Astral Media

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Astral Media
Type Public
Founded 1961
Headquarters Montreal, Québec
Industry Media
Revenue ▲ $ 646 million (2007)
Net income ▲ $170 million 2006
Employees 2800 (2006)
Website astralmedia.com
For the former broadcasting company which owned the above properties, see Standard Broadcasting.

Astral Media Inc. TSX: ACM.A/ACM.B is a Canadian media corporation. It is Canada's largest radio broadcaster with radio stations in eight provinces, as well as several television stations that are available across Canada, including The Movie Network, Viewers Choice, Family, Teletoon and more.

Astral Media's roots lie with Angreen Photo, a Canadian company founded in 1961. It was created when Montreal's Greenberg brothers founded it to operate the photography concession in Miracle Mart, a department store chain. Its acquisition in 1968 of a photographic store eventually grew into a 125-store chain, Astral Photo, the remnants of which are now owned by the Black's chain. The store grew quickly into motion picture processing after acquiring the Pathé-Humphries motion picture lab. The name was changed to Bellevue Pathé and later to AstralTech.

Astral, in its present day form, was constituted in 1973 under the name Astral Bellevue Pathé Limited. Astral eventually undertook videocassette duplication and video wholesaling. Astral also produced or executive produced over 100 feature films and television programs and television miniseries. In 1983, the Greenbergs acquired complete control of two pay-per-view networks. Astral expanded its television operations by launching new networks. Astral ceased to be directly involved in film and program production in 1983. Later, it also became involved with the home video market, lasting from the mid-1980s until at least 1996.

In February 2000, Astral Communications became Astral Media. For a discussion of The Movie Network/Movie Central duopoly, see The Movie Network.

On February 23, 2007, Astral announced that it had signed a letter of intent and had entered into exclusive negotiations regarding the acquisition of substantially all the assets of radio broadcaster, Standard Radio Inc.[1] The transaction was approved by the CRTC on September 28, 2007 and was completed on October 29.

Contents

[edit] Corporate governance

Current members of the board of directors of Astral Media are: Normand Beauchamp, Austin Beutel, Paul Bronfman, André Bureau (chairman), George Cohon, Paul Godfrey, Stephen Greenberg, Ian Greenberg, Sidney Greenberg, Sidney Horn, Mila Mulroney, Timothy Price and Gary Slaight.

[edit] Radio

[edit] Alberta

[edit] Atlantic Canada

[edit] British Columbia

[edit] Manitoba

[edit] Ontario

[edit] Quebec

[edit] Énergie network

[edit] RockDétente network

[edit] Boom FM network

[edit] Other stations

[edit] Saskatchewan

[edit] Satellite radio

Astral also programs two channels for broadcast on Sirius Canada:

  • Rock Velours, based on the RockDétente format, airs on Sirius channel 192
  • Énergie2, based on the Énergie format, airs on Sirius channel 193.

In addition, Astral partnered with CHUM Limited in an application for a terrestrial digital subscription service which was also licensed by the CRTC at the same time as the satellite radio services. That service has not launched as of May 2008, and is now unlikely to ever launch.

[edit] Television

[edit] Over-the-air television stations

See also: Great West Television

[edit] Specialty & pay television

[edit] Notes

  • 1 It was announced on March 20, 2008 that Astral, through its managing partnership of Viewers Choice, will be selling its interest in Canal Indigo to Groupe TVA. Subject to CRTC approval. No financial details were made available.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Astral Media announces signature of letter of intent to acquire Standard Radio

[edit] External links


v • d • e
Astral Media Inc.
Corporate Directors
Normand Beauchamp • Austin Beutel • Paul Bronfman • André Bureau (Chairman) • Jack Cockwell • George Cohon • Paul Godfrey • Stephen Greenberg • Ian Greenberg (President and CEO) • Sidney Greenberg (Vice President) • Sidney Horn • Mila Mulroney • Timothy Price
Broadcast television stations
CFTK (CBC) • CJDC (CBC)
Cable Television/Specialty Channels
Radio networks / brands
Radio Stations
(by call-sign)
AM: CFRB • CFRN • CFTK • CHAM • CHOR • CHTK • CIOR • CISL • CJAD • CJBK • CJDC • CJOR • CKCR • CKFR • CKGR • CKHJ • CKMX • CKOC • CKOR • CKSL • CKTB
FM: CFBR • CFEI • CFIX • CFMG • CHBD • CHEY • CHIK • CHOM • CHRD • CHRE • CHRX • CHSU • CHTZ • CHVR • CIBK • CIBX • CICF • CIGB • CIKI • CIKX • CILK • CIMF • CIMO • CIQM • CITE (Montreal) • CITE (Estrie) • CITF • CJAB • CFQX • CFVM • CFXY • CFZZ • CJAT • CJAY • CJBX • CJCJ • CJDM • CJEZ • CJFM • CJFW • CJMM • CJMV • CJOI • CJMG • CKBC • CKFM • CKKC • CKLH • CKMF • CKMM • CKNL • CKQB • CKRX • CKTF • CKTK • CKTO • CKTY • CKX • CKXA • CKXR • CKZZ
Sirius Canada channels
Other Assets
Astral Media Outdoor (AMO)
See also
Languages