Cannes: Atlantis Communications’ new output deal with TV3 New Zealand and Ellis Enterprises’ distribution coup for New York-based Unapix Entertainment’s non-fiction programming were amongst Canadian industry highlights, as the usual frenzy of MIP-TV ’97 came to a close April 16.

‘This carpet was new, and now it’s worn’

Nelvana’s Michael Hirsh’s physical evidence of the foot traffic of interested international buyers pretty much sums up the market for the Canadian contingent, which continues to be strong at mip-tv.

The Red Queen phenomenon (the evolutionary spiral theory that organisms evolve at a furious pace just to maintain status quo) is evident at the market. Despite seemingly infinite numbers of new channels, on steadily growing new platforms, supported by increasingly sophisticated new forms of media, the bottom line remains the same. The new windows in tandem with old ones keep prices relatively constant, while product furiously spins off into new and narrower niches.

Whether natpe or Monte Carlo or any of the too numerous other market dates are on their agendas, attendance at the mips seems to be one thing Canada’s tv program purveyors agree they can’t afford to miss.

Figures indicated attendance was up at mip-tv, although the aisles seemed a little thinner this year, perhaps because the action has spread to additional outbuildings.

Of the 2,700 companies from 104 countries milling about in the Palais des Festivals April 11-16, 117 were from Canada. Once again Canada had the fifth largest number of exhibiting companies. The top four are the u.s., u.k., France and Germany. Nearly 3,000 acquisition executives made the trek.

There was also a strong Canadian profile in the conference portion of mip. In addition to the considerable Cancon of Banff Television Festival’s Pat Ferns’ four market simulations, crtc chair Francoise Bertrand was a speaker at the conference on the future of educational tv, and tfo’s Jacques Bensimon moderated a debate on innovative educational programs.

And as to product, it was also truly international. Launches included cbc’s debut of producer Clarence Hamilton’s Ekhaya drama series, the South Africa/ Canada coproduction between cbc, Inner City Films, sabc and Kurira Films International. It garnered a good response, including a potential cable deal in the u.s., and interest from Scandinavia, which also liked the very Canadian media-centric The Newsroom.

cbc’s Peacekeepers, a movie that gets outside the North American bubble, also had major interest from Europe and sold to m-net, South Africa.

UTV International Canada launched Asia’s hit English soap City of the Rich. The 100 half-hour soap from Mike Gibbon, Rio Fanning and Martin Holland of East Enders fame, was written via e-mail by writers in Malaysia, India, Britain and Ireland, and produced in Kuala Lumpur.

As to prices, pretty much holding steady is the typical response.

Animation was a huge part of the market, but supply and demand seem to have kept pace.

‘We’re seeing Asia go up, otherwise it’s holding,’ says Hirsh, whose hottest title is the Pippi Longstocking property. ‘We’re seeing interest in all types of animation.’

As to market trends, ‘It’s a very hot market for video,’ says Hirsh. Distributors reported growing European interest in acquiring tv series rights for sell-through.

Malofilm’s The Adventures of Professor Iris sold to Spain for video, and was also picked up by Ravensburger, Germany; in addition to tv sales in Africa and Malaysia, Malofilm’s Natalie Vinet says there is a strong u.s. interest. Ballroom Dancing and Children From Elsewhere also garnered strong interest.

Beyond the curious appetite for Ed the Sock, who is now being stripped in Australia, ChumCity International’s booth was a hive of various wired activity, including the announcement of its international venture in Helsinki (see Journal, p. 6). New Zealand begins to see more (300 hours) of Citytv’s signature style immediately, as six ChumCity series have been secured for TV4’s launch.

Atlantis

Atlantis Releasing is also going to be highly visible in New Zealand, as the company did a long-term output deal with New Zealand’s TV3 Network Services for current and upcoming drama from Atlantis Films plus Atlantis Releasing’s library and acquired product. CanWest Global Communications owns 68% of TV3.

As to Atlantis’ new series Cold Squad, broadcasters liked the non-violent, female-inclusive approach, says Atlantis Releasing vp/gm Marnie Sanderson, who expects to see the fruit of this interest, which included video, at mipcom, when the Atlantis Films/Keatley MacLeod Productions project will have more to show.

Sanderson says the market is right for expanding in lifestyle distribution, and to expect to see kids’ live-action and animation programming from Atlantis, probably within a year to a year and a half.

Ellis Enterprises inked a deal with Unapix Entertainment for exclusive distribution in Canada of the New York-based company’s non-fiction programming. Coproduction with KEG Productions is also in the Unapix game plan.

Catalyst Distribution’s Earl Weiner, picking up product in a variety of categories, also found it a good market for acquisitions.

In addition to reporting good success with Wind At My Back (into over 20 countries) and Promise the Moon, Sullivan’s exec vp operations/cfo Don Pagnutti says Sullivan was also active in product acquisition and is very close to getting some animation.

Pagnutti pegs series and movie prices similar to those garnered in the past.

Alliance International Television’s managing director Louise Worth reported sales and growing interest in Black Harbour (abetted by the series’ renewal); ard picked up The Inheritance; Total Recall picked up a u.s. commitment, Northern Lights sold to Japan, and the new Larry Gelbart Showtime series Fast Track is ‘whipping up a lot of excitement.’

Revenue worth

worrying about

While Worth says it’s too soon to assess what the growing interest in video rights in Europe will add to the bottom line, ‘it’s definitely revenue worth worrying about.’

‘The other trend is the pan-satellite buyers who are making life complicated,’ says Worth of the process of making sure everyone is in the loop as to the best sales strategy in the various territories, ‘but the licence fees are worth taking the time to figure out.’ Worth says that in that area they’re avoiding locking into output deals, because ‘we need our options open.’

The doc area is in full expansion, and April 1998 will see the launch of mip-doc, an annual doc screening event (a la mipcom Junior) to run two days prior to mip-tv.

Doubling dollars

Catherine Lamour, director of docstar (a rights acquisition subsidiary of Canal+) and director of docs at Canal +, announced at mip-tv that docstar would be doubling the amount it invests up to us$25 million by 2000, and expanding its acquisition tentacles beyond Europe to include foreign projects.

The docstar approach is to buy out rights in one or more territories for seven to 15 years ($100,000 to $150,000 per hour for European territories), or provide an advance (from $15,000 to $50,000) against distribution revenues, retaining a commission typically running at 30% of revenues.

Business and legal affairs head Sophie Chalou says the prepurchase acquisition rights usually oscillate around 30% of the budget, and pegs a typical acquisition at $150,000. The preference is for original, long shelf-life titles shot in film. In the u.k. docstar operates Explore International in tandem with National Geographic.

‘There’s more competition among distributors in terms of acquisition of new product than selling to clients,’ says Mundovision’s president George Matta, who reported more buyers, ‘and they’re buying.’

As to prices, Films Transit’s Jan Rofekamp says in small countries prices are remaining relatively constant, but bigger countries are paying a tad less – ‘they don’t let themselves be seduced into a bidding war.’

One sales success story demonstrating the international potential of docs is Shelley Saywell’s Kim’s Story, which reveals what became of Kim Phuc, the young napalm victim in the photo that shaped everyone’s image of the Vietnam War.

Films Transit sold it to just under 20 countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Japan, bbc in the u.k., Germany, Poland, South Korea, a&e in the u.s., Spain, Switzerland, Mexico, Greece and Israel. In Canada it aired on cbc’s Witness and on Enjeux on src.

In their first mip selling venture, High Road International netted Discovery u.s. for its machine gun documentary, Machine Gun.

Filmoption International’s Muriel Rosilio launched several docs at the market and also found the reception warm. The Gibson guitar doc A Century of Hot Licks sold to VH1 in the u.k. while France and Germany took a shine to Earthwatch, a one-hour nature series with two pilot episodes available which garnered European coproduction interest.

Between closing deals on Omerta, and films by Allegro, Coscient/Astral Distribution’s vp Jean Bureau was surprised by the amount of interest globally in its new doc Ecce Homo, since there was no footage to screen as the doc begins to shoot the week after the market. Director of sales Heather Wyer says about 20% of the buyers they met with were new to the market.

Great North Productions president Andy Thomson, in addition to hosting the hordes who attended gnp’s first annual birthday cocktail, saw new business from areas such as Sri Lanka and Korea. Great North started the market off with a 26-episode sale to TF1 for the series Ribbons of Steel and World of Horses, and continued apace closing deals every day, attributed to the ongoing travel of sales manager Nola Wuttunee.

Great North, seemingly addicted to production, was shooting a one-hour doc at mip on how kids’ shows are sold and promoted, which they’re hoping to launch at mipcom Junior.

As to the lifestyle/infotainment area, Peter Emerson, president of Oasis Pictures, says ‘people look to Canadians for this stuff.’ While people are buying on the spot, the down side is that licence fees are slipping constantly because there’s so much of it, says Emerson. ‘The prices are bare minimum, it’s only worthwhile if you have volume.’

Youth programming was another growing niche. Salter Street Films president Paul Donovan, who says deals were being signed for Salter/Cinar Films’ Emily of New Moon series, saw a real appetite for teen product. Moving towards taking Lexx and the company’s new miniseries Major Crime towards series were on the company’s agenda, and since Lexx has given Salter a rare degree of expertise in working with cgi and live action, a number of projects are being developed in that realm.

Paragon International’s president/coo Richard Borchiver says the wildlife draw of Kratt’s Creatures’ success and Paragon’s position as a preeminent supplier to pbs of four series – the latest slated for fall ’98 stars a lemur – as well as the company’s international animation copro ties via Lacewood have been great calling cards.

Senior vp Kirstine Layfield adds that the company’s eec-qualified product is nicely positioned to ride the eu trend. ‘As soon as we say that (it’s eec-qualified), they take the flyer.’ Sales included tv movies to Vox and Austria.

Portfolio Entertainment moved forward the series So You Want To Be? with the sale of 26 episodes to Discovery Latin America. The new show is produced by Champion Entertainment in Houston, Texas. Head of marketing and sales Joan Lambur says the Holy Grail this market is an animated series for the whole family, but not as rude as The Simpsons, more caring for the family.

CBC International had a good market on many fronts. ‘It’s docs and kids that most people bring into the stand as coproducers,’ says sales and coproductions deputy director Christina Hajek.

On the youth front, there was a lot of interest in the concept for the teen talk show Jonovision, including the u.k. and u.s., so consideration as to format sales or international repackaging is on the agenda.

The format, science for young kids, has made Guess What? potentially good for Nickelodeon, says Hajek.

Hajek says the appetite and therefore the motivation for doing international versions is a trend that is increasing on the doc front at cbc. ‘Now that we cut our teeth on one, Yellowstone to Yukon, we have proposals on two more.’ Yellowstone was presold to Discovery Channel u.s. Hajek says from a joint-venture standpoint they’re looking at doing another natural science doc.

Annabel Slaight, president of Owl International, was excited by the response to the company’s first outing as a new hybrid company with a multimedia strategy in action. Since the world is sold on the premise that media support each other, being able to show the Mighty Mites characters (which were born in the magazine) on their new aol site helped develop interest in the tv realm.

And Slaight says because Jean Desmoreaux, Owl’s new head of tv, is from Quebec, in addition to working with Telefiction and producing episodes in French and English back-to-back, the company is able to add a beneficial French-language creative impetus to its new preschool show Hello, Mrs. Cherrywinkle.

In the midst of ever-fractionating demographic niches, it’s Owl’s first market out with family properties. ‘Now there’s a feeling that if you’ve got a plotline that’s strong for adults and it’s cool enough for kids, kids and adults will watch together and you’ll get great audiencesand that’s where broadcasters are going.’

In addition to taking advantage of the serendipity of having projects in the family area and looking for coproducers at the time, a lot of people are interested in producing with Canada, Owl is carefully developing market-by-market strategies for its existing titles. ‘The fact that you can develop an interactive product is a real plus.’ Mackerel Interactive Multimedia, while not at mip-tv, will accompany Owl to natpe Animation.

Summing up the tenor of the market, Slaight says, ‘The usual ways of doing things are old hat.’