-YTV/Fireworks kidvid development fund

YTV and Fireworks Entertainment are launching a new $250,000 development fund for children’s programming, effective immediately.

The fund, a joint initiative between ytv and Fireworks, is series-oriented, both animation and live action, and will be allocated to between seven to 10 projects. Increasing regional diversity is also part of its mandate, says ytv president Paul Robertson.

In return for seed financing, the two are asking for first-window rights on ytv and the international distribution rights, which will be handled through Fireworks.

The rights criterion is not de facto, says Robertson. ‘It’s a discussion. We want to start with new ideas that come through and see the projects through to completion by harvesting the strengths of ytv and Fireworks.’

At this point, there is no tenure imposed on the fund. Robertson projects it will continue indefinitely if the venture proves successful.

-Six new Harlequin MOWs from Alliance

Alliance Communications has renewed its joint venture with Harlequin Enterprises to bring Harlequin’s romance novels to television.

Six new tv movies will be produced by Alliance and will be licensed to Showtime Network’s The Movie Channel and will run on ctv in Canada.

Three of the productions will be shot in Canada and three will be filmed in a tropical location. Susan Minas and Jennifer Black are the executive producers.

The first in the new series will air on The Movie Channel on Valentine’s Day 1998.

Showtime has also acquired the original six Harlequin movies made by Alliance in 1995 and 1996. Alternating between new and old, the network will run a Harlequin movie each month.

Alliance will distribute the movies worldwide while Harlequin will handle direct-mail video distribution.

-Below 31 benched

The crtc has thrown the channel-shifting dispute between Vision tv and Rogers Communications back to the respective parties and reinforced its decision to stay clear of specialty service packaging issues.

Vision appealed to the commission for mediation earlier this spring after Rogers moved the service from channel 24 to channel 53 in its Ottawa system to make way for Citytv and OnTV.

In a July 28 letter to Vision and Rogers from secretary general Laura Talbot-Allan, the crtc reasserts its decision to stay clear of commercial and packaging-related issues. ‘The Below 31 Rule, as well as any policy requiring that Canadian specialty services be grouped together, are no longer applicable.’

The 1987-initiated Below 31 directive said the oldest Canadian specialties ­ ‘tier one’ ­ should be grouped together and low on the dial. According to Vision president Fil Fraser, this month’s decision clears the way for cable operators to move any channel anywhere. ‘The precedent is set. We are moving increasingly towards a pick-and-pay kind of environment, one where cable companies pick on behalf of consumers.’

Six or seven more specialties coming online in September with at least one on basic means more dial-dancing on the horizon, he adds.

-Behaviour buys Lux Films

Montreal’s Behaviour Communications, headed by Richard Szalwinski, has announced the acquisition of Lux Films, Nicole Robert’s Montreal-based production company.

Lux is expanding and is developing a new television division and a coproduction with Italy.

Robert (Karmina) has acquired the film rights to Stephane Bourguignon’s Le Princite du Geyser and to Philippe Poloni’s Olivo, Oliva. Both productions along with a sci-fi comedy feature from Yves Pelletier are planned for 1998.

Szalwinski is chairman of the board of Malofilm/Behaviour and is the principal shareholder of Discreet Logic.

-Twisted Sheets wins in NYC

Canadian writer/director Chris Deacon’s Twisted Sheets won the best short film award at the New York Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.

Twisted Sheets earlier won the best short film award at the San Francisco and Ottawa Gay and Lesbian Film Festivals and shared the prize for best Canadian short film at this year’s Toronto Worldwide Short Film Festival.

Produced by Cheryl Zalameda, the film offers a humorous look at the ins and outs of modern sexuality.

-Popular Mechanics for Kids in gear

SDA Productions has started taping on the first 22 half-hours of Popular Mechanics for Kids. The series will be distributed by Coscient Astral Distribution in association with Hearst Entertainment, a subsidiary of Hearst Corp. which has published the magazine since 1902.

Jonathan Finkelstein is the producer. sda president Andre Picard and Michel Lavoie are the exec producers.

Popular Mechanics for Kids has been picked up in syndication by 142 u.s. stations in nine of the top 10 markets. The Canadian broadcaster is CanWest Global.

-Malofilm report wins design award

Montreal’s Malofilm Communications’ annual report is among the list of winners for the Mead Annual Report Show award for graphic design.

It was created by Belanger Legault Communications Design of Montreal.

-Canadian Emmy nominees

A pack of Canadians will be among those anxiously attending this year’s Primetime Emmy Awards, hoping to hear their names after the phrase ‘and the Emmy g’es to.Š’

Canadians nominated for Emmys this year include Vancouver’s Pacific Motion Pictures, which grabbed two nominations ­ outstanding miniseries or special and outstanding picture editing for a miniseries or special. Both are for In Cold Blood, the miniseries coproduced with Hallmark Entertainment and shot last year in southern Alberta with Jonathan Kaplan directing and pmp’s Tom Rowe producing.

Alliance picked up five nominations, four for its cable feature The Hunchback and one for The Inheritance. The Hunchback saw Alliance teaming with tnt in association with Adelson/Baumgarten to produce the classic Victor Hugo tale.

The Hunchback was nominated for outstanding art direction for a miniseries or special (Trevor Williams, Jozsef Romvari and Andras Maros), outstanding hairstyling for a miniseries or special (Bogyo Kajtar, Mokika Hufnagel and Libuse Bernova), outstanding makeup for a miniseries or special (Julia Vitray, Anna Tesner, Neomi Czako, Eva White, Sacha Carter, Julie Wright) and outstanding costume design for a miniseries or special (John Bloomfield).

Alliance, with Cosgrove/Meurer Productions and TeleVest/Kraft, is nominated again in the outstanding costume design for a miniseries or special category for costume designer Mary Malin’s work on The Inheritance.

Toronto’s Sullivan Entertainment snagged two nominations for its family series Road To Avonlea, which airs as Avonlea on the Disney Channel in the u.s. American actor Dianne Wiest is nominated for outstanding guest actress in a drama series and Ruth Secord will be among those vying for the outstanding costume design for a series award. Both nominations are for the ‘Woman of Importance’ episode.

Meanwhile, Toronto-based Associated Producers’ Elliott Halpern and Simcha Jacobovici are looking to repeat their ’96 News and Documentary Emmy win for ‘outstanding investigative journalism,’ as they have been nominated again in the same category, this year for the The Selling of Innocents along with director and coproducer William Cobban who was also nominated for his direction of the documentary which first aired on cbc’s Witness and subsequently aired in the u.s. on hbo’s cinemax.

The Prime Time Emmys take place in Los Angeles on Sept. 14, while the News and Documentary Emmys will be held on Sept. 10 in New York City.

-People

Denise Donlon has been appointed vp and gm of Chum Television’s MuchMusic.

– At tsn, its flagship show TSN Sportdesk will be sporting a new look in September as Darren Dutchyshen and Michael Toth take over as cohosts of the one-hour sports news show, replacing anchors Michael Landsberg and Brendan Connor who are taking on new roles with the network.

Landsberg will host a new daily half-hour program airing at 6 p.m. et while Connor will host tsn’s nba studio show and report on the nba for Sportsdesk.

– John McFadyen has been promoted to news director of wic’s Ontario flagship station OnTV.

– Melanie Wood is the new executive producer of cbc series 50/Up.

– A&E Television Networks has promoted Brooke Bailey Johnson to executive vp, gm of a&e and Dan Davids to executive vp, gm of The History Channel.