Some ethnic groups are calling on the government to legalize grey market television so that they can access third-language programming not currently available in Canada. Appearing April 29 before the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology, Paul Fitzgerald, VP and legal counsel of the Congreso Ibero-Americano de Canada (CIAC), stressed the importance of distinguishing among the black, grey and legal satellite TV markets. "The grey market lets Canadians get news that is unavailable elsewhere," said Fitzgerald. He added that the grey market shouldn’t be illegal because in Canada it has never been illegal to subscribe to a foreign newspaper, import a book, listen to a...
May 5, 2004 Incumbent telcos see growth in high-speed Internet subscribersTELUS Corp., Bell Canada and Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. (MTS) each reported strong growth in the number of high-speed Internet subscribers they signed up in the first quarter of 2004. TELUS closed the quarter with 605,200 high-speed subscribers and 309,100 dial-up subs, up 12.3% on a combined basis from the first quarter of 2003. Bell Canada increased its Sympatico DSL High-Speed Internet subscriber base by 32% in the same period to now reach 1.6 million subscribers, and saw the highest quarterly net increase in DSL subscribers since 2001, adding 115,000 during the first quarter. The company counted a total of 2.43 million subscribers to its high-speed and dial-up services. MTS saw an increase for its first quarter in the number of Internet subscribers of 11.9%, or 139,904 customers for high-speed and dial-up. During the quarter, the company added 5,821 net new high-speed subscribers.Canada again ranks first on e-government maturityCanada ranked first out...
The vast majority of Canadians say video games should be regulated by the government to warn users about violence and sexual content they could contain, according to a new survey conducted by Decima Research Inc. for Canadian NEW MEDIA. In a national telephone survey of more than 2,000 Canadian adults over the age of 18,...
Naked News, a Toronto-based Internet news show, has come out of the closet. A new version will now cater to a gay audience, covering issues specific to that community along with other news. World renowned for delivering the days events in the nude, the new program Naked News Daily Male was launched in March by Naked...
In April, The Banff New Media Institute awarded the 2004 Global Television Network Broadcast Communications Award to Michel Blondeau, new media producer and founder of Toronto-based ecentricarts inc. Blondeau will receive $5,000 toward participation in training and mentorship at Banff. While in Toronto recently, Canadian...
The Dominion Institute has expanded on its previous VoxPoll SMS initiative with CanWest Global Communications Inc. to launch two new politically-themed projects. The first is a new VoxPoll around the upcoming federal elections, and will see Global National viewers polled on their views about election issues. The second is a...
Interactive television, the red-headed stepchild of new media, is set to come into its own as several powerhouse organizations will offer Genie award viewers an enhanced version of the staid event. In May, the awards will be broadcast on Citytv Toronto, Star!, Bravo!, MusiMax and Access, as well as on ASN in Nova Scotia, with some satellite customers able to participate in live polling, trivia games and to get additional information about the stars and filmamkers of Canadian cinema. Xenophile Media, with Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund assistance, is licensing two interactive versions of the awards show to CHUM Ltd., including the ITV enhancements for customers of an undisclosed...
Canada’s music recording industry has asked Parliament to change the ad hoc arrangement by which Internet service providers (ISPs) deal with copyright infringing material online. The Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) asked a meeting of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage to move to a U.S.-style...
ClarificationThe article "Little action seen on new media exemption order as expiration date nears" in the April 16 issue of Canadian NEW MEDIA may have unintentionally left an impression with some readers that the 1999 New Media Exemption Order would expire this year. Exemption orders do not expire, but CRTC policy is to review them every five years. A CRTC spokesperson tells CNM that there are currently no...
Suzanne Guèvremont, director general of the Centre National d'Animation et de Design, has been elected to a second term as president of the Alliance numériQC. Newly elected to the association’s board are Tanya Claessens, president of Kutoka, and Rémi Racine, president of A2M, who will serve as VPs. Sylvain Perron, president of Dialex, is also new to the board, and will serve as secretary, and Robert Charpentier...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.It’s likely a good thing that the attention of commissioners at Canada’s broadcast and telecom regulator are now preoccupied with the meaty issues of Voice over IP telephony and the distribution of foreign channels such as FOX News. If it weren’t, it might turn its attention to interactive...
April 28, 2004 CRTC denies ichannel’s request for decreased CanCon requirementsThe CRTC has denied a request by Stornoway Communications’ Category 1 digital specialty TV channel ichannel to decrease the percentage of the broadcast day and of the evening period that must be devoted to the exhibition of Canadian programs to 50% overall and 50% of the evening broadcast period (Broadcasting Decision 2004-167)....
The Banff Television Festival "will absolutely" go ahead this year despite the red ink in which its not-for-profit parent is bathing. The Banff Television Foundation filed for bankruptcy protection on April 14 as part of a deal that includes new ownership by entertainment company Achilles Partners LLC, and that...
The Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA) is asking the CRTC to allow the U.S. channel FOX News to be distributed in Canada on a digital-only basis, and further applications for the digital carriage of foreign channels are expected this summer. The CCTA vowed last November to continue efforts to get more foreign...
Broadcast distribution statisticsCable Class 1 and 2 systems Revenue20032002Subscription $3,604,691,225$3,430,014,091Total Revenue$4,162,949,561$3,859,793,642Pre-tax Profit$225,199,488$1,399,087SubscribersBasic6,867,8377,014,460Non-Basic5,422,4195,579,970MDS and DTH Revenue20032002Subscription $1,160,383,942$922,104,624Total Revenue$1,203,060,366$945,754,788Pre-tax...
Jill Rosenberg has been named national organizer of digital media at the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA). She will be responsible for continuing to develop ACTRA’s digital media strategy and facilitate the engagement of ACTRA members in digital media productions, including web sites, video games and online advertising. Most recently, Rosenberg was president, creative director and producer at Girl From Mars Inc. Kristina Babulic has joined the Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA) as director of communications. Before joining the CCTA, she was a senior consultant with National Public Relations in Ottawa and Montreal. She has also worked for Nortel Networks Corp., Newbridge Networks, iStar internet and the Department of Canadian Heritage. Pat Ferns is being replaced as Banff Television Festival chairman by Robert Montgomery of the investment firm Achilles Partners, which will run the 2004 event. Ferns will continue on with the new body taking over the festival, focusing on international...
The Senate Standing Committee on Transport and Communications released its Interim Report on the Canadian News Media this month. The interim report stems from a study of media concentration that the standing committee began last April (CCR, April 25/03). An excerpt of the report appears below. As with newspapers and...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.VisionTV’s latest request for a larger wholesale rate should be a call to action to commissioners to quickly establish a set of criteria for rate increases that both protects the consumer and provides a measure of regulatory certainty for applicants. The latest VisionTV request comes a scant year after...
World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. (WWE) has won a $2.1-million case in the Federal Court of Canada against numerous sports bars for pirating its pay-per-view (PPV) programming in a case that its lawyer calls "a major win." William McKenzie, who represented the WWE, says that the 41 sports bars who were...
CHUM Ltd. is asking the CRTC to allow it to reduce the amount of locally produced news it airs on its Vancouver TV station so it can become more competitive in British Columbia’s tight market. The request is made in the company’s licence renewal application for Citytv Vancouver. CHUM is asking...
April 21, 2004 Indication that nextMEDIA may go forwardA spokesperson for the Banff Television Foundation says new owners Achilles Partners LP are still considering their options for the ancillary festivals recently launched by the organization, including the nextMEDIA new media festival (CNM, April 16/04), as the foundation restructures and focuses efforts on the upcoming Banff Television Festival. The general manager of the Delta hotel in Charlottetown PE, where the nextMEDIA is slated to be held this fall, tells Canadian NEW MEDIA that he’s been assured by the festival organizers that the conference is a profitable one, and will be going ahead as planned, however. At press time, CNM was unable to reach Banff officials to confirm the private discussions have taken place. Further details will be provided as they become available. AOL Canada puts Wi-Fi box on store shelvesAOL Canada Inc. has negotiated a distribution agreement with Future Shop and Best Buy to put a new wireless home networking box and high-speed access...
The future of the new media industry’s well-regarded nextMedia conference is uncertain as its owner, the Banff Television Foundation, files for bankruptcy. Banff took over the event in 2003 as it faced its own shaky financial future, but now the foundation is facing an estimated $820,000 deficit, new ownership and a...
The 1999 new media exemption order that has for five years foreborne the Internet from regulation by the CRTC is set to expire, but it looks increasingly unlikely that the commission will act to re-open the issue. The order, which classifies much of the content on the Internet as a form of broadcasting but places no...
Vancouver’s New Media Innovation Centre (NewMIC) was on the cusp of changing its research focus to study ambient intelligence (AmI) before the funding plug was pulled in November (CNM, Dec. 4/03). A confidential report, obtained by Canadian NEW MEDIA through Access to Information provisions, paints a picture of an...
The Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) has launched its expected appeal of last month’s Federal Court of Canada ruling that ISPs won’t be required to identify 29 people suspected of sharing music files (CNM, April 2/04). On April 13, CRIA filed its appeal with the Federal Court of...
A new self-regulatory body for the online adult entertainment industry has been given its Canadian incorporation papers as it sponsors a new top-level domain (TLD), .xxx. The body, the International Foundation for Online Responsibility (IFFOR), has been set up as a not-for-profit organization to...
The Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) is taking dead aim at a recently released study that purports to show that peer-to-peer file-sharing has next to no impact on music sales. The study, The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales: An Empirical Analysis, was released by the University of North Carolina (UNC)...
The globalization of digital content and business is a growing concern for companies that must now consider their compliance with laws in far-off lands, a new study argues. The report, Global Internet Jurisdiction, prepared by a committee of the American Bar Association under the co-chairmanship of University of Ottawa law...
CCTA copyright request on back burner at committeeThe Canadian Cable Television Association’s (CCTA) request that the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology examine the issue of ISP liability in the context of ongoing copyright reforms won’t move forward just yet (CNM, April 2/04). Committee chair Brent St. Denis tells CNM that the body is still considering other legislation. "I haven’t really...
Oliver Bock, executive VP of sales at Hip Interactive Corp., has resigned his position effective April 2. Greg Risen, who has been with Hip for three-and-a-half years as director of sales in Canada will be appointed VP of sales. Pierre Lessard and André Caron have been reappointed as members of the National Film Board for a period of three years. Kristina Babulic has joined the Canadian Cable Television Associaion as director of communications. Babulic was a senior consultant with National Public Relations prior to joining the cable association. She has also worked for Nortel Networks Corp., Newbridge Networks, iStar internet, and the Department of Canadian Heritage. She is also a member of the International Association of Business Communicators. Diversinet Corp. has appointed Charles Walton as COO. Walton has more than 20 years of business and technical experience in the security and electronic payment industry, and has held senior positions with many of the firms in this sector that provide security technologies and...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.By way of an administrative order, the CRTC could extend the current exemption forebearing Internet content from regulation, but we hope they won’t. We understand that the commission has a lot on its plate right now. A new process examining Voice over IP telephony has just been announced, and the...
VCom Inc. is set to purchase Saskatchewan-based wireless cable TV and Internet provider Image Wireless Communications Inc., Canadian Communications Reports has learned. An Image Wireless employee told CCR today that the company is currently "in transition - in the process of being taken over by another company,"...
April 14, 2004 CHUM Ltd. signs deal to purchase Craig MediaToronto-based CHUM Ltd. announced April 12 that it has signed a definitive $265-million agreement to purchase all of the shares of Craig Media Inc., which owns the A-Channel conventional TV stations in Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg, the new over-the-air station Toronto One, and a number of digital specialty channels. Because its flagship Citytv...
The cable industry says the status quo approach taken by the CRTC in its preliminary views on a regulatory framework for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony services will prevent small cablecos from entering the market. The CRTC’s approach, according to the Canadian Cable Television Association, will...
Speaking before the Broadcast Executives Society on March 25, Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) president and CEO Glenn O’Farrell noted that foreign specialty channels distributed in Canada made absolutely no tangible contribution to the homegrown broadcasting system. The speech provoked the Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA) to respond that the foreign services do contribute because 5% of the subscriber fees received from those channels go to the Canadian Television Fund and that packaging popular U.S. services, such as A&E and CNN, with Canadian specialty channels have helped the domestic services (CCR Update, April 1/04). In a world without borders, a...
The CRTC has put a stop to the growth of Bell ExpressVu LP’s inter-active service, i Weather, telling the direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV distributor that it cannot acquire any more subscribers until the results of the commission’s iTV proceeding are announced and its dispute with Pelmorex Communications Inc. is...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.The CRTC was right to take into consideration capacity constraints in renewing the licences of satellite TV distributors Bell ExpressVu and Star Choice. The regulator also correctly noted that the need for more capacity will likely intensify as broadcasters begin to add high-definition (HD) versions of...
The Federal Court of Canada will hear May 4 in Toronto the matter of Shaw Communications Inc. v. Craig Paquet. In the proceeding that began two years ago, Shaw is attempting to have the Human Resources Development Canada adjudicator in a labour dispute removed from the case. Craig Paquet is an independent contractor...
Star Choice Communications Inc.’s decision to drop some pay-per-view channels due to capacity constraints has caused concern with at least one cableco in the Quebec market but seems to be having little effect in the rest of Canada. "Unfortunately, we have lost seven Indigo channels. Those are the French versions...
The CRTC has opened the door to satellite TV distributors using omnibus or partial channels and A/B switches to ensure the delivery of more local programming to subscribers, an approach that broadcasters oppose. It’s a development favoured by direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV distributors Star Choice Television Network...
The CRTC has renewed Star Choice Television Network Inc.’s licence for a full seven years despite strong opposition from broadcasters. The direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV distributor’s licence was renewed from April 1, 2004 until Aug. 31, 2010 (Broadcasting Decision 2004-130). The CRTC found that "a full-term...
Four French-language projects receive monies from film fundFour French-language author-driven films are the first to receive funding under the 2004-05 main program of the Canada Feature Film Fund’s selective component. Receiving funding are Robert Morin’s Et que Dieu bénisse l’Amérique, about a serial killer; Bernard Émond’s Jeanne et François, about a doctor and an orphan; Robin Aubert’s...
While saying they endorse the principle of audit rights for specialty TV services, distributors oppose the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) framework on the matter. That framework was included as an appendix in a CRTC process announced March 31 that calls for comments on the possibility of amending the...
Don Mazankowski has been nominated by the Shaw Communications board of directors as lead director. The lead director is an outside and unrelated director appointed by the board of directors. Mazankowski was a member of Parliament from 1968 to 1993. He has been a director of Shaw since 1993 and is currently chair of the corporate governance committee of the board. Longtime executive Doug Wilson has been appointed president and CEO of Sony of Canada Ltd., effective immediately. He succeeds Hiro Sakai, who after eight years as president and COO of Sony of Canada is returning to Sony Corp. in Japan. Wilson has served as president of Sony’s Logistics America since mid-2002. He was appointed VP of logistics for Canada and Eastern United States in early 2002. CRTC commissioner Joan Pennefather has received a three-year re-appointment. Robert Dawson has been appointed director of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.’s new mobile division. Before joining CBC, Dawson was owner and president of the Montreal-based production company...
April 7, 2004 Changes afoot at Banff Television FoundationDetails are sketchy, but Pat Ferns is apparently set to step down as CEO of the Banff Television Foundation. Sources and media reports indicate that a new CEO will be appointed, and hint at the new involvement of a third-party Winnipeg company in running the foundation’s various events. Ferns is apparently to stay on with the organization in an...
The president of the struggling Saskatchewan New Media Developers Association (SNMDA) says joining a national effort to preserve Telefilm Canada funding for interactive content is just one part of an effort to help kickstart the province’s new media sector. The body was recently a signatory to a national letter to...
Magnet Games Marketing Inc., a company that creates text-messaging-based marketing campaigns and electronic games, is relocating to Charlottetown PE where it’s moving into the Atlantic Technology Centre (ATC), run by Technology PEI (TechPEI) "I was very impressed with how quickly they moved and responded to our...
D-Box sets up high profile advisory committeeD-Box Technology Inc. has announced the creation of an advisory committee comprised of: Leon F. Gosselin, president and CEO of Axcan Pharma Inc.; Peter Morand, president and CEO of the Canadian Science and Technology Growth Fund Inc.; and Edward Jung, co-founder of Intellectual Ventures. This committee is expected to help accelerate D-Box’s growth in the $11-billion home...
Pierre Arpin has been appointed to the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board. Since 2003, Arpin has been president of the Association of Art Museum Directors, and has served at various art galleries over the years. Sylvie Courtemanche has joined TELUS Québec on a part-time basis as director of regulatory affairs. She continues to work two days a week on her own broadcast consulting practice. Courtemanche is a former executive VP of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters. Radiant Communications has appointed Tom Gillette as the company’s executive VP of sales and marketing. Raymond Koskie has registered as a federal lobbyist for the American Federation of Musicians of the U.S. and Canada. His registration is in connection with the 2003 federal budget. Dean Crawford has registered as a federal lobbyist for Saskatchewan-based Minds Eye Entertainment. His registration is in connection with the "immigration status of (a) film director." Jonathan Lister,VP media sales of AOL Canada, will become...
On March 16, the heads of Canada’s most active new media associations wrote to Canadian Heritage Minister Hélène Chalifour Scherrer to emphasize the contribution the sector makes to Canada’s economy. To bolster that contribution, the ad hoc coalition recommends that Telefilm Canada increase the funding to the Canada New Media Fund to levels...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.The recent decision by the Federal Court of Canada on music sharing should rightly have an asterix next to it in the record books. The rhetoric has been steadily ratcheted up to send the message to Canadians that file-sharing is perfectly legal in the wake of Justice von Finckenstein’s ruling, but...
The Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) will appeal a March 31 Federal Court of Canada ruling against its efforts to get at subscriber information for 29 individuals suspected of violating music copyright laws (CNM Special Update, March 31/04; CNM, Feb. 20/04). Though the ruling by Justice Konrad von Finckenstein...
A noted Ottawa copyright expert says that there could be dire consequences for Canada if it implements the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Internet treaties. His view contrasts sharply with March 9 testimony by the record labels’ counsel to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. Macera and...
It looks increasingly unlikely that a stalemate between the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage and department officials from Industry Canada and Canadian Heritage over World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaty implementation can be solved without leadership from the federal Cabinet. During meetings March...
A new interactive media and design lab receiving over $1.5 million in federal funding could be the beginning of a network of such facilities spanning the country. The Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) in early March gave the funding jointly to the Banff Institute of the Arts and the Emily Carr School of Design so...
April 1, 2004 Satellite TV operators won’t have to carry all CBC regional stations, CRTC rulesCiting satellite capacity concerns, the CRTC has gone against the recommendations of a House of Commons parliamentary committee that ruled direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV distributors should be forced to carry all the CBC’s regional TV stations. The CRTC stopped short of that recommendation in renewing the...
Justice Konrad von Finckenstein has denied the Canadian Recording Industry Association the names of 29 individuals whose identity was alleged to be known only to their ISPs. The judgement, handed down this morning, says that the plaintiffs – Canada’s big name record labels – did not make a prima facie case that there...
Amid industry glee that the government has restored its $100-million contribution to the Canadian Television Fund, schisms remain on just how Canadian programming, particularly drama, should be financed. Following the release March 23 of the ruling Liberal party’s budget, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) praised Prime Minister Paul Martin for renewing the government’s contribution to the public-private CTF over two years. But ACTRA national executive director Stephen Waddell also used the opportunity to state that the "government’s reinstatement of the CTF monies doesn’t let broadcasters off the hook." He has renewed calls for the...
On March 11 before the Vancouver Board of Trade, the president and CEO of CanWest Global Communications Corp. discussed how the customer has finally become king in the digital media revolution. The speech by Leonard Asper echoed some of the comments made by Louis Audet in Montreal earlier this year (CCR, Jan. 30/04)....
The CRTC has finally begun a process to determine what can be done if Viacom International Inc.’s rebranded Spike TV is competitive with a number of existing Canadian specialty channels (Broadcasting Public Notice 2004-14). The commission notes that it could remove the rebranded station from the list of foreign services...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.Executives at Manitoba Telecom Services and Allstream won’t commit to a near-national digital TV service, but odds are that’s one direction in which the combined company will head (see article in this issue). It’s a logical step. MTS will gain a national fibre backbone through its acquisition of...
If the broadcast veteran behind iCraveTV gains CRTC approval to acquire PrideVision TV, William Craig appears headed for a battle with distributors over the channel’s carriage terms. Craig’s plans to rejuvenate the ailing Category 1 digital channel PrideVision hinge almost exclusively on renegotiating its carriage...
March 25, 2004 New media players to Scherrer: HelpThe heads of the New Media Business Alliance, New Media BC, Alliance numériQC, Canadian Film and Television Production Association’s new media committee, Technology PEI and the Saskatchewan New Media Developers’ Association have all signed and sent a letter to Canadian Heritage minister Hélène Chalifour Scherrer on the matter of the Telefilm Canada Canada New Media Fund. In its letter, the ad hoc coalition recommends higher funding levels for the mechanism, saying that the industry cannot compete on the global stage with the low level of funding available in Canada. Canadian NEW MEDIA will have further details in its upcoming issue.Parliamentarians still don’t have answers on WIPOMembers of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage say they’re no closer to progress on implementing the WIPO Internet treaties after officials from Canadian Heritage and Industry Canada today presented them with a framework document. MPs have been asking Heritage and Industry for over a...
Even though net profits in the private radio industry grew 31% to $210.4 million in 2003 from the previous year, according to CRTC statistics released last week, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ new VP of radio warns that the positive trend may not continue. "We are just back to the level we were back...
The Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA) is opposing proposed royalty changes on the retransmission of distant television signals for 2004-08 for fear that cablecos will lose their Quebec discount and also because it considers the proposed increase too large. The Copyright Board of Canada is not expected to hold...
TELUS reaches agreement with CAB on out-of-market signalsTELUS Communications Inc. has agreed to pay 50 cents a month for each subscriber to its yet-to-launch digital TV service who receives distant Canadian signals, and 25 cents per subscriber who receives a second set of U.S. 4+1 signals (Broadcasting Decision 2004-111). In exchange for the compensation, TELUS will not have to perform non-simultaneous program deletion...
The Copyright Board of Canada has set the royalty rate conventional broadcasters must pay to use music in their programming (Tariff 2.A) at 1.8% of the station’s gross income from 1998 to 2001, and increased it to 1.9% for 2002 to 2004, states a March 20 decision. At the request of the Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA), but over the...
Pierre Karl Péladeau, most recently president and CEO of Quebecor Media, has been appointed president and CEO of Quebecor World Inc. He replaces Jean Neveu, who has been interim president and CEO of Quebecor World since March 2003. At Quebecor Media, Serge Gouin becomes president and CEO, and Erik Péladeau has been appointed chair of the board. Gouin was previously chair of the board of Quebecor Media. As a result of...
Manitoba Telecom Services Inc.’s $1.7-billion acquisition of Allstream Corp. means that it will have the backbone to expand its digital TV service nationally, but executives from both companies won’t definitely confirm that’s part of their plan. Allstream president and COO John MacDonald was more bullish about the...
To own or not? CBC respondsA sidebar article in the March 3 issue of CNM explored issues that arise from the relationship of Rick Mercer’s Monday Report producers Island Edge with the CBC. In response to that article, CBC New Media executive director Claude Galipeau writes: Your story implies that all of the online components of the web feature "Rick Mercer’s Monday Report" are owned outright by the CBC, and...
Lee Richardson has been appointed chief executive of Chartwell Games Corp. He holds an MBA from the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow), and is a Fellow of the UK Chartered Institute of Marketing and a member of the UK Academy of Marketing. Harold Redekopp is stepping down from his position of executive vice-president of CBC Television at the end of the year. He plans to embark on a new career and focus on assisting...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.At about the mid-point of new Canadian Heritage minister Hélène Chalifour Scherrer’s first address to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, my cell phone rang with the first bars of Twisted Sister’s We’re Not Gonna Take It. I’d downloaded the ringtone in the course of some exhaustive, probing research into MuchMusic’s new online music shop - posing the hard journalistic questions such as "Roma Khanna uses Tainted Love; how cool is that?" and "Why don’t they have Meat Loaf’s I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)? Wasn’t that a great song?" Of course I was mortified at the sudden interruption to the minister’s presentation with my classic hair metal - the same competitive intelligence analysis process had led me to download Alanis Morrissette’s You Oughta Know, a more appropriate piece of good, solid CanCon that might better have suited the...
March 17, 2004 CRTC investigating Corus over allegations that two small-town radio stations are targeting nearby big citiesThe CRTC says it will perform “an extensive monitoring” of the programming broadcast by Corus Entertainment Inc.’s CKDK-FM Woodstock and CING-FM Hamilton radio stations in Ontario to determine if they are airing a sufficient amount of local programming. The move follows a complaint...
The Telefilm Canada Canada New Media Fund (CNMF) will be renewed for one more year at the same funding level as last, Canadian NEW MEDIA has learned. Though contracts have yet to be signed, both Ted Bairstow, head of the Canadian Culture Online Program (CCOP), and Earl Hong Tai, Telefilm’s new media sector chief, confirm...
Even as a handful of entrepreneurs and small enterprises win public support to break out of the fee-for-service cycle, SNAP Media and its partners have won the nod from Discovery Channel Canada for a massive new project that may well create the template for future convergence projects not just here, but abroad. In...
An ad-hoc coalition of public- and private-sector new media stakeholders has been successful in encouraging comScore Media Metrix Canada to significantly increase its monitoring of Canadian Internet users. The expansion in comScore’s activities could mean that interactive players are able to secure more advertising...
At least three of the five winners of the new Pl@tform program say the initiative seems custom-made to help them break out of the fee-for-service cycle to begin creating original intellectual property. The program is being funded by the Ontario Media Development Corp., and administered by the New Media Business Alliance (NMBA). Method Group (Above the Clouds), CurioLAB (Hidden Connections), Zapdramatic Inc. (Move or Die), C.R. Visuals (Reconstructing Ontario’s Past) and Elliott Digital Inc. (Sir Readalot) each won a $30,000 grant to assist them in the creation of market-driven interactive digital media products. In addition, the winners will receive strategic support in the form of mentorship and workshops, and will be given the opportunity to promote their companies and showcase...
Parliamentarians responsible for shepherding through modernizing reforms to the Copyright Act say they’re outraged that the government is withholding crucial information from them. On March 9, members of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage heard from Canadian Heritage minister Hélène Chalifour...
Activists for users’ rights are cheering a March 4 Supreme Court of Canada decision in favour of the Law Society of Upper Canada, but copyright reform experts caution the ruling is just one piece of a broader digital puzzle. The court ruled in the case that the Law Society, which runs a fax service and provides photocopy...
Canadian music sharers may face hefty court costs and fines if the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) and its team of lawyers have anything to do with it. CRIA is attempting to force Canadian Internet service providers, such as Rogers Cable Inc., Telus Corp. and Shaw Cablesystems, into releasing the personal information, names and...
The body responsible for collecting tariffs on blank media says it didn’t have enough time to propose new rates for 2005, and has submitted exactly the same proposed levels as were decided in December by the Copyright Board of Canada. On March 5, the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) submitted its proposal to the...
Astral Media Inc. president and CEO Ian Greenberg called March 4 for continued support for a distinctly Canadian broadcasting system. Speaking at the Empire Club of Canada, he outlined the indispensable role the media sector plays in Canadian society. So I simply told the organizers that I would be talking about...
Craig Wireless International Inc. has taken its fight to gain control of Look Communications Inc. to the Federal Court of Canada, winning the right to appeal a CRTC decision that allowed Unique Broadband Systems Inc. (UBS) to become the majority stakeholder in the wireless cableco based in Ontario and Quebec. Craig Wireless...
March 11, 2004 Minister promises action on WIPO ratificationCanadian Heritage minister Hélène Chalifour Scherrer told a packed meeting of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage on March 9 that she hopes to have legislation that would let Canada ratify the WIPO Internet treaties in place by this fall. Getting Canada to a position where it can sign the treaties will mean drafting...
Craig Wireless International Inc. has taken its fight to gain control of Look Communications Inc. to the Federal Court of Canada, winning the right to appeal a CRTC decision that allowed Unique Broadband Systems Inc. (UBS) to become the majority stakeholder in the wireless cableco based in Ontario and Quebec. Craig Wireless...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.That fuzzy guy on a couch (he doesn’t have digital television) in Bell ExpressVu’s TV commercial seems to be scaring cablecos into finally introducing all-digital lineups. Both Mountain Cable and Source Cable and Wireless, which have already duplicated their analog signals in digital, mentioned the commercial in explaining why they decided to offer their customers the option of an all-digital offering. Larger cablecos such as Rogers and Cogeco are also moving in that direction after years of going nowhere in moving toward the duplication of analog TV signals in digital. Just two years ago, the issue of digital migration or digital duplication stalemated an industry committee charged with coming to a consensus on the matter. Instead, the task force issued a report, The Distribution of Existing Analog Pay and Specialty Services on a Digital Basis, that reflected disagreement on how and when channels should...
New Canadian Heritage minister Hélène Chalifour Scherrer was put on the hot seat on March 9 by the committee bearing her department’s name. For close to two hours, the minister was grilled by members of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage about her support for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., the Canadian...
Fearing the demise of yet more digital specialty TV channels, broadcasters will likely soon be pushing the CRTC to lower Canadian content requirements for the diginets. The Category 1 digital services, which have higher Canadian content requirements but are guaranteed carriage, in particular, are expected to appear before...
Shaw sues CTV for millions, claiming it overpaid wholesale feesShaw Cablesystems launched a lawsuit earlier this year against CTV Inc. in an attempt to reclaim almost $6.5 million it says it overpaid in wholesale fees to TSN and more than $1.9 million it paid to Discovery Channel. In court documents filed with the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench in January, Shaw indicates that its affiliation agreement with CTV entitles...
Two small Hamilton ON-based cablecos have become the first in Canada to duplicate all the analog signals they distribute in digital to better compete with their all-digital direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV rivals. Privately owned and family-run Source Cable and Wireless Ltd., serving about 16,000...
Harold Redekopp, executive VP of CBC Television, has announced to employees that he will be quitting at the end of the year. He plans to start a new career that will focus on his desire to "assist with the spread of a strong civil society in emerging democracies." Danny Ciraco has joined the entertainment and media law firm Stohn Hay LLP as a new associate. Dean MacDonald, executive VP and chief operating officer of Rogers Cable Inc., is leaving the cableco at the end of the month. He joined Rogers in 2001 when it purchased Cable Atlantic, in which he was part owner. Joanna Webb has been promoted to VP of programming at Corus Entertainment Inc. She is responsible for programming at YTV, Treehouse and Discovery Kids Canada. She remains acting director of programming at the W Network. Canadian Ben Ratner, the director and star of Moving Malcolm, has joined the screenings selection committee for the Vancouver International Digital Festival (VIDFEST). The festival takes place from June 25-26. Peter Smith,...
Few Canadians claim to own a high-definition television (HDTV) and the required set-top box to receive HDTV programming, but there seems to be a bright future for HDTV in Canada, according to a new survey conducted by Decima Research Inc. HDTV technology awareness is high and an important number of Canadians say they will...
The Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) today filed its proposed private copying tariff for 2005 with the Copyright Board of Canada. The CPCC has not asked the board for any increase over the 2003/2004 tariff set by the board in a ruling just last December. Canadian NEW MEDIA will have full details and analysis of the filing in an upcoming issue....
The Supreme Court of Canada has again made it clear that it will protect users’ rights in copyright as it ruled on the case of CCH v. Law Society of Upper Canada today. The decision, written by Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin, says it wasn’t copyright infringement for the Law Society’s Toronto legal library to...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.With the renewed talk in recent days about privatization of the country’s public broadcasters, it’s difficult not to think in the new media industry about the impact such a move would have on the sector. The CBC and TVOntario have been a strong force in Canada for the adoption of interactive content...
One of the individuals whose identity is being sought by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) says he’s unlikely to try to settle a future copyright infringement suit, and believes the music labels have too shaky a case to successfully prosecute. The 24-year-old Calgary man says the...
CBC.ca is crediting the popular success of the new Rick Mercer vehicle Rick Mercer’s Monday Report, as well as the growing strength of its online children’s games, for leaping to the top of the pack as a web draw for Canadians. According to data from ComScore Media Metrix, the public broadcaster’s web site drew more...
A new deal announced February 24 between Impact Mobile and giant ad agency MacLaren McCann should give notice to other firms and broadcasters that text messaging - or SMS - is a credible and important platform for reaching consumers. The two companies inked a deal that will see MacLaren use Impact’s services and...
Liberal Member of Parliament Paul Bonwick will introduce a working plan on March 9 to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage that would see the body work toward ratification of the WIPO Internet treaties by February 2005. In a recent interview with Canadian NEW MEDIA, Bonwick talked tough about giving direction to both the departments of Canadian...
Current music industry woes are partly the hangover of the excesses of the 1980s, argues the head of a small Toronto indie label hoping to reverse trends with a new business model. Neil Leyton, head of Fading Ways Records Ltd., says the amount of money being spent to promote artists is untenable in the current economic climate, but that record labels can effectively use the Internet and album-sharing by fans to build the long-term careers of artists. Toward that end, Fading Ways recently announced it would put out eight new releases this year under the so-called "Creative Commons" licence framework, essentially letting fans share, copy and trade the music however they want so long...
