Jewison, Lantos team up

Serendipity Point Films’ Robert Lantos and director Norman Jewison are joining forces for the first time on a feature film project, currently in development. The Statement is screenwriter Ronald Harwood’s adaptation of the Brian Moore political thriller.

The suspense picture is the story of Pierre Brossard, a French war criminal under the protection of the Vatican and French government. When his cover is blown, he must struggle to survive.

Lantos also produced the film

version of an earlier Moore novel, Black Robe.

Extensions for

TVA, MusiquePlus

The CRTC (2001-528 and 526) has approved applications from Groupe TVA and MusiquePlus to extend the deadline for the launch of various French-language Category 1 specialty services to Sept. 30, 2002.

The broadcasters cited several factors in their request, including the limited digital subscriber base. The TVA services include the business news channel LCN Affaires, the comedy channel Tele Ha! Ha! and Canal Mystere, formerly 13eme Rue. MusiquePlus received an extension for the launch of fashion and design channel Perfecto.

In correspondence to both Quebec-based broadcasters, the CRTC stated, ‘Should you not be able to commence operation of these specialty services upon expiry of the period stipulated in this decision, or should the Commission deny an application for future extensions filed by the licensee, the licenses will not be issued.’

CCTA recommends changes to BA

In a move said to update legislative framework and position the Canadian broadcasting system for the future, the Canadian Cable Television Association has recommended changes to the Broadcasting Act, which will be reviewed by the standing committee later this fall.

Recommendations include: amen-ding the Act to include reliance on market forces and consumer choice as explicit policy objectives; reducing CRTC regulation in light of the competitive broadcasting environment; and eliminating barriers to increased foreign investment in cable and satellite companies.

FICC cap rises to $30M

Fonds d’investissement de la culture et des communications, a risk-capital investor fund in Quebec-based cultural businesses, has received an additional $15 million in investments, $10 million from the labor-based Fonds de Solidarite FTQ and $5 million from SODEC, increasing the fund’s total capitalization to $30 million. Launched in 1997 and headed by president Marcel Choquette, FICC has invested close to $14 million to date in 25 Quebec companies. Choquette also announced the maximum FICC investment per company is being increased to $2 million from $750,000.

In the next three years, Choquette projects direct investments by FICC could rise to $40 million, representing leveraged investments of $200 million in up to 40 companies.

Satellite providers take lion’s share of digital

It is predicted that Bell ExpressVu and Star Choice will continue to dominate the battle to win new digital television consumers, according to a new study by Decima Publishing.

The two satellite providers already control 64% of the market with a combined total of roughly 1.4 million digital subscribers (600,000 for Star Choice and 750,000 for ExpressVu) in a world of only 2.2 million digital-ready homes. Shaw Cablesystems has about 250,000 digital subs, Rogers has about 200,000 and Cogeco rings in at 100,000.

The forecast, however, indicates that the cablers are poised for increased growth, partly at the expense of their satellite competitors.

The forecasts are contained in Decima’s new report called The Digital Domain: Tracking the Growth and Development of the Canadian Digital TV Market. The report is the first in a quarterly series set to provide a detailed breakdown of the digital market.

Meantime, Cancom Communications has announced it has raised $250 million to be used to finance the growth of Star Choice, its direct-to-home subsidiary.

The financing was done privately, with Scotia Capital as the sole underwriter.

Ferns takes Market Simulation to new heights

Following his recent Market Simulation at Souk Ukaz in Amman, Pat Ferns is taking his signature-pitching forum to Sithengi the Southern African International Film and Television Market in Cape Town,

Nov. 13-16.

Ferns’ trip to South Africa is part of his planned special focus on Africa at next year’s Banff Television Festival, taking place June 9-14, 2002.

Following Sithengi, Ferns will

take his Market Simulation to Singapore for the Asian Television Forum, Dec. 5-7.

Ferns launched the internationally renowned pitching session at the 1985 BTF. Since then, he has continued to morph the simulation into various formats, including his newest version to launch at Mipcom Junior in Cannes, France on Oct. 6. In lieu of his long-running Bourse aux Coproductions, he will introduce a new panel format based on case histories at Mipcom Junior.

Following this, Ferns will inaugurate Cyberpitch, his new media variant, at the Baddeck New Media Festival, being held Oct. 10-13 in Baddeck, NS.

Later in the month at the 9th World Congress of Science Producers, taking place in Washington, D.C. Oct. 25-28, Ferns will host another variation of the Market Simulation, which will enable scientists to pitch their research ideas to a group of science producers, who in turn will discuss how these ideas might be reshaped to form programming that could be pitched to broadcasters.

Telefilm Atlantic awards

The Atlantic branch of Telefilm Canada has granted four young filmmakers a total of $60,000 for their respective short film projects through its Emerging Filmmaker’s Program.

The recipients this year are Nova Scotia’s Jay Dahl (The Wedding Video) and Shandi Mitchell (Baba’s House), Newfoundland’s Justin Sims (Ashore) and New Brunswick’s Justin Collicott (Pale Blue Grass). Each will receive $15,000 toward the financing of their film.

The films were selected from seven film proposals by a jury of four East Coast-based film delegates: Jennice Ripley of Film East, Gretha Rose of Cellar Door Productions, Toni Merzetti of the New Brunswick Filmmaker’s Co-op and producer Chuck Clark.

The next deadline for the program will be in spring 2002.

Autodesk to acquire Media 100 software line

Autodesk, the design and digital content creation company out of San Rafael, CA, has signed an agreement to acquire the software product line from Media 100, based in Marlboro, MA. Media 100’s streaming media software solutions are of particular interest to Autodesk for integration with products from the latter’s subsidiary Discreet, the Montreal-headquartered systems and software developer.

Included in the acquisition is Media 100’s Cleaner product family, which is encoding software that delivers interactive streaming video and audio to websites across the Macintosh and Windows platforms. With eyes on the future of Internet content delivery, Autodesk will enable Discreet customers to create, distribute, repurpose and publish media content for the Web and IP-enabled devices such as cell phones and PDAs.

The appeal of streaming is that it allows for immediate playback of content over the Web without downloading, and with massive broadband rollout on the horizon, it will continue to grow as a distribution method for entertainment and advertising video content.

The deal, worth $16 million, is expected to close in Autodesk’s third quarter.