W grooms the groom
Joe Millionaire‘s butler returns to spiff up men in the pilot for a new makeover show for W. Paul Hogan will star in Groomed, Saturday, June 11 at 8 p.m. The pilot episode deals with a groom before his wedding, but the series (if it goes forward) will also cover men getting groomed for other occasions such as anniversaries and proposals. The demo for this show is women 18-49. W is watched by an average of 10 million Canadians (V2+) per month.
Le Guin work to air on Space
EARTHSEA, based on the popular fantasy novels of Ursula K. Le Guin, is coming to Space. The mini will air as a four-hour, two-part broadcast on Saturday, May 21, and Sunday, May 22 at 9 p.m. Space is aiming for an 18-49 audience, both genders.
Canadian Idol returns
The well-deserved break from Ben Mulroney is over now that Canadian Idol is set to premier on CTV May 30. The host and judges are back to pick from the top 100 hopefuls. Audition tour highlights will begin with one-hour episodes starting Monday, May 30, playing consecutively until Wednesday June 1 at 8 p.m. on CTV.
Canadian Idol will resume regular schedule of twice weekly shows starting Tuesday, June 14 with the hour-long performance show. This will be followed on Wednesday, June 15 with the half-hour selection show. Both will play at 8 p.m. This schedule will carry through the season.
More Jays on Sportsnet HD
Baseball fans will have more chances to see pitching ace Roy Halladay hurl cut fastballs in HD this summer thanks to Rogers Sportsnet HD plumping up their coverage of the Jays’ season. Sportsnet HD has added 15 Toronto Blue Jays away games to its schedule, from May 14 to Aug. 25. Sportsnet HD has a total of 64 Jays games for the 2005 season.
In other news, Rogers Sportsnet will feature the 76th MLB All-Star Game and Home Run Derby in July. Comerica Park in Detroit will host the All-Star events starting with the Home Run Derby Monday, July 11 at 8 p.m. ET, and 7 p.m. MT/PT. The mid-summer classic will be played on Tuesday, July 12 at 8 p.m. ET, 5 p.m. PT.
Prime picks up Seinfeld
Seinfeld comes to Prime in June, when the network will air the classic sitcom in three different time-slots. The first, Monday to Friday at 3 p.m., second, Monday to Thursday at 10 p.m. and finally Sundays starting at 4 p.m., commencing June 1.
Channel 500 builds media department
Toronto-based DRTV and branded TV content agency Channel 500 has promoted Daryll Weisblott from media director to media sales director. Meanwhile, the company has taken on Kirk Cornelius as media manager. Cornelius was formerly media supervisor at Starcom Worldwide. Channel 500 cites new Canadian clients and increased spending by U.S. clients as the rationale behind the boosted media department.
Canadian Satellite Radio signs comedy maven
Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club founder Mark Breslin has been named as programming director for a proposed new satellite radio comedy channel. Laugh Canada will broadcast up-and-comers in the Canadian comedy scene as well as a focus on Canada’s comedic heritage, pending Canadian Satellite Radio licence approval.
PMB Factoid
Households in Man./Sask. are 60% more likely to own a snowblower.
Molson to podvertise with Corus
Podcasting has opened the door to virgin territory for Canadian advertisers. The new field may prove to be fertile ground as Molson has signed on as podcast sponsor for The Ongoing History of New Music and Legends of Classic Rock. Corus Radio worked directly with Molson and its media agency Mediaedge:cia to make the deal.
The ad campaign will run from May 9 to Labour Day. The sponsorship will appear as intros by program hosts Alan Cross and Jeff Woods.
Chris Sisam, VP of sales with Toronto-based Corus Radio, says: ‘Nothing has been done like this in Canada; it’s the first its kind.’
Lennox tries cool new cinema ads
A residential air conditioning and heating manufacturer is hoping theatre audiences’ reactions to its innovative advertising campaign run hot and cold. Dallas, Tex.-based Lennox Home Systems’ campaign is a sponsored entertainment feature in a new digital advertising pre-show network just launched in movie theatres to reach people in Toronto’s extended market area. In a spring campaign running April 29 to May 26, the ad features an animated slide along with names and phone numbers of local Lennox dealers, followed by a montage of the summer’s blockbuster movie trailers. The tagline is ‘Cool. Reel Entertainment brought to you by Lennox.’ From September 26 to October 30, the tag will be ‘Hot. Reel Entertainment brought to you by Lennox,’ and be followed by previews for holiday movies. The ads will appear in 21 Cineplex Odeon and Galaxy Cinemas on over 210 screens. Publicis Dialog is behind the creative.
Branded affinity cards for charitable donations
San Diego, Calif.-based Kintera is bringing good causes and brands together with pre-paid Charitygift cards that can be personalized or private-labeled for corporations and non-profit groups. The card purchaser chooses the dollar amount of the donation and then customizes the card with greetings, messages, illustrations, photos or logos. The 10-digit Charitygift number can also be printed on custom invitations and greeting cards.
The recipients choose the charity that will receive the donation by logging on to a secure Charitygift Web site – or the marketer’s own Web site – using the identification number on the card. Marketers are using the Charitygift cards as holiday gifts or to thank clients and employees, guest speakers and survey/focus group participants, or as part of promotions or special events. Some of the U.S. companies that have had Charitygift programs include Intuit for its TurboTax software, Country Music Television, Omni Hotel, Arthur Andersen and Bank One.
The cards are sold online at www.charitygift.com and can be sent via the post or e-mail. Kintera, which also has a U.K. operation in London, provides enterprise-level software platforms and related services to non-profit organizations.
Canadian Satellite Radio inks multiple deals
Canadian Satellite Radio (CSR) and Asian Television Network have signed a content distribution agreement for’Mosaic,’ a multicultural radio offering to be broadcast across North America. As well, French-Canadian musical talent will be showcased across Canada and the U.S. on ‘La Musique,’ a newly created program being offered by CSR and partner XM Satellite Radio. The show will air on a weekly basis.
Additionally, CSR and Toronto-based Corus Entertainment announced a partnership that will allow Corus to acquire a small ownership in CSR. Corus will provide Canadian content for the service, including French-language programming.
The CRTC has yet to approve the new services, however late last year a Decima research poll found that one in three Canadians are ‘very interested’ in satellite radio.
New software aids online ad viewing
In a bid to improve the experience of viewing online ads, Norway-based ViewStart has rolled out a product called VeyeTech that enables instant video loading at all online connection speeds for high-quality video. It doesn’t require plug-ins or downloads and can work across different browsers and platforms, using little server-space and bandwidth.
ViewStart introduced VeyeTech to the U.S. market at the Ad:Tech Exhibition 2005 in San Francisco at the end of April.
http://www.viewstart.com
HDTV slow to take off: Survey
Only 6% of all Canadians are watching TV in high definition. A national survey by Astral Media’s The Movie Network and Ipsos-Reid found that Canadians are slow to adapt to HDTV technology.
– 14% of Canadians currently have an HD-ready TV set, and of those only 40 % have the set-top box required to deliver an HD-quality picture.
– 16% percent of Canadians said they were unaware they even needed an HD set-top box
– 41 % of owners said they did not have a box because there isn’t enough HD content currently available from broadcasters to make it worth their while.
– One in five Canadians plan to buy an HD TV, with 46% of this group looking to make the purchase this year.
On May 1, The Movie Network started TMNHD, which airs movies and series 24 hours in high definition. The HD channel is free to subscribers of TMN. TMN’s regular schedule featuring HBO and Showtime programming will be available on the new channel. All in-house productions with TMN, such as ReGenesis, G-Spot, Slings & Arrows, and Terminal City will also be broadcast in HD as long as viewers have their HD set-top box.
