sheffer, executive director of the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund. As with every form of communication, the Internet has left its mark on traditional animation: Sheffer said that when the Bell Fund launched in 1997, animation on the Web was innovative. Today, the pairing is commonplace, and horizons have shifted to things like mobile devices and interactive television. Kenneth Locker, senior VP of digital media at Cookie Jar Entertainment Inc., said "Generation...
In Ottawa this week to kick off a campaign to protect "products of the mind," the Canadian Recording Industry Association’s president urged the federal government to adopt tougher measures against unauthorized file sharers, in line with other nations, when it considers a bill to revise the Copyright Act this...
Montreal’s FNC film fest gets Sympatico siteThe Festival du Nouveau Cinéma de Montreal (Montreal New Film Festival) will partner with web portal Sympatico MSN and interactive content marketer Tribal Nova to bring the experience of web TV to the festival. Sympatico’s High Speed Zone/zone haute vitesse will host a festival microsite featuring technical information and extracts from more than 60 of the works appearing...
Vancouver-based mobile entertainment content developer Mobile Operandi has a new chief executive. Bill Bryant is a veteran of online shopping firm Netbot Inc. as well as Qpass, a digital content management software firm, and has been involved with more than 20 high-tech and Internet firms over the past 10 years. Bryant will head up the firm’s new U.S. headquarters in Seattle, to open later this year. John G....
TELUS likely to launch TV service in NovemberTELUS Communications Inc. plans to launch its TV service at the beginning of November, well-placed industry sources tell Canadian Communications Reports. A spokesperson for TELUS said the company at this time would not disclose the launch day for its TV service. Earlier this year, TELUS’ executive VP of government and regulatory affairs Janet Yale said that the telco’s...
Earlier this month Guy Mayson, president and CEO of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CTFPA) responded to the CRTC’s call for submissions on mobile video services and the possible application of the New Media Exemption Order to them (PN 2005-82). In his letter, excerpted below, Mayson argues the proposed services from Bell,...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. All signs point to a revisiting of the New Media Exemption Order being long overdue. The Canadian Film and Television Production Association – in years past an ardent supporter of new media – recently registered its objections to mobile video services proposed by Rogers, Bell and TELUS (see...
A tax credit program launched in 2003 for BC-based new media small businesses has survived a provincial election – and its own success – to grow to serve nearly twice as many firms this year. "Initially, in the first year it was a resounding success, and actually the program oversold and we actually had to claw back some credits, which the...
Better picture quality remains most important attribute of digital TV service Advanced digital television services such as video-on-demand (VOD), personal video recorders/digital video recorders (PVRs/DVRs), and interactive television (iTV) – considered by some to be killer applications – have not yet hit the mainstream among Canadian digital TV subscribers and are ranked relatively low in importance, according...
Rogers, TELUS release info on their MobileTV servicesThe channel lineup for the Mobile TV service launched by Rogers Communications consists of 12 channels: the news services BBC World, MSNBC, CNBC, CBC Newsworld, Fox News, and RDI, along with live Toronto Blue Jays coverage (Sportsnet Blue Jays), the weather channels The Weather Network/MétéoMédia, the diginet G4 Tech TV, The Shopping Channel, and a new channel Indie Music Videos 24/7, the company announced September 16. "Rogers has both the largest cable company and the largest wireless carrier in Canada. This gives us a unique ability to combine the innovation of our wireless group with our cable company’s expertise in providing customers with the programming that matters to them," Philip Lind, vice chair of Rogers Communications said in a media release. Rogers is also a broadcaster and has interests in some of the channels that Rogers Mobile Television is bringing to cell phone users: Sportsnet Blue Jays, G4 Tech TV and The Shopping Channel. Rogers Mobile Television is...
Jim Hamm has been appointed as general manager of Atlantic Radio for Rogers Media. He will head up the company’s new FM radio stations, including CKNI-FM 91.9 in Moncton, CHNI-FM 88.9 in Saint John NB and CJNI-FM 95.7 in Halifax. Rogers received the licences last November from the CRTC. Most recently, Hamm was the general manager for the Rogers Sudbury Radio Group, where he oversaw the day-to-day operations of CJRQ-FM,...
The Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA) tells the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage studying the country’s feature film industry that movie marketing budgets should be based on the size of the audience being targeted, and not on the film’s production budget. In its September 15 submission to the...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. The CRTC needs to find a way to more effectively and proactively deal with emerging issues, such as high-definition (HD) programming and television to cell phones. The regulator has a tendency to wait until a complaint is filed, or a request is made for a process to be undertaken before tackling...
Although Pelmorex has already inked a deal to have its video weather content brought to cell phone users through Rogers Wireless’, TELUS’ and Bell Mobility’s MobiTV services, the broadcaster tells the CRTC that the technology doesn’t fall under the New Media Exemption Order. "The use of terms like...
Canadian broadcasters have set out a series of initiatives, including producing public service announcements (PSAs) and introducing scholarships for people with disabilities, but are also looking for help from producers, cablecos and educators in better reflecting persons with disabilities on TV. The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB)’s final report on The Presence, Portrayal and Participation of Persons with Disabilities in Television Programming, which was released September 16, recommends that the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA) and the Association des producteurs de films et de television du Québec (APFTQ) initiate measures to increase and...
The head of the Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association (CCTA) says the CRTC’s decision (Broadcasting Public Notice 2005-88) earlier this month to maintain the status quo on local availabilities shows inconsistency between its rulings on the telecommunications and the broadcasting sides. CCTA president Michael...
Wednesday, September 21, 2005 Macromedia launches Studio 8 suiteMacromedia Inc. is calling Studio 8 - the latest iteration of its package of animation and publishing tools for Web content - its biggest launch ever. It’s certainly the biggest in two years, when the last Studio offering, dubbed MX2004, made its debut. "The first thing we did was each one of the product teams went around the world...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. When a Cabinet Committee decided not to refer the decision to license Sirius Canada and Canadian Satellite Radio back to the CRTC, it ended the tale of suspense surrounding satellite radio - at least for the time being. However, the whole affair offered more questions than answers about what this...
An interactive simulator for agrologists has garnered its creator a Canadian New Media Award, the opportunity to represent Canada at an international new media competition, and a speaking slot at an upcoming conference on serious gaming. The latter is amazing, considering he no idea such a genre existed until recently. "I consider some of the stuff we do serious games; there’s a negotiation element that...
Groups opposing the CRTC’s decision to license two U.S.-backed satellite radio services are speaking out in the wake of a federal Cabinet committee’s decision not to refer the ruling back to the commission. "The CRTC from our point of view didn’t do its job, [and] lacked the courage to do what it ought to have done here, and similarly...
Canadian firms bought $364 million worth of online ads in 2004, and that number looks set to increase by mid-double digits again this year, but that doesn’t mean the Internet is topping advertisers’ lists of media yet, says Canada’s interactive advertising trade body. "That $364 million for 2004 is only 4%...
The public-private partnership competition in Montreal between two of the world’s largest game developers took another turn this week, with French firm Ubisoft Entertainment signing yet another agreement with a Quebec university. The Université du Québec has 11 satellite campuses scattered around the provinces, a network that makes it an ideal...
New focus for PhotoChannelVancouver’s PhotoChannel Networks Inc. announced it will further expand its Digital Media Platform offering to include music, games, and video and mobile content. The Digital Media Platform – previously known as the PhotoChannel Network – is entering the final stages of development as a system for delivering digital photos to in-store locations for transfer to paper, CD or DVD. With the...
Toronto-based online gaming software firm CryptoLogic Inc. has gained a new non-executive director in Nigel Simon, a 20-year veteran senior management veteran of the U.K.’s Gallaher, a tobacco manufacturer and wholesaler. During his time at Gallaher, Simon was partly responsible for growing the firm’s international profits by more than 600%, and also for the acquisition of a large Austrian tobacco concern. CryptoLogic believes Simon will prove indispensable as it pursues future growth in the U.K. and rest of Europe. Chalk Media of Vancouver announced two new executive appointments and seats at the board recently. Rick Weidinger will assume the mantle of chairman at Chalk Inc., Chalk Media’s subsidiary operation in the U.S., as well as a spot on Chalk Inc.’s board of directors. Meanwhile, Jim Speros will take over the reins at Chalk Inc. as chief executive officer, and will also be given a seat in the boardroom. At the same time, Chalk Media lost a board member when Michael Agerbo stepped down to devote his attention to other...
Peter Miller, VP, planning and regulatory affairs at CHUM Ltd., made a submission on September 12 in response to the CRTC’ s call for public comment on a regulatory framework for mobile broadcasting services (PN 2005-82). In this excerpt, Miller argues that the New Media Exemption Order applies to Internet content only, not private mobile telephony...
CRTC’s decision on local avails shows inconsistency on broadcast, telecom sides: CCTAThe head of the Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association (CCTA) says that the CRTC’s decision last week (Broadcasting Public Notice 2005-88) to maintain the status quo on local availabilities shows inconsistency between its rulings on the telecommunications and the broadcasting sides. CCTA president Michael Hennessy tells...
It is broadcasting regulation, not telecommunications rules, that need to be reformed as IP technologies over broadband change the communications world, the Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association (CCTA) tells the Telecommunications Policy Review Panel. The increasing proliferation of high-speed Internet and...
The Federal Court of Appeal has upheld the CRTC’s decision to revoke the licence of a Quebec City talk and alternative rock radio station for repeatedly airing offensive and abusive comments, and ruled the commission has the right to enforce broadcasting policies. But CHOI-FM is expected to remain on the airwaves until...
A war of words has hit the subscription radio world, as Cabinet is apparently divided on whether or not to refer the licensing of two U.S.-backed satellite radio services in Canada back to the CRTC for reconsideration. A group of English-language and French-language cultural organizations as well as CHUM Ltd., which was licensed for a terrestrial-based subscription radio service along with Astral Media Inc., have appealed the CRTC’s June 16 decisions to licence Canadian Satellite Radio Inc. (CSR) and Sirius Canada Inc. (CCR, July 21/05). One of the reasons the groups are demanding the decision be re-examined is they are unhappy with the Canadian content levels imposed on the two...
Wednesday, September 8, 2005 ACTRA backs up satellite radio naysayersThe association representing more than 20,000 film, TV and radio artists in Canada has reiterated its objections to licensing two U.S.-backed satellite radio services. The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) said in a statement today it is asking the CRTC to reconsider its decision on June 16 to licence two...
From time to time, CNM gets letters from readers – and interview subjects – responding to our coverage of the industry. Below is an unedited letter from Claudette Fortier, chair of the board of directors at the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC), in response to the cover article and editorial in our last issue...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. What’s in a name? Everything, if you’re hanging a tag on the electronic gaming industry. A point of clarification: there are actually two e-gaming industries. According to anti-gambling groups, there’s the one that provides mere distraction, free of economic enrichment – or harm. Then...
The independent Canadian music scene and others supporting the CRTC’s licensing of satellite subscription radio services are ramping up their lobbying amid recent speculation that Canadian Heritage minister Liza Frulla is going to ask the federal Cabinet to refer the decision back to the commission for re-evaluation. Indie Pool Inc., a for-profit...
Hot on the heels of the creation of Canada’s first digital signage trade body (CNM, July 20/05) comes a project to catalogue all providers of products and services in Canada. Lloyd Bunn, director of digital display and rich media at Mississauga ON interactive digital display network provider BTV+, is organizing a meeting of digital signage...
Telus Mobility became the third wireless network operator to unveil its mobiTV-based mobile video service late last month, following on the soft launches of Bell Mobility’s and Rogers Wireless’ respective services a week earlier. According to Robert Blumenthal, Telus Mobility’s VP of products and services, "The offering is more or less...
The world’s largest gaming software firm will beef up the brainpower of the employees at its Montreal studio with a $2.6 million training program. Redwood City CA software firm Electronic Arts will provide the money for full-time staff in Montreal to upgrade their skills in a wide variety of fields and enhance their knowledge of the industry....
Musicrypt edges toward profitabilityToronto digital music distribution firm Musicrypt Inc. recently released its financial statement for the first half of 2005, ending June 30. The firm is still in the red with a net loss of nearly $800,000, but that’s a considerable improvement on the $1.4 million loss it reported last year during the same six-month period. Revenue grew during the half as well, soaring more than 300%...
Jean-Francois Arseneau has returned to Alliance numériQC, Quebec’s new media organization, as coordinator of member services. In his new position, he will work to attract new members to the organization as well as develop new programs, and will also work with two other Alliance numériQC staffers, Claudia Marcoux and Olivier Jasmin, to plan international efforts and trade missions to raise the profile of the group and its members. Arseneau left the organization briefly in 2003. The Canadian Film Centre in Toronto has appointed ex-CBC honcho Slawko Klymkiw to the position of executive director. As such, he will provide overall leadership for the centre. Previously, Klymkiw was executive director of network programming at the CBC for nine years, presiding over such content as Canada: A People’s History, The Greatest Canadian, Trudeau, and several Olympic Games’ worth of coverage. He is also a member of the board at the Canadian Television Fund. The Canadian Film Centre was founded in 1988 by filmmaker Norman Jewison. D-Box...
Thursday, August 25, 2005 2005 the year of Phantom Fiber?Toronto’s Phantom Fiber Corp., a developer of mobile commerce and gaming software, has been going from strength to strength lately. The company recently announced a deal to provide its advanced wireless platform to London’s Aspinalls.com, the online presence of a bricks-and-mortar casino set up in the city’s swanky Mayfair district in 1962....
CI@IC looking for Canadian firms for e-learning conferenceThe Canadian Interactive Alliance/Alliance Interactive Canadienne (CI@IC), an organization made up of Canada’s eight largest new media associations, and International Trade Canada are looking for Canadian firms to participate in an e-learning conference and trade show in Germany later this year. The new media organization and the federal government agency have...
Doug Lamb has been named to the position of executive VP and CFO at CanWest MediaWorks, CanWest Global Communications Corp.’s broadcast and interactive media division. Before joining the company, Lamb was VP at Torstar Corp.’s Metroland Printing, Publishing and Distributing Ltd. Prior to that, he was a partner at Southam Inc.’s Hollinger Capital division, a venture capital and technology investment firm. Lamb has...
Rogers Wireless, Bell Mobility and Telus Mobility filed letters in response to CRTC questioning, sparked by concerns voiced by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB), over whether proposed mobile TV services should qualify under the New Media Exemption Order (CNM, June 10/05). The CRTC’s questioning of the...
The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld an earlier ruling that quashed the levies charged on digital music players sold in Canada (CNM Update, Aug. 2/05). Further confusing the matter is that two organizations representing the copyrighted music industry have vastly different reactions: in a media release, the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) – a coalition of songwriters, recording artists, music publishers and record companies – expressed disappointment at the ruling, while the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) – a firm representing the producers of 95% of the music sold in Canada, and itself a CPCC member – called the decision a positive step. "We are, on this issue, a dissenting member [of the CPCC]," says Graham Henderson, president of the...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. By now, you should have realized there’s been a changing of the guard at Canadian NEW MEDIA: Jeff Leiper has moved on. Reading through past issues of CNM, I realized that Jeff had much sage advice and wisdom to impart to a newly arrived editor. However, Jeff once wrote that he could understand the...
Those who love to bet money on sporting events and games of chance and skill are in their element in countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia, where full-fledged casinos are available on mobile phones and other similar devices. Here in Canada, however, all but two of the various provincial gaming corporations have...
Canada’s video-on-demand-over-IP (VOD-over-IP) market got a little hotter this summer with the debut of two distinct offerings by vastly different companies. MTS TV, the TV-over-IP offering from Manitoba’s incumbent telco Manitoba Telecom Services Inc., began rollout of its video-on-demand (VOD) in Winnipeg in June. The next month, a smaller...
A Vancouver firm offering virtual communities over wireless networks has added another feather to its cap with a deal with Nextel Communications Inc.’s [now Sprint Nextel] prepaid youth wireless service. AirG is providing a customized version of its LOL private label mobile community for Boost Mobile, an offering aimed at...
Tuesday, August 2, 2005 New media producers add support to ExpressVu’s desire to add more money to Bell fundMany of Canada’s top new media producers have added their support to Bell ExpressVu’s application to direct all of its mandated Canadian production contributions from its pay-per-view (PPV) TV operation to the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund. Among the interveners in the process are the presidents of...
Toronto-based digital distribution company Musicrypt Inc. has added another Canadian music supplier to its list of clients as it appears poised to wrap up the sector in this country. With the addition of Koch Entertainment to its roster of clients using the company’s Digital Media Distribution System (DMDS), Musicrypt now...
The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) and its international partners in the Anti-Spyware Coalition (ASC) have issued new definitions for the scourge of spyware as a first step to building a legal framework to fight it. Spyware, surreptitious applications that can either bombard Internet users...
A new association being formed by some of Canada’s most active digital signage players could help advertisers buy into the nascent medium by providing educational outreach and standards. This summer, a half dozen players from the sector met in the wake of the Digital Signage Inaugural Summit...
ExpressVu/Bell Fund submissions roll inLetters both for and against have been flowing into the CRTC regarding a proposal by Bell ExpressVu to change its Canadian production contributions in such a way as to potentially put hundreds of thousands of extra dollars a year into Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund coffers (CNM, June 24/05). The proposed change would be for ExpressVu’s pay-per-view services. Currently, Bell ExpressVu’s PPV operations contribute 5% of revenues to the creation of Canadian programming, with 80% of that tagged for the Canadian Television Fund (CTF) and 20% for the Bell Fund. The same change, however, would mean an end to Canadian Television Fund contributions by the DTH company for its PPV operations. ExpressVu is asking the regulator to change that to allow ExpressVu to put its entire contribution into the Bell Fund. But, it is also asking for regulatory symmetry with cable companies in changing how it calculates its contribution such that the gross annual broadcasting revenues would be deemed to be 50% of the...
Lucille Roch became Ontario’s new deputy minister of culture in a recent mini-Cabinet shakeup. Roch was formerly the assistant deputy minister (ADM) of strategic planning and policy with the ministry of Children and Youth Services. She has also served as the ADM of culture, sport and recreation in the ministry of Culture and Recreation, and as ADM of strategic planning in the ministries of Community and Social Services...
by Liza Frulla, Minister of Canadian Heritage, and David Emerson, Minister of Industry Canada Lately there have been a number of media reports and editorials about new legislation to update the Copyright Act and in particular about the issue of educational access to works on the Internet....
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. A major shift has occurred in the way Canadians communicate due to the rapid convergence of content onto IP pipes. While the march of technology proceeds apparently unstoppably, Canadian government officials are failing to deal with the difficult question of a Canadian presence on the multitude of new...
Uncertainty surrounding the Ontario Media Development Corp.’s (OMDC) budget has led to a program freeze at the agency that has put several important industry initiatives on hold, says one provincial industry leader. Ian Kelso, head of the New Media Business Alliance (NMBA) tells Canadian NEW MEDIA that a roster of...
Wednesday, July 13, 2005 Hip Interactive faces liquidationToronto-based video game company Hip Interactive Inc. faces liquidation by interim receiver Ernst & Young Inc. after falling into insolvency. The company announced on July 11 that it had appointed the receiver after failing to arrange third-party financing that would have enabled it to pay its bills. The board of directors has resigned. A media release announcing the bankruptcy states: “At this time, it is not clear the level of recovery that the company’s unsecured creditors will realize; although it is not expected that the company’s shareholders will receive any proceeds of such liquidation.” On July 7, an Edmonton AB company, SplitFish GameWare, announced that it might be interested in acquiring the company. Hip responded to the release by stating that “it has no information regarding the financial strength of SplitFish, nor has it received any written proposal from SplitFish.” Discussions between the two companies were confirmed, however.CHUM appeals...
Both sides in the Canadian file-sharing debate say the recent MGM v. Grokster decision in the U.S. bodes well for them, despite its lack of immediate applicability to the legal landscape here. The Supreme Court of the United States released on June 21 its decision against the file-sharing service Grokster Ltd., accepting...
An innovative new chat application aimed at preventing teen suicide could be the recipient of a million dollars, which would be used to sell it internationally, and to bolster its limited use in the Vancouver area to a 24/7 operation. The chat application, used by Vancouver’s crisis centre, has garnered developer At Large...
The VP of sales and marketing at Discovery U.S. denies in an interview with affiliate publication Canadian Communications Reports that it is in talks with MobiTV to deliver the channel to cell phone users in Canada. "We are certainly not looking to do that. That would really send the folks at CTV bonkers," says...
The head of the Bravo!FACT fund is calling groundbreaking a series of commissioned short films for mobile handset screens. Produced for the first time for the fund in a formal partnership with the National Film Board (NFB), the series dubbed Shorts in Motion was unveiled at the Banff World Television Festival. Judy...
CHUM TV, Mobile Media introduce music video serviceCHUM Television and Mobile Media have partnered on a fully-automated, all-request music video service assoicated with PunchMuch. The service is being powered by Mobile Media’s Viz/Response interactive TV technical platform, and the interactive ground operation will be managed by MyThum. The PunchMuch channel (www.PunchMuch.com) will allow music fans everywhere to...
Maria Hale has been named to the newly created position of VP, content business development, at CHUM Television. Hale will report to Roma Khanna, senior VP, content. Hale was previously VP of Citytv Toronto. Chalk Media Corp., Vancouver, has hired Jody Glidden, former director of global business development at SmartForce, as business development director. Achilles Media, organizer of the Banff World Television...
Russell McOrmond, a copyright activist and webmaster for www.digital-copyright.ca, submitted the following in response to articles in the June 24, 2005 issue of Canadian NEW MEDIA. Recent comments by Canadian Recording Industry Association head Graham Henderson regarding technologies that claim to stop unauthorized...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. It is impossible not to note when looking at this issue of the newsletter as a whole that a fundamental shift in what constitutes the new media industry in Canada has taken place, seemingly overnight. The place of the web in our reporting has slid several notches as we focus increasingly on alternative...
Thursday, June 30, 2005 NMBA expresses concern over Ontario new media budgetThe New Media Business Alliance (NMBA) has expressed concern in a membership newsletter that the budget for the Ontario Media Development Corp. could be cut in the upcoming provincial budget. NMBA head Ian Kelso writes in the newsletter: “With gathering positive momentum at the federal level, I have become very concerned with the situation here at home in Ontario. The Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC), the provincial agency that oversees business development opportunities for the cultural industries and that has been a vital partner to NMBA and to the industry, is about to be massively cut. Though there have been no official announcements to date, the OMDC has been forced into a holding pattern since early spring as it reached the end of its mandate and awaited the report from a review by the Ministry of Culture. Now it seems certain that the axe will fall and their annual budget will be reduced by $2 million (20%). What does this mean for...
At the Banff World Television Festival, Canadian Television Fund (CTF) chair Douglas Barrett outlined some challenges that he sees the fund will face. An excerpt from his speech appears below. So, where does that leave us? Five challenges stand-out: 1.We need to fine tune the envelope system to get it right. 2.We need to improve the...
The Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund could receive a small financial windfall if Bell ExpressVu’s application to change its contribution guidelines for its pay-per-view (PPV) service is approved by the CRTC. As part of its PPV licence renewal application (Broadcasting PN 2005-59), ExpressVu has asked the regulator to...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. By appointing an insider to head the new media sector of Telefilm Canada, the agency may have missed a golden opportunity to establish an even better working relationship with industry stakeholders. The buzz at the first day of the excellent VIDFEST event was that an appointment was imminent, and the...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. Canadian Television Fund (CTF) chair Douglas Barrett referred to the industry in his June 15 speech at the Banff World Television Festival as "a famously ungrateful lot" and indeed, broadcasters, producers and others in the industry always seem to be coming forward to the government with...
There were few fireworks on the Copyright Board of Canada’s first day of hearings into a steep new proposed tariff on ringtones. On June 21, the board began hearing factual evidence around Tariff 24, a 10% tariff proposed by the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) on ringtones. A coalition made up of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, the major record labels, as well as Telus Mobility and Bell Mobility will attack the tariff proposal on at least two fronts over the next week or so. They are expected to argue that there is no communication to the public by telecommunications that would entitle SOCAN to a tariff, and that even if such a...
The Canadian recording industry lobby hasn’t decided yet whether or not to appeal this month’s CRTC subscription radio decision, with which it is "deeply disappointed." The Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) is unhappy because the commission failed to impose any conditions on the three new...
Product placements in and sponsorships of hit U.S. shows are starting to have a drastic effect on the bottom lines of the Canadian broadcasters who acquire the programming, argue top executives at some of Canada’s largest private networks. CanWest Global Communications Corp. president and CEO Leonard Asper cited the...
The industry supports Canadian Heritage minister Liza Frulla’s decision to more closely align the Canadian Television Fund (CTF) and Telefilm Canada, but some add that the proof will be in the pudding. Frulla announced June 12 in Banff that Telefilm Canada will assume responsibility for administering the CTF’s...
The executive VP of CBC English Television says he’s pushing the government to raise to 50% the amount of Canadian Television Fund (CTF) monies that is set aside for the public broadcaster. Canadian Heritage minister Liza Frulla stated in her June 13 speech in Banff that the public broadcaster’s envelope would be...
Video game developers and academics have a great deal to teach each other, but few avenues to explore an educational dialog, according to a panel discussion held in Vancouver June 17. An evening plenary session at the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) conference Changing Views: Worlds in Play, saw four of the video...
Telefilm Canada and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. have announced a new $2-million fund for documentaries that are released theatrically. Telefilm Canada will put in $1.5 million and the CBC the remaining $500,000 in the pilot program. The June 14 announcement by Telefilm and CBC at the Banff World Television...
The Coalition of Canadian Audio-Visual Unions (CCAU) is calling for the CRTC to force Canada’s over-the-air TV broadcasters to spend 7% of their gross advertising revenues on homegrown TV drama. The demand was made June 13 at the Banff World Television Festival, where the group of unions released its report,...
Alternative distribution channels for digital cinema have become mainstream, though conventional legitimacy seems far from the minds of the people using them, according to a panel at the June 16 at VIDFEST. The panelists at the Vancouver event described a rapid proliferation in the number of platforms that can be used to...
In granting three subscription radio licences on June 16, CRTC chair Charles Dalfen said the challenge was to strike a balance that was good for artists, existing radio stations and consumers. Almost a week after the announcement, there doesn’t seem to be much of a balance, but rather a divide between those who like the decision and those who don’t. Ian Morrison, spokesperson for the watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, says the CRTC "got it wrong." "Today’s decision creates a pipeline for U.S. radio programs direct to Canada, with little in return for our country," he stated in a media release last week. Friends will likely appeal the ruling...
New copyright legislation proposed by the Liberal government has seen positive first reaction by many industry stakeholders, but public interest advocates warn that Bill C-60 is being unnecessarily rushed into law with serious defects. The bill, introduced into the House of Commons on June 21, contained few surprises, and,...
Bell ExpressVu releases dual tuner, high-def PVRBell Canada announced June 15 it was launching a dual tuner, high-definition (HD) personal video recorder (PVR), the 9200 model. It will be available across Canada in early July for a purchase price of $599 or it can be rented for $25 per month. The PVR allows TV viewers to record up to 180 hours of standard definition programming or 25 hours of HD programming; record up to...
Market research and prototype winners announced by CNMFTelefilm Canada has announced the results for its most recent funding round for the Canada New Media Fund’s market research and protyping phase envelopes. The agency will dole out $2.2 million for 2005-2006. The next deadline for all phase envelopes in the fund is October 19, 2005. In this round, 34 projects were approved. The full list of funding winners is...
Daniel Gourd will retire as executive VP of Télévision de Radio-Canada when his contract ends in November 2005. He was promoted to executive VP nearly three years ago. The public broadcaster will begin an internal and external search for a replacement, using executive search consultants, Radio-Canada stated. Gourd will continue to manage Radio-Canada’s French Television services during the recruiting period, and will...
Bruno Légaré has been appointed new media sector head at Telefilm Canada. Légaré replaces Earl Hong Tai, who previously held the two positions of new media sector head and director of the western region; he continues in the latter role. Légaré’s role will extend to contributing to defining the goals and orientations for Telefilm’s new media operations, as well as carrying out the sector’s operational business plan and coordinating the decision-making proecss. Légaré has been with the agency for five years, most recently as the new media director for French operations and the Quebec region. He started as a new media senior investment analyst in the Montreal office. Previously, he worked in senior producer, communications and sales management positions at cogniSicence Inc. and Inso. Zev Shalev has been appointed as senior executive producer in charge of entertainment and information program development at CanWest. Shalev is perhaps best known in the new media world for his work on U8TV: The Lofters. Former CBC...
Tuesday, June 14, 2005 Copyright legislation may be delayedA disagreement between Canadian Heritage and Industry Canada has caused the two departments to re-enter discussions on the eve of the proposed introduction of copyright reform legislation. The discussions centre on an undisclosed educational access issue, confirms Heritage’s Bruce Stockfish. He notes that the ministers and their staffs are meeting to resolve...
BBC big winner at Banff Rockie AwardsThe British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) picked up the $50,000 Global Television grand prize and a half a dozen other category awards at the 26th Banff Rockie Awards in the evening on June 13 at the Banff World Television Festival. The BBC’s Blackpool was named the best-of-the festival by an international jury. The BCC was also awarded prizes for best information and current affairs...
With shades of the acrimonious debate over Internet retransmission, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) has written to the CRTC to voice its opposition to using the 1999 New Media Exemption Order to bypass broadcasting regulations as they might affect the delivery of TV content to mobile devices. This spring,...
Ontario’s New Media Business Alliance (NMBA) is set to embark on a major expansion in membership and scope of activities in keeping with new momentum in the interactive media industry. To stickhandle the bolstered roster of initiatives, head Ian Kelso has given Kathleen Webb, hired a year and half ago (CNM, March 3/04), a...
The roaring digital economies of the Far East, and especially of China and India, represent exciting business opportunities, a panel audience recently heard, though pitfalls exist that must be considered by Canadian firms considering doing business overseas. A session at Toronto’s Digital Exchange venue held May 30...
Recent Canadian Heritage contractsCanadian Heritage has disclosed its fourth quarter 2004/5 contracts. Of note are contracts awarded to: Charles Zamaria (#45149371), $23,540 - Professional services ; Google Inc. (#45148566), $35,000 - Basic data communications services ; Canadian Film Centre Habit@t (#45146982), $23,005 - Information technology consultants ; FAD Research (#45146616) $22,470 - Professional services ;...
Ubisoft has named Nicolas Rioux as VP and GM of its new Quebec City games studio (see Short Take in this issue). Rioux is a veteran of the company, and serves as chapter advisor to the International Games Developers Association. Richard Hardacre has been elected as national president of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA). He was president of ACTRA Toronto for two terms and was on...
(The Canadian Association of Broadcasters on April 29 submitted to the CRTC a letter asking that the regulator take a close look at the mobile services being offered by Rogers Wireless, and proposed by Look Communications and Bell Mobility. A short excerpt of which is presented here:) ...10....
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. When the CRTC recently ruled that big bad Bell Canada and TELUS Corp. would have to continue under the regulatory yoke for the forseeable future in offering their Voice over IP services, many columnists and observers were quick to note that they saw proof of the CRTC’s meddling ways in a decision that effectively re-regulated the Internet. Voice over IP, they said, was a service much like AOL’s Instant Messenger, and the commission shouldn’t be regulating what it said it wouldn’t regulate. While those editorialsts missed a fundamental point – that VoIP still has a significant tie to traditional phone service through interconnection with the PSTN – there is nonetheless some validity to what they argued. The Canadian Association of Broadcasters will likely have the Voice over IP decision in mind as it approaches the question of content delivered via IP to the mobile handset. The VoIP decision wasn’t...
