Astral appointments

At Montreal-based Astral Entertainment Group, director of business affairs Claude Joli-Coeur has been promoted to the newly created position of vice-president, legal and business affairs.

As well, Jean Bureau, vice-president, French Canada, entertainment programming services, has been appointed vice-president distribution and acquisitions.

Birnberg joins Atlantis

Eric Birnberg, formerly with The Movie Network, has joined Atlantis Films as director, production business affairs. He takes the place of Kelly Lynne Ashton, who has left the company to pursue other opportunities.

Cook heads up fund

Gerri Cook, former executive director of Saskfilm, has been appointed executive administrator for the Shaw Children’s Programming Initiative, which will invest $10 million over the next five years in children’s programming from Canadian independent producers. The fund was created in 1992 when Shaw Cablesystems gained control of Cablecasting Ltd.

A&E forges Canadian ties

The U.S. Arts & Entertainment network has been making northern connections of late. At the beginning of the month, Premier Choix:TVEC, owner and operator of Super Ecran and Canal Famille and backer of the proposed Arts et Divertissement channel, signed a deal with a&e which, in essence, will see the u.s. specialty network license its programming format.

A&D will be able to adapt the A&E logo and build on the American channel’s program format. A&E will also supply some of its programming (which will be translated into French) to the Canadian specialty channel hopeful.

a&e will not participate in the management of a&d and is not an equity business partner. However, it will devote net proceeds from the agreement to fund the development and production of Canadian programming by independent producers. This programming will be seen on both channels.

A&E also reached an agreement with the National Film Board to gain access to classic and current nfb productions. The deal includes more than 20 hours of programming in 1994, as well as original coproductions acquired as presales.