Strong year for Astral

Net earnings rose 14% to $104.4 million at Astral Media in 2005, according to recent year-end numbers. The Montreal-based radio and TV broadcaster is reporting across-the-board gains, with revenue up 6% to $549.6 million and EBITDA up 12% to $172.6 million. Astral president and CEO Ian Greenberg also noted "impressive" gains in its specialty TV sector, where ad revenue jumped 25%, and in pay-TV, where subscriptions rose 5% to 1.5 million.

Rebound for Global

CanWest Global Communications had a good year in 2005, and is reporting net earnings of $10 million for the year ending Aug. 31, up from a net loss of $13 million in '04 - but Canadian TV is still the weak link in its international chain of broadcast and print holdings.

The conglom's outlets in Ireland, Australia and New Zealand are all reporting double-digit growth, while its Canadian broadcasters, which include the Global and CH networks, saw a revenue gain of 1% to $699 million. CanWest is blaming a weak advertising market and increased spending on programming at Global. Revenue at its domestic casters was down 5% last year.

Applications? Anyone?

VisionTV and the National Screen Institute are again encouraging native and visible minority producers to apply for DiverseTV, a joint program on broadcast development and production. The project has so far seen few applications from outside B.C. and Ontario - and none from the Prairies or the East Coast.

"It's called DiverseTV for a reason," says Vision spokesperson Sarah Kiriliuk. "We don't want to have just people from Toronto."

Deadline for applications is Dec. 12. See www.nsi-canada.ca for details.

NSI and Telefilm, meanwhile, have chosen the filmmaking teams for the 2005/06 Features First program, which helps filmmakers develop their first or second feature. The five teams are: Larissa Giroux and Jeffrey St. Jules, with their Bang Bang Baby; Anneli Ekborn and Kirsten Carthew with The Sun at Midnight; Timo Puolitaipale, Darren Wall and Ryan Fitzgerald with Chroma; Brent Deere and Adam Smoluk with Foodland; and Rick Stefanowski, Torin Stefanson and Teri Armitage with Time to Reap.

Banff deadline draws near

The Banff World Television Festival has issued a call for entries for its Banff World Television Awards, to be handed out at the 2006 edition of its fest. Formerly the Rockie Awards, there are 18 prizes available, including a new one for interactive television projects. The submission deadline is Feb. 28, with the festival taking place June 11-14. See www.banff2006.com.

Call for third workshop

SODEC is calling for applications to the third edition of its l'Atelier Grand Nord - aka the Far North Workshop - to be held in Saint-Alexis-des-Monts, QC, March 18-26, 2006. The event focuses on feature-length fiction, in French, from Quebec, France, Belgium and Switzerland, and includes discussions and critical analyses by high-end auteurs. Deadline for applications is Dec. 16. See www.sodec.gouv.qc.ca for details.