Anton Koschany

Anton Koschany, (born August 16, 1953 in Linz, Austria) is the Executive Producer of CTV W5 and the network's News Elections Unit.^[1]

Anton Koschany is a television journalist with 41 years experience as a newsmagazine and documentary producer, news correspondent and program manager. During his career he has covered Canadian, American, local, national and international stories. For the past sixteen years he has managed W5 - Canada's most-watched and North America's longest-running newsmagazine program- first as Senior Producer and now as Executive Producer.

Koschany is also Executive Producer of CTV Elections, producing the federal election broadcast in 2011 and overseeing, on behalf of the network, provincial and local elections. He has been Executive Producer of the annual A Conversation with the Prime Minister – overseeing the annual Christmas-time interview with four Canadian Prime Ministers until the PMO refused CTV's requests in 2012 and 2013.

In 2006 Koschany was Executive Producer of Triumph & Treachery: The Brian Mulroney Story, CTV’s acclaimed biographical documentary about former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. Co-produced with Quebec network TVA, the documentary was presented as a two-hour special on CTV.

Prior to joining W5, from 1996 to 1998, Koschany was a correspondent for CTV News based at its Toronto Bureau, filing investigative reports and covering daily news, feature stories and Bay Street.

In addition to being Bureau Chief from 1994 to 1996, he filed live and taped reports as producer and correspondent for CTV News, Canada AM, and CTV News Inquiry investigative reports. He was also a back-up reporter for CTV News at the Vancouver Bureau, breaking numerous exclusive stories.

At CTV, his investigative reports exposed Agriculture Canada's assistance and international collusion in developing high-nicotine strains of tobacco, failings in Canada's witness protection program, and failure of the Canadian government to live up to international treaties regarding the death penalty. He also obtained exclusive interviews in the Guy Paul Morin, wrongful conviction case.

While at CTV News, Koschany also reported for W5, using hidden cameras to expose how easily Canadian youth could obtain cigarettes unlawfully. From 1993-94, Koschany was a Senior Field Producer for W5 in Vancouver when Eric Malling was host, establishing the Vancouver bureau.

He joined CTV after a dozen years as the Vancouver field producer for the CBC flagship current affairs program, the fifth estate. While there he produced hard-hitting exposés, investigative documentaries and in-depth features. Among his favourites:

• a hidden-camera investigation of Asian organized crime, stealing and canning Canadian salmon, which involved his going undercover in Bangkok;
• pioneering use of small video cameras to expose abuse of sailors aboard deep-sea freighters
• an in-depth, "inside" profile of musician and producer David Foster;
• a documentary about British Columbia's Queen Charlotte Islands that kicked off the debate about saving South Morseby Island – today a National Park.

In all he produced more than 70 documentaries for the fifth estate.

In 2014, Koschany was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award as co-producer of W5 (Best News Information Series). In 2001 and 2006, Koschany won Gemini Awards as co-producer of W-FIVE (Best News Information Series). He has been nominated for five other Gemini Awards. He has also won several Silver WorldMedals from the New York Festivals for his work at W-FIVE and for Investigative Reporting. In 2000 he was given a Commendation by the Genesis Awards for Cruel Cages, a documentary that exposed horrible conditions at roadside zoos in Canada.

Prior to his newsmagazine work, Koschany was an assignment editor and reporter in Vancouver, covering breaking news stories and politics. He created the first television labour beat in Canada. He also worked as a producer/correspondent for Jack Webster – the legendary Vancouver journalist and talk radio/television host.

Broadcast History

BCIT Broadcast Program graduate 1973; reporter BCTV 1973-77; reporter CBC Vancouver 1977-79; Assignment Editor BCTV; reporter/producer Webster! 1977-81; producer the fifth estate Vancouver bureau 1981-93; Senior Field Producer W-FIVE CTV Vancouver 1993-94; Bureau Chief CTV News Toronto 1994-96; correspondent/investigative reporter CTV Toronto 1996-98; Senior Producer W-FIVE CTV 1998-2009; Executive Producer W5 CTV 2009-current; Executive Producer CTV News Elections; World Silvermedal winner, New York Festivals, investigative reporting 1998; six-time Gemini Award nominee 1999-2005; winner Gemini Awards for Best News and Information Series 2001 & 2005; nominee for Canadian Screen Awards for Best News and Information Series, 2014.

References