OTTAWA – The 13th annual International Institute of Communications Canadian chapter conference gets under way two weeks from today and there is still room to register for this informative gathering.
Speakers include CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais, Deloitte Canada’s Duncan Stewart, Google’s Jason Kee, Microsoft’s David Laliberte, Blue Ant’s Asha Daniere, Cartt.ca’s Greg O’Brien, Ubisoft’s Lesley Phord-Toy, FCC commissioner Mignon Clyburn, privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien, Bell Canada’s Jonathan Daniels, Wind Mobile’s Simon Lockie and many others.
Provocative, interesting conference sessions centre on recent communications industry developments, disruptive innovation in the gaming industry, the desires of Canadian consumers, the democratization of technology, the…
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THE INITIAL CALL FOR THE REVIEW of the broadcasting system and the launch of the Let’s Talk TV consultation process was met with both skepticism and guarded optimism in the industry.
In many ways the industry had this coming. The price for cable television has increased dramatically over the past few decades, outpacing rises in price of most household commodities. The associated explosion in the number of channels, combined with the rise in price has created what behavioral economists call a “correlation effect”. This causes people to assume that the number of channels is the main cause of…
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DENVER – With Gigabit Fever now sweeping the land, cable technologists are heavily focused on beefing up their broadband capabilities, both on the wireline and wireless ends.
At the SCTE Cable-Tec Expo show here last week, cable engineers stressed how they are developing, testing and deploying next-gen broadband technologies to stave off the Gigabit thrusts of Google Fiber, AT&T, CenturyLink and the like. They insisted that cable's hybrid-fibre coax (HFC) networks still have the chops to match and exceed the blazing-fast speeds that the industry's telco and ISP rivals are increasingly rolling out throughout North America with the…
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TORONTO – Canada and New Zealand are joining together to establish a matching fund to encourage the coproduction of innovative digital media projects for online audiences, the Canada Media Fund has announced.
The Canada-New Zealand Digital Media incentive has $1M CDN ($1.1M NZD) available in the 2014-2015 financial year to be allocated to approximately three eligible projects. Guidelines, including details on the selection process, will be announced on October 10 with a call for ideas.
The matching fund was developed by NZ On Air and the Canada Media Fund (CMF), marking the first international digital production funding partnership for both organizations. NZ…
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OTTAWA – Hot wireless wearable devices such as Google Glass and Apple Watch may soon be available in Canada after the federal government released new electronic labelling regulations for telecommunication devices on Friday.
Electronic labelling (e-labelling) minimizes the impact on product design of smartphones, tablets and wearable technology as there is no longer a need to make room for stickers or etchings, eliminates the need for costly equipment used to etch information onto devices, and it reduces waste by eliminating the need for stickers. The practice is already accepted in the United States, Australia, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and…
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TORONTO – The Canada Media Fund (CMF) provided $360.7M in funding to 510 productions in the 2013-2014 fiscal year, according to its just-released online annual report that outlines its role in shaping Canada’s creative economy and digital landscape.
A total of 489 television and related digital media productions were supported through its Convergent Stream and 85 innovative and interactive digital media projects through its Experimental Stream.
In addition to its financial support, the CMF also continued to provide industry intelligence to its stakeholders. In 2013-2014, the CMF published 16 research projects and white papers in addition to 43 posts on…
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MONTREAL – The Canadian wireless sector is not only well-priced, it offers better service than many other large industrialized countries, and does not need new “interventionist measures” to promote competition, according to a new publication from the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI).
The organization published a new Viewpoint Monday entitled Three Myths about Competition in the Canadian Wireless Sector, timed to coincide with the start of the CRTC’s hearing into the wholesale wireless market.
According to the document, wireless prices in Canada are lower than those in the United States, Japan, and Australia. Moreover, by comparing different mobile wireless service bundles…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable could add wireless service to its mix as the country’s newest Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), a move that it said will help foster wireless competition in a market dominated by incumbent providers.
In advance of its appearance Monday at the CRTC’s review of wholesale mobile wireless services, Cogeco said in a statement that it will seek “the implementation of appropriate regulatory measures to allow it to enter the wireless market as an MVNO to offer customers more choice, better value and differentiated wireless services”. MVNOs are mobile wireless service providers that lease capacity from facilities-based wireless…
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MONTREAL – Canadians are opting for TV series over feature films, and most film-viewing is done at home through television, according to a new study on the way Canadians choose their audiovisual content.
Commissioned by Telefilm Canada, the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC) and the Canada Media Fund (CMF), and based on results of focus groups convened across the country, the study also found that consumers are increasingly seeking on-demand access to audiovisual products across a wide variety of platforms.
The study aimed to provide a better…
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OTTAWA–GATINEAU – With wireless service networks now accessible to 99% of the population, more and more Canadian households are dropping their landlines, according to the 2014 edition of the CRTC’s Communications Monitoring Report.
The report, released Thursday, provides an overview of the Canadian communication industry for the year ended August 31, 2013. This year, the CRTC is releasing the report in three parts. The first, about the country’s broadcasting sector, was released earlier this month, and the third part will be released in October with data on international comparisons, the National Do Not Call List and consumer spending on…
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