ASTRAL COMMUNICATIONS REALIGNS BROADCASTING UNITS
By Adnews Staff
Astral Communications of Montreal is preparing for the launch of two new French specialty channels, Canal Histoire and Canal Fiction, in January by realigning its management and day-to-day operations of its broadcasting group. The two operating divisions of Astral Broadcasting Group have been renamed. TMN Networks Inc. has been changed to Astral Television Networks Inc. and Les Reseaux Premier Choix inc., is now known as Les Chaines Tele-Astral inc. TMN president Lisa de Wilde has been named president and CEO of Astral Television Networks and Les Reseaux Premier Choix head Pierre Roy has been appointed president and CEO of Les Chaines Tele-Astral.
In addition, the networks, within each broadcasting unit have also been realigned. Astral's wholly-owned or controlled English and French-language pay and pay-per-view services have been grouped within Astral Television Networks. The French-language pay television service, Super Ecran, has been added to de Wilde's existing responsibilities which include TMN-The Movie Network, MOVIEPIX, Viewer's Choice Canada and Canal Indigo. Canal Famille and Canal D, the two French-language specialty services Astral owns outright and the soon to be launched services of Canal Histoire and Canal Fiction, which Astral owns 50 per cent of and is the managing partner, will all form Les Chaines Tele-Astral, which will be headed up by Roy. Andre Bureau, chairman of the corporation and president and CEO of the Astral Broadcasting group said it was "logical to group all the pay and pay-per-view service in one unit since the major portion of their programming, movies, is common to all five networks." The realignment does not affect the operations of Family Channel, of which Astral owns 50 per cent and the English and French Teletoon networks, in which Family Channel is the largest shareholder and managing partner.