Winnipeg gets OMNI TV
Rogers Media Television will be starting up an OMNI TV channel in Winnipeg, effective Monday, Feb. 6. OMNI TV Manitoba is the newly branded, newly licensed station the came out of Rogers’ purchase of NOW TV.
General manager Geoff Poulton, who has been with Rogers Broadcasting since 1989, will be heading up the channel. He will also continue as VP/GM of the Winnipeg Radio Group (92 CITI FM and 102 Clear FM). Over 900,000 viewers will have access to OMNI TV Manitoba. Programming will include multi-faith and multi-ethnic fare in addition to old favourites like Friends.
BBM Media Snapshot: 18% of Canadians download music
* 5 million Canadians (18%) download music occasionally/frequently.
* 52% are 25 years old or younger (2.6 times the national average), 13% are over 45 years old.
* 60% of people who download MP3s are male.
* 59% are single (2 times the national average).
* 39% are students (2.5 times the national average).
* 77% live on household of 3 or more members (1.3 times the national average).
* 28% spent more than 10 hours on the Internet during the past 7 days (almost 2 times the national average).
* Compared to the national averages, people who download MP3s:
o Participate on chat groups 2.3 times more.
o Watch TV via stream video 2 times more.
o Listen to the radio via stream audio 1.7 more.
o Access radio station’s websites 1.6 times more.
* They go to rock concerts, computer shows, sky shows, and sex shows almost 2 times more the national average.
* 21% recently bought a MP3 player (twice the national average).
* Their top media choices by yesterday exposure are: TV (86%, Internet (82%) and radio (80%).
* Their favourite radio formats by weekly reach are: mainstream top 40/CHR (16%, 1.8 times the national average), news/talk 11%, and hot adult contemporary 10%.
Source: BBM RTS Canada Fall ’04 / Spring ’05, individuals 12+
The preceding information is from BBM RTS, a syndicated consumer-media survey of over 60,000 Canadians, conducted twice a year by BBM Canada. For more information contact Craig Dorning of BBM Canada: cdorning@bbm.ca.
Canuck series seeks product placement
Production began this week on a new Showcase series, Rent-A-Goalie, which will be airing eight eps in the fall. The prime-time comedy revolves around a hockey-crazed romantic operating a rent-a-goalie service out of a family-owned coffee shop in Toronto’s Little Italy. Some product placement has already begun, featuring the likes of Coca-Cola’s Powerade, Purolator and Humpty Dumpty but there are still slots available. Production continues until mid-February.
TSN loves tennis
Following on the heels of its announcement that it will be airing mega hours of golf, TSN has now unveiled its plans for tennis coverage in 2006. The new season begins this Sunday with 97 hours of the grand slam event the Australian Open from Jan. 15 to 29. TSN will also have the three other grand slams: the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. The net scored big points with tennis in the 2005 season, with an average audience of 81,000 viewers (Nielsen Media Research, All audience figures 2+), up 11% from 2004.
Winter Olympics in the wings
It’s that time again – the Winter Olympics are upon us and CBC is pulling out all the stops to cover them. The net has lined up 37 hosts, medallists and icons to call the play on the 15 sports involved.The coverage of Torino 2006 – The Olympic Winter Games begins Friday, Feb. 10 at 1 p.m. live with the opening ceremony. Host Brian Williams is joined by news anchor Peter Mansbridge in Turin. Beginning Feb. 11, the live morning coverage will be handled by Terry Leibel and the afternoon telecast will be in the capable hands of sports reportage vet Ron MacLean.
Global adds to its publicity team
Global Television has announced the appointment of Grace Park as their new publicity manager. Park previously worked with Toronto-based Astral Media as publicist for The Movie Network.
PMB Factoid
Canadians who snowboard; by age
RMB study: Radio a strong second to TV in key media performance metrics
The latest study from the Toronto-based Radio Marketing Bureau (RMB) found that radio is second only to TV in weekly and daily reach and time spent with the medium. The good news for advertisers is that radio is
Jamieson launches branded paid program/TV show hybrid
Toronto-based Jamieson Laboratories has launched Slim Down TV last weekend, a combo branded reality TV show and paid program. The show invites fitness, nutrition and food experts such as chefs David Lee of Splendido and J.P. Challet of the Fifth among others to help real Canucks as they aim to live healthier and drop weight. ‘This is reality-based paid content and no one has done it here [in Canada] before,’ claims Kevin Edwards, VP of marketing at Jamieson. He says the project grew out of the company’s in-house marketing department with the objective of the 26-episode, half-hour series tied to the relaunch and rebranding of Jamieson’s holistic weight-loss product, the Slim Down Jump Start Kit. ‘We wanted to give [participants and viewers] all the components to meet their success,’ says Edwards. ‘People need all the components to lose weight so we brought a life coach along, because they need the support.’
Though Sheila Malanchuk, media strategy manager at OMD Vancouver feels there could be a fit between the brand and the reality lifestyle program, she says: ‘Audience education is a big part of [similar reality show] The Biggest Loser. If Jamieson took that and ran with it in a way that hooks the viewer, I can see it working. And to gather an audience, people need to know when and where they will see it.’ Slim Down TV‘s website, slimdown.ca, posts the show’s schedule across Canada. In the markets of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, the show airs mainly on Sundays near the lunch hour during community channels’ paid programming blocks.
Slim Down TV‘s launch is supported by a national ad campaign that started Jan. 2 using outdoor, transit, online, radio and print media. Toronto-based AOR Media Management handled the buy. Creative was done in-house.
Two industry vets launch consultancy
Callaghan-Osborne is the name of a newly launched management consultancy dedicated to helping marketers increase the ROI from their marketing communications spending. The two principals of the Toronto-based firm – Janet Callaghan and Jeff Osborne – certainly have the credentials and experience needed to do the job. In addition to their involvement with organizations such as BBM, PMB, COMB, BES and CMDC , both have held senior executive positions with major industry players. The business is focused on three high-return marketing communication activities: auditing expenditures for value; establishing goals, measurable deliverables, and an effective implementation process for suppliers; and ensuring that strategies get effectively executed. Callaghan-Osborne also works with international media audit companies by providing a local resource in Canada.
Callaghan has been SVP integrated marketing for Bell Globemedia, managing partner at The Media Company/MBS, and a vice-president at J. Walter Thompson. Osborne was previously president and CEO of ComQUEST Research, managing partner The Media Company/MBS, and vice-president at Enterprise Advertising Associates.
Top TV advertisers: Eloda ad analysis
Coinciding with the end of the Christmas/Boxing day boom, retail fell to second place behind entertainment for the largest variety of TV commercials during the week of December 30-January 5. Third and fourth places were nabbed by public service and food, respectively. In a comparison between Dec. 30-Jan 5 (last week) and the same time period a year ago, last year’s data showed restaurants stealing a third of the market (at number one, with 33% last year). This year’s stats show differently: public service stole the number one category spot at 17%. Election propaganda, anyone? Check out others topping the charts, and which brands had the most new spots. This info was gathered through Montreal-based ELODA’s online TV ad tracking, auditing and viewing services. All data supplied is based on the ELODA recording grid.
http://www.eloda.com
Top radio advertisers: Media Monitors ad analysis
Telecommunication brands took two of the top three spots in the number of Toronto radio ads in rotation last week. Telus Mobility solidified its top spot on the list, followed by Rogers Wireless at second. And in light of the upcoming election, The Conservative Party of Canada stole bronze. Bell Canada who was second last week dropped to sixth. The categories list showed cellular and paging equipment and services, travel services and home furnishings all on the podium for the week of December 30-January 5. Check out others topping the radio charts by category and brand in the Toronto market.
http://www.mediamonitors.com
PPM panel increases to 800 HH in Quebec
BBM is beefing up its Portable People Meter panel in Francophone Quebec to 800 households. The expansion will be completed during the 2005-06 broadcast year. The Francophone service launched in 2001 with 365 households and was expanded to 530 households in 2004 when BBM switched to the PPM technology. Twenty-three of the province’s major broadcasters support BBM’s service.
CMRI reveals Canucks like their TV
Canadian Media Research (CMRI)’s annual TV Quality (TVQ) Survey released its findings late last week and it seems Canucks are quite happy with TV as a medium. This year’s TVQ found that TV remains the primary source for news (+50%). For the first time in the history of the survey, however, the Internet was named by almost 1 in 10 surveyed. Other findings include:
· News, especially local news, national news and weather top all program categories that people say they are most interested in;
· CTV lead all channels in terms of viewer satisfaction; some 36% said they were ‘very’ satisfied with CTV. This is the first time a conventional channel has finished first in terms of viewer satisfaction. Other channels with high viewer satisfaction scores were Global, The Weather Network, Discovery and HGTV;
· CBC was viewed as having the best national news, while CTV was considered a leader in terms of local news; CTV has taken over the leadership position from CBC as being the most trusted source for news;
· Similar to last year, Discovery lead as the net those surveyed believed provided the best science and nature programming; A&E is reported to have the best documentary programming; The Weather Network was chosen by a large majority as having the best weather forecasts; CBC was chosen as the best network for Canadian programming;
· Interest in an instant playback feature, i.e., a digital PVR, has doubled in the past four years.
The TVQ Survey sampled more than 1600 English-speaking Canucks, aged 18+ in October-November 2005.
