Part III cablecos are the big losers in a CRTC public notice proposing to expand licence exemptions to cable systems of up to 6,000 subscribers. Harris Boyd, senior VP of industry affairs and office of small systems at the Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA), tells Canadian Communications Reports that the association will use the comment period after the commission issues a proposed exemption order encompassing the changes to advocate for better conditions for Part III systems. They are defined as those systems serving high-cost remote and underserved areas, regardless of their size, where there are fewer than two licensed TV stations receivable over-the-air. Boyd says no Part...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.The snail-like pace of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage is negatively affecting its ability to put its mark on foreign ownership rules. Although the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology began its study well after that of the Heritage committee, it has managed to release its report and publicize its findings first. When the Industry committee unveiled its recommendations on April 28 calling for the complete liberalization of foreign ownership rules for telcos and cablecos, there were no countering proposals from the Heritage committee. There were only rumours that the Heritage committee would be pushing for the status quo in its yet-to-be released report. Because of the delay, the Heritage committee report now risks being branded as reactionary rather than progressive, regardless of what it contains. Industry committee chair Walt Lastewka has already criticized the slowness of...
Coming to a theatre near you…television programming. As movie theatres across the country install digital projectors, the operators are looking at moving toward providing viewers with film alternatives, such as TV programming, at the cinema in non-peak movie times to generate additional revenue. “There is a lot of...
Return to DOC on table in telecom ownership debateA recent Parliamentary report could lead to the amalgamation of two departments with communications responsibilities into one superagency. On April 28, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology released Opening Canadian Communications to the World, which looked at foreign ownership limits in the telecommunications sector. Telecom is under...
Two senior staff changes have occurred at the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB). Richard Matthews has joined the CAB as VP of copyright and legal affairs. Matthews was previously a long-time public servant, eventually serving as directory of copyright and director of broadcasting policy at Canadian Heritage. In another move, Sylvie Courtemanche has left the association after four years. Courtemanche served the...
Canadian producers counting on mobile applications to accelerate from the margins to mainstream should be mindful what is working where. That is the message from MILIA 2003, where case studies and success stories about mobile applications from around the world made up one-third of the conference agenda. Held for the first...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. A proposal winning industry supporters to create a new video game funding pool has engendered some fierce debate in this office. As this issue of the newsletter illustrates, more and more producers are thinking about branching into the console game market as they increasingly find success with web/TV convergence projects. Interactive digital media initiatives such as Odd Job Jack, Degrassi: The Next Generation, Save ’Ums, and Chilly Beach are starting to prove the value of complementary web sites to TV shows, but how can the valuable intellectual property those projects create be multiplied? One answer, says Decode’s Dan Fill, would be to move into the lucrative console market. Decima Publishing staffers are divided on the issue. Some of us see an industrial upside to using public funds to support gaming on an industrial basis. If a product like Chilly Beach can be turned into an Xbox game – likely for...
An Ontario Superior Court of Justice judge has made a confusing but landmark decision in a case over whether the Internet can be defined as broadcasting for the purpose of libel law. On April 2, Justice Helen Pierce ruled that the Internet is broadcasting within the meaning of Ontario’s Libel and Slander Act in the case...
Quebec multimedia leaders are holding their breath waiting for some direction from the new Liberal Party government in the province regarding public aid to the sector. On April 29, new premier Jean Charest named Line Beauchamp as minister of Culture and Communications, but it will likely be months before Beauchamp puts her...
One of Canada’s premiere web/TV convergence shops is exploring new gaming options to round out its entertainment offerings, and asking the federal government for help to the sector to finance new projects. This month, the Decode Entertainment television series Save ’Ums went to air in Canada and the U.S., and new media head and partner Dan Fill is...
Newly independent from behemoth Disney Corp., the re-christened InLight Entertainment hopes to parlay private ownership into a raft of new products with a greater variety of partners. The company, formerly Disney Interactive Victoria, was bought out by three senior management members earlier this year as a result of...
The chief organizer of the annual Canadian New Media Awards vows the show will go on as scheduled in early June despite worldwide anxiety over the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Toronto. Several high-profile events in the economic centre have already been postponed due to the health scare,...
April 30, 2003 Bell ExpressVu has worst quarter ever for subscriber growthBell ExpressVu LP’s fiscal 2003 first quarter ended March 31 was its worst quarter ever for customer growth based on an analysis of publicly released results, according to financial results released today by parent BCE Inc. The direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV operator added just 13,000 net subscribers in the quarter, compared to...
The Senate of Canada begins its long-awaited study of media concentration next week, with a report of its findings expected next year, possibly as early as March. The Senate has authorized its Standing Committee on Transport and Communications to undertake "a broad examination of Canada’s media industries."...
CCTA’s Cable Summit in Toronto postponedThe Canadian Cable Television Association’s (CCTA) annual gathering that was to be held this year from April 27-29 in Toronto is being postponed due to fears over SARS. No new date has been set. Close to 500 delegates were expected to arrive Sunday evening at the Liberty Grand Complex for the association’s revamped annual event, referred to this year as a cable summit....
The Canadian Television Fund (CTF) may be spread even more thinly as multicultural film and TV producers push to win greater access to government financing. Canadian Heritage minister Sheila Copps recently noted that her goal was to make government institutions and funding, including the CTF, more accessible so that more culturally diverse stories would be told. The CTF is partly funded and administered by the government agency Telefilm Canada. At the Minister’s Forum on Diversity and Culture held this week in Ottawa, Copps stressed the need for "inclusion" of all ethnic communities on the country’s television screens. "It’s an issue of recognizing that when...
Gail Martiri has been hired as director of policy at the Writers Guild of Canada. She will lead the guild’s extensive policy and lobbying initiatives on behalf of Canadian screenwriters. She has over ten years of experience in government relations and policy development. Broadcast veteran Trina McQueen has been named president of the seven-member Banff Television Festival international jury. The other members are...
Toronto-based CHUM Ltd. argues that not only can the Alberta market support new television stations, but that they would bring much needed diversity and regional programming to the province. The argument is in stark contrast to the company’s contention that the Toronto market couldn’t sustain more entrants during a...
Westman Communications Group is the first small cable operator in Canada to apply for a video-on-demand (VOD) licence in hopes of eventually offering its digital subscribers various types of programming on-demand (CCR Update, April 16/03). Like larger cablecos already offering VOD, the Brandon MB-based cable co-operative is...
Telus Corp. hopes to offer video-on-demand (VOD) when it launches its digital television service over broadband possibly later this year. As the telco awaits the CRTC’s decision on its licence applications to provide digital TV service in British Columbia and Alberta (CCR, March 13/03, Sept. 26/02), its VOD application...
Elizabeth McDonald, president and CEO of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA), chaired a media conference denouncing the cuts to the Canadian Television Fund on April 15. During a question and answer session that followed an official presentation, there were no concrete suggestions as to where the money that is being demanded be reinstated to the CTF should come from. McDonald said it shouldn’t be taken away from the increased tax credits for foreign location shooting in Canada – for which the CFTPA and others have lobbied. Below is an edited excert of the media conference. McDonald: …You don’t often find all the different players in the television industry in agreement, but today we are. We have been devastated by the Canadian Television...
The Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA) is hoping to score an industry hat trick as it seeks regulatory approval to add five foreign television channels to list of services that can be carried on a digital basis. The association notes that the addition of more foreign channels would have the following three key...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.The leadership battle between prime ministerial hopefuls Sheila Copps and John Manley has left the systemic problems in the financing of Canadian film and television in general, and the Canadian Television Fund (CTF) in particular, unaddressed. While a well-orchestrated media briefing by the Canadian...
Director general of CCOP shifts jobsRéné Bouchard, formerly director general of Canadian Heritage’s Canadian Culture Online Program (CCOP), has been named director general of the broadcasting policy and innovation branch at Canadian Heritage. He replaces Marc O’Sullivan, who joined the CRTC as executive director of broadcasting, effective April 14 (CNM, March 21/03). A replacement for Bouchard has yet to be...
Bell Fund announces February round winnersSix projects have won production financing from the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund. Another six won development financing and four events won professional development funding.Production: Odd Job Jack (Smiley Guy Studios, The Comedy Network) Home Biz TV/Homebiz.TV (Third Wave Communications Inc., TFO, SRC, Knowledge Network) Rock Camp (Collideascope Digital Productions, CBC)...
AOL Canada has appointed Craig Wallace president/CEO as his predecessor Steve McArthur departs to serve as executive VP of messaging at parent company America Online Inc. Wallace has previously worked at PCDOCS/Fulcrum and iSTAR Internet Inc. He also held a variety of positions at Microsoft Canada over a seven-year period. InLight Entertainment, Vancouver, has named Rob Barrett as senior game designer and Darren...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. The Canadian recording industry took advantage of Juno hype to unveil a new campaign against music downloading. What executives didn’t publicize was the increasing number of dummy music files they’ve unleashed designed to thwart users of computer programs such as Kazaa. A secret list left behind at...
April 16, 2003 Producers say funding system is broken, demand reinstatement of $25 million to CTFWith such Canadian shows as This Hour Has 22 Minutes not getting funding from the Canadian Television Fund (CTF)’s licence fee program (LFP), producers are demanding that the $25 million per year that the government cut from the fund over the next two years be reinstated. In a news conference organized by the Canadian...
Artists, musicians, games and software designers, and authors gathered by Canadian Heritage on the eve of the Juno Awards April 4 presented differing ideas about the role of copyright in their work and the effects on their careers of digital distribution. The forum was hosted by Canadian Heritage minister Sheila Copps as...
The Ontario Media Development Corp. (OMDC) is undergoing a large-scale restructuring that CEO Michel Frappier hopes will transform the organization into a knowledge-based agency, as well as give its senior managers more time to meet with the sectors it serves. In a candid interview with Canadian NEW MEDIA, Frappier set out his agenda for the OMDC as it enters the final two years of its current funding cycle, including initiatives to better funnel events funding and to map the new media and other sectors. The OMDC recently completed a broad eight-month program review (CNM, Dec. 13/01), which Frappier says has revealed the need to refocus some of its programs."The OMDC, if you look at its history, went from being the OFDC [Ontario Film Development Corp.] to the OMDC. When that...
Industry observers are scratching their heads over comments made recently by Canadian Heritage minister Sheila Copps to Canadian NEW MEDIA on the future of Telefilm Canada’s Canada New Media Fund that might indicate a broad restructuring of the fund is on tap. Depending on how Copps’ response to a rumour...
Broadcasters and music industry players are readying themselves for high-level talks on the high costs of resolving copyright disputes. The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB), the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), and the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) are expected...
LoveTV Entertainment Inc., a Toronto-based interactive television company, has re-emerged from a quiet period dating back one year. On April 9, the company announced a deal with Reuters to build a portal for the news company’s video content. While iLoveTV’s core business hasn’t included such fee-for-service-type work...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.Lamentably, Canada’s television industry lags well behind its music counterpart at creating and promoting popular content that sells at home and internationally. The Juno Awards, held in Ottawa last week, provided the opportunity for private radio to tout its contribution to the rise in the popularity...
The private radio industry will likely challenge a ruling that implemented new tariffs on music reproduction, but such a move appears to have little support from the Canadian Heritage minister. In comments made to Canadian Communications Reports, Sheila Copps suggests that radio broadcasters need to accept a tradeoff and grant greater compensation to artists in return for the radio industry’s profitability resulting from the government’s decision to allow multiple licence ownership. Glenn O’Farrell, president and CEO of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB), says the association is still canvassing its members and hasn’t decided on whether it will appeal the Copyright...
The level of digital television subscriber growth was down sharply in 2002 compared to the previous year, but the number of Canadian households subscribing to digital TV service still increased by a healthy 21% or about 600,000 subscribers last year. The latest subscriber numbers are contained in the just-released latest...
Quebec broadcasters say that some popular TV shows will disappear from their schedules if the provincial government moves ahead with proposed changes to its tax credits. The broadcasters add that the changes, announced March 11, came as a complete surprise to them and without any consultation. That’s in contrast to the...
Shaw Communications Inc. blames the Hollywood studios for the different terms offered for the provision of its pay-per-view (PPV) service to Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. (MTS) and SaskTel than to cable operators. As a result of demands for minimum guarantees and an increased share of the revenue pie by the content...
Bell ExpressVu puts more hockey in play with additionsBell ExpressVu LP, which has been criticized by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. for not carrying the Ottawa TV signal of the public broadcaster, has announced that it will pick up the station in time for the NHL hockey playoffs (CCR, March 13/03). The Senators games are aired on CBOT Ottawa. The channel will be added permanently to Bell ExpressVu’s Locals programming...
Kerry Edmonds, director of communications for Canadian Heritage minister Sheila Copps, has been hired as director of operations in the department’s communications and public affairs branch. Naline Rampersad will take over as Copps’ director of communications. Stephanie Smyth has been named news director of Global Toronto. Her 15 years in news have seen her report on-air, anchor newscasts and act as assignment...
Canadian Heritage minister Sheila Copps staunchly defended the right of artists to be compensated for the use of their works at an April 4 Forum on the Future of Copyright in the 21st Century held in Ottawa. The forum, held in conjunction with the Juno Awards, brought together artists, users and others in the field. She...
Vision TV president and CEO Bill Roberts, who chairs the Trade Advisory Committee of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB), comments on the impact that current developments, such as a cut in the government’s contribution to the Canadian Television Fund (CTF) and proposed changes in foreign ownership restrictions,...
Independents launch music industry web siteThe Canadian Independent Record Production Association (CIRPA) has launched a new web site at http://www.mincanada.ca with trade information for participating member associations. The site features the "All New Releases Lounge" with email notification to radio stations of new CDs, a section to help users find out which funding programs they might be eligible for, an...
Keith Clarkson of Telefilm Canada will be temporarily relocating to the agency’s Halifax office from Toronto for one year as business unit director. His replacement in T.O. will be Agnes Zak. The Capital Hill Group’s Kim Doran and David Dyer have been retained by Access Copyright as federal lobbyists in the upcoming review of the Copyright Act. Access Copyright is a not-for-profit agency established in 1988 by publishers and creators to license public access to copyright works. Aurora ON-based Magna Entertainment Corp. has named Paul Micucci as executive VP of the company’s gaming division. Micucci has served as VP, Slots at Racetracks, development and operations of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. for the past several years. Previously, he was CFO at the Ontario Casino Corp. Stéphan Bureau has been replaced as anchor on Le Téléjournal, Radio-Canada’s 10 p.m. newscast, by Gilles Gougeon, formerly host of the network’s consumer affairs program La Facture. Bureau is going to work on a multimedia Internet TV...
The following is an excerpt from the first of two companion studies prepared for the Copyright Policy Branch of the Department of Canadian Heritage by the law firm Nelligan O’Brien Payne LLP. These studies address a range of policy considerations associated with the use of technological protection measures (TPMs) as a means of applying the law of...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. On the evening of Oct. 10, 2001, then-president of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) Michael McCabe was flush with a significant victory over JumpTV (CNM Update, Oct. 11/01). But instead of a predictable dissertation on the evils of JumpTV’s plans to follow in the footsteps of...
Music and Internet industry players are applauding a March 27 announcement that the Supreme Court of Canada will hear an appeal and cross-appeal of a lower court’s controversial ruling on Tariff 22, proposed royalties for music distributed electronically (CNM, Oct. 30/02). Canada’s highest court agreed to hear an appeal...
Satellite TV operator Bell ExpressVu LP has fired back at broadcasters in the CRTC process contemplating a new test for must-carry interactive television (ITV) content, Broadcasting Public Notice 2002-63 (CNM, Feb. 20/03). On March 7, ExpressVu countered the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) request for a loose...
A long wait by the team of the former Infopreneur Inc., now March Entertainment, to find a business model for its Chilly Beach property has finally paid off as it gets set to air the show on CBC Television. The previously web-only animated series is set to hit the larger Canadian audience with 26 episodes starting in September, with animation being done in a new production facility in Sudbury ON. Readers will find the Chilly Beach name familiar (CNM, May 18/00). The show has been broadcasting consistently on the web for about five years and has won several accolades from the new media community in Canada. In 2000, Infopreneur was acquired by Terry Matthews-owned March Networks and spun...
Yet another study of the multimedia industry, this one in the Greater Toronto Area, has been announced by a partnership spearheaded by the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance (GTMA). The GTMA was recently the recipient of a grant from the Ontario Ministry of Enterprise, Opportunity and Innovation’s (MEOI) Interactive...
The National Library of Canada and National Archives of Canada have issued a list of recommendations to encourage the digitization of newspaper content coming out of an October conference (CNM, Oct. 16/02). Among other suggestions, the two institutions have put out for consideration the suggestion that legal deposit of...
Colourful and controversial journalist Donna Laframboise is set to launch a new web venture selling romance novels online. On March 21, Laframboise, a former Toronto Star and National Post writer, filed a trademark application for the tagline, fewer pages, all the passion. The slogan, she tells Canadian NEW MEDIA, is for...
CAB decries $6.5-million Copyright Board tariff decisionThe Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) is considering an appeal of the Copyright Board of Canada’s March 28 decision to apply a tariff, retroactive to 2001, payable on the reproduction of musical works by radio stations, including when they copy a CD into their internal hard drives. The CAB estimates the impact of the tariff at $6.5 million annually. Said...
April 2, 2003 Star Choice to add new channels; PVR receiver to be available in 2004Satellite TV operator Star Choice Communications Inc. has announced that it will be adding to its channel lineup some new local and specialty television and audio channels, as well as expanded HDTV programming. It will also introduce an integrated HDTV receiver with advanced program guide and an integrated personal video recorder (PVR) with...
Quebec's artists' union is questioning the provincial government's assertion that it is adding $20 million in new dollars to boost Quebec's film and television industry. The Quebec government highlighted its new film and television measures in a report entitled Politique Québécoise...
Sports specialty television channels The Score and Rogers Sportsnet are claiming economic need in requesting unprecedented increases to their regulated wholesale rates in their licence renewal applications. Sportsnet, owned by Rogers Media Inc., is asking the CRTC to hike its wholesale rate for carriage in basic packages...
Frustrated by sour pay-per-view (PPV) negotiations with Shaw Communications Inc., SaskTel plans instead to offer its digital TV customers video-on-demand (VOD) by the end of the year. The Crown corporation owned by the Saskatchewan government has applied to the CRTC for a VOD licence, but the application has not yet been...
A coalition of audio-visual unions is calling for regulation that would force broadcasters to air at least two hours of original, non-industrial Canadian drama a week during prime time. The recommendation is aimed at rectifying what the unions say is a dramatic decline in drama, caused in part by the implementation of the CRTC's 1998 TV policy. Pamela Brand, national executive director of the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC), which is part of the coalition, says such a requirement would result in 104 hours of drama being produced annually by each broadcaster or major station group. "It could be a mix of series, mini-series, movies of the week, and that would go a long way...
Dalfen calls for more action by government against piracy CRTC chair Charles Dalfen is calling on the appropriate government agencies and departments to "continue and intensify their efforts to combat signal theft in Canada and to give full effect to the Supreme Court of Canada's unanimous April 2002 decision declaring such activity to be illegal." In a media release issued March 20, Dalfen further...
A number of appointments have been made to the regional panels of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council. Public adjudicator Gilles Moisan and Tara Rajan, who is currently the director of research and data at the Canadian Television Fund, join the Quebec regional panel. Former Lieutenant Governor of P.E.I. Gilbert Clements has been named to the Atlantic regional panel. He will serve as public representative and...
Foreign Affairs minister Bill Graham noted that projecting Canadian values and culture is an important third pillar of the country's foreign policy in a speech given on March 22. Speaking to representatives of Canadian arts organizations at the Canadian Arts Summit in Banff, the minister also...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. There is a finite amount of financial support for the film and television industry taxpayers will bear, and governments and regulators can't be faulted if, to satisfy the sector's demande de jour, they occasionally rob from Peter to pay Paul. Producers and artists' unions recently lobbied...
Bill C-11 now law of the landBill C-11, an Act to amend the Copyright Act, came into force March 21 as expected (CNM, March 6/03). The law makes it illegal for companies operating under the CRTC's 1999 New Media Exemption Order to take advantage of compulsory licensing to retransmit over-the-air television signals over the Internet. In a media release announcing the measure, Canadian Heritage minister Sheila Copps is quoted as saying: "Starting today, Canadian broadcasters and producers of Canadian programs can count on the clear provisions in the Copyright Act. In a constantly changing technological environment, the government of Canada has ensured that the Act will contribute to widening Canadians' experience and enhancing their cultural diversity, while offering fair remuneration to creators." With the bill now law, companies hoping to set up an Internet alternative to cable or direct-to-home satellite television distribution will either have to negotiate with broadcasters to carry their signals, or seek a licence from...
Tariff 22 leave to appeal ruling expected Thursday The Supreme Court of Canada is scheduled to render a decision on whether or not to hear the Tariff 22 case on Thursday, March 27. The decision will be closely watched by the Canadian music industry and Internet service providers who filed for leave to appeal and cross-appeal a May 2002 ruling by the Federal Court of Appeal that leaves ISPs on the hook for royalties...
The Supreme Court of Canada has dismissed an appeal by the Earth Future Lottery and the Attorney General of Prince Edward Island to legalize a proposed Internet-based lottery (CNM Update, Mar. 11/03; CNM, Jan. 23/03). The court apparently heard nothing new in the arguments presented by Earth Future and P.E.I. counsel during...
Prominent arts journalist Laurie Brown and veteran new media producers marblemedia inc. have teamed up to rehabilitate the image of kiosks in an initiative to create a network of interactive displays in arts institutions across the country. Last week at the Canadian Arts Summit in Banff, the duo, along with the National Arts Centre, the Harbourfront...
In-Stat/MDR finds that the online games industry is just beginning to take off. It notes that even if a moderate number of gamers, or 10% of the game consoles, play for short periods of time such as five hours a week, they would consume more than 5% of all the American backbone traffic by the end of 2003. Further, roughly...
Geist wins Canada Research Chair in Internet lawMichael Geist, a University of Ottawa law professor and Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP technology lawyer, has won $250,000 in funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation to establish a research chair in Internet and ecommerce law, as well as an ecommerce law lab. The lab, according to a media release, has already attracted the support of technology powerhouses IBM...
Lavalife Inc., Toronto, has appointed Bruce Croxon as its new CEO. Croxon is an original founder of the company, and has held the position of executive chairman since the fall of 1999. He replaces former CEO Peter Housley. Lewis Rose has been confirmed as president and CEO of CryptoLogic, Toronto. Rose had been the interim CEO since July. Notably, he has served as president of Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc.,...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. Over a year ago, Berkeley Breathed, the cartoonist behind the Bloom County comic strip, declined due to time constraints an opportunity to talk with us about copyright, and just what it is that makes intellectual property law so darned funny. A brief item in this issue of Canadian NEW MEDIA (see Short...
The Quebec government has almost completely adopted the recommendations of the Alliance numériQC in announcing a thorough review of assistance measures to the interactive digital content sector in the province. In its March 11 budget, the Parti Québécois government outlined a full review of its new media initiatives as...
Julian Wharton, the prominent founder of QED Media and most recently head of the interactive digital media group at the SMART Toronto Technology Alliance (STTA), has joined TVOntario’s Independent Learning Centre (ILC) with an as-yet-to-be-determined title. Wharton will be helping to launch and run the ILC’s programs. The ILC was merged into TVOntario two years ago (CNM, Jan. 24/01), and Wharton will be helping to make the organization work at an operational level. An internal memo shared with Canadian NEW MEDIA reads: "...We have contracted the services of Julian Wharton to work on the ILC online resources with those of the former E-Learning Division (CareerMATTERS, Ask a Teacher and (the Lifelong Learning Challenge Fund). This is not simply an aesthetic exercise, the...
A small Quebec rights management company has begun a public relations push to find federal support for a Canadian cultural content portal that would ensure artists get paid for digital distribution of their works. On March 10, Montreal-based Reeves Communication Inc. announced support from several well-known Canadian arts...
New media producers are welcoming a new business development and funding program, Pioneering Content, now being offered by the Ontario Media Development Corp. (OMDC). The initiative, announced March 7, offers support in the form of consultation and access of up to $70,000 in cash grants to six project teams to create...
Toronto startup TVHello hopes to exploit emerging MPEG-4 television encoding technology to begin broadcasting a new digital specialty channel aimed at Europeans sometime this summer. The technology, which TVHello partner Rui Pereira says delivers the promise of true web television, flies beneath the regulatory radar of the...
March 19, 2003 CRTC reviewing change in Category 2 digital channel application process following complaintsThe CRTC is reviewing its decision to require a commitment of carriage prior to examining and granting licences for Category 2 digital specialty and pay TV channels, following complaints by potential applicants (Broadcasting Public Notice 2003-14). To reduce the time it spends processing Category 2 applications, last...
California-based Next Level Communications has unveiled equipment crucial to the rollout of Manitoba Telecom Services Inc.’s (MTS) television service in Winnipeg. Next Level demonstrated its Broadband Services Access Multiplexer – Single Shelf Enclosure (BSAM-SSE) in Toronto earlier this month to representatives of telcos from around the world, including MTS and Bell Canada. Also on hand were SBC Qwest, British Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Korea Telecom, Telenor and Telecom Italia. MTS appears poised to be the first telco in Canada and one of the first in the world to use the BSAM-SSE, which makes it more affordable to deliver television service to sparsely populated...
Plans for new services to be introduced by satellite TV operator Bell ExpressVu LP this year point to it being a leader in such areas as high-definition television (HDTV), but continuing to lag behind its cable competitors in video-on-demand (VOD). VOD or subscription VOD (SVOD) services were not among the 76 new services...
The Telecommunications Workers Union (TWU) fears that Telus Corp.’s telephone service will further suffer if the telco is granted the regulatory go-ahead to offer a television service as well. The union is asking to appear at the public hearing on Telus’ bid for broadcast distribution licences to provide details on why...
The House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology appears poised to make recommendations that are more in line with the demands of Canada’s largest cablecos than the status quo policy direction expected from the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. Reports by both committees are due out in...
Pay television, pay-per-view (PPV), and video-on-demand (VOD) service operators have a new industry code on programming standards that limits when they can broadcast adult entertainment, and requires them to review all such programming before airing it. The new code, approved last week by the CRTC, stems from controversy...
Rogers ups stake in CogecoRogers Communications Inc. announced March 6 that it had reached an agreement to buy three million subordinate voting shares of Cogeco Cable Inc. from a third party, spurring talk of a possible takeover. The purchase increases Rogers’ share in Cogeco to 18% of all classes of common shares from 11%. The shares were acquired from a group of investors unaffiliated with the Cogeco group in exchange...
Marc O’Sullivan joins the CRTC as executive director of broadcasting, effective April 14. Currently, he is director general of broadcasting policy and innovation at Canadian Heritage. Previous to joining Canadian Heritage, he worked at the Privy Council Office (PCO) from 1989 to 2000. Among the positions he held at the PCO were assistant clerk of the Privy Council, executive director of Strategic Projects Unit, and...
The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) tells the CRTC it’s time to develop a policy framework for interactive television, but that a U.S. test shouldn’t be used. In reply comments submitted March 7, the CAB responds to earlier comments made by the Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA), the Canadian Film...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.The high costs and risks associated with launching new digital specialty TV channels has shattered the CRTC’s goal of promoting a diversity of voices in the Canadian broadcasting system. It had hoped its flexible licensing framework for digital channels would encourage the introduction of new broadcast...
OMDC offers new fundingThe Ontario Media Development Corp. (OMDC) has launched a new Pioneering Content fund. Initial reaction from producers is positive about the six-project, $70,000-each cash grant intended to create new prototype content that incorporates material from at least two of the OMDC’s constituencies. While OMDC officials stress that it is not specifically a new media program, it’s clear the fund is tailor made for new media productions. Canadian NEW MEDIA will have further details about the program in its upcoming issue next week, and report on an OMDC information session to be held March 14 in Toronto. Details of Hello TV revealedCanadian NEW MEDIA will have full details its next issue next week on a company we reported on briefly on February 7, Hello TV (CNM, Feb. 7/03). The Toronto company, with an address at one Atlantic Avenue, will be creating MPEG-4 content for distribution on Eutelsat’s Open Skies platform that can be received and watched on computers, or routed through a PC to a television set. The...
Supreme Court dismisses Earth Future Lottery appeal The Supreme Court of Canada today dismissed an appeal by the Earth Future Lottery and the Attorney General of Prince Edward Island to legalize a proposed Internet-based lottery (CNM, Jan. 23/03). The court apparently heard nothing new in the arguments presented by Earth Future and P.E.I. counsel, and dismissed the case after a brief recess "for substantially...
The final chapter of a three-year battle on Internet retransmission of over-the-air television signals appears headed for a close with the withdrawal on February 17 of Aliant Telecom Inc.’s application to the CRTC for an experimental licence. As signs point to Bill C-11 finally coming into force by the end of March, the regulatory environment put to...
Wireless operators and ringtone suppliers in Canada could soon be required to pay more money to use ringtones based on popular melodies if the Copyright Board of Canada approves an expanded tariff on the public performance of music proposed by the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN)....
New business push at e-learning company Magic Lantern?Magic Lantern Communications Ltd. has hired former Canadian Alliance communications director Phil von Finckenstein to find opportunities for the company in the federal government’s lifelong learning and SchoolNet programs. Von Finckenstein, now with Prospectus Associates Inc., registered as a federal lobbyist in this capacity on February 21. Magic Lantern officials...
Vancouver-based Mainframe Entertainment Inc. has appointed Rick Mischel to the position of CEO. He previously served at The Harvey Entertainment Company, where he was in charge of managing the business and creative affairs of properties including Casper The Friendly Ghost and Richie Rich. He began his career as an entertainment attorney with O’Melveny & Myers, then joined Electric Pictures Corp. as a VP. He later worked as senior VP of live entertainment. He joined Harvey in 1998. Beatrice Raffoul, VP of external relations with the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA), becomesVP at The Strategies Group while maintaining her relationship with the CFTPA. Her new post was effective March 3. The Strategies Group specializes in business-government relations, strategic counselling, issues management and public policy resolution. Robert Seufferheld joins Leitch Technology Corp. as VP of sales for the Americas and Laura Whitaker joins as VP of marketing communications. Seufferheld has previously worked with...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. The Canadian recording industry, as well as its broadcast, movie, and retailing partners, are to be congratulated on a cool new web site designed to teach teens about the record industry and how the purchase of music translates into music creation. A brief tour of the site, www.keepmusiccoming.com,...
The Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP) is applauding new guidelines on online advertising published by the Competition Bureau that appear to leave the association’s members off the hook for misrepresentative claims made by others. The final guidelines represent a reversal in policy from a May 2001 draft of...
The Copyright Board of Canada’s hearing on proposed new blank recording media tariffs wrapped up with oral arguments February 17 and 18, with anti-levy forces decrying the tariff as unconstitutional while rights groups argued that nothing has changed since a 1999 board ruling that allowed collections to...
Women in Film and Television –Toronto (WIFT-T) has embarked on an ambitious study to profile Canada’s "screen-based media," which include film, television and new media. The study will be the first of its kind in 10 years, says WIFT-T president and past chair Kate Hanley, and will report on a broad number of...
The Canadian music industry is taking a soft-glove approach to discourage peer-to-peer downloading among youth. On March 4, a coalition of record labels, retailers, copyright collectives, broadcasters and others launched a Value of Music campaign to teach kids about the connection between music purchasing and the music...
The Media Awareness Network (MNet) has launched a high-profile campaign in association with Bell Canada and the Canadian Library Association (CLA) to equip parents with resources to help guide their children safely on the Internet. Unveiled during Canada’s first Web Awareness Day on February 20, libraries across the...
March 5, 2003 Bell ExpressVu to add 76 new channels to its lineup Satellite TV distributor Bell ExpressVu LP announced today that it would add 76 new channels to its lineup this year. The additions include 11 new high-definition television channels, as well as more conventional and specialty channels. On the conventional side, the satellite TV distributor will add 25 local conventional TV channels (11...
Telephone companies getting into the television distribution business are asking for greater flexibility in the composition of their basic packages. Telcos could be one of the first to benefit if the CRTC establishes different rules for basic packages for all-digital cable systems since they are...
Technological developments and the power of the market are eroding the amount of control the government is able to exert over media, according to the senior VP of policy and regulatory affairs at the Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA). Speaking February 14 at a session on the role of the government at the Who Controls Canada’s Media forum in Montreal, Michael Hennessy argued that public policy will in time have less and less influence over the media industry. The government will have no choice but to decrease its role in terms of competition, technology and consumer choice, but will be able to continue to provide subsidies, set fee schedules and require contributions from...
