TORONTO, Oct. 6 /CNW/ - CTV has become the exclusive broadcast partner for Canada's most prestigious literary award, The Scotiabank Giller Prize, as announced today by Susanne Boyce, CTV's President of Programming along with Jack Rabinovitch, Founder of The Scotiabank Giller Prize. The new three-year agreement brings the broadcast of the ceremony awarding Canada's richest literary prize for fiction to CTV through 2007.
With today's announcement, The Giller Prize becomes the latest cultural program to join the powerhouse roster of Canada's No. 1 broadcaster, sitting alongside CTV's other nation-building programs, which include The JUNO Awards (since 2001), Canadian Idol (since 2003) and Canada's Walk of Fame (since 2005). Following a similar move to CTV, The JUNO Awards went on to enjoy unprecedented support, newfound ratings success and unprecedented national profile. Today, CTV confirms it will commit its full promotional, communications and programming resources to support and grow The Scotiabank Giller Prize over the next several years.
Now in its 12th year, The Giller Prize was founded in 1994 by Jack Rabinovitch in honour of his late wife, literary journalist Doris Giller. The award was established to honor excellence in Canadian fiction, long format or short stories. With a cash award of $25,000, it was the richest literary prize in the country. In 2005, the Giller Prize and Scotiabank teamed up to create The Scotiabank Giller Prize, doubling the cash prize to $50,000, with $40,000 going to the winner and $2,5000 to each of the four finalists.
This year, the short-listed authors will be honoured and a winner announced at a gala black tie dinner and awards ceremony to be held at Toronto's Four Seasons Hotel on Tuesday, November 8, 2005. CTV will telecast The Giller Prize in a one-hour live special airing Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 9 p.m. ET on CTV Newsnet. An encore of the broadcast will air later that night on CTV following The Daily Show (at 12:30 a.m. ET) and the following day, Wednesday, Nov. 9 at 2 p.m. ET (check local listings). Canadians will be able to catch a final rebroadcast the following weekend on CTV. In all, the telecast will have aired four times.
"As Canadians continue to make their mark on the international arts and entertainment stage, CTV remains committed to celebrating this excellence with the nation," said Boyce. "The Giller Prize is a wonderful addition to our stable of Canadian celebratory television events."
"We're delighted about the move to CTV and the opportunity this affords the prize," said Rabinovitch. "Working with CTV enables us to reach a larger audience, and helps increase the recognition of Canadian authors and books."
Earlier this fall, a distinguished jury panel of three judges (writers Warren Cariou, Elizabeth Hay and Richard B. Wright) announced this year's five short-listed authors who were chosen from 94 books submitted for consideration.
The finalists are:
(x) Joan Barfoot for her novel Luck, published by Knopf Canada.
(x) David Bergen for his novel The Time In Between, published by
McClelland & Stewart.
(x) Camilla Gibb for her novel Sweetness in the Belly, published by
Doubleday Canada.
(x) Lisa Moore for her novel Alligator, published by House of Anansi
Press.
(x) Edeet Ravel for her novel A Wall of Light, published by Random
House Canada.
The Scotiabank Giller Prize has so far endowed more than $250,000 to Canadian writers from coast to coast. In the first 10 years of the prize, 2.5 million Giller-nominated books were sold. To date, more than $60 million in book sales have been generated as a direct result of the prize. More information about the prize, as well as a complete list of past winners, can be found at www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca.
In the coming weeks, CTV will announce further details on cross-platform plans to support the program from CTV's news and entertainment units.
CTV, Canada's largest private broadcaster, offers a wide range of quality news, sports, information, and entertainment programming. It boasts the number-one national newscast, CTV News With Lloyd Robertson, and is the number-one choice for prime-time viewing. CTV owns 21 conventional television stations across Canada and has interests in 14 specialty channels, including the number-one Canadian specialty channel, TSN. CTV is owned by Bell Globemedia, Canada's premier multi-media company. More information about CTV may be found on the company Web site at www.ctv.ca.
For further information: For CTV: Scott Henderson, CTV Inc. (416) 332-5305, shenderson@ctv.ca or Emily Young Lee, CTV Inc., (416) 332-7367, eyounglee@ctv.ca; For The Giller Prize: Elana Rabinovitch, (416) 934-0755 or elanar@sympatico.ca
© CNW Group
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