More Canadians than ever before are heading down to the 2001 NATPE Conference & Exhibition, being held Jan. 22-25 in Las Vegas.

Market registration across the board is pacing 23% ahead of last year’s figures, with 860 exhibitors compared to 780 in 2000. New exhibitors ring in at 312, of which 20 are Canadians, who are moving on up this year, with 80 stands compared to 59 at last year’s New Orleans market.

At this year’s natpe, Telefilm Canada also welcomes its largest group of Canadian exhibitors, with a total of 20 under its umbrella.

And 25 independent producers from Western Canada will come together for the first time under the newly established Canada West banner, a consortium of provincial agencies from Alberta, b.c., Manitoba and Saskatchewan. ‘Working together makes this market possible for many of our producers who could not normally attend,’ says Carole Vivier, ceo of Manitoba Film and Sound.

The new Western entries partly account for the increased number of Canadian exhibitors at this year’s market.

Participating Canada West companies include Credo Entertainment, Mainframe Entertainment, Partners in Motion and White Iron Pictures.

‘The current figures reflect the importance of natpe as the world’s largest and most dynamic international marketplace for television programming and content,’ says natpe president and ceo Bruce Johansen, who further attributes the high turnout to the excitement surrounding the Las Vegas venue.

However, even with the market’s increasing focus on digital and interactive platforms, new media company registration only increased by 4% this year, with 145 new media exhibitors heading to market compared to last year’s 140.

Seventy-two of this year’s new media companies are first-time exhibitors, a testament to the elusiveness of last year’s flurry of upstarts and a nod to television distributors’ early reluctance to strike dot-com deals.

Telefilm is making the most out of the market’s integration of new media with the creation of its New Media Lounge, through which Canadian distribs can develop and facilitate new partnerships in the burgeoning new media industry.

‘Telefilm’s natpe umbrella stand will be a true reflection of the Canadian audiovisual industry with its largest contingent of small and medium-sized companies from across the country, among them five new media companies,’ says Johanne St-Arnauld, director for international relations for Telefilm.

Distributors exhibiting at the Telefilm stand include Bardel Animation, Breakthrough Film and Television, Canamedia Productions, CineGroupe, Cirrus Productions, Decode Entertainment, Enblast Productions, Muse Entertainment, Portfolio Entertainment, Productions Distribution Editions La Fete, S&S Productions, Salter Street Films International, Sextant International Distribution, Sound Venture International, Sullivan Entertainment and Tube Studios.

New media companies include Global Vision, Kutoka International, Pixelera.com, Snap Media and CineGroupe Interactive.

Market sessions, of which there are close to 60, cover such predominant themes as industry consolidation, reality tv, the broadband blitz and interactive television.

Ted Riley, president of Alliance Atlantis Television Distribution, sits on the Interactive TV Around the Globe panel, where he and his international colleagues will attempt to define what itv means in each of their respective markets.

Pat Ferns, president and ceo of the Banff Television Foundation, moderates Formats: The New Reality, with such high-profile panelists as Mark Burnett, creator of Survivor; Gary Carter, vp international sales for Endemol Entertainment; and Ben Silverman, head of international packaging at William Morris Agency.

Other session highlights include Coffee with Darren Star, Coffee with Merv Griffin, a series of hdtv workshops and screenings; How to Pitch Your Pitch; and the second annual Interactive TV Pitch Competition.

Some hot new Canadian product hitting the market floor this year includes the new 26-part, half-hour tween series Daft Planet from CineGroupe, and Canamedia’s newest show, Don’t Forget Your Passport, a travel series the distributor intends to shop around to non-Canadian broadcasters.

In the area of food shows, natpe will see the introduction of Bardel Animation’s 26-part cooking series Eats, described as a fast-paced multimedia experience with food at the forefront.

Octapixx Worldwide brings Wildfire Motion Picture Company’s action mow Solid Cover to market and Alliance Atlantis unveils the $23-million, two-part miniseries Me and My Shadows, a memoir of Judy Garland as seen through the eyes of her daughter Lorna Luft.

On the factual side, AAC Fact launches Criminal Evidence, two hours that chronicle the dual life of forensic anthropologist/best-selling crime novelist Kathy Reichs. *

-www.natpe.org/