CTV has a new MOW in production called A Friend of the Family. Alberta Filmworks is coproducing the $4-million TV movie with Toronto’s Slanted Wheel Entertainment, for delivery February 11. Laura Harris (24, Dead Like Me), Eric Johnson (Smallville) and Kim Coates (Pearl Harbor) star in the story about notorious rapist and murderer David Snow.
Courtesy of our sister publication Playback (October 11)

The NHL Network has teamed up with CSTV: College Sports Television, a 24-hour college sports network, to televise 25 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division 1 hockey games.
NHL Network has confirmed the first 14 games of its NCAA hockey sked with an additional 11 games being televised in the new year. All games will be produced by U.S.-based CSTV as part of its Friday Night Hockey game-of-the-week with the first game televised on Friday, Oct. 8.

In CBC’s new interview program CBC News: Face to Face, Washington correspondent Neil MacDonald will talk to American politicos whose words and actions are defining the issues shaping their upcoming presidential election.
CBC News: Face to Face debuted Oct. 6 at 8 p.m. and features in-depth, hard-hitting interviews, every Wednesday night.

No tricks from Global on October 30, but rather a marathon treat of 12 The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror episodes. Classics include Hell Toupee; The Terror of Tiny Toon; I Know What You Diddily-Iddly-Did; Life’s a Glitch Then You Die; and G-G-Ghost D-D-Dad.
The Halloween Howl runs from 7:00 p.m. in the Maritimes, Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia and begins at 9:00 p.m. in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Vision TV’s current affairs series 360 Vision opens its third season with an exploration of what’s behind Evangelical Christian support for Israel. The special report was filmed in Canada and Israel. The season opener of 360 Vision airs Wednesday, October 20 at 9:00 p.m and 1:00 a.m. ET.

MuchMusic kicks off the new season of Live@Much with Sum 41 on Saturday, October 16, 8:00 p.m. ET. Host Jennifer Hollett will conduct a live interview with the power-pop group in the MuchMuch headquarters in Toronto and Sum 41 will perform tracks from its new CD. This is the group’s third appearance on the program.

Microsoft ventures into the consumer electronics market as the first company to converge the Internet with TV. The MSN TV 2 Internet & Media Player unit delivers interactive services to the TV. The long-version description is that it is a broadband-home-network-enabled living-room device that provides entertainment, information and communications options for TV.

Interactive Program Guides (IPGs) are emerging as the entertainment portal for TV viewers, according to the latest report from In-Stat/MDR, a high-tech market research firm based in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Family Channel live action youth series Radio Free Roscoe has hit the 52-ep mark (stripped Monday to Thursdays at 7 p.m. with new episodes on the weekend), yet remains a bit of an under-hyped phenom. Canadian tweens know about it, as the hordes of excited kids who recently showed up for an autograph session at the Eaton Centre attest.
More off net ventures are being planned to capitalize on the fandemonium. In addition to a popular young cast, the Decode-produced show set in a school’s underground radio station features a lot of Canadian indie bands, and the series is therefore launching a soundtrack CD November 15th. Also in the works is a March break coast-to-coast cast tour in partnership with Family Channel, which will be a completely branded extravaganza, consisting of on-air, off-air, multimedia and contest components. Contest winners will come to Toronto for the big event, which will consist of music from the show, the cast and bands from the series, according to DECODE Entertainment communications director Jacqueline Nuwame, who adds that sponsorship is being pursued. The key demo is girls 8-12, but the show also performs strongly with the 12-16 set.
http://www.family.ca/whatson/minisites/radiofreeroscoe/
http://www.decode.tv

A handful of Sony Canada products will be incorporated into more than two dozen new canadian television shows and made-for-TV movies this Fall, making the company one of the leading consumer electronics manufacturers in the country as it relates to product placement.
Sony’s WEGA TVs, handycam camcorders, digital music players and personal computers are among the numerous gadgets that will be used onscreen in productions like DaVinci’s Inquest, The Newsroom, 11th Hour, Degrassi: The Next Generation, Instant Star, Robson Arms, Falcon Beach, Train 48, and The Collector – to name a few.

On Oct. 18, a six-week promotional campaign tied to CBC’s The Greatest Canadian series, will direct viewers to vote online for their Greatest Canadian. Each viewer’s online vote counts as an entry to win one of 11 prizes from CBC. Ten runner-up prizewinners will receive two tickets to any choice destination in Canada, and the grand-prize winner will receive the Greatest Canadian Prize Pack containing an all expenses paid trip relating directly to the individual crowned the Greatest Canadian. The Greatest Canadian is supported by both Air Canada and Subway.
http://www.cbc.ca/greatest

Bell ExpressVu customers can now get more up-close and personal with Bell Making the Cut on Wednesday nights through a number of new interactive features. Viewers can use their remote to answer trivia questions during each episode and view the results in real time. Winners of the trivia quiz will be selected from ExpressVu, Bell Mobility SMS messaging, and visitors to the makingthecut.bell.ca Web site and then presented on screen during each episode.
ExpressVu subscribers with iTV-ready receivers can also view on-demand info such as player profiles and coaches’ notes. Show fans registering at makingthecut.bell.ca are eligible to win weekly prizes such as a $5,000 renovation from Home Depot, a Samsung 46-inch TV, or a Bell ExpressVu PVR.