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Broadcasting `99 supershow! 
Private broadcasters ready for 2000 challenges

OTTAWA, July 28, 1999 - Seizing new millennium opportunities and satisfying the exploding demand for top Canadian programming are key goals of Broadcasting `99, Oct. 31-Nov. 2, in Montreal - home of some of broadcasting's biggest success stories.

Expected at the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' annual supershow are more than 500 leading radio, television and specialty executives and other key decision-makers from Canada and abroad. This year's theme is 'Ready! 2000'.

Launching Monday morning's potent two part opening plenary is keynote speaker Andrew Lippman, provocative, spirited long-time associate director of the internationally influential MIT Media Lab. Lippman excels at demystifying modern technology for his audiences. He prompts broadcasters ³to think of the net as an `always-on' pipeline into the global digital community - the audience of the next millennium.²

Lippman's enlightening strategic vision of cyberspace is followed by the sizzling `FuturePlan: Beyond 2000' session. Be there for the first public presentation of a wide-ranging CAB study that sets the industry's course for the next crucial 10 years. Interact with top panelists on how digital, satellite services and e-commerce are rapidly changing the broadcasting business.

Other sure-fire sellout sessions tackle the CRTC's visionary new TV Policy; convergence; the swing to digital; Internet TV and satellite radio; and the merits of broadcasters and the music industry singing from the same song sheet.

Headline speakers include CRTC Chair Françoise Bertrand (invited) and Finance Minister Paul Martin (invited), with other hot prospects on the line.

Broadcasting `99 kicks off Sunday, October 31, with popular `pre-opening' roundtables for small market members. Share ideas on New Media, Internet Radio, successful promotions, effective staffing, and boosting radio's profile in the community. Take advantage of a special session to brief CRTC commissioners on the unique challenges and business realities of running a small market station.

Other value-packed sessions being fine-tuned:

• CEO Panel - Sparks always fly during this highly rated panel as industry leaders face off on broadcasting's future
• `Convergence and the New Competition: Radio at the Crossroads'
• `Partners in Progress' - Focuses on Canadian talent and how radio and the music industry can work together
• `Produce or Perish' - Explores the partnerships and funding needed to bring the world to Canadian programming and vice versa
• `The Challenge of Bilingual Markets' facing specialty services
• `Digital Television: What's it going to take?' - Experts from around the world review the state of DTV and remind broadcasters what they need to do
• `What's New in Radio Advertising?' - Interactivity, partnerships and one-on-one marketing will make future radio advertising more customer focused

Social highlights include the always popular Hall of Fame Luncheon and spectacular Gold Ribbon Awards dinner, featuring some of the world's finest entertainers.

Broadcasting `99 co-chairs are Daniel Lamarre, Groupe TVA, Montreal and Claude Beaudoin, Télémédia Communications, Montreal.

For more information, please contact:

Susan Tolusso
Director, Communications
(613) 233-4035 ext. 331
(stolusso@cab-acr.ca)