While Canadian entertainment and media companies have been scurrying to gain presence on the global market by way of mega-mergers – a la Alliance and Atlantis, Corus and Nelvana, bce and ctv – one Toronto-based producer/distributor has managed to remain independent and take the international scene by storm.

‘We’ve remained purposely smaller, or mid-sized, under the radar, focused on our strategic alliances and created a lot more production than most people in Canada could manage,’ says Charles Falzon, ceo of Catalyst Entertainment and newly appointed president of international affiliate Gullane Entertainment (previously known as the Britt Allcroft Company).

Having started out more than a decade ago alongside such Canadian heavies as Nelvana, Alliance and Atlantis, Catalyst strayed from the fray, taking a decidedly different approach to making its mark in, and its money from, the global market.

‘We were all going international, but for going public reasons, they shifted,’ says Falzon. ‘Going public made them more Canadian than they used to be…but it’s doing very well for them because their shareholder pool is here in Canada. We’re a Canadian company with access to an international group of investors.’

A horizontally integrated company, independent from an equity and control point of view (Gullane owns one-third of its voting shares), Catalyst has forged a synergistic relationship with Gullane, a public company worth upwards of $700 million. The alliance has culminated in a community of production entities under one global presence.

‘Gullane has huge capital, huge strength in acquisitions and industry merchandising. And Catalyst has production and distribution, its own projects it’s developing and an international company as a client.’

What’s most characteristic of Catalyst, which mainly produces and distributes children’s programming, factual entertainment and family movies, is it has always been an exporting business, never dependent on the Canadian market.

Most recently Falzon has been working closely with Gullane ceo William Harris to build an alliance void of duplication. For example, Gullane’s new media unit is operated out of Catalyst. The official machine for such major children’s properties as Thomas the Tank Engine, the unit also supports Catalyst projects like The Longhouse Tales. Also, instead of Gullane setting up a distribution network of its own, Catalyst services all its sales.

‘And instead of having one person at Catalyst running around, we have 20 people in the u.s. making sure the right show gets sold to the right broadcaster. It’s like the old days when people would have an overall relationship with an American studio, except this is a global company that we are very much a part of.’

Roughly 5% to 10% of Catalyst’s overall income comes from the Canadian market (tvontario, Teletoon, cbc), 50% is u.s.-driven (Nickelodeon, Fox Family, cbs) and the rest comes from around the world.

Ironically, however, in the last three years of international band-wagoning, Catalyst has been involved in more genuinely Canadian-developed productions (The Longhouse Tales, Eckhart, Virtual Mom, Aventuura) than ever before. ‘We’re still 95% outside of Canada,’ says Falzon, but this surge in Cancon is an admitted testament to the health and sophistication of the Canadian children’s production industry.

The sophistication of all the entertainment spheres, including cd-roms and books, has taken children’s production from a time where a ‘simple preschool show, live on camera, made on five cents can get the right audience, to becoming a lot more developed in big business,’ says Falzon.

‘The danger is that there’s a tendency to forget (good storytelling), replacing it with high-tech, production value, merchandising-driven properties and marketing spins.’

Content, however, is still king, which is best exemplified by the trend toward broadcaster-owned producers. While Falzon recognizes the benefit of such relationships, mainly for the broadcaster, he’s quick to point out the Darwinian forces at play.

‘Broadcasters want to have what we have here – an umbrella – they’re trying to be the majors of the future. They’re using their clout, their money and their assets, so before their market share decreases over the next decade, they find themselves controlling the source of the entertainment.’

He applauds Corus Entertainment’s recent $554-million takeover of Nelvana as it puts Corus, a broadcaster, in an excellent position of control and pays Nelvana a premium chunk of money.

On the other hand, Falzon is wary about a production entity marrying itself to one distribution vehicle.

‘Our distribution vehicle is not just about tv. I have a much closer relationship with our publishers, cd-rom companies, Internet companies, retailer and video distributors – it’s an easier way to access the consumer than making a deal with a broadcaster.’

On the issue of convergence, he endorses the crtc pulling back and, subsequently, allowing a few players to succeed globally.

‘Over-protection worries me because you would have the German and the Japanese companies building their empires with international investment and the Canadians paling in their shadows.’

On the flip side – and here’s where we see the founding chairman of the cftpa emerge – Falzon is a huge supporter of keeping safeguards in place to ensure the production of Cancon.

‘Canadian talent and producers need that support.’

However, with the ctf under the microscope, the subject of support is a trifle touchy these days. Falzon dances around the question of whether to privatize the fund’s management, recognizing the potential for abuse in a private system, but finally emerges with, ‘private is always more efficient.’

Finally, Falzon champions Canada as a world-scale innovator, the first to develop coproduction treaties and the first to begin selling into the u.s.

Today he looks to that same innovative spirit to make the country a world leader in the new media environment. *

-www.catalystentertainmentinc.com