OTTAWA – Friends and colleagues of the late Alain Gourd (pictured) are invited to a charity fundraiser in his memory, scheduled for May 4, 2016 at The Rainbow Bistro blues bar in Ottawa's Byward Market.
Themed ‘Scotch & Save 2016’, this is the second bi-annual networking event and fundraiser for the Colorectal Cancer Association of Canada (CCAC) to honour Gourd’s memory.
Highlights of the evening will include special pricing on scotches and a raffle for bottles specially selected and donated by some of Canada's top communications law firms and companies, snacks, and a return musical performance by singer/songwriter Gerry Wall, familiar to many in the industry from his day…
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GATINEAU/MONTREAL – Canadians wishing to attend next month’s Discoverability Summit in Toronto may now register to receive tickets.
Co-hosted by the CRTC and the NFB, the Discoverability Summit is scheduled for May 10 and 11 at the Thompson Hotel in Toronto. Guest speakers include Jeremy Singer of Entertainment Tonight Canada, Amy Terrill of Music Canada and Louis Lalande, EVP of CBC/Radio-Canada French Services. Other major players from the digital media sector are also expected to participate, and will be revealed in the coming weeks.
The two-day affair will enable participants to discuss strategies, tools and approaches to improve the…
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TORONTO – The Canada Media Fund (CMF) has set its 2016-2017 program budget at $371.2 million, down $4 million from last year’s budget, and has also revised its program guidelines.
The CMF program budget is supported by revenue estimates for the coming year based on contributions from the Government of Canada; Canada’s cable, satellite and IPTV distributors; and recoupment and repayment revenues from funded productions. The program budget reflects a stable contribution from the Government of Canada and an expected decline in Broadcast Distribution Undertakings’ contributions to the CMF for the year to come.
“The changes to the 2016-2017 guidelines are…
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WEDNESDAY, THE CRTC released a report by EKOS Research as part of its so-called Talk Broadband initiative.
“EKOS Research Associates conducted two types of public opinion research on telecommunication services in Canada and prepared a report for the CRTC. The first part of the report presents results gathered through a questionnaire that was completed by more than 30,000 Canadians. Between January 14 and February 29, 2016, close to 29,000 individuals completed the questionnaire. EKOS also administered the questionnaire with a separate sample group of over 1,600 Canadians representative of the population as…
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GATINEAU – With some 80% of Canadians now owning a mobile device, the CRTC is asking for feedback on the participation of wireless service providers in Canada’s National Public Alerting System.
The Commission said Tuesday that its consultation builds on efforts to ensure Canadians are notified in a timely manner of emergency situations, as well as to ensure that the telecommunications system safeguards them. Comments are due by May 30, 2016.
Unlike 911 services which allow Canadians to contact emergency services, wireless public alerting would allow emergency management officials to “push” messages to Canadians through their cellular services. Issued by emergency…
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TORONTO – Veteran radio exec Rob Farina is joining Bell Media as a senior advisor in support of the coming launch of iHeartRadio in Canada.
Effective May 1, Farina (pictured) will assist with the development, launch, and overall execution for the Canadian brand extension of the digital service. He will focus on iHeartRadio partnerships with the broadcast and music industry, as well as growing strategic relationships within the automotive and consumer electronics industries, reads Tuesday’s announcement.
Farina was program director for Toronto’s CHUM FM, then programming VP for CHUM Radio, before joining Astral Media as EVP content and platforms. He…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian rights market and net neutrality will be the focus of two plenary sessions at the 18th Biennial National Conference: New Developments in Communications Law and Policy.
Scheduled for May 5 – 6, 2016 at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa, the event is designed for lawyers, industry executives, and government officials. If your work connects you to regulation, licensing, or policy development for phone, internet, television, or radio broadcast in Canada, organizers say this symposium should be on your must-attend list.
View the conference brochure for a detailed agenda of this two-day symposium.
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TORONTO – Exhibitors and sponsors may now sign on to the 2016 Canadian Wireless Trade Show being held October 26 – 27 at the Toronto Congress Centre in Toronto.
Billed as Canada’s premier B2B wireless and mobile communications event, the sixth annual CWTS brings together over 2,000 industry professionals that include tech experts, trend analysts, hardware manufacturers, service providers, app developers, decision makers, buyers, carriers, retailers and industry executives.
More than 100 exhibitors, spanning the full spectrum of the wireless industry, participate in the annual trade show, including companies from sectors such as accessories, backhaul, broadband, apps, wireless carriers, and distributors.
http://canadianwirelesstradeshow.com
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TORONTO – Videotron’s Valérie Héroux is headed to Harvard in June as this year’s recipient of the CTAM Canada Fellowship Award, also known as CTAM U.
Héroux, pictured, holds a bachelor degree in both Civil and Common Law from McGill University. During her six-year in private legal practice, she specialized in communications law (CRTC regulatory) representing media companies such as Astral Media. She pursued her career as internal legal counsel at film distribution company Alliance Atlantis (now known as eOne Entertainment), followed by Quebecor Media, where she led the negotiation for the renewal of the artists' association collective agreement with…
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Digital strategy, broadband for urban poor, not addressed
OTTAWA – After years of neglect, outright disdain and budget cuts from the previous government, CBC/Radio-Canada is getting what some consider a much needed infusion of cash. The Liberals’ Budget 2016 is injecting $675 million over the next five years into the national public broadcaster.
The money – $75 million this fiscal year and $150 million in each of the four subsequent years – will be used “to disseminate and support world-class Canadian content and to provide Canadians with better access to programs and services in the digital era,” said the budget.
Critical to…
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