Having established itself as one of the world’s dominant players in one-hour primetime drama series, Alliance Atlantis Communications is quietly preparing a major assault on program territory currently ruled by fellow Canadian pubcos Cinar and Nelvana.

Plans for a significant children’s division are currently being hammered out at aac head office in Toronto with a coming-out party scheduled for MIPCOM Jr. this fall.

Ted Riley, president of aac television distribution, says the intention is for children’s programming to account for 25% of the company’s business within three to five years.

‘We believe that there is an opportunity for a third major company in Canada,’ says Riley. ‘There are a lot of important companies beyond Cinar and Nelvana, but few companies that can combine the merchandising, licensing, production, distribution and capital functions that we can provide. We think there’s an opportunity to be competitive in this area.’

Quarterbacking the strategy for the new aac children’s division is Simon Hart, a former executive with French production company Ellipse Programme, a subsidiary of Canal+. Alliance vp animation Suzanne French and production exec Peter Sander are also involved in formulating the children’s division’s business plan.

But where and in what segment of the already crowded kids’ biz aac wants to target is being kept under wraps. Riley says when the division launches it plans to have a number of children’s shows greenlit and a full development slate of both animation and live-action projects.

Among the kids’ shows close to production for aac are toon series Peter Cottontail, live actioner I Was A Sixth Grade Alien, The Beezers (produced with Calibre Digital Pictures and aimed at kids aged three to seven) and 108 Outlaws. Projects with third-party producers such as Vancouver-based Mainframe are also in development. Production on a second season of Jett Jackson is underway.

Rescue Heroes scooped by Nelvana

Yet while an overall strategy for its foray into the kids’ biz is being formulated, aac has had to drop some of its children’s development projects because it was unsure as to whether they would fit with its new kids’ brand image.

For example, the company had to pass on the opportunity to take a property based on the Mattel Fisher Price Rescue Heros toys to series.

Last year, Alliance produced a 20-minute animated pilot based on the popular action figures. The pilot is being sold at retail in a number of countries including the u.s. as a promotional video. But when Mattel wanted the property to be put into series, aac had to pass because it was unsure whether it would fit into its new kids’ strategy, which had yet to be finalized.

‘We felt that it was premature for us to start committing to a lot of new properties until we had sorted out what our new business plan for this merged entity was going to be in the children’s area,’ says Riley. ‘It was simply a function of something coming to us at the wrong time.’

After being jettisoned from aac, Rescue Heros ended up at Nelvana where, in part because of the Toronto toonco’s relationship with cbs, the u.s. network has ordered 13 half-hours of the series to run on its Saturday morning block.

According to Nelvana co-ceo Michael Hirsh, Nelvana owns the worldwide rights to the Rescue Heros series and will participate in some of the toy revenues derived from any increases due to its exposure on cbs.

Riley says that aac has dropped ‘some’ other kids’ projects, but would not specify which ones or how many.

‘We didn’t want to find ourselves committing to properties that would start branding us as a newly merged entity,’ says Riley. ‘It was best to back off at that point on certain titles.’

Finding kids’ niche

Looking forward, key to the prosperity for the aac kids’ division is finding continuity for the new brand.

‘If we are going to be successful in this area we are going to have to be a niche player,’ says Riley. ‘We have to have a strong attitude and a strong personality and we’re going to have to be known for something. And if we’re going to be known for something, we want to be the architects of what we’re going to be known as. ‘Everything will have a consistency.’

With strong international relationships, continued investment in building its merchandising and licensing department and a wealth of experience in production and distribution, one would think that aac’s entrance into the kids’ business would have other kids’ producers looking for vacant fox holes to dive into.

But one senior exec at a rival kids’ prodco isn’t running scared.

The competition is quick to point out that both Alliance and Atlantis have claimed to be ramping for an entrance in the kids’ biz in the past, with little product to show for it. ‘They’ve made this announcement at least three times before,’ says the exec.