The Canadian Country Music Association has picked a new media partner five months before the broadcast of its flagship awards broadcast. The 37th annual CCMA Awards will be broadcast live and exclusively on Global on Sept 8.
The CCMAs has previously broadcast on CBC. However, it has worked with Corus Entertainment in the past, having split the broadcast rights between CBC and Corus’ specialty net CMT. Corus has confirmed that the exclusive deal is for multiple years, but would not specify how long the deal extends for.
Lisa Godfrey, VP of original content for Corus, says the awards will be a “multi-platform entertainment experience available on any screen.”
Besides the awards itself, Corus has confirmed that ET Canada will produce a live, 30-minute red carpet show prior to the awards, also set to stream live on multiple platforms.
Tracy Martin, president of the CCMAs, said in a statement that the association is in the process of evolving the CCMA awards “from a stand-alone broadcast into a media property that supports country music throughout the year.” Besides the awards themselves, the CCMA hosts Canadian Country Music Week, a series of live performances and experiential events. The week, which also now includes an industry conference, has allowed for expanded sponsorship opportunities. For example, last year Ford stepped in as an official sponsor and besides serving as the title sponsor for one of the ceremony’s biggest awards, also had a promotional presence within the Country Music Week village.
An estimated 25,000 people attended last year’s Country Music Week, and 10,000 attended the awards ceremony itself. However, according to Numeris, last year’s ceremony did not draw linear viewers along the same lines as the Grammys or Junos; the broadcast generated an AMA of less than 600,000.
Other sponsors and partners of the CCMAs include Coors and Coors Light, Yamaha, Georgian Bay Spirits and Apple Music.
This year’s awards will take place in Calgary and will mark the return of the Entertainer of the Year award, presented for the first time in more than 30 years.
