TORONTO – Starz Media, parent company of Anchor Bay Entertainment and Starz Animation will this week purchase Starz Media’s Canadian operations, including Anchor Bay Entertainment Canada.
Starz Media is the new name of IDT Entertainment which was recently purchased by Starz parent company, Liberty Media Corp., and merged with Starz Entertainment, the U.S. premium television company.
Starz Animation operates a major animation studio in Toronto and Starz Media’s Canadian operations employ 230 people nationwide.
“I’m delighted to bring the Canadian operations of Starz Media into our group and consider Canada an important market worldwide," said Robert Clasen, chairman and…
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CALGARY – Following recent announcements that Survivor: Cook Islands will be available on pay-per-view on Bell ExpressVu and on video on demand with Rogers Cable, Shaw Communications announced its own agreement with CBS Paramount International to provide the reality series on demand.
Each episode will be available for several days after the initial television broadcast on Thursday nights on Global Television.
www.shaw.ca
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TORONTO – After bobbing and weaving through a very successful first year, Canada’s The Fight Network looks to be a budding media empire.
The company – which launched a year ago last week – started as a category two digital channel but thanks to its original content, has branched out into mobile, on demand, radio, the web, events, clothing, energy drinks and other platforms – in Canada and the U.S.
“We’ve achieved some significant milestones in our first year of operations,” said Mike Garrow, president and CSO of the channel. “From day one our goal has been to build…
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TORONTO – Kerry French has been promoted to the new position of vice-president, business analysis and Rob Farina to the new position of vice-president program development for CHUM Radio, the company announced Monday.
Kerry French, who has been promoted from her position as director, CHUM Radio Research, will continue to oversee research and marketing analysis for CHUM’s 33 radio stations, in addition to being involved in strategy development, planning and implementation with the CHUM Radio team. French (pictured) will also be responsible for several new web-based training initiatives currently in development.
Farina (also pictured) will continue…
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OTTAWA – Speakers have been announced and sessions outlined for the 2006 Canadian Association of Broadcasters convention, set for Vancouver November 5-7.
The early registration deadline (where attendees get a rate break) ends on Friday.
The theme for this year’s CAB Convention – New Realities. New Rules. – "reflects the tremendous rate of change that Canada’s private broadcasters are experiencing," says the association.
"From the explosive growth of new digital technologies to an unprecedented level of regulatory review, 2006 is shaping up to be a watershed year for Canada’s private broadcasters," adds a release.
In keeping with well-established tradition,…
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GRAVENHURST, Ont. – As the only cable gathering in the country now, the 13th annual Canadian Cable Systems Alliance annual general meeting has this year attracted over 250 delegates, up from 180 last year.
Kicking off Sunday at the Taboo Resort with a relaxed, well-attended president’s reception, the AGM continued Monday morning with a four-hour table top trade show. Some of the vendors used the trade show to reveal a few new products aimed at the small cable system market (even though a couple of folks from Rogers and Cogeco also made the trip north).
TVC Canada unveiled its…
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MONTREAL – Six telecom pioneers and industry leaders will be officially inducted into the Canadian Telecommunications Hall of Fame next month.
The 2006 Telecom Hall of Fame Laureates are Edward S. "Ted" Rogers (CEO, Rogers Communications Inc.), Edward S. Rogers, Sr. (Communications Inventor and Wireless Wizard), Donald L. Hings (Inventor of the Walkie Talkie, Burnaby, B.C.), Leila Wightman (Rural Telephone Pioneer, Clifford, Ontario), Francis Dagger (Public Ownership Advocate for the Prairies), and Ernest E. "Ernie" Saunders (Dean of Canadian Telecom Law and Regulation, Montreal, Quebec), says the press release.
The 2006 Hall of Fame Special Recognition Award will go…
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VANCOUVER – One of the first men to string coaxial cable lines to TV customers in Vancouver and area, Garth Pither, died Wednesday after a brief bout with pneumonia. He was 85.
Originally a TV set sales and repairman, Pither got his start in cable in its infancy, in the early 1950s with a group of other western cable pioneers. The company he worked for had a number of names and structures, but Pither eventually worked his way up to the top job at what became Premier Cablesystems, which, according to the book "Cable… Vision of the Pioneers" was…
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THE CEOs ARE IN AGREEMENT. Canadian media companies must get bigger in order to still matter. The problem is that those companies also agree on one other thing: They’re all buyers.
With Bell Globemedia’s deal to acquire CHUM Limited now complete but for the opinion of the regulator, we’ve had a summer marked by an irresistible spasm of speculation of who might be next. The CTV-CHUM combination will be a big media company by Canadian standards – while remaining a pretty modest operation compared to the U.S. giants.
Will Astral Media buy Standard Broadcasting? Will Corus Entertainment and…
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HOLLYWOOD and TORONTO – Bet on this being a topic at the CRTC’s TV policy review come November.
CBS Paramount International Television and Rogers Cable announced today the two have "reached an unprecedented agreement" to offer Survivor: Cook Islands through Rogers’ video on demand platform.
This is the first time Canadian audiences will be able to access Survivor on VOD. Episodes will be available to Rogers Personal TV customers with a digital box beginning Friday, September 15, 2006. Each episode will be available after the broadcast on Thursday nights on Global Television in Canada. Survivor: Cook Islands premieres tomorrow.
This…
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