– Convergence headway

The federal government’s Convergence Policy Statement released Aug. 7 contains tidbits that will surely find their way into the debate during crtc hearings on broadcast distribution regulation in October.

The policy statement, made public by Heritage Minister Sheila Copps and Industry Minister John Manley, falls into three broad categories: facilities, content and competition.

On recommendations on shared facilities: Cable companies should not be required to make their systems available to third parties for broadcasting purposes, with the policy paper surmising that competition will be better served through the creation of new broadcast distribution networks.

However, when the cablecos are providing telecommunications services, resale or lease of their facilities to third parties should be required, as is already the case for the telcos.

On content: While acknowledging different technologies, all broadcast undertakings will be subject to the same rules governing contributions to Canadian programming and will contribute to the production of Canadian programming. All will be required to offer an affordable basic service package, including a predominantly Canadian choice.

On competition: All telecommunications carriers that meet ownership and control requirements will be eligible to hold a broadcast licence. However, the programming licence for a broadcast programming service must be held by a structurally separate company.

Outside the minutia of regulation, although much theorizing that the telcos and cablecos are backing off each other’s turf followed the fed’s thumbs-up on retributive competition, there are few tangible signs of a mass bailout on either side.

Case in point, Cogeco Cable, Canada’s fourth largest operator with over 460,000 subscribers in western and central Canada, has just signed a multi-year deal to deploy, mso-wide, CableData’s Intelcable’s transaction management and consumer software.

Cogeco will invest up to $5 million in the convergence market system over the next three years. The software provides for data warehousing, customer management, billing for existing cable subscribers and for future telephony and interactive service clients. Intelcable was launched in April and is installed in over 40 sites in 13 countries. CableData has over 50% of the u.s. cable market.

On the telco side, B.C. Tel and Quebec Tel, grandfathered in the directive, will make an application to operate cable and other broadcast services if new convergence legislation is passed this fall. Michelle Gagne, media relations manager at B.C. Tel, says it will take two to three years before the telcos begin offering these services to consumers.

Both B.C. Tel and Quebec Tel, which are majority owned by Connecticut-based gte, are sweetening the pot by offering up independent production funds of $10 million and $1 million respectively.

Details and application criteria about B.C. Tel’s Innovation Fund are still to be negotiated with Heritage Canada and be made public later, but Gagne expects the production fund to be operational before the two- to three-year timeline required to provide cable service.

Applications to the Innovation Fund will likely be vetted by an advisory panel. Bob Dubberley – a film industry veteran formerly associated with Vancouver’s The Beacon Group and the bcmpa before he took on the job of spearheading B.C. Tel’s cable initiative – will negotiate with Heritage on behalf of B.C. Tel over the next couple of months with a formal announcement expected in the fall.

– Rogers still attracted to Magnetic

Rogers Communications has announced it will retain ownership of Toronto’s Magnetic Enterprises, while Magnetic president Doug McKenzie has resigned to pursue other interests.

While previously intending to sell the post company, Rogers has concluded that Magnetic Enterprises, a wholly owned subsidiary consisting of post facilities Magnetic North and Magnetic South and music companies Magnetic Music and Master’s Workshop, is a valuable component of its business and will be injecting capital into the organization.

In McKenzie’s absence, Magnetic Enterprises will be run by a management team comprised of senior officers with the participation of Rogers’ on-site representative Tom Ayley, vp, financial operations at cfmt-tv.

– Toon software producers merge

Toon Boom Technologies, developer of Tic Tac Toon animation software, has merged with the software arm of l.a.-based competitor usanimation.

The companies will immediately combine their l.a. operations and also have offices in Atlanta and Paris.

Both Toon Boom and usanimation 2D software packages are vector-based, resolution-independent and operate on sgi workstations.

No financial terms were announced.

Toon Boom president Jacques Bilodeau also announced the company has signed a joint venture agreement with Viacom New Media to develop a new software for interactive games.

– Mobile

Carol Hay has been appointed head of drama development for Baton Broadcasting Systems.

Hay, whose most recent project is Caprice for Shaftesbury Films, a feature script she cowrote with Tomson Highway, spent a half-decade at the cbc and was executive story editor on The Diviners, Life With Billy and Journey Into Darkness: The Bruce Curtis Story. Script editing for Barna-Alper Productions’ Diana Kilmury: Teamster and Paragon’s Lives of Girls and Women are also on the credit list.

Hay will report to Suzanne Steeves, senior vp and gm of BBS Productions, and assumes responsibility for upcoming Baton series Cold Squad and Le Cirque, and mows Wild Geese and The Other Woman.

At WIC Western International Communications, Barry Duggan has been named president and ceo of bctv.

Duggan, who replaces longtime president Ron Bremner, has been president and ceo of itv, Edmonton, one of wic’s four Alberta-based broadcasting services, since 1993. He has been part of the Westcom TV Group since 1992 and has held executive positions at both rctv, Red Deer and ckvu in Vancouver.

Robert Armstrong has joined Cinar Films as vp, corporate development.

Armstrong was director, policy, planning and research at Telefilm Canada from 1989-94 and held various positions with the crtc, including director-general, television.

Vancouver-based Cactus Pictures has added Christine Haebler to its creative team. Haebler, Cactus’ vp of production, has been involved in the film industry for over 11 years, most recently as producer of the feature Hard Core Logo.

– Emmys et al

Canadian companies nominated for the Primetime Emmy Awards include Sullivan (outstanding children’s program for Road to Avonlea and costume and design), Paragon (makeup for Kissinger and Nixon as well as a lead actor nod for Beau Bridges as Nixon), Telescene Communications (editing and outstanding miniseries for Hiroshima), and Yorkton Productions (music composition for Picture Windows).

Toronto producers Elliot Halpern and Simcha Jacobovici have been nominated in the outstanding investigative journalism category of the 1996 News and Documentary Emmy Awards. Their 1994 doc The Plague Monkeys, which aired on cbc and a&e, is on the ballot alongside cbs’ 48 Hours, 60 Minutes and abc’s 20/20.

At the same time, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released its application schedule. The deadline for receipt of scientific and technical award entries is Aug. 16 and official screen credit forms to quality feature films for award consideration are due Dec. 2. Nomination ballots will be mailed Jan. 8, 1997 and nominations announced on Feb. 11.

In other out-of-territory type news, Le Syndicat des Producteurs Independants, France’s independent production association, is attempting to organize a ‘France Day’ at the next Banff Television Festival. The French organization is meeting with the head of the festival to discuss the event with an eye to fostering more Franco-Canadian coproduction.