Year of Induction: 2004
Member of CAB Hall of Fame
Chandrasekar, Shan ( – )
Coming from a family of broadcasters, filmmakers and music producers in India, Shan Chandraseker took his Masters Degree at McGill University in Montreal.
His first venture in broadcasting began in 1971 when he provided television programming to Toronto’s relatively new South Asia community on Rogers Cable.
In 1975, Shan launched the first over-the-air South Asian programming on
CITY-TV. In 1979, his South Asian programming was moved to CFMT-TV, Canada’s first Multi-Cultural TV station, and continued on that station for 15 years.
In 1993, he formed ATN – the Asian Television Network – with a Specialty Channel on Cable TV across Canada. The ATN group of companies, all to do with the Asian community, includes an Entertainment Unit promoting concerts featuring Asian talent.
With the advent of digital Specialty Channels, ATN received licences for five channels – SATV -ZEE-TV – B4U – Alpha Punjabi – ARY – Tamil – each in a different Indian language of the South Asian community of 1.5 million living across Canada.
As founder and President & CEO of ATN, Shan Chandraseker is committed to the people of South Asia living in Canada. He is also dedicated to the Toronto community as a whole and has served on the Boards of York University Foundation, the Multicultural History of Canada, University of Toronto, Scarborough Hospital Foundation and the Royal Conservatory of Music, and is currently on the Boards of the Canadian Club, the Advisory Board of York University, Canadian Women in Communications and the Specialty & Pay Television Section of the Canadian Broadcasters Association.
The shares of his company, Asian Television International Limited, are listed on the Canadian Venture Exchange TSX under the symbol YTN.
In 2004, Shan Chandraseker was inducted into the CAB Hall of Fame.
Written by Ross McCreath – November, 2004