The Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund (CIFVF) has allocated ten per cent of its funds during a 19th evaluation round to new media projects. Nine of the 68 successful applicants to the fund were classified as new media. In total, the fund approved $1,440,000 in grants for the round, and successful new media projects publicly announced July 2002 will receive $144,000 of the kitty. Following are the nine projects and their descriptions, provided by the CIFVF: A Chipmunk in Flight, Youth View Communications Inc. (Ontario). The story of the trainer airplane, the Chipmunk, that takes the viewer on a journey around the world and orients students to the various dimensions of flight and...
Craig Wireless hoping to roll out MDS service in Vancouver next monthDespite asking the CRTC for a delay until the end of the year to launch its wireless cable service in British Columbia (CCR, July 18/02), Craig Wireless International Inc. says it could be up and running as early as next month. Craig Wireless CFO Darcy Kindred tells Canadian Communications Reports that the company’s number one priority is getting the digital TV service deployed, followed by Internet access this fall. He says Craig Wireless is targeting seniors in multi-unit dwellings, and would be happy if it can sign up 2,500 cable subscribers in the first year. Kindred adds that Craig has a deal with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. to place transmitters on its tower on Mt. Seymour, and will use IPWireless to provide the Internet service. He further notes that Craig Wireless could refurbish and transfer one of two headends from its Manitoba MDS system to B.C. Failing that, Kindred says Craig is looking at feeding the video signal from its existing headend in Manitoba...
The future of Craig Wireless International Inc.’s planned wireless cable system in British Columbia remains in doubt as the company has asked the CRTC for a further delay to roll out its service. Despite the request for another extension, some industry experts question whether Craig will proceed with the venture at all,...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.Consumers and innovation could well be the winners if two B.C. entrepreneurs are successful in getting a Class 2 cable licence for Whistler BC (see story in this issue). The applicants are proposing to launch a service that would compete with incumbent Whistler Cable in a market with just 7,000...
The Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA) has asked the CRTC to expand its exemption from licensing for small cablecos to include Class 2 systems unaffiliated with the four largest cable companies and all former Part III cable systems. The move is being pitched as a slight tweaking of the current exemption that will...
A change in the calculation of how much should be spent on Canadian content is the only substantive change requested in the licence renewal application of the French-language international specialty channel TV5. Currently, the channel operated by the Consortium de Télévision Québec Canada pays a fixed amount on Canadian...
Persona reaches 15,070 digital subscribers at May 2002Persona Inc., formerly known as Regional Cablesystems, says its digital subscriber base almost doubled to 15,070 at May 31 from a year earlier, according to financials released July 11. Another 3,300 digital set-top boxes were deployed for use on other television sets in those households. Persona says it had 7,715 digital subscribers at May 31, 2001. "The company has produced its strongest quarterly subscriber results in nearly three years. Subscriber churn was reduced to its lowest level since the company began experiencing erosion in its cable subscribers and Internet subscribers was the highest since Persona began launching these services midway through fiscal 2000," stated Jamie Roberts, the company’s VP of finance and administration, in a media release. The company noted that telecom operations and Internet services continue to be the growth engines for revenue. During the quarter, Persona launched digital cable service in 55 systems serving about 41,700 cable...
Andrew Cameron joins the CRTC as parliamentary relations officer. He was previously manager of government relations at the Canadian Association of Broadcasters. Suzanne Gouin has been named the new president of TV5 Québec Canada Inc. Her term as head of the French-language specialty channel begins August 5. Recently, she was VP of economic publications at Transcontinental Média. Interim TV5 Québec Canada Inc....
The unavailability of some digital specialty channel signals such as CourtTV Canada via Canadian Satellite Communications Inc. (Cancom) is edging some cable operators to turn to Bell ExpressVu LP for satellite delivery to their headends. A more reasonably priced Tandberg receiver/descrambler capable of providing the...
Two British Columbia entrepreneurs are hoping to bring competition in the cable TV market to the upscale resort town of Whistler BC. They have applied to the CRTC for a Class 2 broadcast distribution undertaking licence for the area, which is already served by Whistler Cable Television Ltd. – Broadcasting Notice of Public...
CBC chair Carole Taylor made a case for Canada’s public broadcaster in the 500-channel universe during an address late last month to the Canadian Club of Regina. She said that despite a plethora of choice, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. still has a major role to play in bringing a Canadian perspective to the country. She...
Broadcast distributors should look at the granting of a wholesale rate increase to Vision TV as an investment in the diversity of Canada’s broadcast system, says the channel’s director of corporate and legal affairs. Vision’s request for a 3-cent increase is facing opposition from the Canadian...
I.C.E. rehires half of its game developersI.C.E. Multimédia has reportedly rehired half of the 30 game developers it laid off last January (CNM, Jan. 23/02). Lesaffaires.com reports that the staff returned to work on Friday, July 12 and will begin working on a second edition of the company’s Land of the Magic Stones edu-tainment game. The title is expected to be released in November. There is no word on whether the...
Telefilm Canada has announced funding recipients from its second round of applications to the re-vamped Canada New Media Fund (CNM, Dec. 13/01), applications for which were due April 29. Following is a complete list of the recipients, including the project name, company, type of project and funding...
Decima Reader Poll, June 2002The June edition of the online Decima Reader Poll asked who the CRTC price cap decision pushed the telecom operating balance in favour of. Go to www.decima.ca/publishing to answer this month’s question on jurisdiction in wireless disputes. Comm companies significant donors to Liberals in 2001Most of Canada’s top communications firms are represented on the list of donors to...
Sunny Handa, a lawyer formerly with Fasken Martineau DuMoulin, has accepted a position with Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP within its technology and communications practices. Handa came to mainstream national attention as the lawyer guiding JumpTV.com Canada Inc. through its recent retransmission battles. He tells CNM that it’s not certain JumpTV will follow him to the new firm as a client. Handa’s role as a professor at McGill University remains unchanged. His assistant, Carole Essiembre, will join Handa at Blakes, as will his colleague Marie-Hélène Constantin. Carolyn Meacher has been appointed senior VP and managing partner at BBDO Toronto. She joins the firm from Key Media Ltd. where she was president, new media, and a member of the board of directors. She has also served with Eaton’s, Ogilvy & Mather, TBWA/Chiat Day, and A.C. Nielsen. Key Media recently sold its titles Toronto Life and Wedding Bells to St. Joseph Corp. Andrée Noël and Stuart Langford have been re-appointed as full-time CRTC commissioners for...
Debt-laden CanWest Global unloads some of its newspapersCanWest Global Communications Corp. has reached an agreement to sell its community newspapers and related assets in Atlantic Canada and Saskatchewan to G.T.C. Transcontinental Group Ltd. for $255 million in cash. The assets include 10 dailies and two weeklies, 32 related publications, and related printing operations. The assets that were sold contributed about $30...
On May 9, Industry Canada minister Allan Rock put out a call to Canadian citizens and companies to submit their input on Canada’s Innovation Strategy in advance of in-depth discussions. A series of meetings has been announced that will culminate in a summit this November. Following is a letter submitted as a part of that...
Quebec’s multimedia producers are determined to negotiate agreements with artists’ unions despite a recent provincial ruling that leaves the question of bargaining rights up in the air. At a meeting June 20 in Montreal, about 25 producers re-confirmed their commitment to keep the negotiation arm of the Alliance...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. While researching this issue’s story on changes at Toronto’s Liberty Village New Media Centre (LVNMC), I was struck, again, by the failure of Ontario’s new media community to coalesce around a single strong association or find leadership from the provincial government. In the past several years,...
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has quietly posted a variety of archival media clips online, though details about the as-yet-unfinished site won’t be made known until September. The site, at http://cbc.ca/archives (http://radio-canada.ca/archives in French), was launched two weeks ago, according to a CBC spokesperson. The site was built with $2.5 million in funding from Canadian Heritage’s Canadian Culture Online Program’s Canadian Memory Fund. The collection already contains 21 different clips ranging in subject matter from Trudeaumania to a speech made by Winston Churchill on his visit to Ottawa in the immediate wake of the attack by Japan on Pearl Harbour and the United States’ full entry into the world war in December 1941. Still to come are details on how the...
A group of young Vancouver entrepreneurs has come out of apparently nowhere to launch a big-budget Internet drama series. Last week, TVSTARS Entertainment (http://www.tvstars.ca) opened a call to aspiring actors and actresses from across Canada to apply to star in an upcoming web-only series that will add an interactive...
Aliant Telecom says it will prove the value of broadband IP networks as a secure platform for TV content and other copyrighted material with the launch of several new services including another kick at the broadcast can. This month it will launch several new services, including TV programming, video-on-demand (VOD), and...
Controversy surrounds the announcement that Kathrine Brown is set to leave the helm of Toronto’s Liberty Village New Media Centre (LVNMC) several months in advance of the end of her contract. Brown will be replaced by well-known new media entrepreneur Julian Wharton, founder of QEDMedia, who takes over this week. Rumours...
Shaw joins cablecos applying for basic cable deregulation Shaw Communications Inc. has filed an application with the CRTC to deregulate its basic service in its Class 1 systems in mainland Vancouver. In a June 12 letter to the commission, Shaw asks that its Burnaby; Coquitlan/Maple Ridge and Mission (Frasier); Northwest Vancouver, Vancouver; Surrey/Abbotsford; and White Rock BC systems be deregulated. Shaw filed an...
The video-on-demand (VOD) service Shaw Cablesystems is rolling out beginning September 4 in Calgary could include free music videos - a move meant to distinguish the service from other offerings. That strategy could also put a dent in the music specialty channels of mid-sized broadcasters CHUM Ltd., Craig Broadcast Systems...
Andrée Noël and James Stuart Langford have been re-appointed as full-time CRTC commissioners for full five-year terms. In an unusual move, the re-appointments, made June 21, came five months prior to the end of their current terms. Noël's new term as commissioner for the Quebec region will begin November 1 and Langford's on November 16. The move is a surprise because CRTC chair Charles Dalfen was widely...
CRTC chair Charles Dalfen addressed the Western Association of Broadcasters at its annual conference in Alberta on June 15. He spoke of a need for Canadians to tell their own stories and hear their own voices, and said one of his priorities was to increase the amount of Canadian English-language drama series on television....
Canada's private broadcasters are opposed to an upstart Montreal company's plans to sell advertising during on-site broadcasts of live sporting and other events via fan companion wireless devices. World Audio-Visual Entertainment Systems (W.A.V.E.S.) has proposed selling 12 minutes an hour of advertising over four...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. Unless video-on-demand (VOD) is given a better window and more enticing product than pay-per-view, it's doubtful the new technology will have much of an effect on the bottom lines of cable operators in the early years. While the U.S. experience has shown that VOD can reduce digital cable churn, it will take a few years for VOD to turn a profit for cablecos. Operators have touted VOD as the killer app that will give them an edge over satellite TV distributors, who are unable to offer the service for technological reasons at this time. With digital infrastructure largely in place, big Canadian cablecos have high hopes for VOD and are beginning to roll it out. Rogers Cable announced its launch in Toronto this March (CCR, March 01/02), and Shaw Cablesystems disclosed last month that it would begin deploying VOD in September (see story in this issue). Vidéotron and Cogeco Cable are planning launches for this year...
The number of Canadians subscribing to digital television service will top 3.6 million by the end of 2002, with satellite TV continuing to hold the lion's share of the market, according to the latest digital TV subscriber forecasts by Decima Publishing Inc. Satellite's share of the digital TV market is expected to...
As expected, broadcast distributors are opposing Vision TV's request for a 3-cent increase to its wholesale rate, saying neither they nor their subscribers should be unnecessarily subsidizing the organization's broadcast operations. The distributors argue that they are burdened with their...
2002 EMMA awards call for entriesThe 2002 International EMMA awards have called for entries. The closing date is September 27 and nominations will be released on October 21. Winners will be announced at the end of November. More details. OMDC hires new top executiveMichel Frappier has been appointed CEO of the Ontario Media Development Corp., the province’s cultural industries agency. Frappier is a veteran of...
While the regulatory door has been shut to JumpTV.com Canada Inc. to take advantage of this country’s compulsory licensing regime, several avenues remain open to its owners to pursue network retransmission in future. Until the amended Bill C-48 becomes law this fall after being dealt with by the Senate, retransmission...
The lawyer who represented Silicon Graphics Ltd.’s subsidiary graphics company Alias Research Inc. in its bid to be determined a Canadian-owned and -controlled company for the purpose receiving tax credits for two years in the early 90s says a favourable ruling by the Federal Court of Appeal won’t likely have broader implications. The case was argued on very narrow grounds, says Ernst & Young LLP tax lawyer Roger Taylor, and the grey area of tax law surrounding scientific research and experimental development (SR&ED) credits has since been closed. Last week, the court ruled that Alias, despite being overwhelmingly owned by non-residents in the aftermath of its 1990 IPO on...
Slow digital cable growth, basic customer losses hit Shaw in Q3 . . .Shaw Communications Inc. experienced a sharp decline in digital cable growth and lost several thousand basic cable customers in its 2002 fiscal third quarter ended May 31, according to company financial and subscriber results released June 25. Shaw added just 5,976 net digital cable set-top boxes in its third quarter, compared to 43,925 net additions in...
Canada’s watchdog on government language issues is warning the federal government to be sure to integrate both official languages into its evolving Government On-Line initiative. In a report released June 13, the Commissioner of Official Languages (COL) outlined a series of recommendations to proactively ensure government...
Online content creators can use specialized Internet lingo to help users feel good about being online, says the author of a new report on the subject. Neil Randall, a University of Waterloo professor, says web designers should take heart that a broad cross-section of online Canadians understand a new generation of emoticons...
Parents site joins MSN.ca familyMontreal-based PetitMonde.com, a resource and shopping site for families, will now be featured on MSN.CA, the portal operated by Microsoft Canada. PetitMonde counts 2 million page hits and 100,000 unique visitors each month, and is operated by Micro-Accès, also based in Montreal. CRIA to launch anti-piracy education campaign in fallDetails won’t be available for several months, but...
Brian Tobin, former minister of Industry Canada, has taken a non-voting, advisory position on the board of directors of the Canadian Recording Industry Association for a term of at least one year.Wmode, a wireless ecom clearinghouse, has appointed Brian Josling to the company’s board of directors. Josling has previously served as the western division founding president of Rogers Cantel Inc., and as a senior executive in...
Broadband has changed the way people use the Internet, argues the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The following is an excerpt from the conclusion to its report, The Broadband Difference. The full report is available at http://www.pewinternet.org. Broadband Internet users clearly drive in both directions on the information superhighway,...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. The case brought by singer Mia Girard against TQS for the unauthorized use of her image will be carefully watched by many looking for signs of where authorities will draw the line at using copyrighted material. The debate in the current copyright reform process is about exceptions and the extent...
The lawyer acting for up-and-coming pop singer Mia Girard (who goes by her first name only) says fair dealing provisions built into copyright law won’t get TQS Inc. off the hook for the unauthorized use of nude pictures of the chanteuse. Mia is suing the Quebec broadcast network and the producers of its info-tainment show...
G8 Summit officials have cancelled their proposal to build an online gallery associated with the event because no company stepped up with a suitable proposal. Those organizing the event called for expressions of interest last April by companies interesting in building a virtual gallery of art and furniture objects being featured at this week’s summit in Alberta (CNM, May 1/02). However, they have apparently abandoned the project as no qualified applicants stepped forward. A June 11 letter sent by the G8 Summit office of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade to prospective companies states: "Unfortunately, this project will not proceed due to the lack of partnership funding, but these circumstances do not detract from our appreciation of your response and...
New media companies are generally more satisfied than their film and television counterparts in their dealings with Telefilm Canada, a new report reveals. Telefilm’s recently published Client Satisfaction and Needs Identification Study indicates that new media respondents to a March 2002 survey scored the agency higher on...
Persona Communications continues acquisition spreePersona Communications Inc. has inked a $550,000-deal to purchase some of the fibre assets of Gateway Telephone Ltd. from an interim receiver, the company formerly known as Regional Cablesystems announced June 13. Persona will acquire over 250 route kilometres of Gateway’s fibre network between Sudbury and North Bay and local loop fibres within the two cities. Persona...
Sylvia Sweeney has been appointed as executive director of the National Film Board (NFB)’s Ontario Production Centre. The appointment is effective June 24. Prior to joining the NFB, Sweeney was president since 1987 of Elitha Peterson Productions Inc. She replaces Louise Lore, who is leaving the NFB after six and a half years in the position. Gordon Lee, senior director of uplink services, has left Canadian...
At the Banff Television Festival earlier this month, Richard Stursberg, the executive director of Telefilm Canada, announced a series of measures to improve the corporation’s decision-making, processes and overall performance. He told producers that the changes centre on a modified management structure, simplified processes, and the development of a...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.Canada has taken the first baby steps toward migrating to conventional digital television with the release of the CRTC’s licensing framework. But with no deadline imposed, don’t expect free over-the-air television anytime soon. That’s the way the industry wants it, and the CRTC has heeded their calls for a market-driven rollout. The United States’ experimentation with a deadline-imposed conversion so far has not met with much success. Few expect the Americans will meet their 2006 deadline. There is no reason to impose a deadline, other than to perhaps free up spectrum. Converting to digital will be a costly affair as broadcasters will have to invest in new transmission equipment. Currently, many broadcasters are hurting from the launch of new digital specialty channels that are not garnering as many eyeballs as they had hoped. This, coupled with a soft advertising market, means broadcasters cannot...
Lagging digital penetration in Quebec is expected to get a shot in the arm with the launch of three new French-language European television channels this week. The move means foreign channels will get a head start for audience share on licensed Canadian French-language digital specialty channels, which have delayed...
Radio France Internationale (RFI) launched this week on digital cable in the Quebec market despite the fact the CRTC announced last year that it was deferring authorizing foreign audio programming services for distribution in Canada. The commission said it would first finalize a licensing framework for Canadian specialty...
Michael McEwen sees the CRTC’s regulatory framework for the transition to over-the-air digital television (DTV) as a step in the right direction in rolling out the new technology. Unlike in the United States, the commission has not set a deadline for the transition, preferring instead to let broadcaster investment and...
While the CRTC has released a broad framework for the licensing of over-the-air digital TV (DTV) signals, it has not yet decided how they should be distributed. On June 12 in conjunction with the release of the licensing framework, the CRTC issued a proposed policy for the distribution of digital channels once they are...
The implementation of a digital test transmitter in Montreal has been delayed due to "hot spots" on Mount Royal, according to Canadian Digital Television (CDTV) president Michael McEwen. Industry Canada has decided not to issue licences for any more transmitters at the location due to "hot spots" from existing transmitters, which...
Atlantic Canada telephone company Aliant Telecom is winding down its digital TV service VibeVision and will instead offer Bell ExpressVu LP’s satellite TV service to its customers, the company announced this week. While some industry observers predict that other Canadian telcos planning digital TV deployments using...
A recent Federal Court of Canada ruling means that the House of Commons Broadcasting Service (HCBS) will likely have to change its agreement with the Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC) to ensure that broadcast distributors provide both the English and French feeds of House proceedings. The HCBS currently provides three...
Bill C-48 passes in House, Senate to examine bill this fallControversial Bill C-48, amended by the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage to include an express Internet carve-out, passed third reading yesterday in the House of Commons (CNM Special Update, June 18/02). The Senate won’t approve the bill until this fall when Royal Assent will make the legislation official. Parliamentarians amended the bill to specifically...
Heritage Committee creates Permanent moratorium on Internet retransmission The Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage has approved amendments to Bill C-48 that would create an explicit, permanent moratorium on compulsory Internet retransmission (CNM, June 14/02). There was all-party agreement to the Canadian Alliance-sponsored amendments, which change the bill’s language to define a "new media retransmitter" according to the CRTC’s new media exemption order, and then specifically decline those companies the benefit of a compulsory licence. The bill is not expected to encounter opposition in the House of Commons when it is reported for third reading this week, possibly as early as today. Glenn O’Farrell, president and CEO of Canadian Association of Broadcasters, expressed pleasure with the committee’s action, saying Bill C-48 creates minimum conditions for entry into the broadcasting market, and restores an orderly market. Canadian NEW MEDIA will carry full details, including analysis of JumpTV.com...
New media executives are greeting news of restricted bandwidth usage at Canada’s largest high-speed Internet service provider with trepidation. They’re concerned that while the limits are sufficient for today’s applications, consumers might be frightened off using new services for fear of...
After an intense two weeks of hearings, members of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage are poised to vote on the controversial Bill C-48 to clarify the role of Internet retransmitters within the Copyright Act. After hearing from final witnesses on June 11, the committee will proceed to clause-by-clause examination...
An unusual number of individuals, organizations, and companies have objected to the Canadian Private Copying Collective’s (CPCC) proposed tariff on music storage media including blank CD-Rs and MP3 players. There are currently 83 formal objectors to the levy, which would double the tariff collected on CD-Rs and could more...
After an intense two weeks of hearings, members of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage are poised to vote on the controversial Bill C-48 to clarify the role of Internet retransmitters within the Copyright Act. After hearing from final witnesses on June 11, the committee will proceed to clause-by-clause examination...
A final report published by the Infomation Deficit: Canadian Solutions (IDCS) forum held in October 2001 isn’t the end of the group’s efforts to put Canadian content online. Janice Dickin, chair of the group’s steering committee, says she and her colleagues are in the process of finalizing several grant applications that put the report’s recommendations into practice. Potential funding could come from CANARIE Inc.’s Applied Research in Multimedia fund, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s Initiative on the New Economy envelope, as well as through the Networks of Centres of Excellence and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. The money, if successfully...
An unusual number of individuals, organizations, and companies have objected to the Canadian Private Copying Collective’s (CPCC) proposed tariff on music storage media including blank CD-Rs and MP3 players. There are currently 83 formal objectors to the levy, which would double the tariff collected on CD-Rs and could more...
Leitch, UWaterloo open multimedia communications labLeitch Technology Corp. and the University of Waterloo will build one of the largest and most advanced multimedia communications labs in the country, it was announced June 6. Leitch has pitched in $330,000 in cash and equipment for the lab and much of the infrastructure, including audio and video conversion and interface equipment, test generators and a 3D non-linear...
A final report published by the Infomation Deficit: Canadian Solutions (IDCS) forum held in October 2001 isn’t the end of the group’s efforts to put Canadian content online. Janice Dickin, chair of the group’s steering committee, says she and her colleagues are in the process of finalizing several grant applications...
Leitch, UWaterloo open multimedia communications labLeitch Technology Corp. and the University of Waterloo will build one of the largest and most advanced multimedia communications labs in the country, it was announced June 6. Leitch has pitched in $330,000 in cash and equipment for the lab and much of the infrastructure, including audio and video conversion and interface equipment, test generators and a 3D non-linear...
Sylvia Sweeney has been appointed executive producer of the National Film Board’s (NFB) Ontario production centre effective June 24. Prior to joining the NFB, Sweeney was president of Elitha Peterson Productions Inc. She is a longtime producer and director, and a director of the Ontario Media Development Corp. Sweeney replaces Louise Lore, who has served in the executive producer capacity for a six-and-a-half-year...
Last month, a group of major U.S. copyright holders wrote their government asking for its assistance in fighting Bill C-48 (see story in this issue and CNM, May 31/02). On June 4, the U.S. Congress’ House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary wrote the following to Canada’s ambassador to...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. The Residential Broadband Users Association has a valid argument when it states that capping users’ bandwidth usage could stifle future innovation – up to a point (see story in this issue). The argument falls apart, however, if ISPs can’t recoup enough of their expenses to continue to provide...
New media executives are greeting news of restricted bandwidth usage at Canada’s largest high-speed Internet service provider with trepidation. They’re concerned that while the limits are sufficient for today’s applications, consumers might be frightened off using new services for fear of...
Illegal satellite descrambling cards cause interference to public safety communicationsIndustry Canada has determined that certain devices used to provide unauthorized access to direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV signals can cause interference to communications systems used by law enforcement agencies and emergency response teams. The department began an investigation into the interference issues after receiving several complaints from public safety organizations in Canada. Industry Canada concluded that illegal AVR cards, used to bypass DTH companies’ conditional access systems, were causing the interference and subsequently made a Determination of Interference. DTH broadcasters use conditional access systems to protect their transmissions from unauthorized reception. "These analyses have demonstrated that certain devices used to defeat conditional access systems of DTH broadcast satellite receivers, when used in conjunction with such receivers, cause the emission of radio frequency signals of sufficient strength that interference...
A Parliamentary committee pondered out loud this week whether it should get involved in a programming agreement that excludes coverage of the Montreal Canadiens hockey team on Radio-Canada on Saturday nights. Robert Rabinovitch, president and CEO of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., told members of...
The loss of the Montreal Canadiens on Radio-Canada accounted for most of questioning of CBC president and CEO Robert Rabinovitch during his appearance before the Standing Joint Committee on Official Languages on June 4 (see story in this issue). But in introductory remarks to the committee, Rabinovitch updated it on how...
Opinions are split on the need for a greater harmonization between CRTC content rules and those for funding purposes, according to submissions filed with Canadian Heritage in the government’s review of Canadian content definitions (CCR, Apr. 12/02). The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC), the Independent Film and...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.Despite all the recent political and public pressure on Radio-Canada for losing the rights to broadcast Montreal Canadiens games on Saturday nights, the public broadcaster is taking the right stance. CBC president/CEO Robert Rabinovitch should stay the course and not be swayed into a bad TV deal....
JumpTV.com Canada Inc., in its bid to retransmit over-the-air television signals via the Internet, has told the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage that if compulsory Internet retransmission is permitted, it will abide by the same conditions as cable and satellite TV operators (CCR, Mar. 28/02). Jump’s promise came during a contentious committee hearing on June 4. That same day, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) and the Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA) agreed to new language for an amendment proposed by the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association (CMPDA) to the Copyright Act that would create a permanent Internet "carve-out" and prohibit what...
Bill S-7 was sent back to the House of Commons for a vote unchanged although some members of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage did want changes made. The bill’s sponsor, Liberal MP John Harvard, and Bloc Québécois MP Christiane Gagnon wanted small broadcasters to be exempt from subsidizing third-party...
Even though the federal government recently denied an appeal by satellite users including broadcasters of the CRTC’s contribution regime, the executive director of the Canadian Satellite Users’ Association (CSUA) believes the petitioners still made some progress on the issue. Don Braden notes that the parties were able...
ARTV and WETV Canada seek licence amendmentsThe arts channel ARTV Inc. is asking the CRTC to amend its licence so that it can broadcast in prime time a weekly one-hour program pertaining to events, artists and Canadian artisans – Broadcasting Public Notice 2002-27. The deadline for filing comments on the matter is June 18. As well, WETV Canada Corp., which operates The Green Channel, has asked the CRTC to amend its...
Gordon Whittaker has been named a new investment analyst at Telefilm Canada’s operations in Atlantic Canada. For the last two years, he was VP and COO at Helix Animation Inc. Previous to that, he was executive director of the Atlantic Film Festival. As well, Michel Pradier has been appointed director of Telefilm’s Quebec operations. An employee of Telefilm since 1997, he has been in the position in an acting capacity...
Now that it’s been confirmed that Drew Craig will keep his licence for a conventional television station in the crowded Toronto market, he can move ahead with plans for expansion. Calling the Toronto licence "critical" for Craig Broadcast Systems Inc., the president and CEO of the Calgary-based broadcaster says...
Corus acquires major stake in pay TV channelCorus Entertainment Inc. has acquired a 50% stake in The Locomotion Channel, an action-oriented animation pay television service. The service, which targets young adults aged 18-35, is available in more than 27 countries and seven million homes throughout Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula. Corus purchased the interest from Claxson Interactive Group Inc. for US$10.5 million...
MGM Worldwide Television Distribution Group has hired Susan Hummel to serve as VP television distribution for Canada. Based in Toronto, she will be responsible for distribution and sales of all MGM programming to stations in Canadian pay, basic cable, pay-per-view and free television markets. Hummel joins the company from Comedy Central in New York, where she most recently served as VP programming and acquisitions. She...
The following is shortened version of a confidential letter sent by the major sports leagues, National Association of Broadcasters, actors and writers guilds of America and others to the U.S. trade representative. For more details, please see the May 16/02 edition of Canadian NEW MEDIA. We, the undersigned members of...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. The move to refer Internet retransmission to the CRTC for consultation will be greeted with relief by some people and trepidation by others. The end-run around the federal government’s promise to have regulations on the table to define Bill C-48 before it passes gives the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) a full year to change the minds of officials bent on permitting Internet retransmission (see story in this issue). By moving the issue to the CRTC forum, however, both the CAB and Internet players will be exposed to even greater uncertainty. If the commission begins to look at retransmission, surely it will be tempted to re-examine the whole of the new media exemption order? If the commission decides, for example, to create a new class of Internet retransmission broadcast distribution undertaking, it would likely saddle those groups with many of the same obligations placed on existing licensed BDUs....
Unable to break an impasse over regulations for proposed Bill C-48, the federal government has asked Parliament to pass the legislation without a final determination on whether Internet retransmission will or won’t be allowed. In return, Canadian Heritage minister Sheila Copps and Industry Canada minister Allan Rock have...
Iceberg Media.com Inc. is supporting a $1.3-million takeover by Standard Radio Inc. as the only alternative to shutting its doors. On May 22, the company announced that Standard would be tendering an offer to purchase all outstanding shares at $0.05 each, a measure already agreed to by Iceberg and partners Newfoundland...
Canadian Heritage minister Sheila Copps ended months of speculation on May 27 by announcing that Telus Corp. would be the department’s chief e-learning partner. During the third annual Canadian New Media Awards in Toronto, Copps and Telus executive VP John Chang announced the creation of the new $5-million Canada-Telus...
I.C.E. Multimedia will soon end a five-month hiatus from developing video games and begin producing titles for the video game console market, Canadian NEW MEDIA has learned. While the company is keeping full details secret for another several weeks, company spokesperson Ron Vaillancourt confirms that the company would begin...
A May 14 ruling by the Federal Court of Appeal clarifies the right to communicate to the public by telecommunications by adding a new element of control until now missing from the jurisprudence. As part of its finding for legal text publishers CCH Canadian Ltd. (Carswell Thomson Professional Publishing) against the Law Society of Upper Canada, the appeal court found that if a party takes steps to facilitate communication, with the practical ability to control who gets what, no communication takes place. The long-term impact of the ruling, which pushes both parties to the negotiating table in their fight over a legal text copying service offered by the University of Toronto’s Great...
Awards shows in both Montreal and Toronto this month were a powerful reminder of the considerable talent, energy and passion that makes up the new media industry, even through a tough year. In Montreal, the National Animation and Design Centre (CentreNAD) honored graduates from its 2001 program on May 22 at the Théâtre du...
Government spending on culture on the riseThe three levels of government combined spent almost $5.9 billion on culture in the fiscal year 1999/2000, the second consecutive increase, according to data released this week by Statistics Canada. The increase in the two years follows eight years of decline, when spending is adjusted for inflation. Spending on culture includes everything from libraries to nature parks and...
The federal government has rejected an appeal by broadcasting interests of the CRTC’s contribution regime, a move that will result in broadcasters indirectly paying millions of dollars to subsidize the cost of providing telephone service to rural and remote areas of Canada. "Having considered the petition, the...
CHUM Ltd. says it may have to cut local programming at its flagship CityTV station because of anticipated revenue losses resulting from the licensing of more over-the-air TV stations in the Toronto market. At the same time, CHUM told a CRTC panel looking at its licence renewal applications earlier...
Seven positions have been cut at the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB), with the workload being shifted and some employees picking up new titles. The downsizing comes after repeated requests by CAB members for the association to scale back its overhead. There are now 31 staff members at the...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.W.A.V.E.S.’ proposal for a new service to enhance live sporting and other events is innovative, practical and seems poised for market success (see story in this issue). It is a rare marriage of technology and business case that convergence-watchers should cheer. We hope the CRTC gives the...
The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) is opposing an amendment to SaskTel’s broadcast distribution licence over concerns about simultaneous substitution. The CAB argues that if SaskTel is given a general condition of licence allowing it to distribute different U.S. 4+1 network signals in different locations of the province, it could...
As expected, Torstar Corp. has appealed the CRTC’s decision to award a licence for a conventional TV station in the crowded Toronto market to Craig Broadcast Systems Inc. Global Communications Ltd., a subsidiary of CanWest Global Communications Corp., also filed an appeal on May 21. Torstar is asking the federal Cabinet to set aside or refer back...
CCTA granted right to appeal pole access decisionThe Supreme Court of Canada last week granted the Canadian Cable Television Association the right to appeal a lower court decision on access to electric utility poles. Canada’s highest court will now be asked to decide whether the CRTC has the right to mandate access to poles and at what price (CCR Update, May 16/02). Vision applies to CRTC for 3-cent increase to wholesale rateVision TV has applied for an amendment to its licence that would allow it to increase its wholesale rate to 11 cents from 8 cents per subscriber per month – Broadcasting Public Notice 2002-25. The non-profit broadcaster states that it needs the increase "to preserve the balance and diversity in its programming, which are essential to fulfilling its mandate, and to protect its operational integrity". The requested 3-cent jump in the wholesale rate is less than the 7-cent increase Vision TV asked for but was denied during its licence renewal last year (CCR, March 1/02, Dec. 19/01, Nov. 22/01). Vision...
