Cannes, France: Bob and Margaret is in primetime France and Germany, Cinar all over HBO Family, and CHUMCity in Bogota, Colombia, after a sparkling six days for Canadian producers at the mipcom program market.

The sales news is long from the 90-odd Canadian companies trapped in Cannes through the first week of October, with the mood hovering somewhere between cbc’s senior director of international coproductions, sales and acquisitions Thomas Howe and Rhombus Media’s Niv Fichman.

‘I’ve been selling tv since 1975 and this is by far the busiest market I’ve seen in terms of closing deals,’ says Howe.

‘The wine is fine. Very fine,’ says Fichman, who joined the Canadian troops for a gala reception thrown by Reed Midem in honor of this year’s ‘Spotlight on Canada’ celebration.

At press time, among the deals gathering attention is the sale of More Tears to pbs by the cbc, Nelvana selling Bob and Margaret to arte, which will run it in an 8 p.m. slot starting in January, and Cinar’s coup with HBO Family (which launches in January) including 52 episodes of The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures, Little Lulu and 26 episodes of The Adventures of Paddington Bear. ‘We’re taking up a little room on their schedule,’ says a grinning Louis Fournier, vp distribution and marketing.

Cinar also sold Animal Crackers and Believe It or Not to Fox Family Channel and Sci Squad to Discovery Kids.

Over at CHUMCity, the Znaimer clan has closed a format licensing agreement with Casa Editorial El Tiempo in Colombia, filed an application for a new MuchMusic channel in Helsinki and recorded its first sale into France, with TV Frames going to ABSat.

Judging by the number of deals inked at the market, ‘this has been our most successful mipcom,’ says Stephen Tapp, vp and gm of CHUMCity International.

‘It’s been a little bit crazier than normal. For us, there’s been a particularly healthy competition between Asia and Scandinavia for product, and when you have two buyers, it allows you to price your product appropriately and decide where you want to place it. It’s a best-case scenario.’

And although everybody tends to talk up sales at the market, all are in agreement that this year’s buy-and-sell tally stands apart.

‘This is the most active market I’ve ever seen,’ says Howe. ‘I’m not sure why, but I can tell you we’re not the only company celebrating. However difficult these things are to measure, as a group, Canada seems to have turned a corner and our sales staff is leaving here more excited than I’ve seen them in years.’

In addition to the More Tears deal, cbc also signed a ‘six-figure’ financing deal with German investment bank Videal specific to in-house doc series The Nature of Things. Howe says that although the partnership is limited to The Nature of Things, it could become a long-term cofinancing arrangement with a German investor which allows cbc financial stability and lets it keep creative control.

In other cbc news, Cochran Entertainment’s Gemini-winning Pit Pony has been sold to Frank A. Thomas Productions for broadcast in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

Asian market

running scared

Although sales are brisk across the board for the major companies, the Asian market crisis is taking a dent out of Pan-Pacific sales. cbc’s sales to that market are down at least 50%, says Howe, and other companies report having to change their business plans to accommodate the Asian broadcasters.

‘Some territories are just so frightened,’ says Cynthia Kennedy, Cinar’s sales executive for the Eastern territories.

‘They don’t know whether a program they buy today will cost them double the money tomorrow because of the value of the currency, so we’re going with a long payment pace.’

Ditto Alliance Atlantis Communications. Ted Riley, president of Atlantis Releasing, says the Asian contingent is still buying, despite the money crunch.

‘They’re not buying the volume they were buying before, but they’re still buying. The perception in the marketplace is that the downturn in the market will last 18 months to two years and no one is willing to scrap relationships in the short term, so we’re being a little more flexible with the payment schedules. Other than that it’s business as usual.’

chum and other Canadian companies are doing the same. ‘We don’t want to abandon them because they’re having a tough time,’ says Tapp. ‘When they stabilize and come back around, they’ll be acquiring versus producing and maintaining the relationships will make sense.’

Cinar’s Fournier says the volume of sales to the Asian market is down slightly, but that the prices are staying even with last year.

Cinar closed Asian sales including 25 episodes of Arthur and Sci Squad to atv in Hong Kong and tcs in Singapore and Paddington Bear to Disney Channel Taiwan, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Kennedy adds that the cash crisis is opening doors for the independent distributors.

‘The one thing that’s good is that they’re not able to absorb the cost of volume packages coming from the majors like Warner Bros. We’re better able to sell them one or two series at a time and that’s what they need right now.’

AAC moving large

into kids

Reaction to the Alliance-Atlantis merger from the market is genuinely positive, generating much shop talk about the need to be large to compete.

The first aac party at The Majestic drew a healthy contingent of foreign broadcasters and distributors hoping to mingle with Michael MacMillan, Lewis Rose, Riley, Seaton McLean, and Alexandra Brown, amongst others.

‘It’s good,’ says one nbc executive. ‘But y’all are from Canada, so you tell me: Shouldn’t it be Atlantis Alliance?’

Among the more harried at the market, Riley spent a good part of it discussing with buyers what he calls aac’s new ‘children’s initiative.’ Although the extension of the company into children’s programming is only in ‘the phase two development stage,’ the reaction from the market has been ‘fantastic.’

‘We have all the pieces now, with Calibre [digital effects], our own marketing and distribution expertise, and the licensing department we’re inheriting from Alliance, so we’re planning on ramping up our animation production,’ says Riley. ‘We’re also looking at more third-party marketing and distributing for other animation producers.’

Although Riley won’t comment until after the deal is signed, word is that aac is closing a major deal with a u.s. kids’ network for I Was A Sixth Grade Alien, a live-action series Atlantis had in development.

Also at mip, it was revealed that international television executive Simon Hart has been retained as a consultant for aac.

Hart will work with McLean, president of Alliance Atlantis Television Production, on projects including The Beezers (produced with Calibre Digital Pictures, aimed at the kids three to seven market and launched at mipcom), The Adventures of Peter Cottontail, Rescue Heroes and 108 Outlaws.

Calibre and aac are reportedly working on a new adult animation series. Party at Damien’s is aimed at primetime and will be produced with Sunbow Entertainment.

Hart comes from Ellipse Program usa, where she served as president as well as head of international coproductions for Ellipse France. Prior, she was an executive for Canal Plus. She will also be in charge of developing a children’s programming production arm for the merged Alliance Atlantis.

In sales news, The Jacqueline Susann Story sold into 30 countries, with a u.k. deal still pending. The Legacy series, which premiers this month, is garnering attention, but eyes are on upn’s ratings before deals are signed. Riley says he expects to close major territories at natpe.

Over at Alliance, word is a deal is in the works which will see Cold Squad broadcast in France. The Alliance series The Crow: Stairway to Heaven has been sold into Japan, Poland, Russia, Italy, Mexico, Finland, Greece and Argentina by its international distributor, PolyGram Television.

Speaking of Alliance, former distribution exec William Alexander has resurfaced with his own distribution company, Critical Mass.

Attending his first mipcom solo, Alexander, who spent the last five years as director of tv sales for Alliance, is repping 262 Canadian hours and 476 foreign hours. His library suppliers include France Film, Red Sky Entertainment, The Film Works, Trimark, Stratosphere, Strand, Shooting Gallery, Southern Star Films and Cadence.

Primary on the slate is the Sundance Film Festival award-winning Slam, Sturla Gunnarsson’s Such a Long Journey and five series in development including Talespinners from the National Film Board.

Loonies at Cannes

On the impact of the devalued Canadian dollar on business, the verdict is either ‘blessing’ or ‘curse,’ depending on which side of the production and distribution fence one sits.

As an export company that does 90% of its non-Canadian transactions in u.s. dollars, says new aac president Lewis Rose, ‘We love it.’

Ditto one producer requesting anonymity for fear of irking his American partner. ‘We got the full money up front six months ago for two projects and it’s just sitting in the bank increasing in value.’

On the other side are those including Distraction Game Entertainment Formats president Michel Rogrigue, who booked a swanky beach soiree in March to celebrate Distraction’s one-year anniversary at Cannes.

‘When I did that, the dollar was worth 4.5 francs,’ he said, eyeing the three-foot waves that threatened to invade the party. ‘Today it’s worth 3.5 francs. Oh well. In Cannes, you do what you have to do.’

On the buying side, word is the low dollar isn’t causing anyone to up their bids, although some are wary.

‘I’m anticipating it’s going to be an issue,’ says History Television’s Norm Bolen.

According to Bolen, low-volume deals are the first to be hit. ‘I lost a deal today, a one-off from an American distributor. Six months ago it would have gone through at the price I was offering, but I wouldn’t go up far enough to make up for the difference in the dollar and it was gone.

‘History tends to be a buyer’s market and we’re not changing our bids now, but my sense is that our prices are going to go up.’

At CHUMCity, Isme Bennie, director of programming and acquisitions for Space: The Imagination Station, says she hasn’t seen a reaction to the dollar from the market.

‘The seller does sometimes throw up his hands and say, `Oh my god, Canadian dollars!’ but then they go ahead. It may be in part because there aren’t many niche Canadian buyers for science fiction or streamlined arts programming.’

Jay Switzer, vp of programming for CHUM Television, says he’s seeing ‘subtle changes’ in the smaller deals, which are taking longer to nail down. ‘The big deals stay the same because no one wants to lose those. I think long term, structurally, there will be an overall number of fewer deals, with people becoming very protective of the larger clients.’

From the producers’ side, Sleeping Giant Productions’ head of business development Lyell Shields, says the loonie is taking some of the wind out of coproductions.

‘Treaty coproductions always work in American dollars, so you’re paying u.s. for talent, crews, equipment for foreign shoots. It can get ugly.’

Sleeping Giant is currently working on a Canadian/Italian coproduction with Italy’s Dreamtime Productions, The Return of the Gods, a four one-hour miniseries that will shoot 20% of the production outside Canada as per the treaty. No location changes/ postponements are planned to the production schedule to wait out the dollar, he says. ‘You just have to eat it.’

Besides producers, Canadian broadcasting executives making the Cannes trek this year included WIC Television president Jim Macdonald and tva president and ceo Daniel Lamarre.

Per Macdonald and Lamarre, the low Canadian dollar is a plus rather than a minus at the market.

‘Fox wants to buy our programs, and although we already have a production deal with them for some mows, they say they’d like to do a greater volume with us,’ says Lamarre. ‘The point is that people are calling me back to say `Can we do more?’ and that’s a direct impact from the value of the Canadian dollar compared to the u.s. It’s much cheaper to buy with us.’

But Macdonald says the long-term effect of the Asian market crisis is that the large multinationals will see reduced revenue from their international sales.

‘The result may be that they’ll look to rebalance sales and make up the difference, in part, by pumping up the Canadian price. When you’re on the buyer’s side of international programs, the value of the dollar isn’t good news.’

TVA Group’s mip was sweetened when it and France’s Metropole 6, majority controlled by diversified Euro holding company Compagnie Generale des Eaux, announced an agreement to create two joint-venture companies, which Lamarre says should generate revenues in the order of $40 million annually.

Extending the partnership, tva and M6 say they will buy Quebec cabler Videotron’s infomercial channel Canal Infopub for $2 million, plus a per-subscriber charge. It will be 75% owned by tva.

A second equally owned initiative will market derivative products including magazines, discs, videos and multimedia.

Lamarre says the partners will also buy each other’s tv shows and program concepts. M6 recently acquired the first TVA International telefilm, Shadow of the Bear, licensed in the u.s. by Fox Family Channel.

Two M6 executives will be based in Montreal overseeing the derivative products program.

In market trends, most interesting is the new confidence from the European broadcasters in local programming. ‘Clearly in Europe you’re seeing a downscaling in the appetite for foreign programming,’ says Riley. ‘It’s changed from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market.’

As a result, Riley estimates prices from the European territories have come down about 5%. ‘But it’s fascinating to see the number of coproduction deals that will come out of this market where the dominant buyer isn’t the American broadcaster but the European broadcaster.’

In animation trends, the saturated market means that quality is the primary driver, says Emmanuele Petry, director of coproductions for Nelvana and selling into primary European territories at the market.

‘It’s less about age groups now. They say they don’t want preschool, but then they see Rolie Polie Olie and they buy it because it’s different than the average animation product on the market.’

Tom Van Waveren, who heads up sales for Nelvana’s u.k. office, says people are looking for the ‘next step’ in animation. ‘There’s too much product in the market so everyone is hungry for shows that push the boundaries.’

In addition to Bob and Margaret, Nelvana sales included Ned’s Newt to M6 in France, Dumb Bunnies, Birdz, and Care Bears to Teletoon in France.

In other kids’ programming trend-tracking, Cinar’s Fournier says the ‘chilling out’ of the German kids’ market is cause for concern. German broadcaster Pro Seiben has moved out of the kids’ market, Nickelodeon has abandoned its German channel plans and word out of the u.s. is that Disney is planning to exit its partnership with Super rtl.

‘It’s not good news for the kids’ business in Germany,’ says Fournier. ‘There’ll be a lack of shelf space in a key European market and it’ll affect our ability to finance new productions in that territory.’

The realities of the digital spectrum are beginning to play out, he says.

‘The shelf space is increasing but the dollars aren’t and I think class b programming is finding less and less room to survive. You can’t make a business getting $1,000 an hour.’

Over at Montreal’s Cine-Groupe, the company has joined forces with France’s Medialab to coproduce two films and spin them off into television series. Pinocchio 3001 and Sphinx@com will be cgi features and the follow-up tv series are slated to be produced over the next four years.

Pearson Television of the u.k. has taken a 20% stake in Muse Entertainment, a new Canadian tv production and consulting company. Muse is helmed by director Michael Prupas.

According to the press bumph provided by Pearson, ‘Muse will give producers access to the low-cost and highly financially supportive production environment Canada has become. Canada has unique access to the u.s. marketplace and government production subsidies that are second-to-none on an international scale.’

The final mipcom numbers run to 10,422 participants from 91 countries with 1,122 exhibiting companies manning a total of 472 stands.

With a file from Leo Rice-Barker in Montreal.