Media Beat: September 06, 2019

By David Farrell

Bell Media brings Best of TIFF to CraveTV network schedule

Bell Media is all over the Toronto International Film Festival as a sponsor and co-developer of several hallmark films scheduled to be premiered this year. The branding and co-financing goes far deeper than this, however. Bell’s Crave TV’s on-demand streaming service is now offering a TIFF collection that includes 100 films (docs, biopics and feature movies) that have screened during the film festival in past years. It’s a huge benefit for film makers and documentarians, and the kind of content that ups the game for Crave as an on-demand streaming option in a marketplace that has Netflix and now Disney wanting a larger share of viewer’s dollars and attention. Find out what’s in the collection here.

Friends of Canadian Broadcasting launch scary ad campaign

On Monday, FRIENDS is launching a national radio advertising campaign to educate voters about Ottawa’s $1.6 billion annual subsidy to junk news platforms like Facebook. Canadians will be appalled when they learn government support for these rogue platforms exceeds CBC funding by a long shot.

The bad news? We can afford for the campaign to run for just one week.

And here’s the interview the PM should never given

Canada is regarded as a model progressive society, but is the country’s current leadership living up to these ideals? American comedian and political commentator Hasan Minhaj examines the policies of current Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and sits down with him for a one-on-one interview in advance of Canada’s October election. The segment is taken from Minhaj’s Netflix series, Patriot Act.

Brother Jake has left the building

Brother Jake Edwards has officially retired, hosting his last show for TSN 1040 (CKST-AM) Vancouver on Aug. 31. Edwards, who was inducted into the Canadian Broadcast Industry Hall of Fame in May, had been with the station since 2013. The Moncton-born Jake Edwards resigned his daily show at the end of June, but had remained with the broadcaster hosting a four-hour show Saturdays. Before moving to 1040, Edwards had spent 17 years as a high-profile personality on Rock 101. Further detail on his career that started in the 1970s, at CJCB AM Sydney, NS., can be found here.

Media bloodletting: An insider’s angry story

Howard Berger, a 23-year veteran of The Fan 590 (Sportsnet) has raised eyebrow, ruffled a few feathers and certainly made clear his own feelings about what he sees as fiscal cutbacks gutting media outlets in a lengthy posting on his Between the Posts blog.

To wit: “Spend now. Flee the premises. Strip later. Ruin countless careers and reputations beneath upper–management personnel, all of which are handsomely rewarded with bonuses for paring salary. This is not solely the domain of Rogers Communications. Many companies enact similar carnage — notably, in the prevailing genre, Postmedia Network Inc., under Paul Godfrey, which purchased the Toronto Sun in October 2014 and eviscerated the best sports section in Canadian newspaper annals…”

Payola now under investigation by FCC

It was back in July when Rolling Stone wrote a lengthy piece that more than hinted that payola was alive and well in radio. Radio Ink followed that up with an interview with Tim Moore from the Audience Development Group, who also more than hinted that he’d been hearing about possible incidents of payola. All of that payola noise promoted FCC Commissioner Michael O’Reilly to tweet that he’d be looking into the matter by writing a letter to the music industry. He’s a man of his word.

On Wednesday, O’Reilly penned a letter to the CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America Mitch Glazier asking for answers. – Radio Ink