BANFF – Mountains, cocktails, double espressos and screenings with senators and stars, sure. But the Banff World Television Festival, as with almost every major international entertainment confab, is all about l’argent. Dollars for deals and creators hopes running as high as the bar bills at the Banff Springs Hotel.
The biggest rightnow payoff for those high hopes is the CTV Documart pitch session where a total of $100,000 worth of program development cheques is handed out to three teams of documentary pitchers. Walking away with the top prize of $50,000 Wednesday morning was Brett Gaylor, a producer at Montreal’s…
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OTTAWA – The future of one of three subscription radio services licensed Thursday by the CRTC is up in the air as the applicant considers whether it’s worth competing against the others when it feels the conditions of licence are unfair.
CHUM, with minority partner Astral, proposed to launch a terrestrial pay radio service in major Canadian cities with 50 homegrown channels. But the commission is requiring the two satellite services, SIRIUS Canada and Canadian Satellite Radio Inc. (CSR), to launch with a minimum of eight Canadian channels, with a ratio of at least one Canadian channel to every…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has licensed all three applications for pay radio services in Canada, opening the industry to unprecedented competition and consumer choice.
However, the services will be heavily regulated, unlike their progenitors in the United States. The commission imposed what could be seen as onerous Cancon requirements on the two satellite services: SIRIUS Canada and Canadian Satellite Radio Inc. (CSR). The terrestrial-based service owned by CHUM and Astral Inc. was approved as filed and will have to follow existing regulations for conventional radio (such as having at least 35% Cancon for popular music).
The Commission is requiring CSR and…
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TORONTO – Like the rest of the industry, more than 20,000 Canadian artists, represented by Indie Pool, are anxiously awaiting Thursday’s CRTC decision on bringing satellite radio to Canada.
Independent artists from across the country have long supported the satellite radio applicants’ bid as an opportunity to champion and promote Canadian artists both at home and abroad,” says the organization in a release.
“We have been waiting for this decision for a very long time," said Gregg Terrence, president of Indie Pool, which represents more than 20,000 independent artists across Canada. "Satellite radio technology has the potential to finally…
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TORONTO – So what’s it like going from one side to another, is what people often want to know from Janet Yale.
She spent four years as president and CEO of the CCTA (Canadian Cable Television Association ) before bolting to Telus in late summer 2003 and is now executive vice-president, corporate affairs. Yale (right) tries not to see her move from one side to another, and draws similarities between cable and telecom.
However, while each are facilities-based providers, cable and telecom are clearly at each others’ throats right…
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OTTAWA – Three of the nation’s incumbent telcos are going to the Federal Court of Appeal saying the CRTC’s win-back rule violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Bell Canada, SaskTel and Telus today officially applied to the Federal Court of Appeal challenging the "win-back rule" imposed on them by the CRTC, saying it violates their freedom of expression.
The Commission likely knew this was coming since, as reported here by www.cartt.ca, the companies had already filed that complaint with the Commission, only to be told it would be rolled into the local forbearance hearings beginning…
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BANFF – The federal government is promising better governance and more stable funding for the Canadian Television Fund and has begun addressing those needs with an announcement of $100 million worth of support to the CTF for 2006-07.
Heritage Minister Liza Frulla announced the news as part of a speedy visit to the Banff World Television Festival today.
In a speech moved back one day to Sunday, to allow the politician to be in parliament for Monday morning (never know when those pesky votes might happen…), Frulla hit four main points. First, an oft-heard pledge to secure stable funding…
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WASHINGTON – While denying a request from electronics makers and sellers to put the brakes on digital television conversion, the Federal Communications Commission went a step farther by actually speeding up the process.
On Thursday, the FCC denied an application by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the Consumer Electronics Retailers Association (CERC) to delay the date by which 50% of mid-size TV receivers manufactured and imported must include built-in digital television (DTV) tuners, announced a press release.
Then, “to further its efforts to ensure that consumers are able to receive off-the-air digital broadcast television services, the FCC also…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC will release its decision on subscription radio on June 16th at 4 p.m.
Applicants include two satellite radio companies. One is U.S. company XM Satellite led by Canadian entrepreneur John Bitove. The XM Canada group also includes investor Corus Radio and others such as Golden West and Rawlco Radio. The other satellite application is SIRIUS Satellite Radio with Canadian partners Standard Radio and the CBC.
CHUM Limited, with Astral Media as a minority partner, have applied for a digital terrestrial subscription radio license.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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TORONTO – Asian Television Network International said it will bring ATN Bangla to Canada, a general interest channel out of Bangladesh.
ATN Bangla is a popular independent general interest satellite channel in Bangladesh with movies, news, sports, dramas, variety and religious programmes all in the "Bengali" language. Since there is a significant Bengali speaking community in Canada from Bangladesh and India, this channel is therefore expected to draw a dedicated subscriber base, says the ATN press release.
ATN owns and operates six television channels across Canada and has been awarded 16 more digital television licenses by the CRTC. The…
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