MONTREAL – The man behind most of the Clearnet and then Telus marketing of the past decade – including its signature "future friendly" animal and nature-based ads – Wade Oosterman, has been hired by Bell Canada as president of Bell Mobility and Bell Distribution Inc., as well as chief brand officer of Bell Canada.
Oosterman follows another former Telus exec, George Cope, who was hired by Bell in October of 2005 as president and COO. Ironically, Cope’s departure to Bell caused an executive shuffle at Telus which left Oosterman without a role at the western telco.
It’s…
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TORONTO – Four CHUM Ltd. channels which are thought to be tailor made for wireless viewing (i.e. – their content is already in small chunks of entertainment and information) have been added to the MobiTV Canada lineup.
Customers of Rogers Wireless, Bell Mobility and Telus Mobility will now have access to MuchMusic, MuchLoud, MuchMoreRetro and Star!
MobiTV Inc. is a leader in television and digital radio services for cellular, WiFi and broadband enabled devices, however, it has reported only 500,000 customers world wide so far. The CHUM channels offer music videos and music news (the "Muches") and entertainment…
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THE CREATORS OF ICRAVETV.COM (remember that?) predicted, just by launching their web streaming service in 1999, that the momentum pushing TV programming off the tube and onto the net – and beyond – was unstoppable.
Although they hadn’t sorted out licensing and rights issues before making online streaming a tantalizing, if forbidden, fruit, the service was too far ahead of their time.
That time is now.
Content producers of all kinds are on the cusp of a frenzied push to move digital video beyond TV, to make greater use than ever of Internet-based broadband channels, and to go further,…
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FOR SEVERAL YEARS, CANADA’S TV launch season has followed a logical path, with the odd new bit added here or there to spice up the mix. This year, the industry expected broadcasters to introduce new shows, dangle tasty bits of multi-platform potential, parade the talent, wow the buyers and let the 2006 upfront selling frenzy begin.
Observers could then cue the standard questions: will Global build its list of Top-20 gains at CTV’s expense? Will CBC’s new-look programming represent an alternative or even an addition to hockey as a must-buy? Will specialties and digi-channels continue to grow? And will…
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QUEBEC – Oft-sued former Quebec radio show host André Arthur, now an independent federal MP, has lost his bid for a judicial review of the libel judgement against him and his former employers Cogeco Inc and Métromédia.
In a decision released last week, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected his appeal request, meaning Arthur and his former employers, possibly including Cogeco’s directors at the time, will have to pay $370,000 to former Quebec Premier Daniel Johnson and his wife Suzanne Marcil.
Of that amount, Arthur will have to pay $50,000 himself because he repeated the libellous statements shortly after…
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OTTAWA – Bell Canada Enterprises’; $685 million divestiture of control of media company Bell Globemedia has been approved by the CRTC.
BGM is 68.5% controlled by BCE, with the rest owned by Thomson Family company Woodbridge Inc. The proposed new structure, announced in December, will see BCE sell all but 20% of its position in the company to the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan (which will hold 20%), Torstar Inc. (20%) and Woodbridge (boosting its holdings to 40%).
However, all involved parties are awaiting a decision by the Competition Bureau as well, so the date of final closing has not…
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BOSTON – The future weighed heavily on the minds of marketers at this week’s Cable Telecommunications Association for Marketing Summit held in Boston Monday to Wednesday. ********** At first glance, having the vice-president of product marketing from Neustar – a third party provider of local telephone number portability for network operators – seemed a bit of a stretch. But, said John Ticer, he’s in a unique position, having to deal with wireless, wired, VOIP and cable telephony providers and make their systems talk to one another.
Each of those networks and their companies were developed "in stovepipes" aimed at…
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TORONTO – Alliance Atlantis’ Movie Distribution Income Fund announced this morning that it has let chairman Victor Loewy and CEO Patrice Theroux go.
No reasons were given but a company statement said: "The Motion Picture Distribution Board concluded a management change was necessary and in the best interest of MPDI." John Bailey, a member of the board of directors, has been installed as interim CEO of the Motion Picture Distribution partnership. AA CFO David Lazzarato will be acting board chairman.
Perhaps most distressing for the distribution company is that a contract with a "principal supplier" says it can walk…
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TORONTO – Canadian content creators are applauding the statement from the G8 meeting in Russia vowing to better enforce intellectual property rights and crack down on piracy of things such as videos, music, and software.
Organizations including the Canadian Film and Television Production Association, Canadian Recording Industry Association, and the Music Industries Association of Canada are glad that Canada is behind the G8 pledge.
“We congratulate the Government of Canada for its strong and unqualified support for intellectual property rights,” the groups said in a joint statement.
The groups hoped that Canada would implement the G8 commitment by passing…
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OTTAWA – Lower-cost shows like reality and game shows may be one reason why Canadian producers’ revenues from TV productions continue to fall, Statistics Canada reports.
In 2004, film and video producers reported TV sales of $1 billion, down 10% from 2001, the agency says. Overall production revenues from all sources also fell by 10% in that time. Television productions therefore kept their same share of the total production revenues, accounting for two-thirds of them.
TV revenues may also be falling because of increased competition from other entertainment sources, and from a trend away from more costly productions, like…
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