Montreal: Flowing bubbly and celebration greeted the on-air launch of four new specialty channels – Historia, Series+, z and Canal Evasion – Monday evening, Jan. 31.

The retail rate for the four French-language specialties starts as low as $3.49, and subscribers get to retain the services unless they specifically request otherwise, says Pierre Roy, president and ceo of Chaines Tele-Astral, which operates Historia, a history channel, and Series+, an international drama service.

All the services are being distributed by class-one cable operators Videotron and Cogeco Cable, dth services Star Choice and ExpressVu, and mmds service Look tv. Roy anticipates a 60% to 70% penetration rate, or about one million households. The free trial period is projected to last two months.

Historia and Series+ are owned equally by Astral Media and Alliance Atlantis Broadcasting, with Astral as the managing partner.

Judith Brosseau, senior vp programming at Tele-Astral, says two-thirds of Historia’s $6-million, first-year program investment is original Quebec and Canadian production.

On the key issue of program quality in the smaller French-track market, Brosseau says partnering with History Television, in the case of Historia, ‘means you can put more money into production and you get to talk to more people in Quebec and all over Canada with an English version.’

Adds Phyllis Yaffe, president, Alliance Atlantis Broadcasting: ‘The partnership with Astral allows us to jointly commission and create new and compelling Canadian dramas and documentaries.’ Yaffe says the similar program orientations will advantage Series+ and Showcase, and Historia and History Television.

Brosseau points out a startup means making an important investment. ‘After you’ve been in business for two or three years, maybe then you have an inventory.’

Primetime Canadian programs on Historia include L’Histoire a la une (Pixcom), broadcast weeknights at 6:30 p.m.; Les 30 Journees qui ont fait le Quebec (Eureka, producers Daniel Proulx of Des Crimes et des hommes fame and Ronald Brault); Artisans de Notre Histoire (Motion International); Histoires de Trains (Pixcom); Pour le meilleur ou pour le pire (Cirrus, producer Jacques Blain) and Tournants de l’Histoire/ Turning Points of History (Barna-Alper/ Connections).

Primetime acquisitions, all documentaries, include Histoire des Etats-Unis (WGBH International), which also includes the doc series The American Experience; the ancient history series Croisades (bbc) and Rome, le pouvoir et la gloire (Discovery); Hommes et femmes d’influence (Brook Productions/Thames Television/wgbh); Millennium (Pat Mitchell/Warner) and Civilizations perdues/ Lost Civilizations (Time-Life).

Drama and movie offerings, typically scheduled outside primetime, include two critically acclaimed Quebec series, Shehaweh (Productions Du Cerf) and Hiroshima (Telescene Film Group), and a mix of foreign fare – Racines/Roots (Warner), Napoleon (La Sept/France 3/Teleclip) and Chambres des dames (TF1).

International drama

Series+ opens its early weeknight evenings with the sexy soap St-Tropez, a kind of French Baywatch, followed by Salles des Nouvelles (e.n.g.). Action-adventure and police drama follow, with versioned shows such as Homocide: Life on the Street, Sex and the City, Law & Order and The Practice (La Firme de Boston).

Series+ has invested in 1,200 hours of new programming – 25% Canadian content, 75% foreign, with u.s. programs capped at 20%.

To ensure Series+ does not compete head to head with conventional networks Radio-Canada and tva, the new drama channel is prohibited by licence from broadcasting any Canadian series less than 10 years old.

Series+ also promised the crtc it will invest $900,000 a year in tv movies, including coproductions with France.

Jocelyne Lavoie is vp programming for Historia. Nancy Rouleau is vp programming at Series+.