RADIO/AUDIO/PODCAST:
iHeartRadio Canada has now surpassed one million app downloads. Launched in October 2016, the milestone makes it a Top 10 free music/audio app in the Apple and Google Play stores, and the #1 Canadian-made music app.
Winners for the 2017 Radio Mercury Awards were announced June 1 at the 26th annual awards presentation in New York. This year’s $50,000 Best of Show award was given to The Richards Group for their Motel 6 Campaign. You can listen to this year’s winning creative here.
CBC Radio One took home two honours at the 2017 Gracie Awards Gala on June 6 in Los Angeles, celebrating outstanding programming created by, for and about women. Benztown and vCreative were on hand at the Alliance For Women In Media event, joining forces to sponsor the reception suite at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. You can view the full list of winners here.
SIGN-OFFS:
Clint Nickerson, 66, in Victoria of lung cancer. Nickerson got his start in broadcasting in the early 1970s at CJVI-AM Victoria. He moved on to CKDA-AM Victoria and CFUN-AM Vancouver before heading to Toronto in the mid-70s where he anchored news at CFTR-AM and then moved into television. He returned to CFTR to produce weekly public affairs show Sunday Sunday, then CJCL-AM, before going back to CityTV where he was the longtime senior news producer of City Pulse. In 2000, he left to become news director at CIVI-TV Victoria.
Fred Engel, 85, on May 23. Engel was a longtime CBC Vancouver staple, starting as a film editor and promoted to manager, Film Services, then TV production manager and producer. He retired from CBC in 1984.
Joe Gaughan, 38, May 29 of lung cancer. Gaughan, originally from Windsor, ON, made his way to North Bay in 2012 where he worked as a remote technician, board operator, Battalion OHL analyst and evening and weekend swing announcer for Rogers Radio. Most recently, Gaughan had been hosting a show Thursday and Friday nights for Rogers’ rock stations in North Bay, Sudbury and Timmins.
TV/FILM/VIDEO:
Quebec’s Minister of Culture and Communications Luc Fortin has asked the federal government to review the CRTC’s rulings on the renewal of television licenses for major French-language property groups. Fortin argues the decision to remove certain license conditions around original French-Canadian programming could prompt ownership groups to do more dubbing of English-Canadian programs to feed their French-language specialty channels, to the detriment of original French-language Canadian productions.
Rogers Media will expand CityNews across Canada, starting this fall. Currently airing in Toronto and the GTA, the expansion will see locally-produced, daily versions of CityNews in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Montreal. The one-hour CityNews at Six broadcasts and CityNews Tonight at 11 p.m. will debut in Edmonton and Winnipeg on Sept. 4 and expand into other markets in Winter 2018. Dave Budge, VP, News and Information, Television for Rogers Media, says the focus will be on viewer-driven, original stories introduced by local reporters. Stories from Rogers Media sister brands Maclean’s, Breakfast Television, and Sportsnet will also be featured.
Rogers Media has signed deals with Hearst, Graham, Raycom, and Weigel media groups to air Cityline in syndication in the U.S., starting this fall. The long-running, weekday talk show, hosted by Tracy Moore and covering fashion, home decor, parenting, food and beauty, will be available to more than 10 million American households in Chicago, Kansas City, Jacksonville, and Birmingham, among other markets.
CraveTV says the video-streaming platform set a record for new subscribers Victoria Day weekend with the launch of the Showtime series Twin Peaks. May 21 saw the site’s single-day subscriber increase percentage triple. The David Lynch and Mark Frost collaboration is the most-streamed title on CraveTV since its debut and after one week of data is the most-streamed launch of a Showtime series ever.
Sportsnet remains the country’s #1 specialty network for the third year running. Announced as part of the annual Rogers Media Upfront, Sportsnet was also #1 for male, female and millennial audiences in all core demographics.
While Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole don’t make their official return to TSN until September, Bell Media has announced that Tim Hortons will be the show’s title sponsor. SC With Jay and Dan – Presented by Tim Hortons will include brand integration in-show and set, as well as inclusion in digital and social media. A social media presence for the new show, marking the duo’s return to the network after a four-year run with FOX Sports 1 in L.A., is already being established at TSN.ca/JayandDan, Twitter and Facebook.
The Youth Media Alliance 2017 Awards of Excellence were handed out May 31 at the CBC Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto. The Grand Prize for Best Production, All Categories went to The Incredible Tales of Weirdwood Manor, produced by All Play, No Work and sister company Relish Interactive. Weirdwood Manor also took home the award for Best Original Interactive Content. Steven DeNure, president and CEO of DHX Media, was honoured with this year’s Outstanding Achievement Award. You can view the full list of winners here.
Global News Edmonton anchor Gord Steinke has been awarded with a Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers from the Governor General of Canada. Steinke was recognized for his extensive community volunteering including his work as Honourary Lieutenant-Colonel of the 15 Edmonton Field Ambulance, part of the 41st Canadian Brigade Group, the TELUS Motorcycle Ride for Dad and the Kids with Cancer Society.
Hockey Night In Canada reporter Scott Oake talked to the Winnipeg Free Press about his family’s mission to raise $14-million for a drug treatment centre in Winnipeg following his son’s heroin overdose death. You can read more here.
Curling Canada has launched #notasportsbar on social media as part of its protest targeting Bell Media and Rogers over new fees that will be charged to curling club lounges when Sportsnet and TSN broadcast fees for licensed establishments increase next year. The clubs argue they are not profit-driven sports bars and small, volunteer-run organizations that can’t afford the hefty increase. Curlers are being encouraged to lobby federal Sport Minister Carla Qualtrough, Rogers and Bell.
Bell Media and the National Football League (NFL) have extended a multi-year rights agreement that makes Bell Media the exclusive broadcast partner of the NFL in Canada. The partnership includes expanded digital opportunities and syndication rights for NFL highlights in Canada, as well as expanded footage and programming rights. The expanded agreement also includes the NFL’s Thursday Night Football package, which will air on TSN and CTV Two for the first time, and return to RDS, beginning with the 2017 season.
ONLINE/DIGITAL:
The 2017 Digital Publishing Awards were announced June 1. The Globe and Mail took home 12 awards, including Best Social Storytelling, while Canadian Art and CBCNews.ca won for General Excellence in Digital Publishing. HuffPost Canada’s Kenny Yum was the inaugural recipient of the Digital Publishing Leadership Award. You can view the full list of winners here.
GENERAL:
Bell has announced it will launch an LTE-M (Long Term Evolution, category M1) network in 2018 to support the rapidly increasing use of IoT devices on low-power, wide-area networks (LPWANs) in Canada. LTE-M improves the operating efficiency of IoT devices by enabling low power consumption and better coverage in underground and hard to reach locations, supporting IoT solutions like smart metering, asset tracking and alarm monitoring.
The federal government made a move this week indicating it will push for lower telecom bills for consumers. Innovation Min. Navdeep Bains has directed the CRTC to reconsider a March decision to exclude small, Wi-Fi-based service providers, like Sugar Mobile, from access to roaming services provided by Rogers Communications Inc., Telus Corp. and BCE Inc. Bains wants to encourage competition from new technologies that could help connect low-income Canadians at less expensive rates.
SUPPLY LINES:
