With the majority of Canada’s distribution operations falling under the control of Alliance Atlantis, the time is more than ripe for a player as well backed and prolific in international sales as Chum Television International to enter the field of third-party distribution.

‘When we first started out as ChumCity International, we were producing so many magazine-style shows and we felt there was a market for them outside of Canada. Now we produce 35 half-hours a week, some of which like FashionTV and MediaTV are sold in 130 countries,’ says Kevin Byles, VP and GM of Chum Television International and a former Warner Bros. TV distribution exec. ‘With a sales force in place and my background at Warner Bros., it made sense that we set up another revenue stream, distributing content that’s complementary to what we are known for.’

The fact that the CTF is finally accessible to broadscaster-distributors also preluded the move.

The recently rebranded CTI has secured exclusive worldwide distribution rights, excluding English-speaking Canada (which belongs to Citytv) and the U.S., to the second season of Danforth Studios’ space-based action/adventure drama series Starhunter. It has also been assigned worldwide distribution to the first season by rights holder AAC.

The two seasons are, however, quite different. To be shot in the spring, season two is broken down into two almost completely different versions, one for mature viewers [with full frontal nudity] and one for family audiences. ‘We think there’s a growing demand for mature [content] on all the premium, specialty, pay and cable channels. And the family version is to satisfy the rest,’ says Byles.

CTI’s third-party distribution strategy is to start out slowly without initially putting up any minimum guarantees. ‘Ideally, I’d like to pick up some good MOWs and features [Canadian or not], but it’s unlikely we’ll get into first-run stuff right away. For now we’re looking for libraries, and series with a U.S. sale.’

Negotiating more sublicensing deals with Alliance Atlantis and other players like Warner Bros. is also a likely route for Byles. ‘If we do well with Starhunter, Ted Riley [AAC Entertainment Group president of distribution] would be interested in talking about other products,’ he says. ‘There’s such a glut of product available that needs proper representation and we’re really interested in the more cutting-edge and riskier product.’

CTI is currently negotiating rights on a couple of specials and for another one-hour action-adventure series, an undisclosed Canada/France/South Africa/U.K. copro, confirms Byles.

This year’s NATPE was CTI’s first major market as a third-party distributor. And while the report card is not yet out, Byles says, ‘there was unbelievable solicitation from the indies.’ Unfortunately, with a 40% reduction in market attendance, the new brand didn’t enjoy quite the same reach as previous years. But while some of the Asian territories were noticeably underrepresented, the Latin American and Spanish buyers were abundant, which is key for CTI’s in-house programming and format distribution activities.

CTI is currently working with Buenos Aires-based Claxson to launch MuchMusic throughout Latin American and Spanish territories, like Mexico City and Chile.

‘We have a lot of irons in the fire with channel development,’ says Byles, not the least of which is a City/Much hybrid for Singapore-based RTV Broadband.

CTI will be supplying RTV with the format and content produced by City and Much to create a multimedia entertainment service, one of eight channels the Chinese broadcaster is planning to test run later this month.

RTV is working with Shanghai CAV Online, which is the first company to receive an unrestricted broadband distribution licence for audio/video content for all of China. The service will be delivered via two-way digital cable to a set-top box connected to either a television or computer.

Also later this month, CTI is applying with a consortium of high-profile international partners (from the record business) for a MuchMusic licence in Israel. Two years in the waiting, CTI will be competing for the licence with local and international applicants, including MTV.

The Israeli regulator rescinded a call for licences two years ago, but reinstated it in November.

-www.chumlimited.com