The Canadian Independent Film and Fund (CIFVF) is no longer in limbo, having been granted stable funding of $1.8 million per year over five years by Canadian Heritage. The government funding, likely to be topped up with about $300,000 in annual contributions from Star Choice Communications Inc, will be distributed next year in two installments, according to Robin Jackson, head of the Ottawa-based organization that provides funding to independent producers for non-theatrical productions. The government allocation was announced in Vancouver last month as part of Canadian Heritage’s Feature Film Policy. The funding comes after a two-year lobby by CIFVF, which has had "a checkered...
How does Canadian drama compare?Canadian drama is improving in quality compared to American programs, according to a new report released by the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting. Hour-long Canadian dramas rating in the top 20 TV shows in terms of quality, include CBC’s DaVinci’s Inquest, CBC’s Wind At My Back, CTV’s Cold Squad, CBC’s Nothing Too Good For A Cowboy, and Global’s Traders. "It’s quite an achievement for a Canadian show with a budget of a million Canadian dollars an episode to stack up there with ER," says Friends spokesperson Ian Morrison, adding, "The system is working rather well, so we should be careful not to throw it out or mess around with it too much." Competition Bureau tells CanWest to sell stake in ROBTvThe federal competition watchdog has asked CanWest Global Communications Corp to sell its stake in Report on Business TV as part of its deal to buy the assets of Hollinger International Inc. In July, CanWest agreed to pay $3.5 billion to acquire 11 dailies, half...
Denise Donlon leaves her position as Chum Television’s VP and general manager of specialty music channels MuchMusic and MuchMoreMusic to become president of Sony Music Canada. Based in Toronto, Donlon will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of Sony’s Canadian operations and will report to Sony Music International president Rick Dobbis. Donlon’s resignation results in a shift in personnel at CIVI, Chum...
The CRTC’s current review of low-power television stations is pitting large communications companies against community activists who see this proceeding as an opportunity to re-patriot the airwaves for public use (CCR, Sept 14/00, Aug. 31/00). Cablecos say they don’t have the capacity to carry community TV stations. Broadcasters fear increased...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.The call by the Alliance to privatize the CBC raises some interesting questions about Canada’s future commitment to public broadcasting. Imagine if CBC was sold to Quebecor, backed by Caisse de Dépôt. Or what if BCE merged CTV with CBC to create, say CTC? Considering that CBC TV is Canada’s...
A win by the Alliance Party of Canada in this month’s federal election would result in the dismantling of the Department of Canadian Heritage and less money for Canadian culture, the Liberals warn. In its election platform, the Alliance is vowing to eliminate "wasteful" spending on...
Remedies proposed for the ailing CBC by political parties range from the Canadian Alliance Party’s desire to privatize the broadcaster’s TV division to the New Democrats’ pledge to pump $1 billion annually into its overall operation. The Liberals Party’s only promise is that it won’t privatize the CBC. A CBC Radio report said Canadian Heritage Minister Sheila Copps indicated there would likely be an increase in the next budget for the public broadcaster. But it appears that report was wrong. According to the minister’s senior communications advisor, Jacques Lefebvre, Copps "indicated that the CBC needs to have the tools to face the challenges of the new millennium...
The Canadian Cable Television Association is calling for a technology-neutral law to deal with re-transmissions, in stark contrast to a newly formed coalition of content rights holders demanding legislation that would exclude webcasters from re-transmitting TV signals on the Internet without first getting...
SaskTel’s government ownership could scuttle its bid for a cable TV licence, unless the CRTC determines the telco is free of political influence from the province. Questions regarding SaskTel’s governance structure, and the provincial government’s control of crown corporations, dominated questioning at a Nov. 2...
Filament Communications promotes new serviceOttawa’s Filament Communications, formerly Animatics, has launched a new Usability Consulting Group. The service, which offers end-user research and testing from the early stages of site-building, is being promoted with a new direct marketing campaign in the U.S. and Canada. Paper mock ups feature prominently in the process, which is designed to detect flaws in web sites...
Sheridan Scott, chief regulatory officer at Bell Canada, has been appointed chair of the board and of the executive committee of the Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA). Scott has been representing Bell on the ICRA board since the company became a member in September 1999. She has a lengthy history of involvement in regulatory affairs in the Canadian broadcast and telecommunications sectors. Interactive...
Canadian Cable Television Association (An edited excerpt of her Sept. 23 speech to the Canadian Human Resources Council conference in Hull QC.) The theme of my remarks – The Integration of Culture and Commerce – is taken from the title of a policy paper the cable industry issued in April, and which has been...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. It was heartening to see the broad cross-section of interests that made the trip to Cape Breton for this year’s Baddeck International New Media Festival. If study after study are to be believed, the multimedia sector is an insular community that hasn’t yet taken its proper place on the national...
Telefilm Canada is preparing to write-off 45 per cent – or $4.1 million – of paid out over the past two years from its $30-million multimedia fund, citing the high-risk nature of the industry for the high default rate. The figures, released last month as part of Telefilm’s 1999-2000 annual report, will give the new...
JumpTV.com has until Nov. 10 to respond to a flood of objections to its request for an Internet-specific retransmission tariff. Canada’s broadcast community and rights-holders have banded together to stop the proposed tariff, arguing that a key section of the country’s copyright should specifically exclude companies...
The Canadian Conference of the Arts is hoping a Nov. 22 meeting of national arts service organizations will resolve a long-standing dispute over how artists are taxed. The CCA argues that the current taxation regime penalizes artistic workers, and hinders Canada’s ability to compete at a grassroots level in the creation of new media and other cultural content. The organization has been fighting for years against a tax-regime that treats artists as self-employed workers, denying them key benefits such as employment insurance. They are also required to pay both employer and employee portions of the CPP/QPP and to make interim tax payments on a quarterly basis. Without making any key...
A new survey by popular children’s television station YTV is bearing out the predictions of many forecasters by saying the Internet cohort is growing and that younger kids are comfortable multi-tasking and incorporating the Internet into their daily activities. According to the survey,...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.Doctors don’t normally prescribe medication without describing the reasons or the side effects. But that’s what Ottawa expects Canadians to swallow with its recent approval of the US$30-billion takeover of Montreal-based Seagram Ltd by Vivendi SA and its subsidiary, the French pay TV network Canal...
Regional Cablesystems Inc and satellite service providers could be among the main beneficiaries of a new federal mandate to bring broadband Internet access to rural and remote communities. With high-speed Internet well on its way to becoming the norm in larger centres, Industry Canada is anxious to ensure that the 15 to 20...
The Canadian Cable Television Association plans to deliver its Cable in the Classroom program in a way that taps directly into the government’s desire to have the nation receiving high-speed access by 2004. Industry Canada recently announced the creation of a new National Broadband Task Force that will draft...
Canada’s broadcasters, producers and other copyright holders are asking for a preliminary inquiry into the operation of upstart JumpTV.com or the creation of a task force that would recommend changes to the Copyright Act. Media Content CoalitionCanadian Association of BroadcastersCanadian Film and Television Production AssociationCanadian Motion Picture Distributors AssociationCanadian Broadcasters Rights AgencyCopyright Collective of CanadaMontreal-based JumpTV has yet to beam a television signal through the Internet, but its application to the Copyright Board of Canada for an interim tariff to retransmit over-the-air television stations has rekindled controversy around copyright and...
Some people at the CRTC hearing last Wednesday had trouble believing the cable industry’s argument that capacity problems will limit how many French-language channels they can carry outside of Quebec, particularly during their transition from analog to digital. Pierre Roy, president and CEO...
It looks as though New Brunswick’s cable systems are headed for a major overhaul, courtesy of Newfoundland-based Cable Atlantic Inc. On Sept. 18, Rogers Communications Inc reached a deal to acquire 100 per cent of Cable Atlantic. A separate deal with Shaw Communications Inc sees Rogers acquiring other east coast systems,...
Susan Baldwin has left the world of regulation and broadcast policy for the emerging world of the Internet. The former executive director of broadcasting at the CRTC says she took the position of director of advanced content at Canarie Inc because the Internet is on the leading edge and exploding with...
Nova Scotia-based Cochran Entertainment Inc was among recipients of controversial grants doled out by Human Resources Development Canada, according to a report released this month by the Auditor General. The Auditor General criticized a $2.5-million grant to Cochran for the production of the television series, Pit...
Why Shaw thinks it’s winning the broadband deployment raceShaw’s Digital Portfolio1.8 million basic customers 74% basic service penetration 168,000 digital subs 298,000 Shaw@Home subs 200 home nodes with fibre capacity to go to 250 750 MHz with digital overlay to offer 200+ channels 9,325 fibre sheath kms 292,921 fibre strand kms Source: Shaw Communications (Figures as of Sept/00)Shaw Communications Inc is taking the...
Patrick O’Hara has been named GM of OnTV Hamilton. O’Hara, who was Global Quebec’s first employee in April 1997 and who in 1999 was appointed Quebec GM, will be at OnTV when it begins its re-branding in early 2001. Maureen Rogers, business manager at Global Television Network (Quebec) takes over the GM position vacated by O’Hara. Also at Global, Barry Saunders, who most recently was general sales manager for the...
American cablecos are lamenting their poor lobbying record these days, saying more needs to be done to tell their "good news stories" to various levels of government. It’s a criticism that’s been heard at many a cable convention in this country as well. The president/CEO of the National Cable Television...
The main copyright collective representing Canadian broadcasters is having a tough time responding to JumpTV.com’s request for a new Internet tariff, saying it’s still unclear what the new company is planning to launch. The Canadian Broadcasters Rights Agency Inc (CBRA) and other groups have until October 20 to file...
Troubled Internet Multimedia Corp (IMC), which was to have moved operations to Toronto, has turned its fortunes around with the acquisition of an Italian new media company. IMC, the future of which was seriously in doubt at the end of March, has purchased Italian-based Oasis Technology S.r.l, and reported positive financial results in the third quarter ending Sept. 30. Its plan to move operations to Toronto, announced July 5, has been shelved, though company CEO Remo Calabrigo will continue to be based in Hogtown. Calabrigo says the company is now staffed by three people in Toronto, three in North Carolina, and about 40 in Verona. With its purchase of Oasis Technology (which has since applied to change its name to AmEurotech S.r.l), IMC will market a broad range of multimedia products, including video game and gambling technology and multimedia kiosks. It has also begun to develop wireless application protocol (WAP) product applications. Product shipments to the U.S. are expected to start this quarter, and company officials...
A new twist on an old Industry Canada agendaThe Connecting Canadians agenda which has been in force for several years has taken a new turn as Industry Canada is asking a new task force to advise on how best to ensure high-speed access for every Canadian community by 2004. David Johnston, president of the University of Waterloo, will head the new group which has been charged with identifying ways to address the digital...
Clement Bourassa has joined Pixel Systems Inc, Montreal, as senior VP, operations. Bourassa was previously director of business systems integration at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, where his responsibilities included development and operation of the corporate management office. He has also served at IBM Canada and Noranda Metal Industries. His prior work in the broadcast industry includes a number of years at...
Not many Canadians realize that it was the publicly funded National Research Council that invented digital animation. It is also one of the leading research centres for digital media in Canada. Speaking at a conference in Ottawa this summer, NRC president Dr. Arthur Carty explained how new media has become a catalyst for bridging the historical gap...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. Broadband and circuitry have replaced bread and circuses as the federal Liberal’s pre-election promise, and the new media industry should cheer a new initiative by Industry Canada to connect every community to high-speed Internet access by 2004. Key questions about the practicality of the...
The federal government has initiated a review of the Canadian Television Fund that could result in more equity funding and less paperwork for new media producers. In comments filed with the Department of Canadian Heritage, industry support appears to be growing for the idea of either increasing the amount of public money available for new media, or giving it a slice of $200 million spent annually by the CTF on television productions. Canadian Heritage received 33 written responses to its call for comments on the structure, operation and future administration of the CTF. Two reports issued over the past year have urged the government to streamline the CTF and make it more accountable.The...
A group of technical staff from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology and a former corporate trainer have teamed up to distribute new software and services designed to protect children online. Edmonton-based Kidzmatter.com is giving away a new browser that child-proofs the web for parents concerned about pornography,...
Industry leaders are calling on the federal government to fulfil a two-year-old promise to help expedite exports of cryptography products, or risk losing both companies and jobs to countries with more export-friendly rules. In letters to then-Industry minister John Manley and international trade minister Pierre Pettigrew,...
The head of an industry working group on capital markets and tax reform sweeping regulatory changes are needed to ensure new media and other ‘new economy’ businesses are properly financed. John Eckert, managing partner at McLean Watson Capital Inc and a veteran of several multimedia business ventures, says removing...
Industry support is growing for the idea of a single national organization for film, television and new media funding – an idea that could result in a Telefilm Canada evolving into an organization more akin to the Canadian Television Fund. While many in industry would prefer to see the CTF be the body that takes on this...
An international network of culture, including Heritage minister Sheila Copps, has agreed to establish a working group to examine the new challenges facing broadcasters in a global market. The initiative got the stamp of approval from 23 countries, including Canada, France and Russia, at the International Network on...
Cable subscribers living outside of Quebec may have to wait another decade or longer to receive more French-language TV services, even if they upgrade to digital. As part of its cross-Canada consultation on expanding the distribution of French-language channels, the CRTC is looking at using the...
Speedy passage of the licensing of an ethnic television station in British Columbia is expected after the federal government’s October 4 directive to the CRTC. The government has given the commission until Feb. 28, 2001 to report on the "earliest possible establishment of over-the-air television services that reflect...
The Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA) hasn’t given up hope that the federal government will introduce a new tax exemption for copyright income, despite the Oct. 4 defeat of a private member’s motion proposing similar relief. The motion – which would have allowed artists, writers and performers to earn up to...
Wireless cable operators and other last mile solution providers can expect new faster broadband wireless equipment to hit the market in the next six months. Wavesat Telecom Inc is conducting final beta tests on last mile equipment that can provide bi-directional throughput of about 25 Mbs. The Montreal company recently received $10.3 million in venture financing from a group of investors led by Skypoint Capital Corp of Kanata ON, which will help the seven-year-old firm continue development of future versions of the product. CEO Mark Holleran says the impetus for the product, which operates in the 6 GHz broadcast channel, is rooted in the broadcast industry. "We really designed the...
Wavesat could fill service gaps in rural areasWavesat Telecom Inc could have a ready-made market if changes to older microwave licensing policies proposed by Industry Canada earlier this year are ratified. Spectrum in the 6 GHz frequency range, which is already lying under-used or dormant, could be liberated and opened up for re-licensing for different services. The company’s initial product offering will operate in...
CTV News has named Kirk LaPointe as senior VP, effective October 16. LaPointe will report to CTV Inc executive VP Trina McQueen and be responsible for all news and information programming at Canada’s largest private network, including on Canada AM, W-Five, CTV National News, regional news operations, Internet news services and CTV Newsnet. LaPointe is expected to lead CTV News towards the integration of Internet and...
Northern Response (International) Ltd is anxiously awaiting a CRTC decision on a cable system swap that could impede its future distribution on cable. Rogers Communications Inc and Shaw Communications Inc are seeking approval to swap cablecos in eastern and western Canada. If approved, the deal would see Rogers owning more...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.Canada has been awash in cultural policy ideas of late. On the international front, Heritage minister Sheila Copps has been making slow progress in reaching agreement on a global accord for cultural diversity – one that would allow countries to maintain policies that pro-mote their cultural industries...
CCTA asks for consideration in JumpTV issueThe Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA) has asked the Copyright Board for status as a party to any proceedings related to the tariff objection filed by JumpTV. The CCTA didn’t originally have any objection to the proposed 2001-2003 tariff, but has asked to be granted the right to participate in any proceedings stemming from JumpTV’s request. It has also asked for the right to receive copies of all correspondence, to serve interrogatories on third parties, to submit evidence and call witnesses, and to cross-examine evidence submitted by other parties, as well as make oral and written arguments before the board. GlobalMedia.com wins development contract4Kids Entertainment Inc, NYC, has contracted GlobalMedia.com, Vancouver, to produce a new site, Girlsgymnastics.com. The site will be the online home of Bela Karolyi, the famous coach, and a destination where girls can get tips on becoming better gymnasts. European Internet use growing quickly says IDCIDC senior VP John Gantz...
Inter.net Canada, the new consumer division of PSINet, has announced its new management team. Stéphane Goyette will head the new entity as president. He was previously an associate and VP of e-business services and interactive marketing at Diesel Marketing. Prior to that, he was a manager at Medialinx – Bell Canada division. Jacques Caron will assume the post of VP of business development. Caron was previously a senior...
In this year’s pre-budget brief to the Standing Committee on Finance, the Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA) has asked the federal government to change the way it taxes artists. Internet piracy has become an important concern for artists of all sorts, and the CCA is arguing that new technologies are resulting in...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. The growing importance of video streaming came to light this week when tens of thousands of Canadians went online to view the live coverage of Pierre Trudeau’s funeral service. The limitations of the technology were also aptly demonstrated when virtual traffic jams prevented thousands more from...
The man behind JumpTV.com says failure to secure a copyright tariff for broadcasts in Canada won’t stop his company from launching an international service for live and recorded television. CEO Farrel Miller contends legal retaliation from U.S. broadcasters also isn’t an issue – as it was with Internet upstart...
Two recent graduates of film and new media are determined to use the web as a new distribution window for young filmmakers whose work might otherwise go unseen. Citing the difficulty of cracking the closed ranks of prestigious film festivals by unknown artists, Jason Hatcher and Nolan Dubeau will soon launch Toronto-based...
The Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) is calling for a $50-million funding boost at Canadian Heritage to pay for the digitization of cultural content. The business lobby group, which has traditionally focused on hardware and software industries, may seem an unlikely booster for Canadian culture and the...
Four Canadian entrepreneurs – including a former CRTC commissioner – are creating virtual meetings rooms on the Internet for new media producers and venture capitalists. Launched Sept. 14, VentureToronto.com is the second such Canadian portal to hit the web this year under the Ventureality.com banner. The first went...
The Sept. 21 launch of CTV Inc’s CTVNews.com has moved Blue Zone Inc into prime time, and given the Vancouver-based company the profile and market credibility it needs to start selling its software and services to other broadcasters. CTV represents the first large-scale commercial implementation of Blue Zone’s NewsBZ...
ICraveTV.com executives are keenly following JumpTV.com’s bid for an Internet-specific tariff (see story in this issue), but VP of corporate sales and development Ian McCallum says whether the Copyright Board acquiesces to Jump’s request or not, his company will continue with an independent business plan. Though an iCrave re-launch has delayed at least another three months, McCallum says the board’s ultimate decision on re-transmission tariffs won’t be relevant to iCrave when it is finally issued. Asked whether a potential new tariff would apply to iCrave’s business model, McCallum told Canadian NEW MEDIA that’s not a decision he can make right now, and that nailing...
One of the spin-off benefits of BCE Inc’s purchase of CTV Inc is a faster roll out of HDTV in Canada, a senior BCE executive told CCR. Alain Gourd, president and CEO of BCE Media, said in an interview that the acquisition has pressed Bell to push ahead with the testing of technology to launch at least two, and as many as...
Canwest Global second largest donor to Liberals last yearData provided by Elections Canada show Canwest Global/Global TV was the second-largest donor to the federal Liberal party in 1999, giving the party’s national office $87,622.21. Other donors to the Liberals included: Bell Canada/BCE/ExpressVu ($51,438.87); the Rogers group of companies ($48,985.43); Craig Broadcast Systems ($48,297.66); and, Telus Corp...
Bill Roberts, the secretary-general of the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA), has accepted an offer to lead Vision TV as president and CEO, effective Oct. 20. Fil Fraser, Vision TV’s current president/CEO, will act as special advisor to Roberts with primary responsibility for external relations until the end of his tenure in December 2000. Roberts joined NABA in 1996 and led the organization during a period...
Although I doubt most applicants would agree, the recently concluded digital specialty channel hearing before the CRTC has been the easy part of the process to bring new TV channels to Canadians. Now comes the brutal weeding of applications by CRTC staff and commissioners to see who gets anointed, and beyond that, undertaking the actual launch of the...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.Winning a digital TV licence isn’t necessarily a good thing. The audience share is miniscule, the technology not standardized, and the rights environment uncertain (to say the least). Despite these hurdles, applicants for new specialty channels appeared one after another before the CRTC promising generous expenditures on Canadian programming. The logic is perplexing. And so is the CRTC’s apparent indifference to this fact. For the first several years, new digital channels will have a tough enough time breaking even, let alone making a profit. It’s uncertain why they should be required to make any significant Canadian content commitments, at least for the first few years. Canada has a vested interest in seeing these new channels succeed. The federal government is working behind the scenes on the next stage of its "Connectedness" agenda, and pointing to a successful rollout of new digital...
Canada’s broadcast community says it’s too early to launch pre-emptive litigation against upstart JumpTV.com since it hasn’t yet begun re-transmitting over-the-air TV signals (CCR, Sept. 14/00). How the service might launch in Canada could depend on how the Copyright Board responds to the company’s application...
Ontario Liberal Senator Jean-Robert is asking the Federal Court of Canada to overturn a controversial decision by the CRTC not to grant TFO-TVOntario the right to distribute its signal in Quebec. Gauthier filed the appeal in mid-September. At the same time, he made a lengthy submission to the CRTC, which had been...
The federal Heritage ministry has signaled that it’s not about to make major changes to the way grant money is doled out to the country’s television and movie producers. Instead, in a report released in mid-September, the ministry set out a roadmap for a go-slow policy that would increase communication between agencies,...
The cable industry wants the CRTC to delay SaskTel’s entry into the cable TV market until proper safeguards are put in place to prevent the telco from subsidizing its cable rates with monopoly telephony revenues. A hearing is scheduled to begin October 30 in Calgary to review SaskTel’s...
Bell ExpressVu has scored a pivotal victory in the competitive battle for customers living in apartment buildings and condominiums. In a ruling that wasn’t unexpected, on September 26 the CRTC approved a licence amendment that now allows the DTH company to serve multiple unit dwellings (MUDs) using terrestrial facilities...
The Ontario Film Development Corporation (OFDC) says the number of companies applying for its Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit has numbered in the "single digits" since launching three months ago. The number is low, but coordinator Raina Feldman Wells says it’s in line with her expectations, and that she’s...
IMAT and VentureToronto launch new VC portalVentureToronto.com and Interactive Multimedia Arts and Technologies have teamed up to launch a new site matching venture capital and entrepreneurs. VentureToronto.com was introduced at an event at the Marriott Hotel Eaton Centre. The site may appear similar to countless others, but executives hope local content and privacy will prove to be key differences from the rest of the...
IMAT and VentureToronto launch new VC portalVentureToronto.com and Interactive Multimedia Arts and Technologies have teamed up to launch a new site matching venture capital and entrepreneurs. VentureToronto.com was introduced at an event at the Marriott Hotel Eaton Centre. The site may appear similar to countless others, but executives hope local content and privacy will prove to be key differences from the rest of the...
Photochannel Networks Inc has appointed Kyle Hall, VP sales and business development of the company’s U.S. subsidiary Photochannel Inc. Hall brings more than 10 years of sales experience in a variety of software companies. Most recently, he worked for Telepix Imaging Inc where he served as VP sales, marketing and business development. He will be responsible for developing and implementing all Photochannel’s sales and business development initiatives, as well as the establishment and management of sales and business development teams. Bill McMullin, chair and CEO at InfoInterActive Inc, Halifax, has been named Business Person of Year at the inaugural Metro Halifax Business Awards ceremony September 12. McMullin earned the award for having grown InfoInterActive into a major application service provider of Internet call management services, by guiding the company through financing, product development and commercialization. The award was established by the Metropolitan Halifax Chamber of Commerce and celebrates the achievements of...
Video games are big business. In the United States more than 215 million computer and video games were sold last year alone – that is more than two per household. Sales during the past four years have nearly doubled. [Interactive Digital Software Association] The majority of studies directly focusing on the effects...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. A plan by the BC government to rate video games is laudable, but ultimately unworkable if it wants to stop inappropriate material from falling into the hands of children. The government is naively assuming that there are three ways to obtain games: the store, a web site or from a parent. The following...
Anumbered company fronted by Montreal lawyer Howard Greenspoon and his partner Farrel Miller is preparing to launch another iCraveTV-like service called JumpTV.com sometime in 2001, according to documents obtained by Canadian NEW MEDIA. His numbered company, 2000051 Ontario Inc, has filed for an interim tariff with the...
Provincial justice ministers have called for a new video game classification system to combat what they perceive as excessive violence, even though an existing system has been in place since November 1994. The North American-wide video games rating system was developed by the U.S.-based Entertainment Software Rating Board...
Analysts are guardedly applauding a deal between BCE Inc and Thomson Corp that sees the assets of Canada’s oldest national newspaper thrown into a multimedia pot with Sympatico.ca and CTV Inc. The move is the clearest signal yet that convergence is being taken seriously by previously conservative telcos, broadcasters and publishers. New media companies are expressing their glee at the turn of events, saying the demand for new content and integration services will now be higher than ever. BCE’s NewestNew Media CompanyValue: $4 billion Broadcast propertiesCTV, CTV Newsnet, Talk TV, The Comedy Network, TSN, RDS, Discovery Channel, CTV Pay-per-view Sports, Sportsnet, Outdoor Life Network, Canal Evasion, Viewer’s Choice Canada (minority interest) History Television (minority...
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) says virtually every business employing over 100 people is now hooked up to the Internet, though some are using it in a more sophisticated fashion than others. The CFIB found that the vast majority of firms online used email, but that the use of...
A new Internet TV signal retransmitter is poised to start distributing over-the-air broadcast signals, but first, it wants the Copyright Board to set an interim tariff for its content. JumpTV, which has a web site under construction at www.jumptv.com, is trying to avoid the copyright clash that plagued iCraveTV (CCR, Dec....
Canada’s first licensing process for digital specialty channels ended in early September, leaving broadcast distributors, production houses, specialty channel companies and television networks who filed applications for more than 400 channels with the rest of the fall to wonder whether they will...
The cable industry will use next week’s hearing into BCE Inc’s takeover of CTV Inc to challenge a moratorium that prevents cablecos from owning more analog specialty channels. The Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA) says its largest members – Rogers Communications Inc and Shaw Cablesystems Inc – are being...
The general manager of a pirate TV station in Toronto is criticizing an upcoming CRTC review of low-power TV, saying by the time any licences are awarded, Internet broadcasting will have become the new medium of choice. The CRTC issued a call for comments on a licensing framework for low-power community television on...
When the CRTC’s public hearings get underway in Hull PQ next week, the renewal of University of Toronto Community Radio’s licence (CIUT FM) will not be a mere rubber stamp. Next to the merger of BCE Inc and CTV Inc, which are also on the same agenda, campus-community radio might seem like a mundane affair, but the...
A Calgary-based rental property owner is seeking regulatory approval to become a new breed of cableco that would compete with established players in the lucrative multiple unit dwelling (MUD) market. Suite Systems Inc has applied for a single Class 1 broadcast distribution undertaking (BDU) licence serving 17 communities...
Blackwatch Communications Inc, a Montreal-based film and TV production company, is starting a new $50-million fund to help other producers. In making the announcement September 11 at the Toronto Film Festival, Blackwatch president William Mariani said over the next eight months his company will offer producers short-term...
Telesat and Tandberg make deal with CBCTelesat Canada, in partnership with Tandberg Television, has been awarded a $5-million contract to manage, furnish and install advanced digital video compression technology on CBC’s English TV satellite distribution system. The system will allow CBC to offer higher quality signals and distinct services to Northern Canada. Regional Cable restructures in northern OntarioRegional Cablesystems has reduced its workforce by 30 at its Northern Ontario operations, as part of a corporate restructuring. The move will result in a one-time charge of about $1.2 million. The 30 full-time jobs in Sudbury and Timmins are being eliminated through a combination of early retirements, attrition and layoffs. Another Stern warning from standards councilThe Howard Stern Show has again been censured by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council for a rant against "retards" aired on the show last spring. Stern’s show leads the ratings in Toronto, where it is broadcast by CILQ-FM (Q107). The standards council...
Business specialist Louis Ryan has joined Astral Media in the newly created post of VP e-business. Ryan will provide counsel and guidance to the company’s senior management in the development of a global approach to e-business and new media. Leitch Technology Corp has appointed Robert Hansen senior VP of sales for its U.S. operations. Roi Agneta is the new COO of Vertico Multimedia Inc. A 25-year veteran of...
It’s rare that Canada’s diverse multicultural communities come together in a united front to address an issue. But a recent CRTC decision denying Vancouver a free, multilingual television station is a stunning slap in the face not only for members of British Columbia's ethnic communities, but for all concerned...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.Will it be the Son of iCrave? That’s the nickname floating around for the proposed new Internet TV signal retransmission system that has applied to the Copyright Board for tariffed use of broadcast content. JumpTV, based in Montreal, says it will begin streaming TV signals by the end of this...
IDC wins distance learning contractsInternational Datacasting Corp, Ottawa, has signed three new contracts for distance learning infrastructure worth $1 million. The deals are with two education institutions in Mexico, and with the Canadian International Development Agency to examine new distribution and infrastructure solutions to the Latin American distance education market. IDC has been an active player in the southern...
Charles Barthold has been appointed editor-in-chief and VP, editorial content of PhotoChannel Inc, the U.S. subsidiary of Vancouver-based PhotoChannel Networks Inc. Barthold will be responsible for all content and community features of the PhotoChannel site. He brings over 20 years of editorial experience in the magazine, newspaper and Internet publishing businesses. Most recently, he was GM, content and production, for Sticky Networks. Prior to that, he was VP of Space.com of New York NY, and has experience at publications of Times Mirror Magazines including editor-in-chief of Yachting Magazine. Cable in the Classroom has appointed Jean Perras as executive director of the organization with a mandate to create stronger ties between the cableco initiative and Canadian school boards. Perras joins the organization from Learning for a Sustainable Future, where he served as executive director. He has also been a senior consultant for groups including the Canadian International Development Agency, the International Cooperation for...
The federal government has recently posted an RFP open to technology vendors that want to win a contract to provide a secure electronic channel for electronic commerce between the feds and its suppliers. While the government has stated that companies which partner with Canada Post will be given a level of priority over...
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports. Consolidation at the highest levels of the Canadian IT economy isn’t always good news for Canadian consumers. Broadcasters have quietly slipped out of providing news and information to the country’s smallest demographic - the neighbourhood. The most popular programming on both television and the...
A maverick community broadcaster is turning to pirate television and the web after being denied a broadcast licence by Canada’s communications regulator. In a strongly worded release issued August 25 – the day after the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) turned down his application to...
Interquest Inc, on the ropes as recently as six weeks ago, is predicting a return to full operations by the end of September and profitability by the end of next year, according to chair Pierre Côté. The Montreal-based company had filed for bankruptcy protection last July (CNM, July 26/00), but a group of undisclosed...
Look Communications Inc has teamed up with Canada’s second largest broadcaster and other content providers to launch the country’s first all-streaming, all-audio website. Launched August 23, the new portal gives the wireless ISP a chance to showcase its high-speed capabilities, while at the same time, giving programmers...
Vertigo Software Technologies Inc is actively negotiating with application software providers (ASPs), digital TV applicants and others to migrate its content management software onto PDAs, cell phones and the web. The move coincides with a recent decision by Telesystem Group Inc, both Montreal-based companies, to invest...
A new report says the Internet population is making a dramatic shift away from tech-savvy enthusiasts and towards a greater number of mainstream North Americans. It’s a trend the study’s author says will continue until the online population reaches its saturation point of around 80 per cent by 2005. Internet companies,...
Canada’s new chief information officer will bring an insider’s knowledge of Canada’s IT sector to her new position. Michelle d’Auray has been an active participant in guiding Canada’s information technology and communications policies for several years, most recently as assistant deputy minister, strategic...
Though denied a licence to launch a community TV station, Jan Pachul isn’t about to give up his plan to broadcast over-the-air. He says that he will launch a pirate UHF channel to complement the web content he’s already announced. Pachul is also taking his fight to the federal Cabinet, the Competition Bureau and the court of public opinion after a narrow majority of CRTC commissioners turned down his application for a low-power TV service in east Toronto. In addition to the appeals, which he says will be filed soon, Pachul has decided in the interim to launch his new Star Ray TV service on the web. Not announced publicly, however, is his plan to go ahead with a UHF channel. "We...
