Corriere Canadese, the Canadian Italian Daily Newspaper, founded in 1954 by Montreal-born Dan Iannuzzi, has been – and still is – the mainstay around which Multimedia Nova was developed. Now known as Multimedia Nova Corporation, a public company in the communications field, Multimedia has been trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol MNC.A.

So, how did we get to where we are today?

The Corriere of today has a daily distribution of 30,000 copies. But, how did it start? The period from 1954 to 1969 was one in which Corriere Canadese grew in leaps and bounds. From 2,500 copies weekly to over 18,000 copies daily, it kept pace with the large influx of Italian immigrants, averaging 60,000 per year, the majority of which settled in Toronto.

The next 20 years was a period for consolidation of the newspaper’s strengths and positioning in the marketplace with some expansion into related electronic media fields.

A History of Firsts

After a few experiments in ethnic radio during the late 1960’s, the Corriere team was poised for broadening its horizons into electronic publishing. One such opportunity arose in 1972 when the Toronto group that was about to start up CITY-TV asked Dan Iannuzzi to join them. As a result, he founded Multilingual Television Limited (MTV), a subsidiary to the Corriere Canadese publishing company. MTV was responsible for over 30 hours of weekly programming in 16 languages on CITY-TV, from September 1972 to September 1979; at that time, MTV was itself licensed by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to broadcast on CFMT-TV Channel 47 across Southern Ontario (now Rogers OMNI 1).

During the first ten-year period of rapid growth in both audience (5 share) and advertising sales ($20 million), the fledgling regional television station was the first private station to transmit live telecasts via satellite to Europe. It was also the first TV station to program on a full 24-hour basis (The All Night Show with Chuck the Security Guard), and the first Canadian TV station to broadcast in Stereo.

Due to this steady growth, more capital was required and Rogers Broadcasting Inc. purchased a substantial interest in 1986, and later bought out all MTV Shareholders including the Iannuzzi/Corriere Group by 1988.

Converging Medias

In 1989, the dormant public company was re-activated to form Multimedia Capital Corporation, with subsidiaries which encompassed existing operations and others under development in the communications field including printing, publishing, promotions and broadcasting.

During the next five years, the parent company developed subsidiaries for the Corriere Canadese and its weekend edition, Tandem (in English). For its own print production, as well as third parties, NewsWeb Printing Corporation was formed in 1997.

For its re-entry into the television field, a new subsidiary, World Television Network/Le Réseau Télémonde Inc., was formed in 1990.

The new broadcasting subsidiary was responsible for the concept and development of a unique television service, unlike others in the Canadian broadcasting system. An extensive application was prepared and submitted to the CRTC. A public hearing was held in 1993, but was unsuccessful due to the heavy opposition from the major cable operators and broadcasters who intervened in the process.

World Télémonde re-filed its application twice, with the last time incorporating a revised digital component to better reflect the emerging “digital reality” while retaining the service’s basic dual status on analogue as being an exceptional service in the national public interest. (The World Télémonde service has since been licensed by the CRTC with digital distribution and has a pending launch of June 2006.)

In 1993, after having survived the recession, management felt it was necessary to consolidate the share structure in order to raise new capital needed to reorganize the company and finance its subsidiaries’ further developments. The parent company was renamed Multimedia Nova Corporation in 2001 to better identify its overall purpose.