Bell Media and Bloomberg Media are partnering to create business news brand BNN Bloomberg. Launching this Spring, the partnership will see the addition of international programs like Bloomberg Daybreak: Asia and Bloomberg Markets: European Open added to the BNN broadcast schedule. BNN will also draw on Bloomberg journalists from across Canada and around the world to bolster its daytime coverage. BNN’s syndicated radio content will be made available for distribution to Bell Media Radio stations, including rights to distribute the Bloomberg Radio livestream in Canada and a new channel on iHeartRadio. BNN.ca will relaunch as BNNBloomberg.ca with an expanded offering of articles, video, and market data.
CBC has unveiled its full hosting lineup ahead of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games. Joining previously-announced hosts Scott Russell (Olympic Games Primetime); Andi Petrillo and Alexandre Despatie (co-hosts, Olympic Games Morning); and Kelly VanderBeek and Craig McMorris (co-hosts, Olympic Games Overnight) are Cassie Campbell-Pascall; Kurt Browning; Jennifer Heil; Jon Montgomery; Perdita Felicien; and Kerrin Lee-Gartner, among others. Live coverage of PyeongChang 2018 on CBC’s partner networks will be hosted on TSN by Nabil Karim, Kara Wagland and Cory Woron, while coverage on Sportsnet will be hosted by Brad Fay and Caroline Cameron, with Arash Madani reporting from Pyeongchang. Special editions of Coach’s Corner with Don Cherry and Ron MacLean will be part of CBC broadcasts during select men’s and women’s ice hockey games, as the Hockey Night in Canada broadcast schedule permits.
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Canada is the lead sponsorship partner of the inaugural season of CTV’s The Launch. Coinciding with the series premiere on Jan. 10, the partnership will see co-branded promos featuring an emerging artist from the show introducing an upcoming Marvel or Disney film trailer. Emerging artists from The Launch will also release content on their social media accounts.
CTV has announced some of the offerings on its 2018 midseason schedule, featuring premiere dates for new dramas Deception (Mar. 11), The Crossing (Apr. 2), Shonda Rhimes’ For The People (Mar. 13) and an as yet untitled Grey’s Anatomy spinoff (Mar. 22), as well as the return of Quantico (Apr. 26). In addition, the network has announced the pick-up of three new comedies for CTV Two’s midseason schedule Splitting Up Together, Living Biblically, and Alex Inc.
Vidéotron is dropping American cable channel AMC. The channel, which the cable provider picked up in 2013, will disappear on Feb. 12. A statement from the company says as a regional carrier, it could not meet AMC’s demands and financial requirements.
DHX Brands, the brand management and consumer products arm of DHX Media has signed its first two consumer products deals in China for the preschool hit Teletubbies, appointing licensees to launch a new range of toys and produce a children’s publishing line. The agreements follow the successful rollout of the new Teletubbies series in China on the country’s most popular streaming services, including iQIYI, Youku, and Tencent.
Ashley McKenzie has won the $100,000 Rogers Best Canadian Film Award for her film Werewolf, about a homeless Cape Breton couple struggling with methadone addiction. Runner-up awards were presented to Kevan Funk for Hello Destroyer and Joyce Wong for Wexford Plaza. The honours were handed out at the Toronto Film Critics Association gala on Tuesday night. Sean Baker drama The Florida Project won best picture, while The Breadwinner took the best animated feature category.
