Astral Media

Astral Media Inc.

Type	Public (TSX: ACM.A, ACM.B)
Industry	Media
Fate	Acquisition by Bell Media pending
Founded	August 31, 1961
Headquarters	Montreal, Quebec
Key people	Ian Greenberg (President, CEO & founder)
Revenue	$960.9 million (2010)[1]
Net income	$185.1 million (2010)[2]
Employees	2,800+ (2010)[3]

Astral Media Inc. (branded as simply Astral since May 2010) is a Canadian media corporation. It is Canada's largest radio broadcaster (by number of stations) with 83 radio stations in eight provinces, and is a major player in premium and specialty television in Canada, including The Movie Network, Super Écran, Family, Teletoon, Canal D, Canal Vie, VRAK.TV, Séries+, Ztélé and more. Astral Media also owns numerous billboards for outdoor advertising through its Astral Media Outdoor division, and is a major competitor to CBS Outdoor.

On March 16, 2012, it was announced that Astral had accepted an offer from Bell Media, a subsidiary of BCE Inc., to acquire the company for $3.38 billion.^[4]

History

Astral's roots lie with Angreen Photo, a Canadian company founded in 1961.^[5] It was created when Montreal's Greenberg brothers, led by Harold Greenberg, founded it to operate the photography concession in Miracle Mart, a department store chain. Its acquisition in 1967 of rights at the Montreal Expo eventually grew into a 125-store chain, Astral Photo, the remnants of which are now owned by the Black's Photography chain. The store grew quickly into motion picture processing after acquiring the Pathé-Humphries motion picture lab. The name was changed to Astral Bellevue Pathé and later to AstralTech. The Astral Photo name disappeared when its Quebec stores became Black's.

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 television networks, First Choice (now known as The Movie Network) and Premier Choix TVEC (now Super Écran), at which point Astral ceased to be directly involved in film and program production. The company would later expand its television operations by launching new specialty networks. Later, it also became involved with the home video market, lasting from the mid-1980s until at least 1996.

Former Astral Media logo, used from 2000 to 2009.

In February 2000, Astral Communications changed its name to Astral Media.

In recent years, Astral has expanded into radio, beginning with the 2000 acquisition of Radiomutuel, and the 2002 purchase of most of the radio assets of Telemedia, although those companies' joint AM radio network Radiomedia was ultimately sold to Corus Entertainment for competitive reasons. Radiomutuel also owned a controlling share of outdoor advertising firm Omni Outdoor, now the wholly owned division Astral Media Outdoor, as well as several French-language specialty channels such as Canal Vie, Ztélé, Séries+, VRAK.TV, MusiquePlus and MusiMax.

On February 23, 2007, Astral Media announced that it had signed a letter of intent and had entered into exclusive negotiations regarding the acquisition of "substantially all of the assets" of Standard Radio.^[6] A formal agreement was later announced, with the proposed transaction being approved by the CRTC on September 28, and completed on October 29 of the same year. The transaction gave Astral a significant foothold in English-language radio.

In May 2010, Astral Media remodeled its image with the introduction of a new logo. The company now trades simply as "Astral" and all references to the "Media" part were removed from the logo and airwaves. However, the company's official name remains Astral Media. Following this change, Astral relocated its headquarters to a building that was renamed after itself.

Proposed takeover by Bell Media

On March 16, 2012, Astral announced that it accepted an estimated $3.38 billion takeover bid by Bell Canada to merge with the company's Bell Media division. Bell's motivations for the merger primarily centered on achieving greater access to Astral's "premium" content (such as that provided by The Movie Network and HBO Canada) for its multi-platform services, and increasing the company's prominence in French media through its ownership of Astral's French-language radio stations and specialty channels — aiming to become a bigger competitor to the dominant Quebecor Media. Astral Media shareholders approved the acquisition of all of its issued and outstanding shares by Bell Media on May 24, 2012;^[7] the acqusition of Astral's issued and outstanding shares by Bell received approval by the Quebec Superior Court during a hearing on May 25, 2012.^[8]

This merger will be subject to regulatory approval by both the CRTC and the Competition Bureau — the merged company may be required to divest radio assets in certain markets (such as Toronto and Vancouver) in order to comply with the CRTC's ownership limits.^[9]

Corporate governance

Current members of the board of directors of Astral Media are: Austin Beutel, Paul Bronfman, André Bureau (chairman), Jack Cockwell, George Cohon, Paul Godfrey, Stephen Greenberg, Ian Greenberg, Sidney Greenberg, Sidney Horn, Mila Mulroney, Timothy Price, Phyllis Yaffe and Monique Jérôme-Forget.

Assets owned by Astral Media

Radio

Alberta

• Calgary - CIBK, CJAY, CKMX
• Edmonton - CFBR, CFRN, CFMG

British Columbia

• Dawson Creek - CJDC
• Fort Nelson - CKRX
• Fort St. John - CHRX, CKNL
• Golden - CKGR
• Invermere - CKIR
• Kelowna - CHSU, CILK, CKFR
• Kitimat - CKTK
• Nelson - CKKC
• Osoyoos - CJOR
• Penticton - CJMG, CKOR
• Prince Rupert - CHTK
• Princeton - CIOR
• Revelstoke - CKCR
• Salmon Arm - CKXR
• Summerland - CHOR
• Terrace - CFTK, CJFW
• Trail - CJAT
• Vancouver - CKZZ, CHHR, CISL
• Vernon - CICF

Manitoba

• Brandon - CKX, CKXA
• Selkirk - CFQX
• Winnipeg - CKMM

New Brunswick

• Bathurst - CKBC-FM
• Fredericton - CFXY-FM, CIBX-FM, CKHJ
• Grand Falls - CIKX-FM
• Woodstock - CJCJ-FM

Nova Scotia

• Truro - CKTO-FM, CKTY-FM

Ontario

• Hamilton - CHAM, CKLH, CKOC
• London - CIQM, CJBK, CJBX, CKSL
• Ottawa - CJOT, CKQB
• Pembroke - CHVR
• St. Catharines - CHRE, CHTZ, CKTB
• Toronto - CFRB, CHBM, CKFM

Quebec

• Montreal - CHOM, CJAD, CJFM

NRJ network

• CHIK-FM 98.9, Quebec City
• CIGB-FM 102.3, Trois-Rivières / Mauricie
• CIKI-FM 98.7, Rimouski
• CIMO-FM 106.1, Magog / Estrie
• CJAB-FM 94.5, Saguenay
• CJDM-FM 92.1, Drummondville
• CJMM-FM 99.1, Rouyn-Noranda
• CJMV-FM 102.7, Val-d'Or
• CKMF-FM 94.3, Montreal
• CKTF-FM 104.1, Gatineau / Outaouais

Rouge FM network

• CFIX-FM 96.9, Saguenay
• CFVM-FM 99.9, Amqui
• CHEY-FM 94.7, Trois-Rivières / Mauricie
• CHRD-FM 105.3, Drummondville
• CIMF-FM 94.9, Gatineau / Outaouais
• CITE-FM 107.3, Montreal
• CITE-FM-1 102.7, Sherbrooke / Estrie
• CITF-FM 107.5, Quebec City
• CJOI-FM 102.9, Rimouski

Boom FM network

• CFEI-FM 106.5, Saint-Hyacinthe
• CFZZ-FM 104.1, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu

Saskatchewan

• Regina - CHBD

Satellite radio

Astral also programs two channels for broadcast on Sirius Canada:

• Rock Velours, based on the RockDétente format, airs on Sirius channel 88 (formerly 192)
• Énergie², based on the Énergie format, airs on Sirius channel 89 (formerly 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. The license to launch that service expired on June 16, 2007.

Television

Over-the-air television stations

• Dawson Creek - CJDC
• Terrace - CFTK

Specialty & pay television

• Canal D
• Canal Vie
• Cinépop
• Disney Junior
• Disney XD
• Family - 1 multiplex channel
• Historia (50%)
• The Movie Network - 4 multiplex channels
• Mpix - 1 multiplex channel
• MusiMax
• MusiquePlus
• Séries+ (50%)
• Super Écran - 3 multiplex channels
• Teletoon (English / French) (50/50 joint venture with Corus Entertainment)
• Teletoon Retro (English / French) (50/50 joint venture with Corus Entertainment)
• Viewers Choice (50.1%)
• VRAK.TV
• Ztélé

Jingles

Most Astral Media jingles are used by each station, coming in eight variants. However, the ID goes by "(Branding) is (callsign). The (something) member of the Astral family." During 2009-May 2010, it used to go "(Branding) is (callsign). An Astral Media radio station." Some stations not IDing the callsign, particularly the French-language radio stations and radio stations in Toronto and Montreal would not do so, as it would say the same line, except for the callsign. Also, during 2009-May 2010, it used to go "You're listening to an Astral Media radio station." Most of them would air during an hour's second half.

• Adult contemporary: Although used primarily on the RockDétente stations of Quebec, the other AC stations used the adult hits jingle.
• Hot adult contemporary: Used only on CKFM-FM Toronto & CJFM-FM Montreal, CIBX-FM Fredericton, New Brunswick & CIKX-FM Grand Falls, New Brunswick, CIQM-FM London, Ontario as well as contemporary hit radio station CKMM-FM Winnipeg. CKZZ-FM Vancouver used the rock jingles instead for 2009-2010, but now uses the hot AC jingles. Until 2010, CIQM-FM London, Ontario used the adult hits jingles instead due to the fact the station had an AC format, while the KBS Radio stations in British Columbia (e.g. CJAT-FM) use the adult hits jingles instead. Another exception is CHRX-FM & CKRX-FM, which use the top 40 jingles instead, and most recently, Edmonton's CFMG-FM.
• Contemporary hit radio: Used on CIBK-FM Calgary and the British Columbia Sun FM stations (the Sun FM stations were hot AC until 2010, but even though during that time, they used this jingle). However, not all top 40 stations use this jingle. The French-language NRJ stations of Quebec use Astral's rock jingles, while CKMM-FM Winnipeg uses Astral's hot AC jingles. Also used on co-owned Family, a television channel for children, especially on hot AC station CHRX-FM.
• Rock: One of the most common jingles of the company, used on all Astral rock stations. Also used by the French NRJ stations of Quebec, and until June 2010, on CKZZ-FM Vancouver, a hot adult contemporary station.
• Country: Used on all country stations owned by the company.
• News-talk: Used on all news-talk stations owned by the company.
• Classic hits/oldies: Notable stations using this jingle are CFZZ-FM in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec along with sister station CFEI-FM in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec. Also used on AM oldies stations.
• Adult hits: CHBM-FM Toronto is the only adult hits station owned by Astral. To date, it is also used by majority of the adult contemporary stations (most of them being EZ Rock), as well as majority of the AC stations owned by the company, especially when CHBM-FM was an adult contemporary station as CJEZ-FM until 2009. It is not used by the RockDétente stations of Quebec. It is also on hot adult contemporary station KBS Radio.

References

External links

• Official Astral website
• CRTC chart of Astral Media's assets (PDF)