TORONTO – 9 Story Media Group has bought Out of the Blue Enterprises, the creator and producer behind children’s series Super WHY, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood and owner of the legacy toy brand Colorforms.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Out of the Blue, based in New York City, will become a wholly owned subsidiary of 9 Story Media Group with managing director Samantha Freeman staying on to lead the company and co-founder Angela Santomero continuing to serve as creator and executive producer.
9 Story and Out of the Blue have previously worked together on the animated series Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,…
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LONDON, UK – Former Rogers’ president and CEO Guy Laurence has kicked off a new gig as chief executive of Chelsea Football Club.
Founded in 1905 and based in London, the professional football club is the reigning champions of the Premier League.
Reporting to the club’s board of directors, Laurence (pictured) will assume overall responsibility for the club’s day-to-day operations, including the continuing development of its commercial activities in the UK and around the world, in order to increase revenues.
Laurence was ousted from Rogers in October 2016 after less than three years atop the Toronto-based communications giant.
“We look forward to Guy…
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TORONTO – Discovery Velocity has opened up for a month-long national free preview, on now through February 8.
Billed as Canada’s only home for factual turbo programming, Discovery Velocity will serve up live coverage of the most spectacular classic car auction event of the year, Barrett-Jackson Live (pictured, from January 16 – 21), alongside new series Texas Metal (January 12), and the return of Wheeler Dealers on January 22.
The freeview is available through television service providers including Bell, Bell Aliant, Cogeco Connexion, Eastlink, BellMTS, Rogers, SaskTel, Shaw, Shaw Direct, Telus, Videotron, and several CCSA partners including Access…
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Radio, Peer 1, doing just fine; wireless still a maybe
MONTREAL – Louis Audet doesn’t like to discuss politics, no matter how many times he’s asked to by journalists, but Donald Trump and the Republican Party have been good for the Cogeco CEO’s business.
The corporate tax cut passed by the U.S. government recently will result in an estimated $89 million in reduced income taxes to be paid by its growing U.S. subsidiary Atlantic Broadband. And the company expects to pay only minimal U.S. taxes (about $10 million total) until 2025, Audet said.
Chief Financial Officer Patrice Ouimet said the $89-million savings…
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TORONTO – A weak TV advertising market weighed down first quarter results at Corus Entertainment.
The company said Wednesday that net income attributable to shareholders for the quarter ended November 30, 2017 was $77.7 million, up from $71.1 million in the same period last year, which includes business acquisition, integration and restructuring costs of $1.6 million. Adjusting for the impact of this item resulted in an adjusted net income attributable to shareholders of $78.9 million this quarter.
Consolidated revenues for the quarter were $457.4 million, down 2% from $468.0 million last year, and consolidated segment profit was $177.9 million, down 7%…
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MONTREAL — Five years after it finally added the American cable channel to its television service, Vidéotron is dropping AMC, refusing to renew its carriage contract. The channel will disappear on February 12.
"Because we operate in a regional and not national market, it's difficult for Vidéotron to meet the many demands and financial requirements of AMC," reads a statement from Vidéotron. "In addition, according to our observations, viewing of AMC dropped over the last year."
(Ed note: If there was ever a time to pull AMC from the lineup, it’s now, as there is no original first-run programming scheduled until…
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I WAS NOT SURPRISED to learn that one of Jim Shaw’s role models was former U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
In his time, Churchill was considered a political outsider, a brash maverick, seemingly unwavering in his convictions, fiercely loyal to his homeland and someone who inspired similar loyalty in so many others. Along the way of course, Churchill was exactly what his country needed at the time and he found enormous successes – but his sometimes irascible nature also antagonized more than a few.
For those of us who have been in the cable industry for a while, there are many…
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A hard-nosed businessman, he made a brilliant cable territory swap, competed ferociously with Telus and pulled Global television from the Canwest inferno
FEW OCCASIONS BETTER illustrated the cultural divide between the world of the western bottom-up entrepreneur and that of Ottawa’s top-down public service bureaucracy than when Jim Shaw and Konrad von Finckenstein crossed swords in a hearing room.
There, front and centre of the raised platform bearing commissioners, would be the multilingual von Finckenstein, a six-foot-something-awesome lawyer who was chief legal adviser on the original North American Free Trade negotiations, served as head of the Competition Bureau, became a Federal…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications vice chair and former CEO Jim Shaw has died at the age of 60, the Shaw family announced today.
“It is with great sadness that the family of James R. Shaw (Jim Shaw) announces his passing on Wednesday, January 3rd, 2018 after a brief illness,” reads a statement from the family.
“A leader and visionary who never stopped caring for others,” says the statement, Jim is survived by his wife Kathryn, his mother Carol, his father JR, his children Haley (Fred), Parker (Megan), Kennedy, Kathryn’s children Monty, Katelyn, Carly, his mother-in-law Janet, his sisters Heather (Jim) and…
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TORONTO – With “Music’s Biggest Night” just around the corner, Rogers Media announced that City has extended its current deal with the Grammy Awards to continue as the Canadian broadcaster for another three years.
Running through 2021, the extended agreement includes both the live awards ceremony and the annual Grammy telecast specials. City has also renewed its digital rights, giving Canadians a front-row seat to their favourite artists with live-streaming of both the Grammy Premiere Ceremony and awards broadcast, available online and on mobile, in addition to coverage across other Rogers Media outlets.
“Working in lockstep with the Recording Academy over the last…
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