BANFF – Industry reps from the Canada Media Fund, Telefilm Canada and the Canadian Media Production Association presented highlights to attendees at the Banff World Media Festival being held this week on a new national promotion strategy and new branding to promote Canadian content.
CMF president and CEO Valerie Creighton, Telefilm Canada executive director Carolle Brabant, and CMPA president and CEO Michael Hennessy are part of a working group focussing on increasing awareness and interest in Canadian content and on developing partnerships with various industry leaders. The project, initially dubbed “Watch Canada,” evolved from a symposium…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Shaw Communications now has 100% ownership of specialty channel TVtropolis after the CRTC approved its application in a decision Tuesday to acquire Rogers’ 33% interest in the Category A service for a reported $59 million.
The acquisition of Rogers’ remaining interest in TVtropolis is part of a number of transactions between Shaw and Rogers announced in January. At that time Rogers said it would acquire Shaw’s cable system in Hamilton, Ont. and secure an option to purchase Shaw’s Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum holdings in 2014. Rogers said it would also enter into…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Global hopes you’ll tune in July 3 to watch Canada’s shortest game show.
At 90 seconds in length, the new program is actually a commercial featuring the grand prize winning segment of Royale’s 50th anniversary Golden Kittens Search Contest that will air during that night’s episode of Entertainment Tonight Canada.
The segment will look exactly like a game show featuring ET Canada host Rick Campanelli and five selected finalists filmed on a custom-built set in Toronto. Robert Irving, president of Irving Tissue Corporation, makers of Royale bathroom tissue, will present the grand prize…
Continue Reading
BANFF – When I first started going to the Realscreen Summit in Washington DC, almost 12 years ago, it was documentary Mecca. Today, Realscreen is a Kasbah of reality shows and ever more wacky non-scripted formats.
Non-fiction then was not what non-fiction has become.
That display of disparity was starkly evident at Banff this week. On the one hand, non-fiction format gurus and their kindred broadcasters had a good yak about what ails them, and the challenges of producing Big Brother Canada on a continent awash in Big Brother, the American original. On the other hand, Canada's National Film Board was…
Continue Reading
EDMONTON and BEVERLY HILLS – Super Channel announced today it has expanded its exclusive licensing and programming distribution deal with Starz Worldwide Distribution.
The agreement makes Super Channel the exclusive English pay television home in Canada for several Starz original series including David S. Goyer’s Da Vinci’s Demons, and the second season of Magic City, starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Olga Kurylenko, and James Caan. Each program will have a Canadian premiere on June 14, 2013 during a special two-hour programming block at 9pm ET.
Other TV series as part of the agreement include the widely…
Continue Reading
WINNIPEG – APTN announced today that its exclusive four-hour broadcast of this year’s Aboriginal Day Live event will be broadcast on partner radio stations and networks in Alberta, Manitoba, Northern B.C. Yukon and Mackenzie Delta, Ontario, and Saskatchewan.
On Saturday, June 22, APTN will host Canada’s largest celebration of National Aboriginal Day at The Forks in Winnipeg and the Arctic Winter Games Arena in Iqaluit. Canadians will be able to watch a live broadcast of the event on TV, online, or on mobile devices, and will also be able to tune into via radio.
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Leslie Roberts of Global Toronto’s News Hour is adding a morning shift to his anchoring duties as the new permanent host of the national edition of Global’s The Morning Show.
Roberts will join Liza Fromer, Kris Reyes and Rosey Edeh on-air from 9-9:30 a.m. ET beginning June 17. Global made the announcement as part of Shaw Media’s “upfront” presentation Wednesday in Toronto. “Not only is Leslie a consummate professional with years of experience in front of the camera, he is also a great conversationalist and is well-versed on everything from politics to pop culture,”…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Just a day after Shaw Media announced its new partnership with Twitter’s Amplify program, Bell Media today announced its own partnership with the social media juggernaut that will use metrics to examine the relationship between audience engagement and Twitter activity.
Bell Media, which made the announcement ahead of today’s “upfront” presentation of its new fall schedule, said the research will also focus on the social TV behaviour of Canadian viewers and the return on investment of social TV initiatives. “We're excited to continually expand our presence in the social media space through the…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Shaw Media said Wednesday it will launch a new lifestyle specialty channel this fall called DTOUR by rebranding an existing service. However, it would not say which channel would be changed.
The company’s press release says the new channel “will bring those with a lifelong passion for new experiences a fresh perspective on the world they think they know.”
(Ed note: We don’t know for sure, but we’re making an educated guess that the rebranded channel could be the company’s service aimed at the mature viewer set, TVTropolis. Industry blogger Cameron Archer tweeted the pic…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Global brought out some serious star power to help promote its new fall schedule at the Shaw Media “upfront” presentation Wednesday.
Celebrities including Queen Latifah, Blair Underwood, Susan Lucci, Alan Thicke, Daniel Dae Kim and many more were on hand at Toronto’s Elgin Theatre to promote Global’s fall and mid-season lineup, which includes 11 new dramas and seven new comedies. Queen Latifah joins Global Daytime with her new talk show The Queen Latifah Show, featuring musical performances and celebrity guests. Blair Underwood stars as detective Robert Ironside in the new NYC police drama Ironside (which…
Continue Reading
