Wednesday in Toronto, Corus’ co-CEO Troy Reeb had a message for advertisers: Stay Home. As in Home, the new brand name for what will no longer be Corus’ HGTV Canada. Come January 1st, HGTV will migrate to another channel number as part of the Rogers Sports & Entertainment family of specialty channels. It is all
Earlier this week I was asked to preview the coming fall TV season for CBC radio syndication. It is something I look forward to — a half-day marathon timed at ten minute intervals with radio markets right across Canada. Wednesday, they included radio hosts from Kelowna to St. John’s, with stops in Victoria, Vancouver, Whitehorse,
In the last of the Canadian television media company upfronts, Rogers delivered their message in a slick, pre-packaged video preview. It was emphasiszed over and over again that Sportsnet is now the “undisputed” No. 1 sports media brand in Canada. Blue Jays host Jamie Campbell proclaimed it. Chief Revenue Officer Al Dark repeated it, “no
First of all, this is how you do a broadcast network upfront headline in 2024: “Star-Studded New Series, Returning Hits, and Live Events to Anchor CTV’s 2024/25 Schedule” Notice the words “buzzworthy” or “overflowing” do not appear anywhere. Kudos to CTV’s PR team for breaking with tradition and toning down the mega-hype. Despite challenging times
Two Canadian broadcast networks host upfront presentations this week. First up: Corus Entertainment, home to Global, specialty channels such as History, HGTV and Food Canada, and W as well as FAST channel Pluto TV, among other platforms. To paraphrase Neil Young, Hype never sleeps. Among the press release headlines: GLOBAL ANNOUNCES 2024/25 BROADCAST SEASON LINEUP
The release Wednesday detailing Corus Entertainment’s Media Upfront for 2024-25 did not have many surprises. There was news of an NCIS spinoff prequel, plus the re-boot of Matlock with Kathy Bates, an imported series that is finally premiering a year after it was originally hyped. There was one glaring omission, however: no new season of
One of the new shows on CBC’s 2024-25 schedule is called Small Achievable Goals. It is a scripted comedy about female podcasters going through menopause. Those three words, however, coulld also describe, in a fiercely competitive and crowded media landscape, the only way forward for CBC. On this episode of brioux.tv: the podcast, I speak with Executive
CBC held their annual programming pep rally for members of the press Thursday in Toronto. This kicks off what is still called “Upfront” season in Canada, which refers more to broadcasters putting their wares before advertisers in an attempt to sell commercials “upfront” of a coming season. For CBC it is more about getting upfront