BANFF – Bell Media has selected Erica Landrock and Jennifer Little as the recipients of the second annual Bell Media Executive Producer Accelerator Lab production apprenticeships.
The two will begin eight to 10-month apprenticeships at two of Canada's premier production companies, having already completed the six-week broadcaster internship at Bell Media earlier this year. Little joins RTR Media this fall, while Landrock joins the team at Force Four Entertainment in January. Each apprenticeship will provide a unique opportunity to gain experience in an executive producer role, learn the associated responsibilities, and obtain insight into…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) will once again offer its Telefilm Canada Marketing Mentorship Program designed to assist companies with the promotion of Canadian content and talent, across all platforms.
Funded by Telefilm Canada, the program will offer six 22-week mentorship opportunities, placing emerging and mid-level marketing professionals at active production companies. Participants will gain in-depth knowledge of the Canadian film, television and digital media sectors while focusing on the promotion of the company and its projects.
Applications for the Telefilm Canada Marketing Mentorship Program are being accepted now through July 17, 2015. Application details and eligibility is…
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HALIFAX – DHX Television has licensed the rebooted version of Teletubbies for exclusive linear English broadcast in Canada on its re-branded preschool channel Family Jr., beginning late this year.
Starring the timeless and unique costume characters Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po, the series consists of 60 brand new 12-minute episodes produced by DHX Media, each featuring an original adventure with a strong focus on exploratory fun. With rewarding rituals, sound play and physical comedy, the new-generation Teletubbies will build upon many features of the original series, but offer some exciting and surprising new developments too, reads the press…
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MONTREAL – The Canada Media Fund (CMF) has renewed its joint incentive with Wallimage (Wallonia, Belgium) for digital media co-productions among producers in both countries.
The first agreement in 2014 supported three co-productions. This year's Canada – Wallonia Digital Media Incentive for Multiplatform Projects’ budget is set at CAD $600,000, with each partner investing half of the total amount. Projects must be digital interactive content, explore a transmedia approach to content production, innovative or experimental and developed on appropriate platform(s) with regards to content and audiences.
The deadline for applications is September 1, 2015, and a selection committee of CMF and Wallimage…
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BANFF – While it has certainly morphed, like the media it celebrates, The Banff World Media Fest remains the only gathering of its kind dedicated to the global business of television – particularly in the broadband era – and this 36th chapter opened with a touch of déjà vu all over again.
The Canadian Association of Film Distributors and Exporters lamented that the six major U.S. studios controlled 72% of the Canadian market, leaving only mince for Canadian independent distributors – and there was the expected echo of Canadian Media Production Association, and others, bemoaning that change had inflicted unkind…
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TORONTO – The CEO of rural broadband provider Xplornet issued an industry-wide challenge to his fellow carriers Wednesday, asking them to commit to developing their networks so they can offer broadband speeds of 100 Mbps to 100% of Canadians by 2020.
The company, which serves over 600,000 Canadians who live and work outside or on the fringes of urban centres, has already made strides in boosting speeds beyond the 5 Mbps which CRTC and the federal government currently consider as the minimum threshold for broadband. All of Xplornet’s footprint (meaning, all of Canada, since its fixed wireless and satellites cover…
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TORONTO – In a bit of a departure from the messages we’ve heard from Bell Media in recent years and months, its new president said Wednesday that she is confident in the future of local TV stations and local content.
While Bell Media went into the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV process last year saying drastic action is needed to save local TV, its new president, Mary Ann Turcke had a more positive message. In a luncheon speech to the Canadian Telecom Summit (on day 56 into her job) she said local content “is fun, it’s relevant,…
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TORONTO – The industry must harden its wireless and broadband networks in Canada because good enough isn’t good enough anymore, a top Telus executive told Canadian Telecom Summit delegates this week.
“It was only 30 years ago that we deployed our first cellular networks in this country and about 25 years ago the internet, as we know it… were deployed,” said Telus chief technology officer Eros Spadotto. “At the time, these networks were the bleeding edge of technology, but perhaps ironically, they were deployed on a ‘best efforts basis.” That is, connectivity was not guaranteed.
Calls were (and still are) dropped…
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OTTAWA – Industry Canada has tapped Justice Robert A. Blair as chair of the Copyright Board of Canada for a five-year term, effective immediately.
Blair, pictured, was appointed to the Court of Appeal for Ontario in November 2003, after serving for 12 years as a trial judge on the Superior Court, reads Wednesday’s announcement. In both capacities, he has presided over matters involving almost all areas of the law, with a particular emphasis as a trial judge on cases on the Commercial List in Toronto and a continuing involvement with such cases at the appellate level.
“I would like to welcome Justice…
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TORONTO – “Why can’t we be friends?” Wind Mobile CEO Alek Krstajic asked delegates to the Canadian Telecom Summit in a luncheon keynote on Tuesday.
The 1975 song by War actually played him off the stage at the end of his speech, but the theme hung in the air: Why can’t the industry accept what’s coming from Ottawa and just compete for the affections of Canadians on a level playing field that the Conservative government helped build?
Krstajic has been through the wars. Many of them, really. He spent years working for Rogers Cable before moving to Bell Canada and then…
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