In a fine phoenix impersonation, Owl Television is rising from the ashes buoyed by the considerable strength of Quebec’s Coscient Group. Five projects in development at Owl, including two with national and international broadcasters on board before the bankruptcy of Combined Media, could all be in production within a year.

On Coscient’s part, the deal, which saw little money change hands, allows the evolution of Coscient into the English-language television production market.

According to Yves Moquin, chairman of the board and ceo of Coscient, the Montreal-based company’s first Toronto-based production arm isn’t so much about beefing up Coscient’s English-language slate but about increasing marketability for all of Coscient’s product.

‘If English is the outlet to more international sales, then we’ll do that. When it’s in English it has added value to the French production and our distribution company has better access to the global market.’

Coscient, Quebec’s largest television production company, owns Cactus Animation, SDA Productions, Productions Coscient and Allegro Films. The ambitious 1997/98 production slate is made up of some 950 hours of tv programs and six feature films on an overall production budget of $120 million. On tap for the year beginning Aug. 1, 1997 are 741 hours of magazine, variety and game shows, 170 hours of animated and youth programming, 32 hours of primetime drama and 17 hours of documentaries.

The slate includes youth programming through Cactus including Fennec, Blake and Mortimer and Bob Morane, (all coproductions with France’s Ellipse Animation). Cactus has a three-year coproduction agreement with Ellipse, a subsidiary of Canal+. sda produces English-language live-action programming including Popular Mechanics for Kids (Global) and the French version of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

Coscient’s distribution arm Motion International, a joint venture with Twentieth Century Fox, is on target for record sales in 1997/98, selling 13.5 hours of weekly American primetime programming and 9.5 hours weekly of Canadian series. Added to the Motion library post the Owl acquisition are 80 hours of children’s programming including Radical Sheep Productions’ The Big Comfy Couch in which Owl is 25% owner. Big Comfy Couch just sold into Mexico.

As for what percentage of Coscient’s revenue English product sales will account for in the next fiscal year, Moquin says it’s too soon to tell. ‘We have to get acquainted with our new gang in Toronto and see at what rate we can establish ourselves. But we’ll definitely be aggressive.’

Moquin also won’t rule out acquiring other English Canada-based production companies. ‘I don’t think we can make that a blunt statement, but we’re looking.’

Merchandising will become a bigger part of the Coscient enterprise. According to Moquin, foreign producers of children’s programming have approached Coscient to handle their merchandising in Canada after its success with the Barney the Dinosaur line. Discussions with Time Life, which has merchandising rights to Hello Mrs. Cherrywinkle, are on the agenda. ‘These things cannot be said until they’re signed, but there’s definitely a place in merchandising for us.’

Potential fodder for the merchandising arm are five projects in development at the reincarnated Owl.

In addition to the 36-episode $2.6-million Hello Mrs. Cherrywinkle going into production for Family Channel within the month, the 13-episode Mighty Mites, an animation/live-action combination series, is seeking broadcast windows. The series is budgeted at $450,000 to $500,000 per.

Max/tv, a coventure with Heartland Productions in Saskatchewan which went into limbo with the demise of Combined Media, is now stranded without ctcpf financing. The combination comedy and interactive math puzzle program has Channel 5 as the u.k. broadcast window, Scottish Television onside as a production partner and tvontario and scn signed up for Canadian distribution. The 26 episodes are budgeted at $110,000 per. Alternative funding arrangements are being researched to get the project off the ground before the ctcpf’s ’98 fiscal kicks in, says Owl president Annabel Slaight.

Two smaller projects are in development. A combination live-action/animation half-hour series called Daisy Dreamer, based on one of the characters in Owl’s children’s magazines, Owl and Chickadee. Budgeted at $40,000 per episode, the series is about a girl who dreams she’s various wild animals. The $60,000 per Irma and the Shep, geared towards preschoolers, is also in queue.

The production synergies between Owl, Cactus and sda will depend on the production, says Slaight. ‘It’s a large group and we’ll be able to do what’s needed to support each other. In many ways I think that for smaller producers this kind of relationship with a family that has connections is the way to go. There are certain economies of scale which are very valuable. It’s just so hard for smaller producers to get every last piece of the funding in place, especially in the smaller area of children’s programming where there are so many pieces.’

Owl will be moving back to its old offices on Toronto’s John Street this month.

?Bayard/Bavard?In a separate deal, Bayard Presse International sa of France, owned by Assumptionists, a religious order, bought Owl’s publishing assets. With 18 children’s publications and $500 million in sales worldwide, Bavard is the largest international publisher of children’s magazines.