CBC/Radio-Canada and MIPCOM host Reed Midem are cosponsors of this year’s opening-night festivities, highlighted by a gala performance by the internationally renowned Cirque du Soleil.

The Oct. 7 event at the Palm Beach Hotel in Cannes will be hosted by Sean Cullen, star of the new CBC comedy series The Sean Cullen Show, which premiers Jan. 10, 2003.

‘Our 50th anniversary provides a perfect platform to launch an aggressive international sales drive at MIPCOM,’ says Slawko Klymkiw, executive director, network programming for CBC Television.

Key CBC/SRC production execs attending MIPCOM include Deborah Bernstein, executive director, Arts & Entertainment; Suzanne Laverdiere, interim director-general, programming, Radio-Canada; Jennifer Stewart, director international coproduction, sales and acquisitions, CBC Sales International; and Klymkiw.

CBC Sales International ‘is looking to a slight increase over the next two years. For many years we basically didn’t have a lot of programs and CBC was not doing in-house programs, and we were restricted [by Telefilm Canada] from picking up anything that had Telefilm money,’ says Stewart.

The Telefilm EIP rule has changed and CBC is eligible to bid on export rights for indie-produced shows.

In a recent cost-cutting effort, CBC Sales International moved all operations to Toronto and closed offices in Los Angeles and London.

‘The trick for us is to identify and market Canadian programs that are important for the CBC and that can also be taken to the international marketplace,’ says Stewart. ‘We have to be profitable, but we also have to serve the core CBC mandate. But I think we can be more profitable.’

One of the corporation’s primary business strategies is aimed at reinforcing the network’s competitive position, its domestic schedule and extending its programming investments. Several ambitious international coproductions are on the horizon.

-www.cbc.ca