Ian Greenberg (1942-2022) | “Ian was a pioneer”

Quebec businessman Ian Greenberg, a media giant who co-founded and then headed Astral Media, died Monday at the age of 79.

Vincent Brousseau-Pouliot
Press

In 1961 Ian Greenberg co-founded the family business with his older brothers Harold, Harvey and Sidney Greenberg. The Greenberg brothers were raised by their mother Annie in a modest three-room apartment in downtown Montreal. They had no money when they founded their business, originally named in memory of their mother. Several decades later, this photo service in Miracle Mart stores became Astral Media, one of the largest media companies in Canada.

Mr. Greenberg was President and CEO of Astral Media from 1995 until the sale of the company to Bell in 2013. At the time of this transaction, Astral was the largest owner of radio stations in the country and also an important player in TV. Ian Greenberg has since served on the Bell Board of Directors.

“Ian was very grateful to everyone at Astral Media and very proud of the role Astral has played, as a Quebec company, in the Canadian media landscape,” said his wife Linda Greenberg in a written statement sent to Press. He was happy to have joined forces with Bell in 2013 and grateful for his time on the BCE board, a role close to his heart. His legacy will be perpetuated through all those who knew him, and especially through his children and grandchildren. ”

As CEO of Astral Media, Mr. Greenberg made the bet of transforming Astral Media into an integrated media company (radio, specialized TV, billboards) capable of offering advertising convergence to its advertisers. He also banked on the development of specialty TV channels in the 1990s and 2000s. It was a successful gamble: under his leadership, Astral experienced 17 consecutive years of growth before being sold to Bell as part of a $ 3.38 billion transaction in 2013. It is still the most expensive transaction in the Canadian media industry.

“Ian was a pioneer. He has done a lot for the Canadian media industry by creating a company of this magnitude, says Jacques Parisien, former executive vice-president of Astral who worked for 20 years with Ian Greenberg. His family started from nothing and created the largest radio group in Canada. [En matière de convergence publicitaire], he paved the way for everyone. He did it both in English and in French, both on TV and on the radio. I don’t know a lot of Montrealers who have done that. ”

Raised in a very modest family

Born in 1942 in Montreal, Ian Greenberg grew up in a modest environment. His father dies that Ian is still very young. Her mother Annie Greenberg is raising her eight children in a modest three-room apartment in downtown Montreal. She died in 1961 when Ian was only 19 years old.

When their mother dies, the four Greenberg brothers decide to start a business to unite their family even if they don’t have the money. They name the company Angreen in honor of their mother. In 1961, Angreen was a photo service in the Miracle Mart. Angreen obtains his first major contract for souvenir photos of the Universal Exhibition in 1967.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Angreen became Astral and the company diversified by offering production services for film and television. She gave up photography, but launched into specialized television, in particular with Super Ecran, The Movie Network and the Canal Famille (now VRAK).

In 1995, Ian Greenberg succeeded his brother Harold (who died of cancer in 1996) as CEO of the company. Astral then becomes solely a media company (radio, specialized and pay TV, billboards), abandoning TV / cinema production. Astral Media acquires several competitors in the radio and television industry, including Radiomutuel (1999), Télémédia (2002) and Standard Broadcasting (2007).

A major player in Canada

From 2007 until 2013, Astral was the largest owner of radio stations in Canada. The Montreal company was also the largest owner of TV channels not attached to a telecoms conglomerate. Astral then had 2,800 employees in 50 cities across the country, and generated annual revenues of $ 1 billion.

In 2012, when the business climate promises to be more difficult for specialty TV with the rise of foreign services such as Netflix, Astral accepts Bell’s offer to purchase. The first version of the transaction – in which Bell bought almost all of Astral for $ 3.38 billion – is blocked by the Competition Bureau and the CRTC. Bell and Astral come back with a second proposal, in which Bell agrees to divest 13 of Astral’s 25 TV channels. This time around, the transaction was approved by regulatory authorities in 2013.

At Astral, brothers Harold and Ian Greenberg had established and cultivated an entrepreneurial culture. “They always asked the teams to come up with new ideas,” recalls Jacques Parisien.

In the world of radio and television, Ian Greenberg also stood out for his discretion in the public arena. “He was unobtrusive for the general public, but he was a very present boss,” says Jacques Parisien. It was very pleasant to work with him. He was very disciplined, he was a strategist and he listened to his teams a lot. ”

A member of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame, he and his brothers also received the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanities Award for supporting philanthropic causes.

Ian Greenberg is survived by his wife Linda Greenberg, their three children and their grandchildren.