Vancouver: Attendance at NATPE 2002 was down as much as 40% and, in general, action on the floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center was dead, but they didn’t really notice at the Canada Pavilion.

‘There was a reduction in attendance,’ says Lise Corriveau, manager of festivals and markets at Telefilm Canada, ‘but there was no indication of that at the Canada Pavilion.’

Fifty-two Canadian companies worked the market through the Canada Pavilion, more than twice the number attending last year.

Prominence of the Canadian booth on the Convention Center floor and the defection of the majors to hotels in Las Vegas may account for the good business in a down market, says Corriveau, who coordinated the pavilion.

‘Usually when the majors are on the floor, they dominate and take a lot of attention,’ she says. [With them relocated], Canada benefited. We got more time, more quality meetings, a chance to develop relationships….It wasn’t strictly business.’

Muse Entertainment of Montreal was busy introducing three products: Tales from the Never Ending Story (which airs on CBC, Hallmark and Movie Central), The Investigation and Savage Messiah.

Never Ending Story, says Betty Palik, director of communications, was sold in two formats – 13 one-hours or four two-hour MOWs. Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, Korea, China and TVE in Spain purchased TV and video rights to the property.

International interest in The Investigation, a true-life MOW about the RCMP’s investigation into the Clifford Olson murders, and Savage Messiah, a true-life MOW about French-Canadian cult leader Roch Theriault, prove that buyers, especially Europeans, are looking for reality-based programming, she adds.

‘You have to distinguish yourself in the market,’ says Palik, ‘either through compelling true stories or through a known brand like Never Ending Story.’

Palik says Muse also made progress developing a third season of Largo Winch, the one-hour action-adventure series based on the comic book, with distributor Paramount and French broadcaster M6. Largo Winch airs on Global.

A newcomer to NATPE was KidsWebTV, a Winnipeg new media company that wants to expand its successful Internet site to other platforms including television.

Kevin Weeks, VP of business development, says KidsWebTV has catered to the ‘tween’ market for about six years and gets about three million hits per month. Eddy the Eco-Dog, the central character in the site’s Flash-animated cartoons, is a star in the post-Barney era, he adds.

‘We went to get the lay of the land,’ says Weeks. ‘We got a great response, especially from Europe and Asia, and to our great surprise we are pursuing a number of negotiations.’

Eddy cartoons have previously aired as three-minute vignettes on YTV, says Weeks, but the new deals involve a full production licensing agreement.

‘The tweens have tremendous purchasing and influencing power,’ he explains, ‘and [potential partners] recognize the need to bring them more content.’

Weeks says successful negotiations with Asian companies would bring Eddy cartoons and other content to kids with wireless PDAs and palm devices.

Decode closed deals for Olliver’s Adventures, a 39-part series of seven-minute shorts by Halifax company Collideascope, and the in-house series Girl Stuff, Boy Stuff (52 11-minute episodes) with Barcelona-based distributor LUK International. Decode is also doing a Catalan version of the Angela Anaconda website for TV3 Catalunya, which purchased the animated series.

Decode also signed with Juita Viden of Malaysia to distribute in Asian territories.

‘We found the Canadian stand to be quite busy compared to the rest of the Convention Center,’ says Dominique Bazay, director of sales for Decode. ‘This proves that Canadian programming is quite sought after even in soft market times. We got a chance to start talking about our brand new preschool slate, which includes Franny’s Feet [52 x 11] and Save-Um’s [52 x 11], scheduled to go into production this year.’

Portfolio Entertainment of Toronto, meanwhile, sold the two-part documentary series The Living Century to the Australian History Channel. The series celebrates the lives of centenarians who’ve had some impact on history. Portfolio also sold a series of 210 90-secod interstitials called Klootz (by Klik Animation in Montreal) to Channel 5 in the U.K.

Small West Coast cable program distributor Dark Horse Entertainment sold six half-hours of Improv Comedy Games (Infinity Films) to the Australian Comedy Channel. It also sold 13 half-hours of At Home with Herbs (Corley-Graham Productions of Vancouver) and Entree (Entree Communications in Vancouver) to Asia, Israel and New Zealand.

Of course, a big controversy at NATPE was the loss of the majors to hotels such as the Venetian, where Lions Gate Entertainment took a suite.

‘We were extremely focused without the distraction of the floor,’ says Kevin Beggs, president of production at Lions Gate. ‘From our perspective, it was far more productive.’

Jay Switzer, president of Chum Television, finished his term as a director on NATPE’s board at the conclusion of the event last month.