‘Busy non-stop’ is how Canadian companies are describing their booths at the third annual MIP-Asia, and they came away with the deals and pending contracts to prove it.

ChumCity International broke into the Japanese market for the first time, selling 39 episodes of Ooh La La and six episodes of TV Frames, a music/youth culture program, to Vis-a-Vision.

Among Atlantis Releasing’s deals was 26 episodes of Traders to a new free-to-air Taiwan station, a package of 10 tv movies to Thailand’s bbtv and a Philippines broadcaster, and video deals for The Unabomber, Costly Affair and We The Jury in Japan.

‘It was busier than mipcom,’ says Atlantis Releasing’s managing director Irene Read. The new sci-fi series Battleground Earth also generated much excitement, and pending contracts will be closed at natpe.

Cinar Films came home with a number of deals in the works, says senior sales executive Catherine Donohue, including Korean video distribution of The Busy World of Richard Scarry series and negotiations with a Korean pay-tv broadcaster for Bonjour Timothy, The Whole of The Moon and Digger.

‘We have an important deal with a large satellite broadcaster for the Little Lulu show,’ she adds, but cannot release the name until the final contract is signed.

cbc has deals set to close with Malaysian, Chinese, Korean and Philippine broadcasters for The Health Show, Fashion File and the tv movie Lifeline.

Nelvana also initiated sales at MIP-Asia, but was not disclosing any signed contracts at press time. Tom Van Waveren, sales executive at Nelvana, says its Donkey Kong Country series coproduction with Paris’ Media Lab generated stellar reaction and he predicts success for the title in Asia.

Other Canadians at the Dec. 5-7 Hong Kong venue included Malofilm International, Mediamax, UTV International, Films Transit and B.C. Film. Twenty-one Canadian companies participated and 2,200 representatives from 54 countries headed to MIP-Asia

In terms of who’s buying what and where, Canadian documentaries and information-based programs are good sells, says Camille Gueyard, Telefilm’s Asian representative, with Malaysia, Korea and Taiwan particularly hungry for stories about the rest of the world.

ChumCity International’s youth-oriented catalogue was hot in Korea, the Philippines and Sri Lanka, says Mary Powers, director of communications at Citytv, who also noticed a large presence of new Korean licence startups interested in format deals. Donohue credits Cinar’s success on the appetite of Asian buyers for animation, which is often too expensive for them to produce locally.

Canadians are also realizing that they have to build long-standing relationships before Asian buyers are willing to shake on a deal, and MIP-Asia is one of the venues to develop these contacts.

The deals ChumCity made in Hong Kong were the product of a number of previous meetings at other markets, says Powers. ‘The buyers like to see you several times to feel confident about you, your product and your ability to deliver.’

Nelvana has also been successful in Asia over the past year, in particular selling 12 series, including Nancy Drew, Little Bear and Stickin’ Around, to the Philippines. Van Waveren credits this success to a regular presence in the Pacific Rim, including MIP-Asia.

‘Canadian companies have to give MIP-Asia time to develop,’ he says. ‘Everybody would like it to grow quicker but like anything it takes time to get established; it doesn’t happen overnight.’