– New wireless players

Industry Canada handed out three new licences Oct. 29 to providers of local multipoint communications systems, introducing additional competition for the cable, telephone and proposed dth satellite services.

Licences for 1 GHz blocks for 33 markets each were awarded to Vancouver’s Cellular Vision Canada, backed by wic, Digital Vision Communications, or MaxLink Communications out of Montreal, and a similar licence went to Mississauga-based Regional Vision for the service of 127 smaller communities.

The MaxLink venture is backed by Quebec businessman Philippe de Gaspe Beaubien, an arm of the Caisse de depot et placement de Quebec and Texas Instruments. MaxLink president Joel Bell recently headed former dth competitor Power DirecTv.

Regional Vision is 49% owned by satellite service company Cancom, 29% by CSL Infrastructure Management, 20% by Captial Communications cdpq, a subsidiary of Caisse de depot et de Placement de Quebec, and 2% by Yukon-based Hougen Communications.

lmcs, a broadband wireless service which operates in the 28 GHz spectrum, is capable of carrying Internet access, teleconferencing and video-on-demand as well as wireless cable service, with signals received by small antennas. Some services are expected to be up and running by the end of next year.

lmcs businesses will invest over $1 billion in the wireless industry over the next five years.

-CAB Annual Convention

With convergence emerging as a more immediate issue for broadcasters, program production was a key issue at the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Annual Convention in Edmonton.

Calling for the need to develop a national industrial strategy to increase the flow of quality Canadian programs, Michael McCabe, cab president, said the association will press for the locking in of a 5% commitment from distributors, full participation in the Canada Television and Cable Production Fund, and fair competition guarantees.

During the Oct. 27-29 confab, Gold Ribbon Awards were presented to eight tv and 10 radio stations. bctv Vancouver, the only multi-ribbon holder, had wins with its interactive Youth Violence: What’s Out There info special, its BCTV-It’s News for Me news promo and its Food For Friends community service spot. Other community service winners were cfqc-tv Saskatoon’s Tree of Plenty campaign, cisa-tv Lethbridge’s Flood of the Century doc and cfrn-tv Edmonton’s Good Neighbour Fund Society project.

Top news kudos went to cfcn-tv Calgary for its Alberta flood coverage. The entertainment Gold Ribbon was a tie between ckck-tv Regina’s Both Sides of The Border and cftm-tv Montreal’s Cha Ba Da – Garth Brooks special. Promo Gold went to citv Edmonton for ITV-It’s Ours.

Outstanding individual community service Gold recognition went to John Davidson of cfpl-tv for his inspirational muscular dystrophy fundraising (he undertook a four-month trek from Manitoba to Ottawa pushing his terminally ill son in a wheelchair) and to cict-tv’s super volunteer and noted humanitarian Ed Whelan.

The engineering achievement nod went to the recently retired Tak Negoro, former bctv vp engineering.

-CRTV targets CTV, Global

The Coalition for Responsible Television sent letters to 70 of Canada’s biggest advertisers urging them to boycott Poltergeist: The Legacy, which runs on ctv, and Millennium, running on Global.

ctv head of programming Arthur Weinthal says Poltergeist, which is expressly a fantasy program, runs at 10 p.m., is not aimed at children, and has generated no significant negative response from viewers.

‘A show should be judged on its merits, not on an agenda that is based on what people think other people should be watching,’ he says. ‘We will not put anything on the air which we think is anti-social or dangerous or contravenes any ethical codes.’

Global vp Doug Hoover says that while the group is entitled to its response, he is disappointed the crtv sent out the news release without having seen the program. Hoover adds that Millennium has drawn a total of 17 letters, positive and negative, from across Canada.

The crtv says it will monitor the programs for six months and a list of advertisers still sponsoring the shows will be issued to crtv member groups, the media and posted on the Internet.

-People

In a shuffle geared to jumping on partnership and new media opps, CBC Newsworld head Slawko Klymkiw moves over to CBC Television as exec director network programming, responsible for pulling together a balanced sked. Phyllis Platt remains exec director of arts and entertainment, adding international coprods, specialty channel undertakings and ctcpf relationship-building to her a&e portfolio. cbc sports, formerly under the a&e banner, has gone solo, indicating its key role; sports head Alan Clark now reports to vp Jim Byrd.

– Robin Johnston, executive director of the Atlantic Film Festival for the past two seasons, will step down Jan. 10. A replacement is currently being sought. ScreenScene program director Johanna Lunn Montgomery is now deputy director of the festival.

– At Baton Broadcasting System, Gordon Corlett has been appointed its first director of affiliate relations for The Comedy Network, Talk TV and Outdoor Life. Corlett’s 21 years of broadcasting experience includes senior management positions at ExpressVu and Maclean Hunter Cable TV.

– The Global Television Network named Ken MacDonald vp of news. MacDonald was Global’s Ottawa bureau chief since 1994.

– Alan Horn, acting chief financial officer at Rogers Communications since Graham Savage filed notice two months ago, has been appointed vp, finance, and cfo. Prior to this appointment, Horn, a chartered accountant and former tax partner with kpmg, has worn two hats at Rogers, acting as president of Rogers Telecommunications, a private company owned by Rogers ceo Ted Rogers, and vp administration of rci.

Rogers has named Ronan McGrath president of Rogers Shared Services and chief information officer of the Rogers Group of Companies. The position is effective Jan. 1, 1997. McGrath comes to Rogers from Canadian National Railways where he served as vp and chief information officer.

– Luce Pellerin is the new director, legal and business affairs at Malofilm Communications. Pellerin will be responsible for all acquisitions for distribution.

Daniel Bourque, formerly of the entertainment law firm Gowling, Strathy & Henderson, heads up business affairs for international sales.

-Banff restructures

The board of directors of the Banff Television Foundation approved a management restructuring plan which sees Pat Ferns, formerly executive vp and a past chair, become president and ceo and Jerry Ezekiel taking on the position of senior vp and festival director. Lizbeth Smeaton has been appointed marketing manager and a member of the festival’s new management committee.

Ferns also announced that API Sponsorship Canada will work with Smeaton on increasing sponsorship of the festival. api has offices in Vancouver, Toronto, the u.k., u.s., Africa and Asia.

Also at the board meeting, Arthur Weinthal, vp programming at ctv, was re-elected chair; Trina McQueen, president and gm of Discovery Channel, was appointed secretary; Huguette Marcotte, exec vp and gm of Les Productions Point de Mire, was elected treasurer and chair of the finance committee; Albertans George Gonzo, exec vp of CFCN Communications, and John Burrows, were appointed chairs of the marketing and human resources committee; and McMillan Binch lawyer Douglas Barrett is chair of the nominating committee.

New board members are Forefront Productions’ Mickey Rogers, and Derek Mazur, president of Credo Entertainment. Stepping down from the board were producer Arvi Liimatainen and Steven DeNure, president of Alliance Multimedia. In a unanimous vote, Liimatainen was elected honorary director of the Banff Television Festival.

-Financial results for Que.

Year-end results for Quebec’s broadcasters for ’95/96 are in.

Consolidated revenues for Cogeco are up almost 4% this year to $214.9 million while cable revenue is up 10.7% to $152.9 million. The company announced a profit of almost $8.4 million from the sale of shares in cfcf. Added to net income of just over $10 million for the 12-month period ending Aug. 31, and a write-down of $19.5 million on its weekly publishing property, Cogeco broke even this year.

CFCF Inc. reported a huge loss, $49.1 million on combined broadcasting and cable revenues of $267.1 million, up $22 million over last year. cfcf reported a net loss of $1.2 million last year. The red comes from cfcf’s $37.2 million (pre-tax) write-down on the 10-year-old, money-losing Television Quatre Saisons.

At Tele-Metropole, tqs’ new owner, financial results for the year ending Aug. 25 show net profits up 64% this year to $9.1 million on revenues of $179.9 million, a 2.3% increase over last year. Tele-Metropole says a major three-year rationalization program cost the company $5.5 million this year.