Shaw write-down, content pauses, fuel talk of new, or no, partnership
IN JULY, SHAW COMMUNICATIONS wrote down the value of its 50% stake in the shomi streaming service to nil. That move, plus the fact shomi emerged from spring’s annual Los Angeles TV screenings with no new content purchases, has led many in the industry to wonder aloud about the future of the Rogers-Shaw joint venture.
At the time of the write-down, Shaw CFO Vito Culmone told analysts the $51 million accounting charge taken after it had sold its traditional media assets to Corus Entertainment did not "say anything more about…
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Credits include Orphan Black, Queer as Folk
TORONTO — Award-winning writer-producer Karen Walton is joining the 2016 Bell Media Prime Time TV Program as executive producer in residence, to lead a story room of television writers as she develops an original series, Bell Media and the Canadian Film Centre announced Thursday.
The 2016 Bell Media Prime Time TV Program, presented in association with ABC Signature Studios, provides a real-world story room experience for six to eight TV writers a year. From this September to December, Walton will lead a group of soon-to-be announced TV writers through the story room development of…
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TORONTO — The Canada Media Fund will award more than $4.7 million in development and marketing support to innovative digital media companies in Canada as part of the CMF’s 2016-2017 Experimental Stream funding initiative.
In a news release on Wednesday, the CMF announced it had awarded $3.3 million in development support to a total of 15 Canadian companies and $1.4 million in marketing support to seven interactive digital media projects.
The development funds will support the 15 recipients as they conceptualize an eligible project, develop the creative and technical elements of an eligible project, and draft a product proposal for…
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MONTREAL — When all the action from the Rio 2016 Olympic Games is broadcast to viewers’ TVs around the globe, Montreal-based Aldea Solutions will be delivering the live feeds that many of the world’s major broadcasters rely on to cover the 17-day sports event.
For its various broadcaster clients present in the International Broadcast Center (IBC) in Rio de Janeiro, Aldea will transmit live sports content from the Olympics back to the main studios in the broadcasters’ respective countries. Those countries include Canada, the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, South Africa and the…
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MONTREAL — Although its net income and cash flow are down from its Q4 2016 results, Stingray Digital Group reported on Wednesday a Q1 2017 revenue increase of 23.4% when compared to the first quarter of 2016.
Stingray attributed its first quarter revenue increase, to $24.5 million in Q1 2017 from $19.9 million in Q1 2016, to its acquisitions of iConcerts, Brava Group, Digital Media Distribution (DMD) and Nümédia, combined with commercial music growth in Canada.
The company’s Commercial Music revenues increased 15.3% to $6.7 million, mainly as a result of music and digital signage recurring revenues, the company said in…
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VANCOUVER — Two dozen Canadian and international music companies have scored a victory against music piracy to the tune of $65 million, with the settlement of a copyright infringement lawsuit originally filed six years ago against BitTorrent file-sharing service isoHunt Web Technologies Inc. and its founder Gary Fung.
By way of a consent order filed in British Columbia Supreme Court, isoHunt and Fung are liable for $55 million in damages and an additional $10 million in punitive damages. isoHunt and Fung further agreed not to be associated with any service that makes the music companies’ recordings available without authorization, including…
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EDMONTON — Business incubator TEC Edmonton is joining forces with Telus to launch the T-Squared Accelerator, a joint initiative to provide early-stage technology companies with seed funding and 12 months of free incubation space and support in Edmonton’s Enterprise Square tech hub. Telus will contribute $200,000 annually to fund the program, with $100,000 going directly to the selected tech startups to advance their businesses, the two companies announced Tuesday morning.
Specifically, the T-Squared Accelerator program is interested in startups focused on developing platform technologies in the areas of seamless customer experience, the Internet of Things (IoT), big data analytics, health…
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Too expensive to fix transmitter site
LONDON and GATINEAU – Bell Media will soon shut down London’s CKSL AM, currently operating as comedy station Funny 1410.
The company has turned in the station license to the CRTC because of the costs required to bring its decaying transmitter site up to code outweigh any benefits. “A technical review of the transmitter site was recently completed both by Bell Media and contractors, which has resulted in the determination that the AM array poses an unacceptable risk from a health and safety perspective. The five towers are experiencing serious structural degradation and also require…
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MONTREAL — The fact that no Canadian hockey teams made it to the NHL playoffs this spring and overall soft sales in soundstage and production equipment rentals contributed to a second quarter net loss attributable to shareholders of $5.7 million at TVA Group Inc., the company announced on Monday.
TVA Group, a subsidiary of Quebecor Media Inc., reported a consolidated adjusted operating income of $2.427 million for the second quarter, representing a 67% decrease from its adjusted operating income in the same quarter of 2015.
The company’s Broadcasting & Production segment experienced a $2.431 million adjusted operating loss, a $3.3 million…
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MONTREAL – Five years ago, during a surprisingly competitive CRTC process to award new commercial AM radio stations in Montreal, one independent group burst onto the scene with grand promises to revolutionize the industry. Within two years, the three investors had acquired three licences for AM talk stations and the industry was filled with hope of new jobs and new alternatives to incumbent stations owned by major corporations.
But five years later, the group has nothing to show for it. It has already lost one of its three licence authorizations, and in November will lose the other two if it…
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