OTTAWA – This Sunday’s Earth Day 2012 is the perfect opportunity for Canadians to give their old cell phones the send-off they deserve, and ensure they don’t end up in landfills, via Canada’s free cell phone recycling program.
Run by the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) in conjunction with cell phone carriers and handset manufacturers, ‘Recycle My Cell’ makes it easy for Canadians to find out how and where to safely and responsibly dispose of their used cell phones, smart phones, pagers, wireless air cards, batteries, chargers, headsets and other accessories. Additionally, a donation to participating charities is made for…
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TORONTO – IBM is at the helm of a new Ontario-based $210 million research and development initiative set to address issues ranging from healthcare to water conservation to problems facing cities.
Backed by a consortium of seven universities led by the University of Toronto and Western University, IBM will invest up to $175 million through December 2014 in the project, the Ontario government will kick in $15 million, and the federal government will contribute $20 million towards the new IBM Canada Research and Development Centre.
This collaborative model will help university and industry researchers use high performance and cloud computing infrastructure…
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MONTREAL – Telefilm Canada is cutting 30 full-time jobs and over $1 million from its programming initiatives after the recent federal budget slashed its funding by 10% over three years.
The organization said Wednesday that it will cut $2.7 million in the first year, which it broke out as $1.7 million from programs and $1 million in administration. This means that development financing will be slashed by $700,000, production financing by $500,000, and an additional $500,000 will be carved out of its promotion and training budget.
In addition to the job cuts, savings in administration will come from reductions in its professional services, administrative, and travel…
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GATINEAU – Do customers want more choice or more channels? Are the two questions mutually exclusive?
If that sounds like an odd pair of questions because choice and channels can’t be unlinked like that, hear us out, because those two queries are what repeatedly sprung to mind reading the progress reports submitted to the CRTC by Bell Canada, Shaw Communications, Rogers Communications and Vidéotron on the vertically integrated companies’ moves to allow more programming choice and flexibility for their customers.
When it released its new policy on vertically integrated media and distribution companies last fall, the CRTC gave the big four…
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TORONTO – The CBC’s plan to generate revenue by adding advertising to its national radio networks CBC Radio 2 and Espace musique received a warm response by the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA). (The proposal has yet to receive CRTC approval.)
The industry organization, which has long advocated for advertising access to CBC/Radio-Canada, said Thursday that the move “allows government to be fiscally prudent while still advancing public policy goals”.
“Advertisers are seeking evermore narrowly-defined target audiences to promote their products and services”, said Bob Reaume, VP of policy and research, in a statement. “They require a depth and breadth of…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Canada’s wireless providers may soon have to adhere to a new code of conduct.
The CRTC said Wednesday that it is seeking comments on whether the wireless market has changed enough to warrant its intervention in the development of a national retail wireless services consumer code, after receiving “several applications” recommending that one be established. (Cartt.ca first reported back in February on Telus's demand for such a process.) A number of provinces have recently introduced amendments to consumer protection legislation that directly or indirectly impact wireless services.
In 1994, the CRTC decided against regulating the wireless…
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TORONTO – The Canada Media Fund (CMF) has set its 2012-2013 program budget at $375 million, an increase of $4 million over last year’s budget. The organization also revised its program guidelines for the next two years.
Changes to the guidelines reflect the organization’s objective to simplify its policies and programs and to reward success, the CMF said in a statement, which includes a requirement that all CMF-funded projects report on sales. Click here for a full summary of all changes.
“The changes to the program guidelines reflect feedback received during extensive consultations with the industry”, said president and…
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RADIO IS NOT DEAD. Obituaries for the broadcast medium have been written and re-written over the past 10, 20, 30 and even 40 years and, yet, it lives on.
Oddly, for CBC, facing budget cuts that some say may slowly starve it, coupled with the cultural malaise peculiar to Canada that prompts us to doubt many things produced in our country, radio is the Corporation’s biggest success.
It’s the ratings leader in many Canadian markets (Jian Ghomeshi’s Q gets better ratings that the legendary Peter Gzowski did). It provides local leadership but with a national focus. When…
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IT’S PRETTY UNUSUAL for dropped cellular phone calls to be mentioned in a Speech from the Throne.
But, that’s exactly what happened last fall when Saskatchewan Lieutenant-Governor Gordon Barnhart said in that speech that “improving digital and electronic infrastructure is essential to the new economy,” and that “(d)ropped cell phone calls are still a problem, despite an increased investment in SaskTel’s 4G network of $170 million in my government’s first term.”
SaskTel’s ownership – the taxpayers of Saskatchewan – is a holdover of the past, when many telcos were government-owned. While its competitors feel competing against the government is unfair, the…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications is also pledging to support Earth Hour on March 31 by turning off non-essential lights and signs in its buildings across Canada for the fifth year in a row.
In addition, the company announced that its 3636 Campus building in Calgary was recently awarded LEED silver certification of by the Canada Green Building Council. Shaw Tower in Vancouver and Shaw Barlow in Calgary have been recognized by the Building Owners and Managers Association for their achievements above and beyond industry best practices in sustainable and environmentally responsible building management.
"Shaw is excited to participate in Earth Hour…
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