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December 2007 - Strategy Magazine
Upfront

Heavy Canada looking for comedians and contraband brands

by Annette Bourdeau
page 11

Hot on the heels of its successful "Canadian Contraband" online reality show/battle of the bands hybrid, which attracted an impressive 7.7 million streams, Heavy Canada is gearing up to launch the series "Comedy Contraband" next spring. The series will follow funny Canadians as they compete to win stage time at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival next summer.

"It's not just for stand-up comics...the idea is that it will be open to anything that's funny," explains David U.K., VP/GM of Toronto-based Heavy Canada. Contestants can deliver punchlines, craft Jackass-esque pranks and whatever else they have in their comedic arsenal to win.

The series will run online at Heavy.com, and, like all Heavy content, will be available on Virgin Mobile phones. The online video hub's audience is predominantly 18- to 34-year-old males, with 92% of visitors over age 18. Its monthly Canadian traffic is 1.4 million unique visits.

Montreal-based Just for Laughs has already signed on as a partner for the series. Now, Heavy Canada is interested in attracting more brands to get on board, online and off. "We can integrate [brands] into the actual scripting," explains U.K. At press time, Heavy was still in talks with high-profile Canadian comics about judging the competition.

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