Canadian Media Industries Research Portal

Acronyms and Abbreviations

The table below lists selected acronyms and abbreviations that appear in resources related to the Canadian
and international media and telecommunications industries.

A
AAC	Alliance Atlantis Communications, Inc.
ABP	Associated British Pathe
ACFTVP	Association of Canadian Film and Television Producers
ACMPC	Association of Canadian Movie Production Companies
ACT	Alliance for Children and Television (Canada). Formerly known as the Children's Broadcast Institute.
ACTRA	Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists
AD	1) Assistant Director; 2) Anti-dumping
A/D	Analog to Digital converter
ADI	Area of Dominant Influence
ADR	Automatic Dialogue Replacement
AFMA	American Film Marketing Association (United States)
AFTRA	American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (United States)
AMPTP	Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (United States). Formerly known as Association of Motion Picture Producers (1924-1963); Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers (1964-1981).
AM	Amplitude Modulation
ANZ	Australia and New Zealand
APEC	Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum
APFTQ	Association des producteurs de films et de télévision du Québec
API	Application Program Interface
APPC	Advanced Program-to-Program Communications
APTN	Aboriginal Peoples Television Network
ARB	American Research Bureau. Later known as Arbitron.
ARPANET	Advanced Research Projects Agency Network
ATM	Asynchronous Transfer Mode
ATSC	Advanced Television Systems Committee (United States)
ATV	Advanced Television
AUP	Acceptable Use Policy
B
BBC	British Broadcasting Corporation
BBG	Board of Broadcast Governors (Canada). Predecessor of the Canadian Radio-Television Commission.
BCE	Bell Canada Enterprises
BCFC	British Columbia Film Commission
BPIDP	Book Publishing Industry Development Plan (Canada)
B.O.	box office
BPL	Broadband over Powerlines
Bps	Bits per second
BSP	broadcast standards and practices
BT	Bluetooth
BTA	best time available
C
CAB	1) Canadian Association of Broadcasters; 2) Cable Advertising Bureau
CanCon	Canadian Content
CARA	Classification and Rating Administration (United States)
CATV	Community Antenna Television
CAVCO	Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office
CAVE	Cave Automatic Virtual Environment
CBC	Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
CBSC	Canadian Broadcast Standards Council
CC	closed caption
CCA	Capital Cost Allowance
CCAU	Coalition of Canadian Audio-Visual Unions
CCFM	Council of Canadian Filmmakers
CCFTA	Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement
CCTA	Canadian Cable Television Association
CDN	Canadian
CDPD	Cellular Digital Packet Data
CEO	Chief Executive Officer
CFO	Chief Financial Officer
CFDC	Canadian Film Development Corporation. The Corporation's name was later changed to Telefilm Canada.
CFFF	Canada Feature Film Fund
CFTA	Canadian Film and Television Association
CFTPA	Canadian Film and Television Production Association
CIBS	Canada's International Business Strategy
CIFTA	Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement
CITT	Canadian International Trade Tribunal
CLEC	Competitive Local Exchange Carrier
CMPDA	Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association
Codec	Coder-decoder
Coprod	Co-production
COTS	Commercial off-the-shelf
CPM	cost per thousand or cost per mill
CPP	cost per point
CPTC	Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit
CRBC	Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission. Later became part of the CRTC.
CRTC	Canadian Radio-Television Commission. Note: The Commission's name was later changed to Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission
CSC	Canadian Society of Cinematographers
CTCPF	Canada Television and Cable Production Fund
CTF	Canadian Television Fund
CVD	countervailing duties
D
DARPA	Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (United States)
DASD	Direct Access Storage Device
DAT	Digital Audio Tape
DAW	Digital Audio Workstation
DB	delayed broadcast
DBS	Direct Broadcast Satellite
DES	Data Encryption Standard
DGA	Directors Guild of America (United States)
DGC	Directors Guild of Canada
DHCP	Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
Diginet	Digital network
DIN	Deutsche Industrie Norm
DMS	designated market area
DNS	Domain Name Service
DOC	Department of Communications (DOC) (Canada)
DOP	Director of Photography
DSL	Digital Subscriber Line
DTH	Direct-to-home satellite television service
DTV	Digital Television
DV	digital video
DVB	Digital Video Broadcasting
DVC	digital video compression
DVD	(1) Digital Video Disc; (2) Digital Versatile Disc
DVE	digital video effects
E
E&O	errors and omissions
EFTA	European Free Trade Association
EIP	Equity Investment Program
ENG	Electronic News Gathering
epk	electronic press kit
ESSID	Extended Service Set Identifier
EU	European Union
EULA	End User Licensing Agreement
EXT	exterior
F
FCC	1) First Choice Canadian. It later became The Movie Network; 2) Federal Communications Commission (U.S. regulatory agency)
FDI	Foreign Direct Investment
1st AD	First Assistant Director
FM	Frequency Modulation
FTA	Free Trade Agreement
FTAA	Free Trade Agreement of the Americas
FTC	Federal Trade Commission (United States)
FTTH	Fiber-to-the-Home
FTP	File Transfer Protocol
FX	special effect
G
GAA	Gross Average Audience
GATS	General Agreement on Trade in Services
GATT	General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Replaced in January 1995 by the World Trade Organization (WTO).
GDP	Gross Domestic Product
Ghz	Gigahertz
GPS	Global Positioning System
GRP	Gross Ratings Points
HDTV	High-definition Television
HFC	hybrid fiber coax
HGTV	Home & Garden Television
HTML	Hyptertext Markup Language
HTTP	Hypertext Transfer Protocol
HUT	Households Using Television
Hz	Hertz
I
IATSE	International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada, AFL-CIO, CLC
ICC	International Cinema Corporation
IDS	Intrusion Detection System
IFCC	Independent Film Channel Canada
ITFS	Instructional Television Fixed Service
IIPA	International Intellectual Property Alliance (United States)
IM	instant message
I/O	input/output
IP	1) intellectual property; 2) Internet Protocol
IPA	Independent Production Agreement (Canada)
IPTV	Internet Protocol Television
IR	information retrieval
IRC	Internet Relay Chat
ISCD	Industry Standard Coding Identification
ISDN	1) Integrated Services Digital Network; 2) Integrated Systems Digital Networking
ISM band	Industrial, Scientific and Medical band
ISP	Internet Service Provider
ITA	Information Technology Agreement
ITC	1) Incorporated Television Company ( United Kingdom ); 2) Independent Television Corporation
ITU	International Telecommunications Union
IVDS	Interactive Video Data Service
J
JPEG	Joint Photographic Experts Group
K
K	kilobyte
Kb	kilobyte
Kbps	kilobits per second
kHz	kilohertz
L
LAN	Local Area Network
LFP	Licence Fee Program (Canada)
LIP	left in progress
LPFM	Low Power FM Radio
LPTV	Low Power Television
M
M	megabyte
MAC	Media Access Control
MAP	Marketing Assistance Program (Canada)
MAPL	Music, Artist, Production, Lyrics (Canadian music content regulation elements)
MB	megabyte
Mbps	megabits per second
MEG	megabyte
MFN	Most-favored-nation treatment
MIPS	millions of instructions per second
MIS	Management Information System
MNC	Multinational corporation
MNE	Multinational enterprise
MOW	Movie-of-the-week
MPAA	Motion Picture Association of America (United States)
MRI	Mediamark Research Inc.
MTAC	Motion Picture Theatre Association of Canada
N
NAB	National Association of Broadcasters (United States)
NACC	North American Competitiveness Council
NAFTA	North American Free Trade Agreement
NAICS	North American Industry Classification System
NAS	network attached storage
NATO	National Association of Theater Owners (United States)
NATPE	National Association of Television Program Executives (United States)
NFB	National Film Board of Canada
NHI	Nielsen Home Video Index (United States)
NIC	network interface card
NII	National Information Infrastructure (United States)
NSI	1) National Screen Institute (Canada); 2) Nielsen Station Index (United States)
NSS	Nielsen Syndication Service (United States)
NTB	non-tariff barriers
NTI	Nielsen Television Index (United States)
NTIA	National Telecommunications and Information Administration (United States)
NSTC	1) National Science and Technology Council (United States); 2) National Television Systems Committee (United States)
O
O&O	owned and operated
OECA	Ontario Educational Communications Authority
OECD	Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
OFDC	Ontario Film Development Corporation (Later named the Ontario Media Development Corporation)
OMDC	Ontario Media Development Corporation (Formerly named Ontario Film Development Corporation)
OS	operating system
OSP	Operator Service Provider
OTO	one-time only
P
PAL	Phase Alternating Line
PAN	Personal Area Network
PBS	Public Broadcasting Service (United States)
PCMCIA	Personal Computer Memory Card International Association card
PCS	1) Portable Communication System; 2) Personal Communications Service
PDA	Personal Data Assistant
PDF	Portable Document Format
PI	per-inquiry advertising
PICC	Prescribed Interexchange Charge
PM	Production Manager
POTS	Plain Old Telephone Service
PPV	pay-per-view
PSA	public service announcement
P2P	peer-to-peer
prep	pre-production
PSTC	Film or Video Production Services Tax Credit (Canada)
PTAR	Prime Time Access Rule (United States)
Q
QoS	Quality of Service
R
RAM	Random Access Memory
RCA	Radio Corporation of America
RF	radio frequency
ROS	run-of-schedule
RSS	Really Simple Syndication
S
SAG	Screen Actors Guild (United States)
SAR	Specific Absorption Rate
SDTV	Standard Definition Television
SEC	Securities and Exchange Commission (United States)
SGML	Standard Generalized Markup Language
SHVIA	Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act of 1999 (United States)
SLC	subscriber line charge
SMATV	Satellite Master Antenna Television
SMPTE	Society of Motion Picture Television Engineers
SMRB	Simmons Market Research Bureau
SMTP	Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
SPW	spots per week
SRC	Societe Radio-Canada (French language service of the CBC)
SSID	Service Set Identifier
STV	subscription television
SVGA	Super Video Graphics Array
syndex	syndication exclusivity
Synfin	Syndication financial interest (United States; repealed by FCC in 1996).
T
TAP Plan	Total-Audience-Plan
TCP/IP	Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol suite
TEDCO	Toronto Economic Development Corporation
TELNET	TELetype NETwork
TF	Telefilm Canada
3G	Third-Generation Wireless Communications Technology
TIFF	Toronto International Film Festival
TKIP	Temporal Key Integrity Protocol
TMN	The Movie Network (Canada)
T.O.	Toronto, Ontario
TPA	Television Programs of America
TRS	Telecommunications Relay Service
TSE	Toronto Stock Exchange
TSN	Total Sports Network (Canadian cable network)
TVB	Television Advertising Bureau
U
UHF	Ultra High Frequency
UNESCO	United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UR	Uruguay Round
URL	1) Universal Resource Locator; 2) Uniform Resource Locator
V
VGA	Video Graphics Array
VHF	Very High Frequency
VLAN	Virtual Local Area Network
VoIP	Voice over Internet Protocol
VPH	viewers per viewing household
VPN	Virtual Private Network
VPVH	viewers per viewing household
VR	virtual reality
W
WAG	Working Actors Group (Canada)
WAN	Wide Area Network
WAP	Wireless Application Protocol
WEP	Wired Equivalent Privacy
WIC	1) WIPO Copyright Treaty 2) Western International Corporation
Wi-Fi	Wireless Fidelity
Wi MAX	Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
WIPO	World Intellectual Property Organization
WLAN	Wireless Local Area Network
WML	Wireless Markup Language
WPA	Wi-Fi Protected Access
W3C	World Wide Web Consortium
WTO	World Trade Organization
X
XCU	extreme close up
XLS	extreme long shot
XML	Extensible Markup Language

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Page created May 18, 2005. Last updated July 2, 2014

Page created and maintained by:
Marsha Ann Tate, Ph.D.

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