The ontario Lottery Corporation is raising its profile and telling the public of its good deeds with a new tv show and a new magazine.
Win! tv is aired on Baton Broadcasting’s ONT Network.
It features winning lottery numbers, winner interviews and stories on where the money from lottery profits are spent.
Don Pister, a spokesman for the olc in Sault Ste. Marie, says the olc and Baton have signed a three-year deal worth $7.85 million that has two option years.
Win! tv is also broadcast on chfd-tv in Thunder Bay and cjbn-tv in Kenora under separate agreements.
Pister says the content of WIN! Magazine will be the same as the tv show, with the addition of winning lottery numbers from the previous couple of months.
He says the olc went to a nightly segment because lottery players wanted more timely news about results.
Casinos
He says win! tv and WIN Magazine are not pre-emptive strikes against the casinos the Ontario government has promised.
According to Pister, the olc had some discussion with Global TV and cbc-tv before settling with Baton.
The olc’s show on TVOntario has been dropped, he says. The olc’s contract with the CTV Television Network for a twice-a-week lottery shows has also concluded.
According to Ian Nielsen-Jones, president of the olc, Baton provided the best opportunity for win! tv.
Douglas Bassett, president of Baton, was quoted calling the new lottery show a ‘natural’ for his Ontario audience.
win! tv began Sept. 8.
Pister says the seven-nights-a-week segment runs 40 seconds to 60 seconds at the end of each newscast, and is introduced by local anchors. Air time is about 11.40 p.m.
Also, each night between 8.45 p.m. and 9 p.m. a five-second billboard displaying the day’s winning Pick 3 numbers appears on Baton stations with a reminder to watch win! tv later on.
The next morning a re-broadcast of the win! tv show airs at 6.10 a.m. Monday to Friday. On Saturday and Sunday mornings, the win! tv show is re-broadcast only on cfto in Toronto.
Copies of WIN! Magazine are available through the olc’s 11,000 retailers, its offices in Toronto and Sault Ste. Marie, and by request through the olc’s consumer affairs toll-free line.
Pister says there is no appreciable cost involved in the production of the magazine because the olc has cut back on its advertising.
He says instead of running results ads in every daily newspaper in the province twice a week, the ads now run only once a week.
WIN! Magazine will appear every other month, Pister says. The first issue – four pages, tabloid-size – came out Sept. 10.
