REVOLVING DOOR:
Stewart Johnston, Senior Vice-President of Content at Bell Media, is departing the company to take on leadership of the Canadian Football League (CFL) as its 15th commissioner. The former President of TSN will depart Bell Media on April 24. He had been with TSN since 1997, rising through the ranks to hold the VP of Programming role by 2006. Johnston was promoted to President of the sports network in 2010, before being named SVP of Sports and Sales in 2021. Read more here.
Richard Gingras, longtime Vice-President of News at Google, has been named Chair of the Board of Directors at Village Media. The digital executive and entrepreneur brings over four decades of experience in digital media and journalism innovation to the Sault Ste. Marie-headquarted digital news publisher, including serving as CEO of Salon Media Group, Worldwide Services at Apple, and Vice President of Content at early consumer broadband provider, @Home Network. Read more here.
Amanda Lang has been named CTV News’ Chief Financial Correspondent. Lang, who has been working with BNN Bloomberg and Bell Media since 2016, will continue to helm Taking Stock, a weekly multi-platform business roundup that airs Fridays on BNN Bloomberg, bnnbloomberg.ca, CTV News Channel, CP24, and as a podcast on iHeartRadio Canada. She’ll expand her focus to deliver financial news and analysis across CTV’s platforms. Read more here.
Boyd Leader, Program Director at Edmonton’s 104.9 Virgin Radio (CFMG-FM) and 100.3 The Bear (CFBR-FM), has parted ways with Bell Media. Leader had been the Edmonton PD since 2021. Prior to that, he was Group PD for Bell’s stations in the B.C. Interior, Kelowna and Victoria. Leader has held previous roles in the Edmonton market as Director of the CFWE Radio Network and Windspeaker Media, and had a 14-year run at Corus Radio Edmonton in various on-air and programming roles.
Greg Johnson has parted ways with Corus Entertainment. Johnson was the Regional Program Director for the Corus Country network, based in Edmonton. He’d been with the company almost 14 years. Eric Stafford has moved into the role of interim Senior Program Manager for Alberta. Stafford, a veteran programmer and GM, was most recently PD at Rogers Sports & Media’s 95.9 CHFM Calgary. He’s done a previous stint with Corus Radio as a Brand Director in Ottawa. Read more here.
George Leith has joined AdCellerant as President, International Partnerships. The Denver-based digital marketing tech solutions provider plans to open its first Canadian offices soon in Calgary and Saskatoon. Leith announced his departure as Executive Vice-President of Harvard Media in January.
Michael Vincent, the founder of arts publication, Ludwig Van, has departed ZoomerMedia. The company acquired the Toronto-based digital site in 2023. Vincent, a former Toronto Star music critic, founded Ludwig Van in 2017 to keep coverage of classical music alive.
Jon Wilson has been appointed the new CEO of Grass Valley. He had served as President and COO since October 2023. Louis Hernandez Jr. remains Executive Chairman and will continue to play a key part in shaping Grass Valley’s long-term strategy, while supporting the leadership team in achieving growth objectives.
RADIO & PODCAST:
Corus Radio is adding Bryan Adams Radio to its rock stations, Q107 (CILQ-FM) Toronto and Rock 101 (CFMI-FM) Vancouver. The syndicated three-hour offering will air every Sunday, heard on Q107 from 9 p.m. – 12 a.m. ET, and on Rock 101 from 4 p.m. – 7 p.m. PT. First announced last November, Bryan Adams Radio was initially launched by iHeartRadio Canada as a dedicated streaming channel, coinciding with Adams’ 65th birthday and the 40th anniversary of the release of his 1984 album, Reckless. The weekly show, produced and distributed by Orbyt Media, debuted in January. Read more here.
Corus Entertainment is adding Bite Sized to its weekend Talk Radio lineup, starting April 12, a new program exploring the business of food in Canada. The six-part series is hosted by food experts Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, known as “The Food Professor,” and Michael LeBlanc, president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company – both of whom have made it their life practice to study food distribution, security and safety, and big-name Canadian retail and e-commerce marketing, respectively. Listeners can tune on 640 (CFIQ-AM) Toronto, Saturdays at 2 p.m. ET; 980 CFPL London, Sundays at 9 a.m. ET; 680 CJOB Winnipeg, Sundays at 2 p.m. CST; 770 QR Calgary, Sundays at 3 p.m. MST; 880 CHED Edmonton, Sundays at 3 p.m. MST; and 730 CKNW Vancouver, Sundays at 1 p.m. PST.
CIVL Radio in Chilliwack, BC celebrated its 20th anniversary on April 5 with a screening party for the documentary Counterculture: 20 years of CIVL Radio in the Fraser Valley. The doc – spearheaded by journalist and filmmaker Kier Junos – showcases the development of the University of the Fraser Valley campus station. It was funded by a Community Radio Fund of Canada Radiometres grant.
Curiouscast has launched a special edition of Canadian History Ehx, spotlighting the best of Canadian talent, led by host Craig Baird. It features exclusive interviews with Canadian figures in entertainment, sports, and music, including actor and producer, Ryan Reynolds, champion figure skater, Elvis Stojko, comedian, actor and writer, Mark Critch, and singer-songwriter, Ron Sexsmith. The special series will air every other Tuesday.
Spotify has announced it’s modernizing its ad platform to give advertisers flexibility with the introduction of the new Spotify Ad Exchange (SAX) and self-serve Spotify Ads Manager. SAX allows advertisers to access logged-in users via real-time auction with full addressability and measurement capabilities, now available to advertisers across the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, Brazil, and Mexico. The streamer has also introduced Spotify Gen AI Ads offering advertising partners in the U.S. and Canada the ability to create scripts and voiceovers at no additional cost in Spotify Ads Manager.
Coleman Insights and Amplifi Media have released survey findings indicating that of 1,000 U.S. podcast consumers aged 15-64, 77% alternate between audio and video, a major shift towards a hybrid usage of the medium. Less than a quarter of consumers (23%) exclusively use audio or video. Presented at Podcast Movement Evolutions, the study noted little difference in the podcast consumption habits of younger and older users, with Gen Z using audio and video interchangeably, only slightly more than the general population.
LISTEN: Gill Deacon’s new Substack and podcast, A Love Affair with the Unknown, is all about saying yes to uncertainty. The former host of CBC Toronto afternoon show, Here and Now, who stepped away from radio last fall, joins this episode of Broadcast Dialogue – The Podcast to talk about her journey to embracing uncertainty – something many of us in the media business can relate to, her Long COVID diagnosis and recovery, life at mid-life, and her advice to other broadcasters living in uncertain times.
LISTEN: Jeremy White is on the latest Sound Off Podcast talking about transitioning to his own independent media platform, focusing on his YouTube channel and podcast that features in-depth interviews with music artists. Currently heard on stations like 105.5 WJYY in New Hampshire, he and Matt Cundill talk about the restrictive nature of traditional radio, breaking free from corporate constraints, and the importance of building a personal brand.
SIGN OFFS:
David Amber reflects on the life and legacy of Greg Millen. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/niECvbRBaS
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 8, 2025
Greg Millen, 67, on April 7. Sportsnet and Hockey Night in Canada colour commentator Greg Millen, who played 14 seasons in the NHL, passed away early Monday. The former goaltender, who most recently had been part of the Calgary Flames broadcast team, was first drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1977. The Toronto native went on to stints with the Hartford Whalers, St. Louis Blues, Quebec Nordiques, Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings. After ending his hockey career in the early ’90s, Millen became the television colour commentator for the Ottawa Senators for 11 seasons. Millen and Don Chevrier went on to lead CTV’s 1994 Winter Olympics hockey coverage. Millen joined CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada in 1995, going on to handle colour for the network’s secondary broadcast team, initially with Chris Cuthbert and then Jim Hughson. He joined the lead team, alongside Bob Cole, in 2007. That same year, he became the Toronto Maple Leafs lead TV colour commentator on Sportsnet Ontario, alongside Joe Bowen. Since 2014, he had worked across Rogers Sports & Media’s hockey television broadcasts, primarily with the Flames. Over his 30+-year career, Millen covered three Olympics, 12 Stanley Cup Finals, a dozen NHL All-Star Games, and two World Cups of Hockey. Read more here.
John Meisel, 101, on March 30. Born in Vienna to Jewish Czech parents, the Meisel family was sent abroad by the Bata Shoe Company, where Meisel’s father worked, as the Nazi occupation loomed. Dispatching its Jewish employees to other Bata facilities, Meisel lived in the Netherlands, Morocco and Haiti before arriving in Canada in 1942. Meisel attended Ottershaw College in the UK, Pickering College in Newmarket, ON, the University of Toronto, and eventually earned a PhD at the London School of Economics. He went on to teach political science at Queen’s University for five decades, starting in 1949, and was a co-founder of The Canadian Journal of Political Science and The International Political Science Review. A strong supporter of Canadian culture and the arts, Meisel was appointed Chair of the CRTC in 1979 by Joe Clark’s government, serving through Oct. of 1983. Among the notable developments during his term, was the introduction of pay-TV in Canada. The regulator also turned down a proposal from the public broadcaster to launch a “CBC-2” cable offering and grappled with the issue of how to regulate programming content as satellite dishes beaming in foreign content became more affordable. Meisel was named an Officer in the Order of Canada in 1989 and was promoted to Companion status in 1999. Read more here.
TV & FILM:
Jeanne Beker will receive the Canadian IMPACT Award at The Hollywood Reporter Women in Entertainment Canada event on May 29 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Toronto. Beker will also be featured in a special keynote interview as part of the 2025 event, followed by a book signing for her recent memoir, Heart on My Sleeve: Stories from a Life Well Worn. Beker’s broadcasting career began at CBC Radio in St. John’s, NL, followed by stops at CHUM radio, Citytv’s The New Music, and MuchMusic, before becoming the host of Fashion Television, which ran for 27 years and aired in 130 countries. Since 2015, she’s been the style editor at The Shopping Channel (TSC) where she hosts popular series, Style Matters.
The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival has announced Oneida actor, writer, and producer Graham Greene as this year’s winner of the August Schellenberg Award of Excellence (the “Augie”). The Augie is an annual prize that recognizes gifted Indigenous actors from across Turtle Island based on the longevity and impact of their careers, as well as their professionalism and involvement in mentorship and community work.
ACTRA has named Sharon Bajer as the inaugural recipient of the ACTRA Visionary Award. Formerly known as the ACTRA National Woman of the Year Award, the Visionary Award recognizes a cis woman, trans woman, or non-binary person of notable acting presence who has made significant contributions to advancing gender equity and diversity within ACTRA, the recorded media industry, and society. With over 30 years experience in theatre, film, and television, Bajer is an award-winning performer, former President of ACTRA Manitoba, and the first certified Intimacy Coordinator in Winnipeg, working on projects like The Porter, Little Bird, Skymed Season 1, Alter Boys, and The Long Walk—setting new standards for consent and communication on sets and stages in Manitoba.
ACTRA Toronto has announced nominees for the Outstanding Performance Voice Awards and this year’s recipient of the ACTRA Toronto Stunt Award. Chosen by a jury comprised of past award recipients, Cotton Mather, who has been a stunt performer, driver, double and coordinator since the 1980s, is being honoured with the 2025 Stunt Award. His credits include feature films like Hollywoodland, Nightmare Alley, Shazam!, Suicide Squad, True Lies, and The Incredible Hulk. The Performance Voice nominees are led by Netflix animated series, Unicorn Academy, which generated five nominations. Read more here.
Paramount+ has announced that casting is now open for the first-ever Canadian iteration of the hit, international MTV reality “Shores” franchise: Canada Shore (working title). The series is set to film this summer and will be produced by Insight Productions. Paramount+ is looking for 10 “unapologetically wild” Canadian singletons who embody the “Shores” spirit. Including the new Canadian version, the format has now spawned 18 spin-offs, including Aussie Shore and Frenchie Shore.
Prime Video has announced two unscripted and one comedy drama set for production in Quebec. Prime has greenlit international format, Karaoké Club, with Stéphane Rousseau as host, as well as the renewal of hit series LOL: Qui Rira Le Dernier?, for its fourth season, with Patrick Huard returning as host. Both series are produced by Attraction and will film in Montreal. Prime has also announced the start of production for Vitrerie Joyal, the previously-announced Amazon Original series from Quebec comedian Martin Matte. The series will launch on Prime Video in 2026. Filmed entirely in Montreal between May and July, Matte stars in a role inspired by his father, with the series written by Matte in collaboration with François Avard, and co-produced by Encore and Matte TV for Amazon MGM Studios.
North of North, the Arctic comedy series from CBC, Netflix and APTN, makes its debut on Netflix starting Thursday, April 10. The shot-in-Nunavut series will remain available to stream in Canada on CBC Gem and APTN Lumi.
Bell Media says the highly-anticipated Season 3 finale of HBO’s The White Lotus shattered streaming records on Crave, delivering the biggest Sunday night streaming viewership of any episode in Crave history. The final episode boasted a 183% increase in streams, compared to the Season 2 finale, even surpassing Sunday night streams of The Last of Us, Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. Crave says the entire season more than doubled Season 2’s average first-week streams viewership.
Asian Television Network International Limited (ATN), Canada’s leading broadcaster of South Asian content and pioneer broadcaster of cricket, is celebrating its 25th anniversary on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV). ATN says going forward, it’s focused on tapping its library for digital distribution and monetization.
ONLINE & DIGITAL MEDIA:
Redbrick has acquired digital business news outlet, Quartz, and consumer product media company, The Inventory, from G/O Media for an undisclosed amount. Victoria-headquartered Redbrick says it sees a new opportunity to shape the future of media, amid ongoing industry transformation. Redbrick’s previous digital media investments include the launch of Digital Entrepreneur in 2024. Quartz marks Redbrick’s fifth major acquisition, including newsletter ad platform, Paved, which Redbrick plans to integrate with Quartz.
Rachel Gilmore and freelance writer Emily Baron Cadloff are teaming up with Canada’s National Observer on a bi-weekly federal election fact-checking segment. The initiative comes following CTV Your Morning’s cancellation of a similar segment featuring Gilmore that came to an end after just one appearance following online outcry from the journalist’s right-wing detractors.
Vimeo has launched Vimeo Streaming, allowing any creator to launch their own streaming services and branded apps without any coding experience. The next generation of Vimeo’s existing over-the-top (OTT) platform, new video monetization and promotional tool features include membership subscription tiering to offer new revenue opportunities and give audiences special access to exclusive live events and merchandise; custom video bumpers to promote content or sponsorship campaigns; protections to help safeguard work from unauthorized access or piracy; advanced analytics; and AI-powered translations to make and scale multilingual content with auto-captioning and audio dubbing.
REGULATORY, TELECOM & MEDIA:
Unifor is condemning a round of bonuses at BCE, the parent company of Bell Canada, that saw executives awarded more than $5 million in 2024 – a year that saw the layoff of 4,800 employees and company stock drop by 30%. Nearly $2.4 million of those bonuses went to CEO Mirko Bibic. Tied to stock awards and performance, that bonus was down nearly 20% from 2023. Read more here.
The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) has announced the finalists for 2024 CAJ Awards. Recipients in each category will be announced at the awards gala on Saturday, May 31 at the Delta Hotel Downtown Calgary. Among the outlets with multiple nominations are Radio-Canada Info, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Investigative Journalism Foundation, The Tyee, and APTN.
The Canadian Journalism Foundation (CJF) has announced the six inaugural recipients of the CJF-CP News Creator Fellowships, offered in partnership with The Canadian Press (CP). The recipients of the six-week paid fellowships, open to recent graduates of Canadian post-secondary journalism programs, are: Willa Easton of Toronto and the Blue Mountains, ON; Angelina Havaris of Toronto and London, ON; Jacqueline Newsome of Halifax; Fatima Raza of Toronto; Noah Trenton of Mississauga, and Janessa Ventura-Alvarenga of London. Supported by YouTube Canada and the Google News Initiative, fellows receive comprehensive training and mentorship from CP’s editors and journalists, focusing on the creation of engaging local news video.
The CRTC has announced a new date for its public hearing on supporting Canadian and Indigenous audio content. The regulator has rescheduled the hearing to start Sept. 18. Originally set for June 18, the commission has also extended the intervention deadline from April 7 to May 5.
Rogers Communications has entered into a definitive agreement with funds managed by Blackstone for a CDN $7 billion equity investment, backed by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation. Under terms of the transaction, Blackstone will acquire a non-controlling interest in a new Canadian subsidiary of Rogers that will own a minor part of Rogers wireless network, with Rogers maintaining full operational control. Rogers intends to use net proceeds to repay debt. Following the transaction, Blackstone will hold a 49.9% equity interest (with a 20% voting interest) in the subsidiary and Rogers will hold a 50.1% equity interest (with an 80% voting interest) in the subsidiary.
BROADCAST TECH & ENGINEERING:
The North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) has announced the Media eXchange Layer Project (MXL), in collaboration with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and The Linux Foundation. The new open source initiative aims to transform how video, audio, and metadata are exchanged in real-time media production environments. MXL is being formed in collaboration with NABA, EBU, and media companies, including the BBC, CBC/Radio-Canada, Bell Media, Dome Productions, France Télévisions, Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), RTE (Ireland), SRG SSR (Switzerland), SVT (Sweden), SWR/ARD (Germany), and VRT (Belgium). Technology supporters include Appear, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Grass Valley, Intel, Lawo, NVIDIA, Riedel Communications, and Telos Alliance.
Text Groove has announced a partnership with RadioTranscript (known as Radiozeit outside North America), the Germany-based AI transcription service for broadcasters that transforms broadcast content into interactive experiences. The integration allows for listener text messages to be automatically responded to with customized answers pulled directly from on-air content without requiring staff to manually handle each interaction. The integration is available as an add-on for clients of both platforms, offering customizable response templates and multi-language and automatic translation support for diverse audiences, among other features.
Vizrt has partnered with Dubai-based blinx Media to launch an industry-first TikTok Live livestream with advanced extended reality (XR) graphics. The livestream is the first instance of content being created in a virtual studio, with audiences utilizing TikTok’s gifting capabilities to transform the virtual set in real-time. For instance, a user gifting a virtual “Galaxy” will see the studio transformed into a galactic animation, with their name dynamically displayed in 3D within the scene. The graphics are rendered in Unreal Engine with the whole XR experience powered and controlled by Vizrt’s Viz Engine 5, a real-time 3D graphics rendering and compositing engine. Vizrt says with TikTok driving $400M in user gifting in the U.S. alone last year, the collaboration showcases the potential of real-time XR experiences to revolutionize live media production, influencer-led initiatives, and branded digital engagement.
Quickplay has unveiled the next iteration of Quickplay Shorts – “live sports to shorts” – giving broadcasters tools for rapid creation of immersive AI-driven live short form content. A recent study found roughly 70% of Super Bowl viewers engaged on a second platform while watching the game. Quickplay says its Shorts tool allows broadcasters to keep viewers on their platform by providing them with the short form video content they want immediately, eliminating the need for them to wander off to YouTube.
Grass Valley and Ross Video have announced an integration between the Grass Valley AMPP Maverik X Production Switcher and Ross Video’s OverDrive Automated Production Control system. The companies say the partnership is a game-changer for live production, offering broadcasters flexibility by enabling direct control of Maverik X via OverDrive.
