AMSTERDAM – September’s International Broadcasting Convention has been cancelled due to the Covid-19 crisis.
With large vendors such as Panasonic and Canada’s Ross Video already saying they will not attend, IBC 2020 organizers have decided to go virtual, with details to follow.
“(A)s governments announce the route forward, it has become clear that a return to (a new) normal is unlikely to be achieved by September,” said IBC CEO Michael Crimp in statement Friday. This would have been the 53rd year of IBC, a gathering which regularly draws over 50,000 delegates from around the world.
“It has also become evident,…
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By Ken Kelley
OTTAWA – An exchange between a Telus executive and a Calgary MP got a little heated late Thursday during a virtual meeting of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology
The bulk of the tension stemmed from a line of questioning directed at Telus EVP and chief customer officer Tony Geheran by Conservative MP Michelle Rempel-Garner (Calgary Nose Hill).
After asking the executive for the company’s cost per gigabyte when it comes to serving its customers (something Geheran said he didn’t have at hand and offered to send after the meeting) and noting that the figure doesn’t seem…
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Only 50 communities, 25,000 households, have so far been connected under Connect to Innovate
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The federal government has denied the vast majority of the nearly 900 applications it has received for the $585 million Connect to Innovate rural broadband program, according to an order paper answer from the rural economic development minister last month.
So far, the program has received and assessed all 892 project applications, with 874 of those receiving a response and 610 denied funds, according to the answer.
“It’s shockingly high,” Brian Masse, NDP MP and innovation critic, said in an interview with Cartt.ca about…
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LONDON – In what it says is an industry-leading move among internet service providers in Canada, London-based ISP Start.ca announced today it is “eliminating the need to punch a clock” as it moves all staff into permanent salaried positions.
The company says this is one move which is part of a strategy built around the concept that “offering career positions, which include better compensation opportunities, role accountability, and growth progression, will lead to happier staff and ultimately a better experience for customers,” reads its announcement.
The company, which is a third-party internet access provider, has 170 employees.
“These are the employees that…
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TORONTO — Canadians’ trust in the country’s telecom providers has shot up during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the latest Edelman Trust Barometer.
In the spring update to its global study measuring citizens’ trust levels in various industries and institutions, public relations and marketing consultancy firm Edelman found trust in the Canadian telecom industry has risen 19 percentage points since January 2020, before the pandemic started. Overall, 71% of survey respondents indicated they trusted telecom providers to do what is right during the pandemic.
Fieldwork for the online survey was conducted from April 15 to 23, 2020. Edelman’s previous study in…
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TORONTO — The Canada Media Fund (CMF) released Wednesday a series of flexibility measures to its program guidelines, processes and envelope manuals to provide funding applicants and broadcasters with some operational and policy relief during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“After assessing the impact of the pandemic on our industry and consultation with creators, producers and broadcasters, we are now in a position to announce a series of tangible measures, which will give CMF stakeholders additional flexibility while production remains grounded,” said Valerie Creighton, CMF president and CEO, in the news release.
“We hope that by introducing these measures our industry will…
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Why the mechanism may be required under international treaties to protect copyrights
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – A bevy of organizations representing copyright holders spanning several continents are asking Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal to allow them to argue the merits of site blocking to protect their content rights online, suggesting the mechanism may actually be required of Canada under international treaty obligations.
A dozen organizations – including book publishers, research and educational journals, music industry groups and sports networks including DAZN and the English Premier League – wish to argue as interveners that TekSavvy’s appeal against a website blocking…
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THE BANFF WORLD MEDIA FESTIVAL is launching four months of premium online content from May to September, following the cancellation of this year’s in-person festival due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Banff Virtual Edition program will connect the international media industry and help to ignite new projects and business development, say Banff organizers. The Rockie Awards (June 15) and Banff Day (June 16) will tentpole the season of programming, the majority of which will be offered to the global industry free of charge, says the news release.
International media companies already signed up to participate in sessions and exclusive networking…
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By Greg O’Brien
“THERE’S A WASTE OF two hours,” was my thought after listening to the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology on Thursday evening.
Not just my own time. Everyone’s.
The meeting notice said only that the INDU committee was looking at the Canadian response to the Covid-19 pandemic, but with a witness list of Jay Thomson, CEO of the Canadian Communication Systems Alliance; Ian Stevens, CEO of independent broadband provider Execulink; Andy Kaplan-Myrth, vice-president, regulatory and carrier affairs at TekSavvy; two rural politicians – Steve Arnold, mayor of St. Clair Township and Rob Gay, the board chair of the…
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TORONTO — Tucows, a Toronto-based provider of wholesale Internet services including domain name registration and owner of Ting Mobile (which operates Stateside), announced Monday it is hiring more than 50 people to work remotely in roles throughout the organization, including software engineering, operations, marketing and front-line customer service roles.
Tucows says it is looking to bring on more staff to support and expand global demand for its services, amid the uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and economic downturn, according to the news release.
The company and its brands, which include OpenSRS, Enom, EPAG, Ascio, Hover, Ting Mobile, Ting Internet…
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