Former Bell Media executive Catherine MacLeod has been named the new president of the Television Bureau of Canada (TVB). Her appointment is effective April 13.
MacLeod succeeds Theresa Treutler, who stepped down in December after seven years with the Toronto-based organization – which was established in 1961 as a not-for-profit organization working on behalf of Canadian broadcasters to communicate the value and effectiveness of TV advertising.
MacLeod was most recently senior vice-president, specialty channels and Bell Media Production, responsible for brand and programming strategies across all of the company’s non-sports specialty TV and digital assets, including Discovery, Brave, Space, Comedy, Much, MTV and TheLoop.ca. She also oversaw in-house production and original digital video content.
Prior to that, she was Bell’s VP business and legal affairs, providing business and legal support for the acquisition and creation of specialty programming music-related content and in-house production.
Errol Da-Ré, chairman of the board of TVB and SVP of sales for Shaw Media, said MacLeod’s “strategic vision and business acumen” made her an ideal candidate for the role. He called her a “strong ambassador” for the television industry.
MacLeod’s appointment comes at a critical time for the Canadian television industry, which was subject to a comprehensive review by the CRTC last fall.
The industry is being impacted by a series of recent regulatory decisions and changing viewer habits brought about by the introduction of streaming services such as Netflix and Shomi.
In its most recent ad spend forecast, ZenithOptimedia predicted advertiser spending on conventional TV would soften by between 1% and 2% a year through 2017, with specialty TV achieving modest gains of 1.5% to 2.7% a year.
While TV attracted $3.4 billion in spending in 2014, it has been surpassed as Canada’s largest advertising medium by the internet, which attracted 34.6% of all ad dollars in 2014, compared to 29.8% for TV.
