Popular Kiwi home improvement show lands in Canada
The Ultimate Do Up, the newest home improvement show to hit HGTV Canada, has been scheduled for its Canadian premiere in April 2005. Do Up, which peaked at a 33 share for women 18-49 during its run in New Zealand, takes one family and watches as they transform each room in their home from design to completion in just ten weeks, all the while trying to survive living in an on-site trailer.
In addition to HGTV Canada purchasing the broadcast rights to the series from Lone Eagle Distribution, the network received an option on the format allowing it to produce a domestic Canadian version.
Timeslot change for CTV’s Lives of the Saints mini-series
Scheduling has changed for the second part of CTV’s mini-series Lives of the Saints, slated to air in January 2005. Part Two will now air on Monday, Jan. 3 at 8 – 10 p.m., not 9 – 11 p.m. as previously advised (except in Manitoba where it will air at 7 – 9 p.m.). Part One is airing Sunday, Jan. 2 (9 – 11 p.m.).
YTV set to debut new original series in the New Year
Mischief City, a new Canadian original animated series, debuts on New Year’s Day at 6 p.m. before moving to its regular weekly timeslots on Tuesdays and Thursday at 3:30 p.m. and Sundays at both 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. Mischief City, which was created by Peter Moss, EVP of programming and development at Corus Television, features 13 half-hour episodes that lead into YTV’s popular after-school interstitial, The Zone. Being Ian, which also has its sneak peak on January 1st at 6:30 p.m., was made by the creators of Yvon Of The Yukon, already one of YTV’s top Canadian series, and will air regularly on Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. and Sundays at 12 p.m.
People — Passages, Moves & News
The International Advertising Festival named Mark Stewart, executive vice president and chief strategy officer of Universal McCann, as the 2005 Media Lions Jury President. Stewart, who has been with Universal McCann since 1995, has worked on accounts such as Microsoft, Sony, Kohl’s, Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse, Motorola, Maytag and Verizon for Universal McCann and McCann Worldgroup.
http://www.canneslions.com
Research Watch
January 10, 2005
BBM Television
Fall 2004 TV Survey
Time block, program listings, time period and time block trending
416-445-9800, info@bbm.com
CRTC trades extra ad minutes for increased TV production
The CRTC has unveiled its incentive program for rewarding TV broadcasters with extra advertising minutes per hour based on the amount of money they put into the production of English-language Canadian drama.
US ad execs expect slow ad economy recovery and a major shift in TV advertising
The American Advertising Federation (AAF) is the latest group to portend the end of TV advertising as we know it. The second annual AAF Survey of Industry Leaders on Advertising Trends reports that more than three-quarters of advertising leaders believe that DCRs will cause a major shift in the landscape of TV advertising.
Fast Forward: DVDs top Santa’s list
Solutions Research Group of Toronto says DVDs will be the leading entertainment retail gift this holiday season – and Wal-Mart is the retailer that will get the bulk of the business.
MediaNet Canada gets green light for Jewish Television specialty channel
The CRTC has approved MediaNet Canada’s multicultural status application for a full-time Jewish Television channel to be called JTV. MediaNet has entered into negotiations with Bell ExpressVu, StarChoice and Rogers Digital Cable with the hopes of broadcasting the JTV on a national basis. According to the last census, over 1% of Canada’s population is Jewish and JTV hopes to target that audience through a variety of news, movies, politics and culture from Israel and the Canadian Jewish community. JTV will be broadcast predominantly in Hebrew and Yiddish and will be available on a subscription basis only.
MediaNet has stated that it will provide full access to JTV for the purpose of community information and development at no cost to non-profit Jewish organizations. The expected launch is around March/April of 2005.
Arbitron and comScore Metrix launch online radio ratings service
With the debut of comScore Arbitron Online Radio Ratings, advertisers gain access to a service that will provide traditional ratings of web radio. The result of a partnership between audience measurement/market research companies Arbitron (NY-based) and the Virginia-based comScore Media Metrix, the service launches with charter subscriptions to American Online, Yahoo!, and Microsoft’s online radio stations.
David Goldberg, vice president and general manager of music for Yahoo!, says the monthly service will provide the accountability needed to justify online radio advertising investments. The service’s first estimates are due out next week and will report average-quarter-hour and cume audience estimates for 38 demographics and 15 standard dayparts.
Adcom Media Group launches new magazine for the haves and the have mores
Toronto Living Luxury Lifestyle Magazine is preparing for the release of its premiere issue coming out in mid-December. As a quarterly publication, TLLL hopes to reach most of Toronto’s 1.2 million residents with household incomes above $100,000 (statistics courtesy of PMB). The editorial content of the magazine focuses on a variety of elements of luxurious living through detailed niche sections that cover topics such as dining, travel, health, sport, home, and fashion.
TLLL has already established a distribution of close to 35,000 thanks in part to its deal with the Globe & Mail that will deliver the magazine to its 20,000 subscribers with a median household income level of over $96,000. 10,000 copies of TLLL will also be available at select newsstands for the nouveau riche cost of $5.95.
Quebec web entertainment network chooses 24/7 Canada to oversee online ad sales
Quebec-based Genex Communications has signed a deal with 24/7 Canada to exclusively manage their online advertising sales for Summum Media, its leading French Canadian online entertainment specialty network, which includes popular sites Showbizz.net, Choi RadioX and Matinternet.
The agreement will see 24/7 manage ad sales and ad serving for 12 Quebec Web properties, as well as management of their large permission-based email lists totaling 50,000 addresses. The Genex Web Network attracts more than one million unique monthly visitors and generates 30 million page views monthly. Online advertising for the following Web properties is now exclusively sold through 24/7 Canada: Showbizz.net, Choi RadioX, Matinternet, Info-affaires, AlloMontréal, Circulation Montréal, Le Radio X de Québec, Magazine Adorable, Magazine Summum, CKNU FM 100.9, Les Classées and Radio Liberté.
Email and Instant Messaging top lists of things teenagers do online
After surveying the online habits of teenagers, the Canadian Inter@ctive Reid Report says that email is at the top of their to-do list. Ipsos-Reid conducted the survey of 1,226 participants aged 12-17. Seventy-three per cent said that sending and receiving email came first, followed by instant messaging (70%), playing online video games against friends (28%) or strangers (23%), posting to online forums (11%) and visiting web logs or ‘blogs’ (10%). The popularity of non-social activities such as downloading music, listening to online radio and visiting news and information sites continued to dwindle, while adult online activities like comparison shopping, e-commerce and online banking, barely registered with teens. Among older teens aged 15-17, instant messaging replaced the home phone as the preferred method of conversation.
Steve Mossop, senior vice president of Ipsos-Reid, will be speaking to the BC Chapter of the American Marketing Association in Vancouver on Dec. 1 to discuss the results from the survey.
Limited survey results are available online at http://www.ipsos-na.com/news/pressrelease.cfm?id=2476.
http://www.bcama.com
Survivor: Vanuatu pulls in their usual Thursday night quota
After dethroning Survivor: Vanuatu as the top show in Canada on Nov. 18, CSI has gone back to second place with the popular reality show pulling in 1.8 million viewers (A18 – 49) nationally and a total 2+ audience of 2.980 million.
According to BBM People Meter Data, Survivor earned a 10.3 rating in Toronto (among 18 to 49) and an 18.4 rating in Vancouver.
CRTC approves 12 new radio licenses in Atlantic Canada
The CRTC approved twelve new radio licenses across Atlantic Canada. While the stations vary dramatically in format, they will no doubt have a profound impact on radio markets across the Maritimes especially in cities such as Halifax. The market has recently yielded some of the highest profit margins in Canada, and the number of local radio stations is now set to increase by close to 25%.
Global Communications plans to launch a new FM radio station in Halifax, The Breeze, which will have a contemporary easy listening format featuring blues, jazz, Celtic, folk, and world beat that will try to tap into a share of the 335,000 adult contemporary listeners in Atlantic Canada (as per PMB stats). Rogers Media was awarded a quarter of the new licenses and is preparing to launch new FM stations in Halifax, Moncton, and Saint John. Rogers’ trio of stations will focus on regional news with in-depth coverage of local weather, traffic and community events with a heavy emphasis on call-in talk shows and sports programming. Rogers Media hopes to vie for CBC RADIO’s audience structuring their new stations’ programming against that of the CBC’s.
CKMW Radio is launching an English-language youth contemporary station, with 12- to 24-year-olds serving as its target demographic. The station will feature mostly ‘urban’ music, including rock, R&B, hip-hop, dance and Top 40. To tap into the urban social scene, CKMW also plans to feature live DJ hosted dance-club shows at local venues in and around the Halifax area. Outside of Halifax the radio scene is expanding as well. In total, eight new stations will be launched out of New Brunswick serving the communities of Saint John, Fredericton and Moncton. Of particular note is Cooperative Radiophonique-La Brise De La Baie’s new station, which will become Saint John’s first local French-language music station, and Fredericton’s new classic rock rock station headed up by Newfoundland’s own Newcap. All twelve stations are expected to be fully operational by the end of 2005.
