OTTAWA — Happening from January 28 to February 1, 2021, next year’s edition of the annual Prime Time conference will be held virtually, the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) announced today.
The CMPA is once again partnering with C21Media and its Canadian division, Content Canada, to produce the conference, which has been renamed Prime Time Online.
“Although Covid has made it impossible for the media production community to make its annual pilgrimage to Ottawa for Prime Time, we’re excited about the scope of what’s planned for our very first digital event,” said Andrew Addison, the CMPA’s vice-president of communications, marketing and…
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Will Canada’s big media companies even show up for the streaming wars?
By Brad Danks
LIKE MANY PEOPLE IN THE INDUSTRY, I wasn’t surprised to see Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Quibi shut down last week after rapidly blowing through $1.8 billion in start-up financing. The business model had so many flaws it was just a matter of when it would implode, rather than if.
A staff member reminded me I predicted at Quibi’s launch that they wouldn’t last six months; they made it to seven so I was off by a month. However, predictions aren’t important. What is important is looking at the reasons…
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By Len Katz
THE WORDS IN THAT headline came from a senior executive at a wireless conference almost a decade ago as he commented on the Joint Network and Spectrum Sharing Agreement that saw Bell Canada and Telus carve up the build-out of one national wireless high speed digital network to compete with Rogers. Telus trumpeted the agreement saying it allowed for an accelerated buildout.
It also resulted in one less national infrastructure network in Canada. So did the benefit outweigh the cost?
ISED (then Industry Canada) repeatedly approved the applications to extend the Sharing Agreements during subsequent spectrum auctions Continue Reading
TORONTO — The Banff Spark Accelerator for Women in the Business of Media today announced it has received additional funding through the government of Canada’s Women Entrepreneurship Strategy (WES) to support women entrepreneurs through the Covid-19 pandemic.
Banff Spark received an initial federal funding commitment of more than $1.9 million through WES to create a multi-year program “to address the systemic gender gap in ownership roles of companies of scale within Canada’s media industry,” says today’s press release.
Now the project is receiving an additional $275,000 in federal funding, which will enable Banff Spark to provide the 100 participants currently taking…
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TORONTO — Toronto’s Firstlight Media, a provider of cloud-based OTT infrastructure to streaming service operators, today announced it is adding three executives to its sales and business development team.
Bal O’Neil (above, centre) has joined the company as vice-president of solutions engineering, Eric Goldstein (left) will serve as Firstlight Media’s head of business development, and John Ferrandino (right) is the company’s new head of sales. All three will be responsible for delivering partner and client solutions for video service providers.
O’Neil most recently served as vice-president of solutions delivery for Evergent Canada. Previously, she spent more than a dozen years with…
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Feds say attachment costs “often prohibitively expensive”
By Ahmad Hathout
TORONTO – The newly-appointed board of directors of the Ontario Energy Board will oversee a review of pole attachment rates in the province, according to a mandate letter sent earlier this month, a priority assignment that is aligned with the province’s efforts to reduce equipment install costs to drive its broadband expansion goals.
Captured in just one line underneath a section on reducing regulatory burdens, the letter requires the “modernized” board to “consider pole attachment policy in the context of opportunities to better serve areas that are currently underserved.”
Ontario has the highest…
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TORONTO — Bell Canada, along with TD Bank Group and the Coalition of Innovation Leaders Against Racism (CILAR), announced today the launch of the Onyx Initiative, a Toronto-based non-profit designed to address the systemic gap in the recruitment of Black college and university students for roles in corporate Canada.
The Onyx Initiative’s program provides mentorship and online training to ensure Black post-secondary students are equipped to thrive in their respective workplace environments. The comprehensive curriculum includes various types of personal and professional development, including interview preparation, time management, conflict resolution, anti-bias training, navigating social media, crafting resumes and cover letters,…
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OTTAWA — The Canadian Secure Token Governance Authority (CST-GA), in partnership with Sterling, Va.-based Neustar Information Services, today announced it has launched the Canadian-based infrastructure and website for eligible carriers to register and join CST-GA to participate in the Secure Telephone Identity (STI) call authentication ecosystem using STIR/SHAKEN.
Designed to counter illegal robocalls and spoofed calls, STIR/SHAKEN is a framework of interconnected technology standards that supports authentication of incoming calls and offers a level of assurance that a call is from a legitimate source.
CST-GA is the national governance authority responsible for directing and overseeing the Secure Telephone Identity Policy…
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OTTAWA — The Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC) issued a reminder today there’s only 10 days left to register for the two-day virtual 2020 Canadian ISP Summit, happening November 3 to 4.
With the theme “Navigating the New Normal”, the virtual conference will feature keynote speakers, general session presentations and panels, as well as a virtual trade show.
Already confirmed to speak are CRTC chair and CEO Ian Scott, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Navdeep Bains, innovation strategist Shawn Kanungo, and CNOC president and chairman Matt Stein.
Panels include a regulatory panel moderated by Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien,…
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MONTREAL — Telefilm Canada announced today its support for the Fabienne Colas Foundation’s Being Black in Canada incubator program for Black filmmakers, joining current major partners Netflix, the Canada Media Fund (CMF) and National Bank.
The Being Black in Canada Program is Canada’s largest mentorship, training and creation program entirely dedicated to Black filmmakers. It was created in Montreal in 2012 by the Fabienne Colas Foundation, and presented its first cohort in 2014. Colas (pictured, far left, with director Spike Lee, centre, and members of the program’s 2019 cohort) is a Haitian-Canadian actress, director and producer, and she…
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