Playback<\/em> immediately anointed him our Person of the Decade, which was a no-brainer. Starting with his 1993 hire at Baton Broadcasting \u2013 CTV owners-to-be \u2013 he built the empire now known as Bell Media and oversaw the ascendency of crown jewel CTV to top spot in the network wars.<\/p>\nAfter all that, R and R sounded good.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d been working since high school. It had just been work, work, work,\u201d recalls Fecan over an omelette lunch at a restaurant in Toronto\u2019s Yorkville neighborhood. \u201cI needed to get my body back, because when you\u2019re a suit, you sit in far too many meetings and eat far too many sandwiches. So I swam laps for an hour everyday and walked on the beach. That was part of the journey back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fecan had a reputation for being pretty Zen for a guy who wheeled and dealed and pulled off industry-rocking transactions. But in his estimation he\u2019s more mellow now. But by no means is he out of the game.<\/p>\n
Several companies tried to lure him out of retirement, but he declined. He did some free consulting for friends and remained philanthropically active, participating on the boards of the Art Gallery of Ontario and the University Health Network, and working with the Royal Conservatory of Music.<\/p>\n
His biggest challenge was watching TV as a civilian again from the comfy sidelines of his couch. It made him itchy.<\/p>\n
Then one day, Fecan, who owns a house in Montecito, CA, was taken to lunch in Los Angeles by Lionsgate Entertainment founder Frank Giustra and Peace Arch Entertainment founder Tim Gamble to talk up their latest venture, Vancouver\u2019s Thunderbird Films, of which Giustra is director and largest investor and Gamble president and CEO. Fecan joined them as chair in April 2013.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey started reeling me in, step-by-step. Now I\u2019m pretty much in with both feet. I put in money, became executive chair, and got more interested. You put money in and all of a sudden you start paying real attention,\u201d he says with a laugh.<\/p>\n
Thunderbird already had Sea to Sky Entertainment, a content partnership with Lionsgate, and as Fecan joined it bought BC prodco Reunion Pictures (Continuum<\/em>). After he came on board as an investor, the company went on a buying spree that included U.K. film distributor Soda Pictures (High-Rise<\/em>), factual arm Great Pacific Media (Highway Thru Hell<\/em>) and Atomic Cartoons (Atomic Betty<\/em>).<\/p>\nThunderbird also owns 50% of the rights to the Blade Runner<\/em> property, and Giustra and Gamble are exec-producing a sequel to the 1982 cult sci-fi original. Harrison Ford reprises his role, playing alongside London, ON\u2019s Ryan Gosling, with Quebec\u2019s Denis Villeneuve in the director\u2019s chair.<\/p>\nFecan says Thunderbird\u2019s goals are to be \u201ca very creative-friendly content company and to bank big on people and brands. We\u2019re quite agnostic about platform. It\u2019s fun. I started my career as a producer, so I\u2019m back to my roots.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what made him unique for the head of a billion-dollar-plus media giant: he was always part artist at heart. He studied film at York University \u2013 although by skipping ahead he didn\u2019t collect enough credits to graduate \u2013 and cites Korean video-art pioneer Nam June Paik as an early influence. He even had an art installation at Greenwich Village\u2019s Mercer Arts Center in the early 1970s.<\/p>\n
He tried to sell his thesis film about a prisoner in the Saskatchewan Federal Penitentiary but says he \u201ccouldn\u2019t get arrested to save my life,\u201d and shrewdly packaged the soundtrack as a documentary for CBC Radio, which subsequently engaged him as a freelancer. It then brought him aboard to produce the first year of science show Quirks & Quarks<\/em>, hosted by David Suzuki.<\/p>\nHe transitioned to TV, working for Moses Znaimer at Citytv, where he co-created CityPulse News<\/em>. His next guru was Brandon Tartikoff, wunderkind president of NBC Entertainment, whom Fecan was trying to sell a coproduction. They got to talking, and Tartikoff solicited his opinion on a new show he had commissioned.<\/p>\n\u201cI told him what a piece of shit it was,\u201d Fecan recalls. That ended their conversation. But Fecan\u2019s assessment was borne out when the show bombed. Three months later, Tartikoff called him back and offered him a VP job. \u201cHe taught me that if you think somebody can help you, swallow your pride, hire them and work with them. Do whatever it takes to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1987, after a couple of years at NBC during which Fecan feels he earned his \u201cPhD in Television,\u201d CBC came calling with an offer to be its director of TV programming. He jumped at it, in part to be closer to his wife, TV producer Sandra Faire. At the time, CBC\u2019s slate was somewhat at the mercy of its area heads and their in-house producers, and Fecan controversially moved toward a system that emphasized development and the best idea winning, whether it came from inside or outside the pubcaster.<\/p>\n
This opened the door wider to indie producers, and Fecan greenlit iconic hit series including The Kids in the Hall<\/em> (Lorne Michaels\u2019 Broadway Video), Degrassi Junior High<\/em> (Playing with Time) and This Hour Has 22 Minutes<\/em> (Salter Street Films). \u201cThat was difficult, but the shows we put on the air have stood the test of time and were worth the aggravation and turmoil of getting them there,\u201d he reflects.<\/p>\nHe was promoted to VP English television, but greater glories lay ahead. In late 1993, Baton Broadcasting, owners of Toronto\u2019s CFTO and other CTV affiliates, hired him away in its quest to take over network ownership by buying out the remaining affiliate partners and their network shares. Fecan became Baton president and CEO in 1996, and by the next year the company had its network. Fecan supplanted John Cassaday as president and CEO of CTV and Baton changed its name to CTV Inc.<\/p>\n
The network, which previously had a primary purpose of supplying 40 hours of weekly programming to affiliate stations, could finally move forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt hadn\u2019t been a real company,\u201d Fecan notes. \u201cIt was a co-op, and that meant pretty much everybody had to agree before we could do anything. Everything was a big discussion with all kinds of layers of politics. Somebody had to be able to make decisions, and once I got it all together we could do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of CTV Inc.\u2019s first and biggest moves was to establish a bigger footprint in the burgeoning world of specialty, which it did in 2000 by acquiring an 80% voting interest in NetStar Communications, owners of sports channels TSN and RDS, Viewer\u2019s Choice Canada and Discovery Channel Canada \u2013 a deal Fecan pegs at $800 million.<\/p>\n
Sports has always been a big part of CTV\u2019s strategy. One-time parent Bell Globemedia (BGM) and successor CTVglobemedia even held a minority stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment from 2003 to 2009. Fecan acknowledges he was laying the groundwork to scoop NHL broadcast rights after CBC\u2019s deal expired, but those ended up going to Rogers in 2013 for $5.2 billion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plan was to get the Olympics, the NFL, the CFL and as much NHL as possible,\u201d he says. \u201cI had been working very hard over the years towards getting the whole thing. I kept in touch with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. I would have put [regular-season and playoff] games on TSN and had the Stanley Cup Final on CTV, which we would have done just to make noise. CTV was always the instrument we used to create noise.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s one that got away. Another was City \u2013 Fecan\u2019s old place of employ \u2013 which BGM acquired in its $1.7 billion takeover of CHUM in 2006. But the CRTC then required CTV Inc. to sell off City for the deal to pass, so it sold those stations to Rogers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted what City stood for in the day, not where they got to eventually,\u201d Fecan says. \u201cIf we had gotten City, I would\u2019ve tried to move it back to a news and movies formula and not just be buying American shows.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the approved CHUM deal came with plenty more, including a roster of specialties such as MuchMusic, Bravo!, Space and CP24, coast-to-coast radio stations and the A-Channels (which CTV originally planned to re-sell as part of the deal) which Bell Media rebranded as CTV Two.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s better you hand it over to the next team, and if they need something they call,\u201d he says. \u201cBut the last thing they need is a backseat driver. At times, as much as I\u2019ve wanted to, I\u2019ve been very disciplined in not picking up that phone, because the new team has to find their way. Hopefully I\u2019ve given them a platform they can do better with than the platform I had when I started.\u201d<\/p>\n
Playback\u2019s Canadian Film & Television Hall of Fame was founded in 2007 to recognize extraordinary achievements in the Canadian entertainment industry. Inductees are selected by a jury of their peers. Stay tuned for a brand new Hall of Fame website celebrating all our inductees, launching at the start of summer 2016.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark Dillon \/ Playback After succeeding at so much, Ivan Fecan finally found something to fail at: retirement. Fecan surprised everyone in 2010 when he announced his resignation as president and CEO of CTVglobemedia upon BCE\u2019s $1.3 billion purchase of CTV Inc. Playback immediately anointed him our Person of the Decade, which was a no-brainer. … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPlayback\u2019s 2016 Canadian Film & TV Hall of Fame: Ivan Fecan - Thunderbird Entertainment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/05\/24\/playbacks-2016-canadian-film-tv-hall-of-fame-ivan-fecan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Playback\u2019s 2016 Canadian Film & TV Hall of Fame: Ivan Fecan - Thunderbird Entertainment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mark Dillon \/ Playback After succeeding at so much, Ivan Fecan finally found something to fail at: retirement. Fecan surprised everyone in 2010 when he announced his resignation as president and CEO of CTVglobemedia upon BCE\u2019s $1.3 billion purchase of CTV Inc. Playback immediately anointed him our Person of the Decade, which was a no-brainer. … Continued\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/05\/24\/playbacks-2016-canadian-film-tv-hall-of-fame-ivan-fecan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thunderbird Entertainment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-24T17:35:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/social-share.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"633\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gearbox_admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gearbox_admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/05\/24\/playbacks-2016-canadian-film-tv-hall-of-fame-ivan-fecan\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/05\/24\/playbacks-2016-canadian-film-tv-hall-of-fame-ivan-fecan\/\",\"name\":\"Playback\u2019s 2016 Canadian Film & TV Hall of Fame: Ivan Fecan - Thunderbird Entertainment\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-24T17:35:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-05-24T17:35:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#\/schema\/person\/41eb8208032d7ee9602156e61d6f6c41\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/05\/24\/playbacks-2016-canadian-film-tv-hall-of-fame-ivan-fecan\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/05\/24\/playbacks-2016-canadian-film-tv-hall-of-fame-ivan-fecan\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/05\/24\/playbacks-2016-canadian-film-tv-hall-of-fame-ivan-fecan\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Playback\u2019s 2016 Canadian Film & TV Hall of Fame: Ivan Fecan\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/\",\"name\":\"Thunderbird Entertainment\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#\/schema\/person\/41eb8208032d7ee9602156e61d6f6c41\",\"name\":\"Gearbox_admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/239363dc97071e1a4eb9d0cc6971f646?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/239363dc97071e1a4eb9d0cc6971f646?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gearbox_admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/author\/gearbox_admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Playback\u2019s 2016 Canadian Film & TV Hall of Fame: Ivan Fecan - Thunderbird Entertainment","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/05\/24\/playbacks-2016-canadian-film-tv-hall-of-fame-ivan-fecan\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Playback\u2019s 2016 Canadian Film & TV Hall of Fame: Ivan Fecan - Thunderbird Entertainment","og_description":"Mark Dillon \/ Playback After succeeding at so much, Ivan Fecan finally found something to fail at: retirement. Fecan surprised everyone in 2010 when he announced his resignation as president and CEO of CTVglobemedia upon BCE\u2019s $1.3 billion purchase of CTV Inc. Playback immediately anointed him our Person of the Decade, which was a no-brainer. … Continued","og_url":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/05\/24\/playbacks-2016-canadian-film-tv-hall-of-fame-ivan-fecan\/","og_site_name":"Thunderbird Entertainment","article_published_time":"2016-05-24T17:35:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":633,"url":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/social-share.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Gearbox_admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Gearbox_admin","Est. reading time":"8 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/05\/24\/playbacks-2016-canadian-film-tv-hall-of-fame-ivan-fecan\/","url":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/05\/24\/playbacks-2016-canadian-film-tv-hall-of-fame-ivan-fecan\/","name":"Playback\u2019s 2016 Canadian Film & TV Hall of Fame: Ivan Fecan - Thunderbird Entertainment","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-05-24T17:35:04+00:00","dateModified":"2016-05-24T17:35:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#\/schema\/person\/41eb8208032d7ee9602156e61d6f6c41"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/05\/24\/playbacks-2016-canadian-film-tv-hall-of-fame-ivan-fecan\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/05\/24\/playbacks-2016-canadian-film-tv-hall-of-fame-ivan-fecan\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2016\/05\/24\/playbacks-2016-canadian-film-tv-hall-of-fame-ivan-fecan\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Playback\u2019s 2016 Canadian Film & TV Hall of Fame: Ivan Fecan"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#website","url":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/","name":"Thunderbird Entertainment","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#\/schema\/person\/41eb8208032d7ee9602156e61d6f6c41","name":"Gearbox_admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/239363dc97071e1a4eb9d0cc6971f646?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/239363dc97071e1a4eb9d0cc6971f646?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Gearbox_admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/thunderbird.tv"],"url":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/author\/gearbox_admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2804"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}