Bell Media’s appeal of the CRTC ruling banning simultaneous substitution of U.S. advertising during the Super Bowl has been dismissed by The Federal Court of Appeal. Bell has been fighting the ruling for almost three years, which it blames for a 39 per cent decline in audience for the big game in 2017 and a drop of $11 million in ad revenue. Whether Bell will appeal isn’t clear, with the company said to be exploring its options. In August, it asked the regulator to reverse the policy.
Rogers Media and CBC have signed a new seven-year sub-licensing agreement for English-language broadcasts of Hockey Night in Canada and the Stanley Cup Playoffs, beginning with the 2019-20 season. The new deal, which follows a previous four-year sub-licensing deal and one-year extension, runs through the end of the 2025-26 season when Rogers’s 12-year broadcast rights deal with the NHL is set to expire. Sportsnet will continue to produce the games, retain editorial control and manage advertising, with games continuing to be produced from Sportsnet’s Hockey Central Studio at CBC Toronto. This season, HNIC has been the most-watched program in Canada on Saturday nights, reaching a total of 18 million Canadians.
W5 and VICE Canada have struck a partnership to produce and air two documentaries in 2018 on the impact and root causes of Canada’s opioid crisis. The initial 30-minute production looks beyond the perception of the issue as an urban problem and examines the toll it has taken on small-town Canada. Details of other long and short-form doc projects will follow later in the year.
City has announced it’s extended its broadcast deal to exclusively air the Grammy Awards in Canada. City has extended its current five-year deal for an additional three years. City will broadcast The 60th Annual Grammy Awardslive from Madison Square Garden in New York City on Jan. 28 at 7:30 p.m. ET. Late-night personality James Corden will return as host. Additional broadcast and Rogers Media multi-platform coverage details will be announced in the coming weeks.
CTV has announced additional premiere dates for the network’s January schedule, headlined by the latest season of The X-Files, which premiered Jan. 3, and the 30th anniversary season of The Amazing Race, which will air five nights a week for two weeks, Feb. 11-25. Along with the previously announced Season 2 return of Cardinal (Jan. 4), Young Sheldon (Jan. 4), The Good Doctor (Jan. 8), and CTV original music series The Launch (Jan. 10), Ellen DeGeneres’ reality competition show Ellen’s Game of Games continues in a new time slot on Tuesday nights.
CTV had Fall’s Top 3 most-watched programs for total viewers (P2+) and all key demos (A18-34, A18-49, and A25-54), including The Big Bang Theory, Young Sheldon, and The Good Doctor. Numeris data confirms Young Sheldon experienced the biggest debut for a new comedy series in a decade, while Russell Peters’ vehicle The Indian Detective marked the biggest debut episode for a Canadian scripted series since 2011.
Temple Street, a division of Boat Rocker Studios, has secured the television rights to author Guy Gavriel Kay’s The Fionavar Tapestry. Published as three volumes in the mid-1980s (The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire and The Darkest Road), the modern fantasy trilogy has sold more than a million copies around the world. David Fortier and Ivan Schneeberg, Boat Rocker’s co-executive chairmen, will executive produce for Temple Street (Orphan Black, Killjoys), along with Kris Holden-Ried (Vikings, Tudors, Lost Girl).Temple Street senior VP Kerry Appleyard and senior development producer Lesley Grantwill oversee series adaptation. Boat Rocker Rights will control worldwide rights.
CraveTV has secured Canadian streaming rights for new, 10-episode, sci-fi drama Counterpart, starring J.K. Simmons (Whiplash). Set in the world of espionage and government conspiracies, Episode 1 is now available to subscribers as a CraveTV First Look before the series makes its official debut on Jan. 21.
Global Television’s Global GO app is now available for Apple TV. The new version of the app works continuously across iPhone, iPadand Apple TV, allowing users to stop watching a show part way through and pick it up on a different device on demand. Additionally, users can ask Siri to find new episodes of their favourite Global series. Those with Apple’s Automatic Downloads feature enabled will automatically get Global GO for Apple TV with a software update to Global GO. Global GO is available for Apple TV 4th generation and Apple TV 4K.
Global Edmonton has been found to have violated the CAB Code of Ethics and the RTDNA Code of Journalistic Ethics when it aired a report with erroneous information on Global News at 5 on April 3, 2017. The Canadian Broadcast Standards Councilreviewed a viewer complaint about a news report focused on the sentencing of a Sunwingpilot. The broadcaster reported that the pilot had been banned from flying for two years, when the ban had actually been for one year. Global aired a correction.
The CRTC has denied an application by Ethnic Channels Group Ltd. (ECGL) to bring Polish music channel 360tunebox to Canada. Blue Ant Media and Stingray Digital Group opposed the application, saying the channel was directly competitive with Blue Ant’s A.Side and Stingray Vibe.
A Celebration of Life in memory of singer, entertainer and TV host “Our Pet” Juliette Cavazzi, who died in October at age 91, will be held at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club on Sat., Jan. 20. Those wanting to attend are asked to RSVP to ourpetjuliette@gmail.com by Jan. 5.
Stingray has acquired the assets of New-York based Qello Concerts, the leading over-the-top (OTT) streaming service for full-length, on-demand concerts and music documentaries. With users in more than 160 countries, Qello Concerts is available on Amazon Channels, Apple TV, Roku, Google TV, Samsung Smart TV, mobile devices, and QelloConcerts.com.
