Regulatory, Telecom & Media News – ZoomerMedia acquires digital marketing agency TitusOne

ZoomerMedia has announced its acquisition of Toronto-based digital marketing agency TitusOne, including its software IP hosted video platform, as the legacy media company continues its transition into a multimedia business. TitusOne, which ZoomerMedia is acquiring for $1.42 million, will become a division of ZoomerMedia Limited. TitusOne Founder Dustin Titus will continue as President of TitusOne and will also become ZoomerMedia’s Chief Digital Officer, a position currently held by the company’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) Omri Tintpulver. Read more here.

RNZ (Radio New Zealand) and CBC/Radio-Canada have announced a new partnership agreement between the two national public broadcasters that focuses on three key areas, including sharing knowledge and best practices around Indigenous cultures and languages; Podcasts, including collaboration on cross-promotion and possible co-productions; and Journalist training, including exploring potential content exchanges and collaboration. The memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed in Prague at the Embassy of Canada to the Czech Republic, just ahead of the Public Broadcasters International conference, PBI Prague 2023, an annual international gathering of public media executives. 

Brandi Morin, an award-winning Cree/Iroquois/French journalist and author, has won the 2023 PEN Canada Ken Filkow Prize for advancing freedom of expression. Hailing from Treaty 6 territory in Alberta, Morin has been reporting on Indigenous land and environmental rights, Truth and Reconciliation, and residential school grave discoveries for the last decade. The former APTN and CBC journalist has had freelance bylines in National Geographic, Al Jazeera, VICE, and Elle Canada, among other publications. She published “Our Voice of Fire: A Memoir of a Warrior Rising” – a national bestseller – last year, chronicling her journey from foster kid and runaway to survivor of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls crisis and how she overcame enormous adversity to find her purpose through journalism. Morin’s freedom of expression was challenged as recently as last month on Vancouver Island when she was threatened with arrest in the course of reporting on a logging blockade in the Fairy Creek Watershed. Read more here.

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) has reminded Crave that it cannot necessarily put the equivalent theatrical release rating on films it broadcasts on its discretionary television service. The CBSC decision stems from a viewer complaint about three movies broadcast in morning or early afternoon timeslots this spring – Drive My Car, Dune and Survive. The viewer complaint questioned whether the sexual content, violence and coarse language in all three films warranted a post-9 p.m. timeslot, mention in the viewer advisories, and higher classification ratings. The CBSC concluded that all of the broadcasts should have included the classification icon at the beginning of the second hour of broadcast and that two of the movies should have featured more detailed viewer advisories. One of the movies, Survive, contained violence and coarse language that should only have aired after 9 p.m. and required a higher rating. Read more here.

Ontario Association of Broadcasters (OAB) has introduced the OAB Radio Sales Star Contest, a chance to share your most successful fully integrated radio sales campaigns with your peers and industry experts. Entrants will have the opportunity to present their case study at the OAB conference and compete for the title of Radio Sales Star. To enter, candidates must submit a needs analysis; fully integrated campaign proposal and expected results of your radio sales solution; samples of creative materials; and a client testimonial. The winner will be featured on the OAB website and December newsletter, receive a $500 gift card; and mentorship with a senior radio sales executive.