CNM Shoet Takes

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 political parties in 2001, with the largest donations going to the country’s ruling Liberal party. The Grits’ largest benefactors in the sector were Bell Globemedia ($20,611.14), Bell Canada ($49,047), CanWest Global ($46,602.80), Craig Broadcasting Alberta Inc. ($32,769.38), Telus Corp. ($49,016.54) and Vidéotron Communications Inc. ($14,346.30). Bell Globemedia also chipped $4,759.30 into the Progressive Conservatives’ pot, sweetening the further $16,992.33 thrown in by affiliate Bell Canada. The figures were released July 3. The Canadian Alliance party didn’t report and has been granted a one-month extension, and delayed numbers are also expected from the Green Party and the Natural Law Party. Bell Canada launches official Toronto film fest web siteBell Canada will present a series called Festival Insights of exclusive videos featuring the films of the Toronto International Film Festival at the www.bell.ca/filmfest web site. The site will also offer festival information, an online box office, email alerts for late-breaking festival news, live festival coverage and a personal festival planner. Globe and Mail launches archiveThe Globe and Mail has formed a partnership with Micromedia ProQuest to market its digital newspaper archive. The archive will be available on a subscription basis, targeted at the education and public library markets. The full pages can be accessed by subscribers through the Micromedia ProQuest web portal. The collection is built using the Archive Publisher from Cold North Wind Inc. (CNM, May 31/02). nurun Inc. wins Marketing Magazine’s top revenue spotInteractive/digital marketing agency nurun inc., Toronto, has won Marketing Magazine’s 2001 annual agency ranking top spot based on domestic revenue. The company placed 11th overall as a marketing communications services agency in the country. Among nurun’s long-standing clients are General Motors, Evian, L’Oreal and Sun Life Financial. Quebec companies embrace ecommerce in 2001: gov’tThe Quebec government says 36% of that province’s enterprises with five employees or more bought or sold goods and services electronically in 2001, either using the Internet or private networks. This high rate of usage puts the province neck and neck with countries famous for their high ecom adoption rates such as Finland and Sweden. In a June 28 release by the Institut de la statistique du Québec, it was also noted that 44% of companies conducted research electronically, and that 14% of companies that don’t offer online ordering plan to do so before the end of 2002. Of orders received by companies doing business on the Internet, 43% were for under $10,000, 18% represented orders between $10,000 and $49,999, and in 21% of cases were for between $50,000 and $99,999.The full report is available at http://www.autoroute.gouv.qc.ca/quitte/28juin2002-2.htm (French-language). ZAQ offers complement piece to Campaign ManagerZAQ Inc., Montreal, has launched a new product, the ZEGO Communication Manager – a cross-platform direct communication system that lets advertisers manage and act on opt-in consumer profiles, including the capability of preparing, managing and delivering multiple online marketing projects. The product has been tested over six months with large agencies and advertisers, including Rona Inc. and with the Association of Internet Marketing and Sales. Standard Radio takeover of Iceberg Media near-completeStandard Radio Inc. has purchased 22.73 million shares at $0.05 each to date in troubled Internet radio company Iceberg Media.com Inc., and continues to pursue all outstanding shares (CNM, May 31/02). Standard now owns 88% of the company after purchasing the shares so far. Its offer to purchase the remaining stake remains open until 5 pm on July 19. The purchase price represents a $0.01 premium over the $0.04 per share price at which the stock currently trades on the TSX Venture Exchange. Montreal’s Multimedia City 6-7 years from meeting all goalsThe Multimedia City in Montreal announced July 4 that it is six to seven years from being completed, and that it has now accomplished more than 60% of its objectives. The cluster expects to create, over 10 years, 10,000 jobs, build 1.5 million square feet of office buildings and rehabilitate its immediate neighbourhood. To date, say City officials, it has created 120% of the jobs it had forecast, has created 830,000 square feet of office space that is now occupied by 63 businesses, and has completed 70% of the rehabilitation work in the community, including resurfacing streets, building facilities and public services, and installing street furniture. A media release notes that in 1994, there were 50 housing units in the area. Today, 388 new households have been created, with another 146 under construction. Alliance Atlantis sells options to three post-production facilitiesAlliance Atlantis Communications Inc., Toronto, has sold a six-month option to purchase three of its post-production facilities to Hollywood CA-based Point.360, a media asset management company. The option consists of the right to purchase Toronto-based Tattersall Casablanca Sound Inc., Calibre Digital Design Inc., and Halifax-based Salter Street Digital Ltd. For the option, Point.360 issued a warrant to Alliance Atlantis to purchase 500,000 shares of Point.360 common stock for US$2.00 per share. The warrant has a maximum term of five years. Point.360 stock closed at US$1.81 on July 9. The deal will also give Point.360 a right of first refusal on its currently outsourced post-production, duplication, and distribution work for its Entertainment Group during the option period. Kalador games rate well with Telus Mobility network usersVancouver’s Kalador Entertainment Inc. says three of the top seven mobile phone games on Telus Mobility’s network in June were provided by it. While Kalador’s products Outlast! and Kalador Trivia own regular spots on the list, June marked the addition of a third, Ascension, which debuted in the number-four position. More than 120 games are available to Telus game players, provided by 14 mobile content partners. Sue McGarvie takes sex show, web site, and TV channels publicSue McGarvie, who owns a radio show, three-year-old web site, and two CRTC digital specialty channel licences, has engineered a reverse takeover of a Calgary shell company called Silicon Acquisition Ltd. to begin trading on the TSX Venture Exchange. McGarvie will change the company’s name to Passion Media, and the stock will trade under the symbol PM. Business-to-business portal nets $1.6 million from CANARIE Inc.CANARIE Inc. has awarded $1.6 million from its e-business program to the NetMetal project, an initative of several Quebec organizations, including Telus Corp.’s TELUS solutions d’affaires subsidiary, to create a business-to-business portal serving the metal sector in Canada. Other organizations involved are the Centre francophone d’information des organisations, and Quebec’s ministère de l’industrie et du commerce. Que. gov’t offers SMEs funds to replace software/hardwareThe Quebec government has launched a $350,000 program through its Fonds de l’autoroute de l’information program to SMEs wishing to switch to French-language software or hardware, including for such things as business applications or even Francophone keyboards. The program will be managed by l’Office de la langue française. One funding envelope will be reserved for companies that wish to offer ecom or brochure-ware sites in French. iCrave parent reportedly broadcasting network TVHarvard Law School student Ben Edelman reports that he has seen the Entervision Inc. web site retransmitting both a California NBC signal and a CNN signal on a postage-stamp sized screen on its home page. Edelman reports that he has also successfully manipulated the site’s HTML code to expand the window to full-screen. He has posted screen shots that purport to show the retransmission at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/edelman/icrave. Canadian NEW MEDIA confirms that the window described by Edelman exists, though it has yet to confirm any retransmissions. Entervision is the parent company of the upstart iCraveTV.biz (CNM, May 8/02).

CNM Shoet Takes

Broadcast | July 10, 2002

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us