LOS ALTOS, Calif. – Life Network founder and Canadian cable television executive Juris Silkans died on February 23 at his home in Los Altos, California. He was 70.
Born in 1943 in Ludza, Latvia, Silkans moved to Canada as a child with his parents who settled in Hamilton, Ont. After graduating from McMaster University, he got his start in the broadcasting industry in 1975 when he was appointed director of cable and new service policy for the Department of Communications in Ottawa.
He moved to the private sector in 1977, joining Toronto-based CUC Broadcasting Limited, which at that time was one of Canada's largest cable companies. Starting as vice-president of programming, Silkans went on to be SVP of strategic planning and regulatory affairs.
In 1993, he approached Atlantis Communications about co-developing specialty television channel Life Network, and was its president from 1994 to 1999. Silkans was named that company’s vice-president of strategic planning before moving up to the role of president of Atlantis Broadcasting, which was then owner and operator of Life Network and Home and Garden Television Canada (HGTV). He was simultaneously president of HGTV from its launch in 1997 to 1999.
In May 1999, Silkans was appointed president of new media for Alliance Atlantis, a division of the newly merged company Alliance Atlantis Communications. He left about a year later to join new media company E-TV Interactive Technologies, a supplier of commerce-enabled television programming and related services, and later became a director and advisor at venture capital firm Pinnacle Merchant Capital. He was also the chairman, president, and CEO of Planetvu Corporation, a company which, seemingly ahead of its time, sought to acquire the digital rights to international TV channels and distribute them via the Internet.
Silkans served a term as chairman of the Greater Toronto Cable Television Association, was a director of the Ontario Cable Television Association and the Canadian Cable Television Association, as well as a president of the Canadian Cable Television Standards Foundation. In his community activities, he became a long-serving executive committee member of the National Broadcast Reading Service (voice print), and was inducted into the CAB Broadcast Hall of Fame in 2000.
Long-time friend and colleague Richard Stursberg remembers Silkans as a well-read poet with a penchant for chess and an “interesting enthusiasm for all sorts of weird stuff”. And he credits that “very funny, very zany, very clever guy” with developing many of the strategic plans used by the Canadian cable industry, and for his role in the creation and rise of the ‘lifestyle’ channel, of which there are so many today.
“I think it’s fair to say that he was one of the absolute founders of the specialty television business in Canada and particularly the lifestyle channels that emerged during (the 1990s),” Stursberg said.
Michael MacMillan, CEO of Blue Ant Media, described Silkans as “a delightful and enthusiastic man with lots of heart, lots of energy, and lots of opinions.” Reflecting back on when the two developed Life Network, (now Shaw Media’s Slice), he said that he and his colleagues at Alliance Atlantis “all owe him a lot.”
"Juris walking in our door with his Life Network idea was what we needed, but it was what he needed too – it was transformational.” – Michael MacMillan, Blue Ant Media
“We (Atlantis Communications) were a producer and a distributor, we’d been around for 15 years, we were successful enough but we were not a broadcaster,” said MacMillan. “So we looked at the idea and thought the timing was right and that it coincided perfectly with our already decided belief that we should become a broadcaster.
“So we put our lot in with each other and developed the concept, got a licence from the Commission and Life Network was born… That was the beginning of Atlantis’ broadcasting business and one of the reasons that Atlantis bought Alliance in a reverse takeover in the stock market. Juris walking in our door with his Life Network idea was what we needed, but it was what he needed too – it was transformational.”
“I’ve known Juris since I started covering this business in 1997 and he was always very giving of his time and knowledge and really helped me understand the industry,” added Greg O’Brien, editor and publisher of Cartt.ca. “I’m so grateful for his help over the years.”
Silkans is survived by his wife Barbara Adey. A statement issued by his family said Silkans “was grateful for every day of his life” and that he will be remembered and “missed for his humour and his loving spirit.”
A memorial service will be held in Toronto at a later date. In lieu of flowers, friends may make a donation to the charity of their choice in Silkans' memory.
