CCR People

Len Cochrane has been appointed president of the Teletoon specialty television network. Cochrane, formerly president and COO of The Family Channel Inc, replaces John Riley, who was recently named president and CEO of Astral Television Networks, which owns 100% of Family Channel. Teletoon is 40%-owned by Astral. A recent restructuring of the CRTC’s broadcasting directorate into the newly named broadcasting operations division has resulted in some personnel changes (CCR Update, Oct. 3/01). Anne-Marie Murphy is the director of the new broadcasting analysis unit. Michael Amodeo and Michael Burnside will assist her as chief advisor for radio & television and distribution, and chief advisor for specialty & pay TV services, respectively. Doug Wilson will serve as director of the industry analysis and program monitoring unit. A new unit, called the public hearings unit, will be headed by Peter Cussons. Administrative services will be consolidated under the new planning, procedures and reengineering unit under the direction of Marcel Touchette. Daniel Binette, specialist, external liaison, will now be the main point of contact for broadcasting industry clients. Craig Oliver, CTV’s Ottawa bureau chief and co-host of Question Period, is the recipient of this year’s Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) 2001 Gold Ribbon Award for Broadcast Excellence. Oliver, who has been with CTV since 1972, will accept the award at the CAB’s annual convention in Ottawa on Oct. 30. There will be some new faces on the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage when it begins hearings shortly on its review of the Canadian broadcasting system. On Oct. 4, the committee appointed its chair, vice-chairs, and members for the current session of Parliament. Liberal MP Clifford Lincoln remains chair, and Dennis Mills (Lib.) continues as a vice-chair. Alliance MP Jim Abbott has replaced Cheryl Gallant (All.) as the other vice-chair, but Gallant remains a member of the committee. New members of the committee are: Roger Gallaway (Lib.); Betty Hinton (All.); Grant McNally (PC/DR Coalition); Tony Tirabassi (Lib.); and Claude Duplain (Lib.). Gone are Gurmant Grewal (All.), who becomes an associate member; André Harvey (Lib.); Shawn Murphy (Lib.); and Bryon Wilfert (Lib.). Michael Leahy has been appointed president of Nielsen Media Research (Canada). He will be responsible for all media research operations in Canada, including the advertising information business that previously was managed by ACNielsen. He will oversee the integration of Nielsen Media Research (Canada) into ACNielsen Media International. Leahy replaces David Tattle, who is taking a sabbatical to pursue lifelong personal interests. Jack Tomik has been appointed president of CanWest Media Sales Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of CanWest Global Communications Corp, effective Nov. 1. Tomik, who is being dubbed CanWest’s convergence sales chief, was most recently senior VP of CanWest Media Sales and general manager of Global Television in B.C. Tomik is currently chair of the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement and a board member of the Television Bureau of Canada. Chris Johnson has been named VP of programming at Vision TV. He will be taking over from Paul de Silva, who is leaving the company on Dec. 31. Currently chief strategist for Vision, Johnson will take over responsibility for all operations of the programming department. De Silva will continue to work on some Vision productions. Barbara Cram, whose three-year term as CRTC commissioner for the Manitoba/Saskatchewan regions was set to expire on Oct. 31, has been reappointed for another three-year term. Cram, a lawyer, will serve until Oct. 31, 2004. The next CRTC commissioner up for renewal is Ontario’s Martha Wilson, whose term runs to May 3, 2002. Dina Graziano recently joined Bell ExpressVu LP as manager of network programming & affiliate relations. She joins the satellite TV company from Alliance Atlantis Broadcasting where she was an affiliate relations representative. Michael Crabtree has been named executive producer/general manager of the commercial production division of Toronto-based Animation House. Industry minister Brian Tobin has appointed Brigitte Doucet as a full-time member of the Copyright Board of Canada for a five-year term. Doucet was most recently with l’Association des producteurs de films et de télévision du Québec (APFTQ) where she worked as legal counsel in work relations since October 1999. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien last month announced the appointment of parliamentary secretaries, who will assist ministers with their parliamentary and portfolio responsibilities during the current session of Parliament. Sarmite Bulte, MP for Parkdale-High Park, remains parliamentary secretary to Canadian Heritage minister Sheila Copps. Claude Drouin, MP for Beauce, is the new parliamentary secretary to Industry minister Brian Tobin, replacing John Cannis. Denise Cooper has been promoted to the newly created position of VP of business and legal affairs at Chum Television. She will be responsible for all of Chum Television’s business and legal affairs worldwide, including Chum’s new media division and its distribution and development arm, ChumCity International. Brian Topp has been named executive director for the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) Toronto Performers.

CCR People

Broadcast | October 11, 2001

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