Cannes, France: As specialty channels continue to multiply around the world, Canadians are well-positioned to reap the benefits. That was the overall message of the recently concluded mipcom, where Canadian vendors reported strong interest and numerous deals almost across the programming board.

‘Lots of digital channels are springing up, spread across a number of genres,’ says Alliance Atlantis Communications’ Marnie Sanderson. ‘There are a lot of health and lifestyle channels cropping up, we’ve already seen quite a lot of movie channels, so it covers all product. Buyers are more pointed, more surgical [in their approach].They know what they want.’

Notable aac product to have moved off the shelf at mip includes ‘it’ show Together, a (13 x 30) ‘mockumentary’ of a boy band, budgeted at us$700,000. An mtv coprod, the series begins screening imminently, with the final installment scheduled for delivery at the end of this year. Buyers include Channel 10 (Australia), TV3 (New Zealand), tcs (Singapore), hmg (Netherlands) and rte (Ireland).

Getting a big push from the company was Alliance Atlantis Television Distribution’s 50% coprod cop drama series CSI (13 x 60 initially, with an eye to a 23-ep season, budgeted at us$2 million per ep), for which Alliance Atlantis has all non-u.s. distribution rights. It found buyers in Australia (Nine Network), France (tfi), Latin America (Sony Entertainment Television), Canada (ctv), New Zealand (tv3), Indonesia (PT Indosiar), Singapore (tcs), Ireland (rte) and the Netherlands (hmg). With the $2-million-an-ep series having just premiered (Oct. 6) on cbs, executives at mipcom seemed to be in no hurry to finalize simmering deals with German and Spanish buyers ahead of the anticipated audience response.

‘If the show’s strong, if it has momentum, we might not want to close [those deals] here,’ Ted Riley, president of Alliance Atlantis Television Distribution told reporters in Cannes after a press conference held to publicize the involvement in the series of Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

Also, aac tv movies Haven (budgeted at us$15 million and slated for a January 2001 release) and Jewel, budgeted at us$5 million and scheduled for delivery at the end of November, have attracted considerable interest, with both recording sales to Channel 10 (Australia), rte (Ireland), tvi (Portugal) and hmg (Netherlands). Jewel has also been bought by HBO Asia and TV3 (New Zealand).

Animation in the spotlight

Animation companies enjoyed a strong mipcom. Launching its new global distribution company at the market, Toronto-based Sextant reported strong activity with 13 episodes of the animated Mr. Hell (us$400,000 per) sold to undisclosed channels in France and Germany.

Presale deals were also made on live-action/animation hybrid The Rumfords (budget us$650,000, delivery slated for late spring 2001) to an undisclosed ‘premium channel window’ in Asia. Micronauts (26 x 30, budgeted at us$280,000, delivery date spring 2001), another animation project, has found buyers in France and Germany and has been sold to a ‘pan-Latin American satellite service,’ says Sextant’s Thomas Howe.

Meanwhile, Nelvana’s mipcom has been marked by considerable success in European markets. Rome-based channel Rai Due has purchased 26 episodes of half-hour animation Braceface (budgeted at us$285,000 an ep), with an option for another 26. A new cycle of 13 Franklin: the Series was sold to Polish tv in Poland, with 26 going to Croatian tv in Croatia. Thirteen eps of Corduroy (30 minutes) have gone to Slovak tv and 78 eps of Babar the Series to HBO Minimax in Hungary. Polish tv and Croatia have also bought the Franklin movie, Franklin and the Green Knight. French-language broadcaster Canal Horizon (based in Paris, it broadcasts to eight French-speaking African countries) has taken on a slate of animation ranging from preschool to adult-aimed fare in a package deal.

Cinar also had a busy market, reporting sales for each of the five properties it took to mipcom. Twins, available as 26 x 10 (budgeted at us$350,000), has found a buyer in TFI France, while A Miss Mallard Mystery (26 x 22, also budgeted at us$350,000) was sold to Nickelodeon uk and Italy’s Mediaset.

The seventh series of Arthur (10 x 30, also budgeted at us$350,000) has gone to bbc 1 in the uk, France 3 and Canal J, also in France, for second window. Upstairs Downstairs Bears, a coprod with a budget of $430,000, available as either 13 x 30 or 26 x 10, has found a buyer in Teletoon.

Meanwhile, Cinar’s most publicized launch, Treasure (budgeted at us$300,000, available as 26 x 10 or 13 x 30) has deals pending with Italy, France, Germany and Denmark. The series, which had screened one episode on the bbc at market time, is a tween show that aims for primetime, says Cinar’s John Reynolds. Coprod partners bbc (Treasure also had a third partner, Halo) have scheduled the series in the same timeslot that once held The Simpsons and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Live-action tween series hot

Strong as animation sales were, word from this year’s mipcom is that tween – specifically tween live-action – is hot.

Cawthra Burns of Catalyst reports that the new area of concentration is the age group 9-14 rather than 6-11. ‘That’s where there’s a huge hole. There are lots of 6-11 out there and not much 9-14. It’s on an upswing.’

Marilyn Kynaston of Forefront, speaking at the market, concurred. ‘What I have noticed at this market is the dearth of high-quality live-action teen and tween drama. People are hungry for it. There’s [already] tons of animation.’

Sales were strong as early as the first morning. Kynaston had a slew of firm offers for such old faithfuls as The Adventures of Shirley Holmes and Madison.

The Quest, a tween drama title in development and set to shoot in the summer, was launched at mipcom in order to attract presales or coprod partners. It garnered interest but no firm offers.

Teen soap Edgemont also attracted strong interest, with Kynaston expecting sales in the near future in territories such as France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Israel and Hungary. With its second series in production and new startup channels hungry for programming, Edgemont has volume on its side.

Kevin DeWalt of Minds Eye Pictures has mipcom news on two new series. One, MythQuest, described by DeWalt as ‘a contemporary Blade Runner,’ is a German/Canadian coprod set to start shooting at the end of October. The drama series, budgeted at $22 million, went into preproduction while mipcom was still running, as a direct result of a deal struck at the market that saw Minds Eye nail the final piece of gap financing.

The other deal, for a 26 x 30 drama series, Risktv, saw DeWalt with his producer’s hat on coming in on a treaty coprod with u.k. company Focus International. The series, budgeted at $4 million, is to be shot in London on video. Record label emi’s roster will get exposure on the series’ soundtrack in a deal struck by producers. The Canadian broadcaster will be Showcase, with Channel 5 signed up for the uk.

Over at the Salter Street Films booth, The Awful Truth series found several buyers: Canal Jimmy in France, TV Metropole in Norway and two Australian broadcasters, sbs and The Comedy Channel Australia. Salter also reported sales of half-hour documentary series Foodessence to Spain (Media Park, 65 episodes), Brazil (Synapse, 65), Belgium (Vitaya, 26), Israel (Noga Communications, 26) and Canada (TeleLatino, 65) and the aviation series Flightpath (52 x 60) to Discovery Germany.

Montreal-based specialist in primetime documentary, Mundovision, found success with its title Selling the Weather, a one-hour documentary ‘about our and the media’s obsession with the weather,’ says Mundovision’s George Matta. A mipcom launch, the doc is still in development and attracted prebuys from a Swedish channel, Hong Kong (atv) and Finland (Channel Four Finland). Also sold at mipcom, once again to Channel Four Finland and to atv was the company’s finished project Polar Bear Safari. *