REVOLVING DOOR:
Vicky Eatrides has been named the new Chairperson and CEO of the CRTC, beginning her five-year appointment Jan. 5. Most recently Assistant Deputy Minister at Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada, Eatrides began her career practicing federal regulatory law at Stikeman Elliott LLP in 2000. She joined the federal public service in 2005 where she held numerous executive positions at the Competition Bureau over a 12-year period, including Senior Deputy Commissioner of Competition, Cartels and Deceptive Marketing Practices. She also spent two years with Natural Resources Canada as Director General, Strategic Policy and Planning with the Major Projects Management Office. Read more here.
Alicia Barin and Adam Scott have been appointed Vice-Chairpersons of the CRTC for five-year terms, effective Feb. 8 and Jan. 16, respectively. Barin has served as Interim Vice-Chairperson since August. She was first appointed to the CRTC in 2019 as the Regional Commissioner for Quebec and previously spent over 20 years in the broadcast industry as Vice-President of Strategic Planning for Astral Media, prior to its acquisition by Bell Media in 2013. Scott currently serves as Director General of the Spectrum Policy Branch at ISED, where he is responsible for spectrum auctions, spectrum economics and regulatory best practices in the spectrum program. He has worked at ISED since 2001 and was previously Senior Director of the Telecommunications Policy Branch, advising government on telecom regulatory and competition issues.
Michael Goldbloom has been appointed to a second five-year term as Chairperson of CBC/Radio-Canada’s Board of Directors, effective March 29. First appointed in 2018, Goldbloom was formerly the publisher of The Gazette in Montréal from 1994 to 2001 and the Toronto Star from 2004-06.
Michael Melling won’t be returning to the helm of CTV News following an independent investigation sparked by Lisa LaFlamme’s unceremonious exit from the network over the summer. More than three months after Richard Gray replaced him as Interim Head of CTV News, Bell Media has confirmed Melling has been reassigned within the company as VP, Shared Services. Gray has been with CTV for more than 15 years, most recently as Regional General Manager, Radio/TV, Eastern Region. Read more here.
David Phillips is joining Environics Analytics (EA) as Chief Product Officer (CPO). Phillips had held the role of President and COO at NLogic (formerly BBM Analytics) for the last nine years and been with the company for more than 16. Prior to NLogic, he worked with BBM Canada as an Account Executive. Environics, a division of Bell Canada, says Phillips will provide strategic leadership to the marketing and analytics provider’s product-focused teams, including product management, data development, software development and client services. He’ll remain based in Toronto. Read more here.
Kim Trynacity has left the CBC after 32 years and 40 as a journalist. Based in Edmonton, Trynacity has been the public broadcaster’s Alberta Legislative Reporter for the last two decades. She also steps down from her role as Canadian Media Guild (CMG) CBC/Radio-Canada National Branch President which she served in for the last three years.
Rob Montanaro has joined Channel Zero as Vice President of Sales. Montanaro previously held multiple roles with Bell Media over a 15-year period, ending his tenure as Director of National Sales in early 2019.
Stephanie Smyth has left Toronto’s CP24 to pursue other opportunities. Smyth had been with the station for more than 14 years, including stints on the assignment desk and serving as anchor of the 5 and 5:30 p.m. newscasts.
Chris Epp has signed off from CTV Calgary after 16 years. Epp had been an anchor and reporter with the station since 2007 when he arrived from CBC News where he’d worked as a reporter, writer and producer in Calgary, Saskatoon and Toronto.
Simon Ostler has a new role with Global Toronto, moving from Managing Editor to Executive Producer overseeing Global News Morning and Global News at 5:30. Ostler had been in the Managing Editor role for the last six years.
Olivia O’Malley has joined CTV Montreal as a video journalist. O’Malley arrives from Global Montreal where she’s been a freelance reporter, producer and photojournalist since 2018.
Drew Stremick has accepted the role of permanent Morning Weather Anchor for Global News Morning in Winnipeg. A 2022 SAIT Radio Television Broadcast News grad, Stremick has been working as a Digital Broadcast Journalist with Global Winnipeg since October.
Ken O’Neil has signed off from Q104 (CKQV-FM) Kenora, Dryden, Vermilion Bay, Sioux Lookout after 18 years as the station transfers ownership from Golden West Broadcasting to Acadia Broadcasting. O’Neil will continue to work with Golden West, based in Kenora, lending his voice to imaging and voicetracking across the network.
Dahlia Kurtz has announced she’s stepping away from Good Mornings with Dahlia Kurtz on SiriusXM Canada to focus on her podcast, DAHLIA, in addition to producing daily video content and doing speaking engagements. The talk radio veteran had been hosting the show for the last two years after getting caught up in layoffs at Bell Media and CFRA Ottawa in early 2021.
Eric Chapman has announced his departure from 980 CKNW Vancouver. He had been with the station since 2018 as a fill-in host and Community Contributor. Chapman has joined Toronto-based branded podcast producer, Obie & Ax as a senior producer.
Jane Jankovic has retired from TVO after nearly 30 years in current affairs and documentaries at Ontario’s public broadcaster. As Executive Producer, Documentaries at TVO Today Docs, Jankovic has commissioned more than 100 films over the years including the award-winning Broke, Sugar Coated and Ghosts of Afghanistan.
Miranda Cipolla (Branded Content Editor), Kianni Reynolds-Lewis (Staff Writer), Julie Prendergast (Account & Project Manager), Olivia Bortolazzo (Creative Strategist), Josie Kozlowski (Campaign Manager), Zeeta Maharaj (Learning & Development Coordinator), and Erin Chappell (Client Partner) are among those caught up in the most recent round of layoffs at Narcity Media, amounting to 20% of the digital publisher’s workforce. Cipolla had been with the company the last eight years, while many of the others impacted had been with Narcity for a year or less.
RADIO & PODCAST:
#ICYMI my final break on Q107 before unemployment. @TarzanDan pic.twitter.com/KzX9sjV16A
— Tarzan Dan Freeman (@TarzanDan) December 20, 2022
Corus Entertainment’s Q107 (CFGQ-FM) Calgary is headed for a format flip on Monday, Jan. 9. The station has carried the Q107 branding and variations on the Classic Rock format since 2004 when its predecessor CKIK-FM dropped its Hot AC playlist and the station call letters were changed to CFGQ-FM. Hosts “Tarzan Dan” Freeman and Cam Sullivan marked their last shows on Q107 on Dec. 16. Freeman, well-known for his run hosting YTV Hit List with Tarzan Dan throughout the ’90s, has been with Q107 since 2016. Heard in afternoon drive, he was one of a handful of local voices left on the station. Cam Sullivan, who had hosted middays since 2020, is staying with the company, joining Corus’ Country 105 (CKRY-FM) across the hall as Assistant Program Director. Read more here.
Numeris has released additional insights from the fall 2022 PPM ratings, revealing that out-of-home radio tuning got a boost with the return of more Canadians to the office. Reflecting listening data for Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton between Aug. 29 and Nov. 27, the share of out-of-home tuning, A25-54, was up two percentage points to 66%, year-over-year, with drive and daytime up four and five per cent, respectively. Overall, Numeris says AM/FM radio reached 86% of Canadians, A12+, flat with fall 2021. Reach was highest in Franco Montreal (91.4%), Calgary (88.3%), and Edmonton (86.5%). Time spent listening was stable across all five PPM markets with average time spent listening highest for Montreal Franco at 9.5 hours, followed by Montreal Anglo at 8.3 hours. Listening time was lowest in Vancouver at six hours. Radio livestreaming, A12+, was down one per cent year-over-year to nine per cent, consistent with fall 2020. Read more here.
OnAir Coach Presenter Training has announced the winners of its 2022 Radio Awards. With 1,400 votes cast, several Canadian stations and personalities were recognized in the international awards including Kolter Bouchard of 102.1 the Edge Toronto who won the “Going to Take Over the World” honour and placed second in the “Best TikTok Radio Profile” category. CHFI Toronto’s Troy Scott was runner-up for “Best PD To Have As a Boss”; while Q107 Toronto’s Dan Chen placed second in the “Future PD” category. Tarzan Dan came in second for “Most Inspirational On-Air Person,” while Roz & Mocha of KiSS 92.5 Toronto were runners-up for “Top Morning Show North America.” Syndicated personality Greg Beharrell was runner-up for “Funniest On-Air Personality.” In the “Best Industry Podcast” category, Broadcast Dialogue was honoured to come in second behind the Sound Off Podcast. Find the full list of winners here.
boom 97.3 (CHBM-FM) Toronto annual fundraiser “Stu Jeffries $1000 Make-A-Wish Minute” wrapped up on Dec. 23, raising a record-breaking $550,000 for Make-A-Wish Canada. Matching every dollar won during contest play (three times a morning), this year’s total will grant wishes to 55 kids with health challenges. Surpassing last year’s record of $465,000, Make-A-Wish Minute has raised more than $2 million over the last eight years.
Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye has been named the 2022 recipient of the Canadian Music Week (CMW) Allan Slaight Humanitarian Spirit Award in recognition of his longstanding commitment to charitable initiatives. Slaight Communications and CMW annually bestow the award on a Canadian artist, in recognition of their contribution to social activism and support of humanitarian causes. The Slaight Family Foundation will make a donation of $50,000 to a charity of Tesfaye’s choosing. Over the past few years, Tesfaye has donated over $8.3 million to numerous causes, including a $1,000,000 donation through the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to relief efforts in Ethiopia. Read more here.
Coming Thursday, wherever you get your #podcasts. Gracefully and Frankly with @erindavis and me! pic.twitter.com/2Z9YTlJJ8i
— Lisa Brandt (@lisambrandt) January 2, 2023
Erin Davis and Lisa Brandt launch their new podcast collaboration Thursday. Gracefully and Frankly promises honest discussion on a range of issues from the former CHFI Toronto morning show alumni. Brandt was most recently on-air at 1290 CJBK London, while Davis – who retired from CHFI in 2016 – has been busy recording sleep stories pod, Drift with Erin Davis, among other projects.
LISTEN: If you attended Ontario Association of Broadcasters’ Connection ’22, you may have taken in the first panel of this year’s conference, The Wizards of Aus, looking at the moment of resurgence radio is having in Australia. Part of that growth is attributed to Boomtown – a collaboration between Southern Cross Austereo, ARN, Prime Media Group, WIN Network, Australian Community Media, Imparja, News Corp Australia and oOh!media – which markets regional radio and television to national advertisers. While 9.1M residents live in regional Australia, and the average income is $93K a year, just 10% of national media budgets were spent there when the campaign started. On this episode of Broadcast Dialogue – The Podcast, we welcome Boomtown Chairperson and Chief Sales Officer for Southern Cross Austereo, Brian Gallagher, to talk about how educating media buyers has paid off and why he’s bullish on the outlook for commercial radio.
LISTEN: Rob Greenlee, SVP of Content and Partnerships at Libysn and co-host of the New Media Show with Todd Cochrane, returns to the Sound Off Podcast. The Podcasting Hall of Famer joins Matt Cundill to talk about many of the challenges podcasters are contemplating these days, including getting their heads around a video strategy for their podcasts. They also discuss the role podcasting can play when it comes to live and local and whether podcasting can take that from radio? Listen on your favourite podcast app or here:
FEATURE: Where will the next wave of radio talent come from? Dave Charles writes that it’s a question he’s been asked over and over again by clients, radio owners and personalities who are not sure that radio has a future in a fragmented media world. Read more here.
SIGN OFFS:
Broadcasters We Lost in 2022: Broadcast Dialogue pays tribute to the radio, television, and screen industries professionals we lost over the last year. Revisit a compilation of our Sign Offs columns from the past year, here.
Mark Leebody, 63, unexpectedly on Dec. 26. A graduate of the Fanshawe College Radio & Television Broadcasting Technology program, Leebody spent the bulk of his broadcasting career with TSN. Signing on in 1984 when the network launched, Leebody served as Presentation Coordinator for more than 38 years.
Michel Lapointe, 59, following a heart attack while on vacation on Dec. 23. Known by his nickname “Mononc Mike,” Lapointe was a fixture on the airwaves in the Outaouais region, helming drive home show “L’Outaouais Now” on French-language radio station 104.7 (CKOF-FM). He had previously helmed the station’s morning show, “Que l’Outaouais se lève” from 2015-18. Prior to joining 104.7, Lapointe was a sports journalist at CKTF Gatineau and did hosting stints on CKAC, CKOI-FM and 98.5 (CHMP-FM) Montreal.
TV & FILM:
Bell Media says the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Final attracted an average audience of 4.8 million viewers across TSN, CTV, RDS, and Noovo, becoming the second-most-watched broadcast event of the year behind Super Bowl LVI. Audiences for the Final marked an increase of +23% compared to the 2018 Final, with the match also setting a new record as the most-watched live streaming event in TSN and RDS history. The Final reached more than 10 million unique Canadian viewers, with audiences peaking at 7.7 million viewers at 12:54 p.m. ET as Argentina secured the title in a dramatic penalty shootout. Overall, the tournament attracted 24 million Canadians across Bell’s networks with 62% of the country’s population tuning in to watch some part of the iconic tournament. Additionally, Bell says the event represented the most successful sustained period of digital content consumption over 28 days in TSN history, garnering more than 32.5 million video starts and 215 million page views throughout the tournament.
MEDIAPRO Canada has aired over 1,250 live soccer matches across its OneSoccer linear channel, streaming service and social media platforms as the dedicated soccer platform marks four seasons since it entered the Canadian market, including more than 530 soccer games involving Canadian teams – 433 of those produced by the company’s broadcast services division. MEDIAPRO says thus far in 2022, OneSoccer’s YouTube channel has garnered 8.8 million views, up 40% over 2021 (of which 51.3% are aged 18-34), while its Twitter page recorded nearly 40 million impressions, up 267% over 2021. Instagram reel views hit 2.4M, while TikTok video views reached 6.1M and the OneSoccer hub posted 2.1M page views. OneSoccer’s FIFA World Cup Qatar coverage drew 2.1 million views across all platforms in just the first 15 days of the tournament.
CBC and HBO Max have renewed Peabody Award-winning comedy Sort Of for a third season. The CBC/HBO Max co-production, in partnership with Sphere Media (formerly Sienna Films), made its HBO Max premiere in December. Created by Bilal Baig and Fab Filippo, the second season continues to follow a gender fluid millennial in transition in every aspect of their life.
CTV has confirmed initial mid-season premiere dates. Among the new scripted and unscripted series joining the network’s lineup are new crime drama Will Trent (Jan. 3), starring Ramón Rodríguez and based on Karin Slaughter’s bestselling book series; Australian TV format The Parent Test (Jan. 5) where 12 families are put under the microscope in the ultimate parenting stress test; new missing persons drama ALERT (Jan. 8) from executive producers Jamie Foxx and John Eisendrath (The Blacklist); Night Court (Jan. 22), a follow-up to the beloved 1980s sitcom, starring The Big Bang Theory’s Melissa Rauch and John Larroquette, who reprises his role as Dan Fielding; and TRUE LIES (March 1), inspired by the James Cameron blockbuster, starring Steve Howey (Bride Wars) and Ginger Gonzaga (Togetherness).
CBC’s winter 2023 season kicks off with the world premiere of Bollywed (Jan. 12) and the CBC premieres of Around The World in 80 Days (Jan. 2) and Stuff the British Stole (Jan. 6). CBC Gem will recognize International Holocaust Remembrance Day in January with the Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein-led documentary series, The U.S. & The Holocaust (Jan. 13). CBC Gem also has the Canadian premieres of UK period drama Death and Nightingales, starring Jamie Dornan (Jan. 6); comedy I Hate You (Jan. 11); and UK lifestyle series, The Simpler Life (Jan. 2).
Super Channel has acquired new six-episode factual series, Deadly Science, from Go Button Media. The Super Channel Original series is set to premiere Jan. 9 on Super Channel Fuse. In addition, the previously announced Mysteries of the Ancient Dead (6×44), also from Go Button Media, made its premiere Dec. 26. Both series will air as part of Super Channel’s Docu-Monday block, with episodes also available On Demand.
Hollywood Suite is the exclusive Canadian outlet for HBO Max Original and CNN Films documentary series The Last Movie Stars, the critically-acclaimed documentary series directed by Ethan Hawke. Each of the six hour-long episodes will premiere Thursdays, beginning Jan. 12, and will also be available to stream on demand the same day. Directed by Hawke and executive produced by Martin Scorsese, the docuseries celebrates the talent and captivating love story of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. The story is brought to life by readings of long-lost transcribed interviews with Newman, Woodward, and those closest to them. Hawke enlists George Clooney, Laura Linney, Sally Field, Oscar Isaac, Karen Allen, Ewan McGregor, Sam Rockwell, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Zoe Kazan, and others, to voice original interviews and explore details of Woodward and Newman’s relationship, in addition to featuring the couple’s daughters.
Blue Ant Media is pulling the plug on A.Side on Jan. 15, its music and pop culture themed specialty channel. The channel was first launched in 2008 as AUX by original owner Glassbox Television. Blue Ant rebranded the channel in 2017 as A.Side, as part of a partnership with Shed Creative Agency, after gaining a controlling interest in Glassbox. The channel’s schedule had more recently drifted into unscripted true crime and paranormal content.
Stingray has launched free ad-supported TV channels Stingray Music, Stingray Naturescape and Stingray CMusic with Freevee (U.S.) and Samsung TV Plus (Austria, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland). Stingray Music, carried by both Freevee and Samsung TV Plus, offers curated audio channels including rock, pop, country and hip-hop. Stingray Naturescape, carried by Freevee, offers stunning nature scenes set to peaceful soundtracks, while Stingray CMusic, carried by Samsung TV Plus, is dedicated to modernizing classical music on television by presenting great works in a music video format.
ONETV: The Exercise & Entertainment Channel is in free preview for all of January across Canada on Rogers, Bell, Shaw, Cogeco and a variety of other cable service providers. ONETV is home to original ZoomerMedia fitness programs like the ’80s inspired Anjelica’s 22 Minute Workout and Healing Yoga, in addition to British soaps like Eastenders and Emmerdale, period dramas like Vanity Fair, and detective series, including Prime Suspect starring Helen Mirren.
Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis’ National Film Board of Canada (NFB) animated short The Flying Sailor is one of 15 films shortlisted for this year’s Oscar for Animated Short Film. The latest work by the Calgary-based Palme d’Or-winning duo, the film is inspired by the true-life story of a man blown two kilometres through the air by the 1917 Halifax Explosion. The film has received nine awards and honours to date, including two prizes last month at the Los Angeles Animation Festival. The Flying Sailor, which will screen at the Sundance Film Festival later this month, is available to stream at nfb.ca.
The Whistler Film Festival (WFF) has announced the winner of the 2022 WFF Audience Award, GRINGA directed by EJ Foerster and Marny Eng, which had its Canadian Premiere at the 22nd edition of the festival. GRINGA features Steve Zahn (White Lotus) who excels in the role of a well-meaning yet clueless father coaching a ragtag women’s futbol team in rural Mexico. The film was lensed by B.C.-based director of photography, Peter Wilke, also the DOP on last year’s WFF Audience Award winner, Drinkwater. A close runner-up as an audience favourite was Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On, directed by Madison Thomas, an alumna of the Whistler Film Festival Indigenous Filmmaker Fellowship program. The complete list of WFF award winners is available here.
outACTRAto, the queer committee of ACTRA Toronto, have announced the winner of the fourth Queer Your Stories Short Film Competition, in partnership with the Inside Out Toronto 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival. The winning project is Plant Daddy by Izad Etemadi and Lauren Holfeuer and directed by James Cooper. At the heart of the comedy is a deeply relatable issue for queer audiences: the crippling pressure to forgive parents for not always being the allies we needed. Plant Daddy uses humour to explore the phenomenon of Millennials (and Gen Z) coping with their childhood traumas by raising “plant children” with the level of care they wish they’d received as children.
Youth Media Alliance (YMA) has opened entries for its 2023 Awards of Excellence, honouring achievement in TV programming and digital and interactive content for young viewers. The competition is open to all Canadian-made youth productions originally released in English within Canada between Jan. 1, 2021, and Dec. 31, 2022. This year, a total of 20 awards will be handed out, including reinstatement of the Grand Prize for Best Production, All Categories. Entries must be submitted online by Feb. 1 via the YMA intranet site. The Awards Gala will be held May 31 in Toronto at Glenn Gould Studio.
Creative BC and the Canadian Media Producers Association, BC Producers Branch (CMPA-BC) have opened a new pilot initiative that will deliver $200K in grants of up to $25K for the optioning of pre-existing intellectual property (IP) by B.C.-based production companies. The IP BC Pilot Program provides pre-development support enabling B.C. producers to adapt existing creative and cultural properties like podcasts, magazine articles, video games and stage plays into film and television content, including fiction, documentary and animated series, as well as feature films for theatrical distribution, and one-off programs for television and streamer platform networks.
REGULATORY, TELECOM & MEDIA
The Competition Bureau has obtained an emergency stay from the Federal Court of Appeal following last week’s decision denying its application to block the merger between Rogers and Shaw. The bureau filed an application seeking to have the decision reviewed the day after the tribunal ruled that Videotron’s proposed acquisition of Freedom Mobile wireless assets would create competition in the market and that the Rogers-Shaw combination would not lessen it. In a joint statement following the filing, Rogers and Shaw said they were “deeply disappointed” by the development.
The Attorney General of Canada has told the Federal Court of Appeal it intends to file an application for the court to hear arguments against a decision by the CRTC forcing CBC/Radio-Canada to apologize for use of the n-word on a 2020 radio broadcast, saying the regulator was not in its statutory right to do so. Last month, the public broadcaster appealed the June 29 decision, stating in its court filing that the CRTC had no jurisdiction under Section 3 of the Broadcasting Act and failed to take into consideration Charter values in ruling against the CBC. The CRTC decision not only forced the broadcaster to make an apology, but also to file a report outlining what internal measures it has come up with to ensure that harm from such language is mitigated. The Attorney General has notified the court it intends to back the CBC on the matter and will ask to intervene in the case.
The Investigative Journalism Foundation (IJF) officially launched in Canada this week with the purpose of facilitating the kind of journalism that breaks political corruption scandals, introducing the country’s first realtime database of political donations, lobbying and charitable tax returns. Donor-funded, the non-profit is being led by CEO and Editor-in-Chief Zane Schwartz and a board of directors that includes Brent Jolly, President of the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ); Karyn Pugliese, Editor-in-Chief of Canada’s National Observer; Sadia Zaman, CEO of the Inspirit Foundation; and John Ruffolo, founder and managing partner of Maverix Private Equity. Launching with nearly $790,000 in support, the IJF says its goal is to expand the breadth, depth, and long-term financial sustainability of investigative journalism in Canada. Free to the public, IJF is launching with eight databases, built and maintained with the help of an army of more than 80 volunteers – including academic partners – that have spent the past two years collecting, cleaning and analyzing data from government websites. IJF will also publish investigative reporting, in partnership with other media outlets, with its first story a collaboration with The Walrus on the state of Canada’s public housing system. Read more here.
The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) has released the findings of its second annual national Canadian Newsroom Diversity Survey. The CAJ collected data on 5,012 journalists from 242 newsrooms across radio, television, digital and print media in Canada. The percentage of white journalists rose from 74.9% in 2021 to 77.9% in 2022, with white media workers holding 82.9% of supervisor roles and 84.3% of top three leadership positions in newsrooms. From 2021 to 2022, Asian journalists were the most-employed visible minority in both years at 10% and 7.1%, respectively. The number of Indigenous journalists dropped slightly from 6.4% to 4.6%. Latin journalists also dropped from 1.3% in 2021 to 1.2% in 2022. The percentage of Mixed Race, Black, Middle Eastern journalists all moderately rose in 2022.
Canada Press Freedom Project (CPFP) launched Dec. 19, aimed at tracking incursions on media rights and helping workers understand and challenge threats. Documenting press freedom violations across 12 categories, the CPFP will be operated by J-Source. Inspired by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, CPFP will collect incidents by monitoring public-facing sources, via open submission forms and through the input of a network of partners. If you’re aware of a potential press freedom violation, submit it here.
Rich Little, actor Victor Garber, and CBC personality and curling champ Colleen Jones are among the new round of appointees to the Order of Canada. Governor General Mary Simon has announced 99 new appointments to the Order, including 32 Officers and 65 Members. John Bragg, founder of cable provider Bragg Communications, and actor and producer Eugene Levy received promotions within the Order to Companion. In addition to Little and Garber, among the new Officers named are director, cinematographer and screenwriter Vic Sarin, French-Canadian actor Michel Côté, film historian and theorist André Gaudreault, author and filmmaker Eli Rubenstein, and retired CBC correspondent Brian Stewart. New Members of the Order include aforementioned broadcaster Colleen Jones; former Radio-Canada foreign correspondent Raymond Saint-Pierre; Prospero Pictures founder Martin Katz; and former CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein. Find the full list here.
Jesse Wente has been recognized by the Toronto chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC/Toronto) as Communicator of the Year. An award-winning author, speaker and former film and pop culture columnist for CBC’s Metro Morning, Wente was the founding executive director of the Indigenous Screen Office in 2018 and is currently Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts. He’ll receive his award at a virtual event on Feb. 15.
The Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) is inviting members of the media to submit stories on nursing and health care for the association’s annual Media Awards competition. This year, RNAO is introducing two new categories – Podcast and Multicultural. Nominations must be received via the online submission form no later than 4:30 p.m. ET on Feb. 28.
Brunico Communications has acquired the assets of the National Association of Television Programming Executives (NATPE), including international content markets and events NATPE Global, NATPE Budapest, NATPE Streaming+, and the Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Awards. Toronto-based Brunico, which also produces Realscreen Summit, Kidscreen Summit and Banff World Media Festival, is planning a full-scale return for NATPE’s annual slate of events culminating in early 2024 with NATPE Global. The sale has been approved by the United States Bankruptcy Court and is expected to close before the end of January.
BROADCAST TECH & ENGINEERING:
Xperi has been recognized by Frost & Sullivan with the 2022 North America Competitive Strategy Leadership Award for its work in the connected car in-cabin media industry. Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents the award to a company that has leveraged competitive intelligence to successfully execute a strategy that results in stronger market share, competitive brand positioning, and customer satisfaction. Xperi offers a wide range of entertainment technology products and solutions via brands and partnerships including TiVo, DTS, HD Radio and IMAX Enhanced.
CES is back in Las Vegas, Jan. 5-8, promising a 70% larger footprint than CES 2022. For the first time, the show has adopted a theme: “how technology is addressing the world’s biggest challenges.” The Consumer Technology Association (CTA), in partnership with the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security, is supporting the campaign Human Security for All (HS4A), which serves to cultivate collaboration and innovation across all industries and countries to improve the human experience. For the first time, CES 2023 will also have a dedicated Metaverse area on the show floor with a Web3 Studio its focal point.
PILOT, NAB’s technology innovation initiative, is now accepting submissions for the PILOT Innovation Challenge. The program provides mentorship and promotion for winning proposals, along with an opportunity to exhibit at NAB Show in Las Vegas, April 15-19. The challenge is seeking startups and growing companies providing solutions to some of the key challenges and opportunities facing broadcasters over the next two to three years. PILOT is specifically seeking products or prototypes that align with NAB Show’s content lifecycle focus areas: Create (focused on content creation from pre-production to post, including the latest tools and advanced workflow solutions to elevate storytelling; Capitalize (focused on reach and ROI, including next-gen technologies creating new revenue streams and fueling the content economy) and Connect (focused on content distribution and delivery, from cloud computing to new media infrastructure). Individuals, teams, companies, academic institutions and nonprofit organizations are eligible to apply by Feb. 3.
