Yuk Yuk’s International Stand-Up Comedy and Icarus Capital Corporation have unveiled new content development and production venture, Yuk Yuk’s Media. On track to start releasing content later this year, Yuk Yuk’s Media will be focused on developing traditional and digital stand-up comedy shows, unscripted competitions, and documentaries. Icarus Capital COO Eric Y. Lapointe, whose background includes distribution, marketing and development roles with Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group and Just For Laughs, will serve as Head of Content. Read more here.
The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television has announced Montreal-based comedian Harrison Weinreb as the inaugural recipient of Misdirect: The Nick Nemeroff Comedy Grant. The initiative is aimed at supporting emerging Canadian comedians who embody the spirit of the late Canadian comedian through a $10,000 grant intended to be utilized for their next television special, album, or other comedy-related project. Weinreb is a stand-up comic and writer whose unique style blends absurd one-liners with unconventional observation. He’ll use the grant to fund a professional audio recording of his stand-up, which will become available this fall.
The Banff World Media Festival (BANFF) has announced the 2024 Rockie Awards International Program Competition nominees, recognizing excellence in television and digital media from around the globe. The Rockie Awards ceremony will be held in-person as well as live-streamed during this year’s festival on Tuesday, June 11 at 5:30pm MT. Leading nominations by country are the U.S. with 51, the UK with 50 nods and Canada with 40. Among the Canadian productions nominated are CBC’s Still Standing (Comedy & Variety), Scott Brothers’ Celebrity IOU (Lifestyle), Bollywed (Reality), and Wild Cooks (Reality). Radio-Canada OHdio and Audible garnered multiple nods in the Podcasting categories for Anna Caritas: The Damned (Les damnés) (Podcast: Fiction) and The Other Side of the Story (L’autre moitié de l’histoire) (Podcast: Non-Fiction), and Anne of Green Gables and The Downloaded (Podcast: Fiction), respectively.
The Guild of Music Supervisors, Canada (GMSC) and Canadian Music Week (CMW) have announced the return of the Canadian Sync Awards, taking place Monday, June 3 at the Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto. The fourth annual gathering of music supervisors, sync reps from record labels and music publishers, sync agents, managers, artists, songwriters and filmed media industry creatives celebrates the significant role of music in filmed media.
New look at @CityNewsTO. See you there! pic.twitter.com/XTfjyXbxqU
— Melanie Ng (@CityMelanie) March 25, 2024
CityNews has refreshed its brand colour palette to red, black and white on its TV and Radio news stations, CityNews 24/7 Toronto, CityNews 24/7 Vancouver, CityNews.ca, and accompanying news social platforms. Additionally in Toronto, CityNews 680 has been updated to 680 News Radio Toronto. Rogers Sports & Media says the updated branding will rollout to other markets in the coming months.
Global BC is adding 30 minutes to its weekday late night newscast, Global News at 11. Starting on Monday, April 1, the program will air from 11 p.m. to 12 a.m. Global says the expanded newscast will offer a full hour of news, community-based stories, weather and more, led by anchor/reporter Jordan Armstrong, senior meteorologist Kristi Gordon, and sports anchor Squire Barnes.
TSN’s live coverage of the 2024 IIHF Women’s World Championship, April 3-14, will include every game of the tournament, including the Quarter-Finals, Semifinals, Bronze and Gold Medal Game. Calling the action is play-by-play commentator Kenzie Lalonde alongside analyst Cheryl Pounder, a six-time IIHF gold medallist and two-time Olympic gold medallist. The tournament also features play-by-play commentator Daniella Ponticelli alongside four-time IIHF gold medallist and two-time Olympic gold medallist Sami Jo Small as analyst, in addition to Tessa Bonhomme, Sportscentre’s Laura Diakun, Megan Bozek, Becky Kellar, BarDown’s Julia Tocheri and Raegan Subban.
Super Channel has the Canadian premiere of the highly anticipated documentary Breaking Olympia: The Phil Heath Story on April 6. The doc, from executive producers Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia, and Canadian documentarian Brett Harvey, follows the untold story of legendary bodybuilder Phil Heath, a seven-time Mr. Olympia champion, as he battles back from injury. The documentary is produced by Edmonton’s Adam Scorgie and Shane Fennessey from Score G Productions.
Fifth Ground Entertainment’s new TVOkids original live-action series, Secrets of the Forest, will premiere on Earth Day, April 22. The 26-episode series will air Mondays on TVOkids in Ontario and online across Canada on TVOkids.com, YouTube and smart TV services like Roku and Apple TV. Produced by Raj Panikkar and Chris Szarka of Fifth Ground Entertainment, it follows 10-year-old host Taviss Edwards as she travels coast-to-coast, visiting National Parks in Nova Scotia, B.C. and Northern Ontario.
Hollywood Suite will premiere a new season of their original documentary series A Year in Film, Thursday, April 11. The fifth season will explore the iconic films of 1977, 1988, 1991, and 2002 as industry leaders and critics take a deep dive into New Queer Cinema, comedic box office hits, Canadian perversion, and renowned world cinema. Among the film’s featured this season are Star Wars, Slap Shot, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Smokey & the Bandit, Die Hard, Working Girl, Coming to America, Beetlejuice, Thelma & Louise, Silence of the Lambs, Point Break, and Boyz n the Hood. All four episodes will be available on Hollywood Suite On Demand beginning April 1. The A Year in Film companion podcast is now available to download.
Canadian Film Fest (CFF) presented by Super Channel revealed its 2024 award winners on March 23, following a six-day event at Toronto’s Scotiabank Theatre. Kim Albright’s With Love and a Major Organ won Best Feature, Anna Fahr was honoured with the DGC Ontario Best Director award for her film Valley of Exile, and Jonas Chernick & Diana Frances’s The Burning Season won the feature film jury award for Best Screenplay. Additionally, Eva Thomas’ Redlights won Best Short Film and Ian Harnarine’s film, Doubles, was awarded the Reel Canadian Indie Award and took home People’s Pick for Best Flick.
Convergence Research’s latest Battle for the Canadian Couch Potato report suggests Canadian subscription streaming revenue grew an estimated 14% last year and is forecast to grow another 14% in 2024. The report estimates that 2023 saw a decline of 2.6% of Canadian cable, satellite, and telco TV subscribers, with increasing declines forecast through 2026. As of 2023, an estimated 6.7 million Canadian households (42%) did not have a TV subscription with a cable, satellite, or telco TV access provider, which is forecast to rise to 50% by 2026. Read more here.
