Astral

Astral may refer to:

Concepts of the non-physical

Entertainment

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Astral Media

Astral Media (branded simply as Astral since 2010) was a Canadian media corporation. It was Canada's largest radio broadcaster with 84 radio stations in eight provinces, and was a major player in premium and specialty television in Canada, including The Movie Network, Super Écran, Family, Télétoon, Canal D, Canal Vie, VRAK.TV, Séries+, Ztélé and more. Astral also had numerous billboards for outdoor advertising through its Astral Out-of-Home division.

In March 2012, Astral Media announced that it had accepted a $3.38 billion bid to be acquired by Bell Canada, a merger which would give the company's Bell Media division a larger presence in the premium television and French language media sectors. However, the proposed acquisition was met with criticism from other broadcasters and television providers, who showed concerns surrounding the combined market power that Bell would have following the merger. As a result, the acquisition was blocked by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission in October 2012. A revised merger, which saw the divesture of several Astral-owned television properties and radio stations to competing companies, was approved by the CRTC on June 27, 2013, and closed on June 5, 2014. The company was dissolved in July 2014 as a result of Astral's assets being officially acquired by Bell.

Astral (band)

Astral is a shoegaze group based in San Francisco, California. Astral was formed by singer-guitarist Dave Han and drummer Shawn in 1999; bassist Amy Rosenoff joined them in 2001. Their vocals are frequently compared to those of The Cure; other influences include My Bloody Valentine and Joy Division. Their music is of an ethereal, melodic nature; this ambient sound is created largely by heavy use of distortion and feedback effects in Han's guitar. Astral are also notable for incorporating improvisation into their live performances. In 2002, Astral released a self-produced EP, "Only Sometimes". In 2003, Astral released an LP, entitled "Orchids". Two songs from that album, "Raining Down" and the title-track instrumental, were preloaded in the Rio Carbon MP3 Players. In 2008 the band released their second album Sleepwalker.

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