TORONTO – Astral Television’s director of affiliate marketing, Richard Bartrem, will work his last day at the company on Friday.
After five years with Astral, Bartrem has accepted the position of director of brand and communications with WestJet in Calgary. His first day there is June 6th.
Bartrem has lived and worked in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Halifax. He met his wife in Calgary during his six years there and told www.cartt.ca that they have long thought about moving back to live.
Bartrem said he has mixed feelings about leaving. “I love this industry but it’s tough to be in it and out west,” he added. Prior to his time at Astral, Bartrem was with consumer goods company Unilever.
He’s most proud of what he helped accomplish at Astral during his five years. When he arrived in 2000 most TMN customers, for example, were analog – and subscription video on demand was an idea on someone’s drawing board.
Now, nearly all TMN customers are digital, the company underwent a large marketing campaign to re-brand its multiplexed channels and Moviepix, TMN has a dedicated HD channel, and TMN On Demand is growing rapidly.
“Think of the things we managed to do in five years,” he said.
