Vancouver: Two years ago, Vidatron Entertainment in Vancouver produced five hours of television and in 1997 about 26. This year with an ambitious production slate, the company will complete about 70 hours, marking a 1,400% increase in television production since 1996 and making Vidatron perhaps the fastest growing production company in Canada.

The dramatic surge is largely fueled by the December ’96 purchase of Sugar Entertainment and the addition of veteran producer and new Vancouverite Larry Sugar to Vidatron’s board.

As a result, the company’s 1998 slate includes 22 second-season hours of anthology series Dead Man’s Gun, which is airing on Showtime and chum-owned stations, and the first season of 22 hours of sci-fi series First Wave, which will premiere this fall on Space: The Imagination Station.

Syndicated video game news magazine Electric Playground just began shooting its second season of 13 half-hours (with another 13 planned for a fall shoot), and production is scheduled for two more of Sugar’s Contemporary Classics mows.

Vidatron has just wrapped production on Disney kids’ pilot Too Weird, which promises to end up as a series, and the company is entering new territory with documentaries to go before cameras this spring.

Overall, the budget value of Vidatron’s ’98 production slate is about $70 million. And to help finance the sudden increase in production, Vidatron has secured a $10-million line of credit from the Royal Bank, an unusual luxury for a Western-based television producer.

‘Larry has been a kind of catalyst,’ says Vidatron ceo Cameron White, remarking on the company’s growth. ‘But now that we’ve been seriously in the television business for a couple of years, momentum is building.

‘Our goal is to become the key player in Western Canada in television,’ he adds. ‘And I don’t know of any production company west of Toronto with a production slate like ours.’

The line of credit, White says, is a reflection of the maturity of both the Western industry and Vidatron. ‘It’s a huge step forward.’

Vidatron will take advantage of the new Film Incentive b.c. tax credit, which will provide about 10% of show budgets, he estimates.

On the distribution side, Vidatron sells the international rights (for example, Dead Man’s Gun is sold by mgm) and hangs on to North America to create some back-end cash flow.

First Wave, which began production April 6, is executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola and Larry Sugar and was created by Chris Brancato, who wrote Hoodlum and Species 2. Sebastian Spence (Fast Track, Firestorm) heads an all-Canadian cast as a man who uncovers an alien conspiracy on Earth. Other cast members include Rob LaBelle (City Hall, What’s Love Got To Do With It) and Dana Brooks (TekWar, Robocop).

Pearson Television handles international sales.

The two Contemporary Classics – the sixth and seventh of a series of updated fairy tales for Showtime and the Family Channel – are Treasured Island and Out of Time, based on Treasure Island and Rip Van Winkle, respectively.

Baton Broadcasting’s vtv is backing the documentaries that will air in the fall. Citizen Shame is produced by Vidatron’s Michele White and Stan Feingold and investigates child poverty in one of the richest places in Canada. The same producer team will also handle In Harm’s Way, which looks at youth and violence in Canada.

All of Vidatron’s production is housed in its 24,000-square-foot and 55,000-square-foot warehouses in False Creek. The company’s headquarters in Yaletown will add two floors to the building, with construction expected to begin this year.

Vidatron trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange and has three subsidiaries including Sugar Entertainment, commercial producer Aviator Pictures and The Eyes Multimedia Productions. Shares closed April 14 at $4.40, 30 cents off the year high of $4.70.