By all reports, the 11th annual MIPCOM International Television and Programme Market was a blowout success for the Canadian companies that made their way to the South of France Oct. 9-13.

While the merger mania shaking the American entertainment industry grabbed headlines, news from the Canadian contingent centered on the emergence of new and eager buyers, particularly from the Northern European market. With the rise in new channels and pay-tv services in Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America, word is that we may be seeing the tangible, bankable beginnings of the much ballyhooed 500-channel universe.

mipcom attendance, up 6% over last year with a record 9,023 professionals from 91 countries, reflects the increase in international players juggling for position. Canada ranked fifth largest participant with 117 companies represented, up from 94 at last year’s market.

According to Telefilm Canada’s Michelle Bischoff, manning the Telefilm booth at mipcom since 1989, ‘It was one of the busiest markets I’ve seen. Overall, the feeling was one of enthusiasm throughout the week.’

In the midst of back-to-back meetings and a seemingly endless round of relationship-building festivities, Canadian producers and distributors were reporting trends toward volume buys, sharing rights, and the corepresentation of programming catalogues.

Again this year, buyers came shopping with family programming high on the list, as well as wildlife and documentary, say Canadian sales execs.

Rola Zayed, president of Alliance International Television, calls the market ‘very concrete, very solid’ with sales across the territories, quality family programs front and center, and deals closing during the week. ‘Even in Italy with the lira down, people are buying.’

Animation still hot

The renaissance of animation programming sweeping the international market spawned sales in major European territories for Canadian animation houses and distributors, including Montreal’s Cinar Films, which sold 30 episodes of Arthur to bbc and Nickelodeon in the u.k. and 26 episodes of The Little Lulu Show to Germany, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.

Wimzie’s House, Cinar’s new puppet sitcom for preschoolers, has met with an ‘incredible response’ and has a major deal pending with Germany and other territories, says Theresa Holst, director, television sales for Cinar.

Germans out in force

Like several of her Canadian counterparts, Holst commented on the ‘surprising presence’ of the German-speaking buyers this year. ‘In the past, they’ve never come to see us, but this time there’s been no need to run after people,’ she says, adding, ‘I’ve had Scandinavians beating down the door.’

Other Canadian companies reporting sales to German-speaking territories include Cambium Releasing selling 13 x 1/2 hours of Nilus the Sandman to Beta Taurus, and Sullivan Entertainment’s sale of Under the Piano and Wind at My Back to Germany, France and the u.k.

‘There’s a lot of new buyers this year, major European broadcasters, especially Germans like rtl, rtlii, Pro Seiben, zdf and Beta Taurus,’ says Paul Howard, director of sales, international tv and home video for Sullivan, which is reporting sales over $1 million for the week.

CHUMCity start-up

In other major sales news, CHUMCity International is expected to announce its newest international venture this week, a CHUMCity signature start-up in Spain, a deal which closed at mip.

For the first time this year, CHUMCity has handled its own distribution. Says Jay Switzer, vp programming for CHUM Group Television: ‘It’s been beyond our wildest dreams.’

Programming sales are still being tallied, but Switzer says the new private television and satellite services are hungry for programming for the key 18-24 demographic. ‘At the same time, the older broadcasters are worried, so they’re here too. It’s been a terrific week.’

Catalyst Distribution is ringing in with major sales for On The Loose to the u.k., Greece, Thailand and India. The nbc special Atlantis: The Lost Continent went to Seven Network in Australia, nrk in Norway, stv in Sweden and Denmark, and TV 1000, a pay-tv network in Scandinavia. A six-figure deal for Britt Allcroft’s Magic Adventures of Mumfie with a major broadcaster in France is expected to close soon, says Catalyst ceo Charles Falzon.

Coprod front

On the coproduction side, Alliance Communications has signed an agreement with Pro Seiben to produce the $6 million feature Gridlock in exchange for free and pay-tv rights in German-speaking Europe.

According to Zayed, cbs’ bailing out on Due South financing hasn’t shaken the confidence of the international market. RTL2 in Germany and the bbc have both given ‘substantial increases in the licence fees’ for the program, a brand of cofinancing the new 13 x 1 hours.

Other coproduction news includes Nelvana and Great North Productions’ agreement with Family Channel in the u.k. for Jake and the Kid. Family is on board in exchange for exclusive cable and satellite rights in the u.k. The program is scheduled to premier in January on CanWest Global in Canada.

ytv, Mercier Films and the TVA Network, Montreal, announced the green light for season one of My Hometown, producer Jean Mercier’s ‘dream project.’

‘It’s incredible to have ytv and tva in on this project. It wouldn’t happen if it weren’t for them,’ says Mercier. Shooting for 26 episodes will begin in April. My Hometown is the first coproduction project for tva’s international division.

tva and Mercier are also in discussions for a feature film, A Day In The Life, about a group of seniors dealing in various ways with getting old. It’s budgeted at $2.3 million. Super Ecran, the pay-tv network in Quebec, has signed on and a u.k.-based potential coproducer has the script, says Mercier.

The pitch

Braving the Pat Ferns Market Simulation, Breakthrough Films’ Peter Williamson and writer/director Siobhan Flanagan took The Killing of Michael Molloy on stage, a feature film budgeted between $2 million and $3 million. It was a ‘very good presentation,’ says Ferns. ‘The feeling in the audience was that it wasn’t coproduceable with companies outside North America, but that European networks would definitely consider it as an acquisition.’

Coming out the other side, two undisclosed Canadian companies came forward with an interest in coproducing the black comedy, says Williamson. In other mip activities at Breakthrough, deals are pending which will increase the international reach of The Adventures of Dudley the Dragon. Dudley ancillary opportunities, including a www site, are under construction.

Cashing in on the Internet craze, Halifax-based Cochran Entertainment is out of the gate with sales of Understanding the Internet and Using the Internet, both one-hour docs, to nhk in Japan and TV3 in Spain, with deals pending in Scandinavia, the Netherlands, France and Britain.

There is also interest in developing www sites from some networks and distributors, ‘who see it as an economical and powerful way to keep up their presence in the world market,’ says Internet content creator Andrew Cochran, chairman and ceo of the company. ‘We’ll continue to develop this as our specialty niche.’

In addition to deals pending in the u.k., Germany, Scandinavia and to France’s TF1 for Big Garage, The Multimedia Group of Canada is also on the high-tech bandwagon. Coproduction offers are on the table from SAT1 in Germany and a Japanese producer for its science and technology program, Hi-Tech International. The very cool-looking set is courtesy of a blue screen and the Quantel Henry, which gives the series legs in other countries, says Dean Oros, director of international sales for Multimedia and producer on the show.

‘It enables them to simply scan in their host and treat the project as a straight acquisition with us while meeting the quotas they have for indigenous production.’

Looking for laughs

Comedy productions are also high on buyers’ lists this year, with both Salter Street International of Halifax and Les Films Rozon of Montreal reaping the benefits of humor product.

Worldstar Television in Australia purchased 43 episodes of Salter’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes, which it will morph into an ‘international edition,’ says Lynn James, head of international sales. Who will do the editing has yet to be established, ‘but it looks like we’re going to get a lot more life out of these shows than we thought,’ says James.

Rozon, ballparking sales of over $300,000 for the week, sold the 1995 Just for Laughs to Singapore, the Basque Territories, Australia and Italian-speaking Switzerland. The Adventures of Michel Courtemanche, featuring the notorious Quebec comedian, generated ‘a ton of excitement,’ says Rozon’s Christine Geissler, signing with the Basque Territories, Czech Republic and Singapore, with deals pending in Mexico and Belgium among several other territories.

Documentaries

On the documentary side, Montreal-based Filmoption International scored sales of Falconry to Singapore and Slovenia with several deals pending, says Muriel Rosilio, international sales executive. Some have rejected it because it’s not pure wildlife, but on the whole, response has been great and it’s a ‘blue-chip’ wildlife program so it takes some time, says Rosilio.

Heartland coup

Not to be outdone, Saskatchewan-based Heartland Releasing, part of the ??-member Saskatchewan contingent that made the trip to Cannes for the first time this year courtesy of a Telefilm subsidy program, has a major coproduction deal in process with Working Title Productions in the u.k. The project, 13 x 1 hours of romantic drama based on the Barbara Cartland novels, will be Saskatchewan’s first hour-long dramatic series project if the deal goes through, says Heartland’s Leif Storm.

Working Title has the rights to the Cartland library and is looking for a Canadian coproducer to make the current production team a triumvirate. Gaumont sa in France has already committed to the project.

Each program is budgeted at $650,000 and Working Title expects to do ‘the majority’ of the shooting in Canada because it’s less expensive to shoot here than in the u.k. or France, says Storm. Given the green light, Heartland will start shooting this spring. In the meantime, Working Title is also in negotiations with a major u.s. distributor for the series.

Volume buying

On the distribution side, distributors are reporting trends in volume buying.

According to Catalyst’s Falzon, buyers are increasingly looking for blocks of programming and Catalyst’s substantial catalogue is standing the company in good stead with buyers who are looking to fill brand new schedules. ‘People come to us for volume now.’

Great North, Heartland and Vancouver-based North American Releasing too recorded sales of volume programming.

Great North’s 39-episode Lifescape catalogue found a home in Germany, Heartland’s Life Lessons catalogue in the u.s., Japan, and South Africa, and North American, making its first mipcom appearance, was doing ‘five-picture deals,’ says Suzanne Daley, president, distribution.

‘We’ve found tv buyers taking product we haven’t been able to sell at feature film markets. Brazil is paying double what they paid at the American Film Market in February, and with the Argentineans trying to get the product before mifed, we’re selling packages.’

Movie magic

On the whole, movies are selling well, with sales of Atlantis Releasing’s mows Derby and The Long Way Home to more than 30 countries, says president Ted Riley. Atlantis made ‘good progress’ selling Liberty Street in the smaller territories, but series are becoming a little more difficult to sell, because ‘many territories are producing their own now so that leaves less space for us to sell into.’

While sales were front and center at the market as per usual, ‘more than half the conversations I had at mip were about strategic alliances,’ says Riley. Within the next two weeks, Atlantis will announce two significant deals with foreign distributors who will share the cost of buying a catalogue and split the rights.

The move is key to the bigger picture for the company, which is moving towards being a marketing-driven company, says Riley. ‘We’ve gotten where we are because of government subsidies. Now it’s essential to make and offer the programming which will draw popular audiences.’

Corepresentation deals

Other distributors note a trend towards striking agreements with European distributors to corepresent catalogues. Cambium Releasing, in addition to sales that include 65 episodes of The Elephant Show to RTE Ireland, left Cannes with corepresentation agreements with South Africa and the u.k.

‘It makes sense to join up with another distribution company as the buying companies get bigger. More of your product gets in front of them that way,’ says Rita Carbone Fleury, senior vp at Cambium, who says this year’s mip ‘has been our best market.’

Andy Thomson, president of Great North, which signed a corepresentation deal with Interspot Film in Austria among others, says these agreements may contribute little to the bottom line initially, ‘but in the long term, it’s worthwhile relationship-building.’

Canadians feted

While the week turned on sales, one event worth noting was the honoring of the Canadian community at an exclusive lunch given by Xavier Roy, chief executive of the Reed Midem Organization.

Roy, alongside Benoit Bouchard, the Canadian Ambassador to Paris, and Michel Mouillot, the mayor of Cannes, held court at the majestic Villa Domergue, where he praised those representing ‘one of the most dynamic, amiable and loyal delegations of our markets.’

‘I personally have much admiration for your immense country which has kept its pioneering and fighting spirit, giving vitality and force to your nation.

‘You have been able to create an exceptional audiovisual industry through a harmonious cohabitation where everyone has their importance, from the key players to the smaller independents, and through a dynamic policy of production which gives so much force and scope to your market.’