Media Beat: August 17, 2018

By David Farrell

Vice Media signs long-term content deal with Bell

Bell Media has signed a new long-term agreement that will see it become the exclusive Canadian broadcaster for new programming from Vice Media network Viceland.

The deal follows a $100M contract that soured between Rogers and Vice Media and went off the rails in Jan. of this year.

Bell’s deal, announced Thursday, is structured differently: Rather than resurrecting the Viceland channel in Canada, Bell will become the exclusive broadcaster for Viceland programming on its own channels, including Much and MTV Canada, beginning this fall.

Vice content will also appear on CraveTV, Bell’s subscription digital streaming service, and on the CTV Super Hub, a soon-to-be-launched streaming option that will require a log-in from TV subscribers for some of its programming (some will be available for free.) Vice programming will also appear on Bell’s mobile app, Snackable TV, which was unveiled this year to draw viewers looking for shorter videos on mobile devices. In addition to new programming, Bell will have the rights to more than 650 hours of previously produced content. – Media release, CBC and Globe and Mail

Chartable offers podcast charts

The data is limited insofar as it is limited in its scope in assembling data points, but it is a starting point to see what’s hot on Apple, Stitcher, Patreon and several other platforms…and promises to add to the list (Amazon? Google?). To find out more link here to see the website and browse the charts.

Judge rules in favour of Free Press, RRC in radio suit

Martin Boroditsky loses lawsuit over the cancellation of his radio show

Justice Sheldon Lanchbery, of Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench, said in a 12-page ruling released on Monday that Red River College did not violate Boroditsky’s rights when they cancelled The Great Canadian Talk Show from the college’s Kick FM radio station in 2010. The talk radio show, which he hosted under the name Marty Gold, had started broadcasting in 2006.

Lanchbery dismissed Boroditsky’s allegations "to be without merit" that the Free Press, and its editor at the time, Margo Goodhand, conspired with the college to have him removed from the airwaves. – Winnipeg Free Press

YouTube stars Twitching for Amazon payouts

Amazon in recent months has been pursuing exclusive live streaming deals with dozens of popular media companies and personalities, many with large followings on YouTube. Company-owned Twitch is offering minimum guarantees of as much as a few million dollars a year, as well as a share of future advertising sales and subscription revenue, according to several people who’ve been contacted by Twitch. – Bloomberg

Idris Elba tipped to be the next James Bond (again)

With the transcendent, blockbuster success of big and small screen fare such as “Empire,” “Power,” Girls Trip and especially Black Panther, Hollywood is once again considering something that was unfathomable just a five years ago: a Black man playing the iconic spy hero James Bond.

For several years now, there has been a growing chorus of fans who clamour to see Idris Elba, the Daddy’s Little Girls heartthrob, don a tuxedo to play the world’s most famous fictional spy.

This time, The Daily Star has reignited the excitement in its latest report on the matter. Director Antoine Fuqua — the man who directed Denzel Washington in his Oscar-winning role in Training Day — says Bond producer Barbara Broccoli believes the climate is right for a Black man to succeed Daniel Craig as Agent 007. – Rolling Out Again