While overall international sales markets remain in decline for broadcast product, Canadian participation in the upcoming MIPTV in Cannes March 24 -28 is up – testimony to the success of the Canada Pavilion marketing strategy at foreign markets and the crucial need to maintain a presence even in the tough times.

This year, 65 Canadian production companies are en route to the French Riviera compared to 52 that participated last year, a 25% increase.

According to Lise Corriveau, Telefilm Canada’s manager, festivals & markets, the sheer size and visual presence of the 400-square-metre Canada Pavilion acts as a magnet for Canadian companies and their potential customers. The turnkey services, meanwhile, make the Pavilion conducive to doing deals, even if those deals are less lucrative than even a few years ago. Producers and distributors are not getting their target prices for product, she admits, and coproductions and presales, while strong financing options, are hard to come by in the current unstable market.

Meanwhile, business struggles at home mean that Canadians going to MIPTV are generally downsizing their commitment to the Pavilion, opting in some cases to forgo the $5,500 private office in favor of access to the $1,700-per-participant business lounge.

Defraying costs so that Canadians can maintain a market presence is a key advantage, says Corriveau, noting that Telefilm and nine partners such as British Columbia Film cover 65% of the $550,000 cost of the Pavilion.

Another advantage is market intelligence.

While Telefilm Canada is creating a quantitative and qualitative research database, to be ready by next year, that will provide crucial and definitive market intelligence about, for instance, hot genres and hot markets for Canadian delegates, the funder has been doing less scientific, in-house trend-tracking surveys for the past couple of years at the conclusion of big markets.

At last year’s MIPTV, Canadian delegates had 576 programs for sale and sold 293 (51%) to some degree, generating $3.2 million. Presales were sought for 104 programs with 20 (or 19% success) securing some financing, totaling $3.7 million.

Evidence that international business, while tough, is at least consistent was seen in MIPCOM 2002 last fall, where 339 programs of 683 were sold (50% success), generating $4.5 million in sales. Presales success rates were also on par with MIPTV 2002.

Corriveau says world events such as the threat of war in Iraq, hurt attendance at markets like MIPTV, and the struggles of European markets like Germany and France also drag down market activity. However, new territories such as South Africa, Russia and Asia are gaining momentum.

NFB gets commercial

Among the more veteran Canadian delegates, the National Film Board of Canada will unveil its new commercial focus, sales team and products.

Arctic Mission, a series of five one hours or, alternatively, one 90-minute feature on global warming and the Arctic, headlines the new commercially-minded catalogue. The documentary is coproduced by Glacialis and the NFB with France 2, France 5, CBC and Télé-Québec and will be delivered by the fall.

Noël Noël, a 30-minute one-off family special, will be offered for the next yuletide season. And The Journey of Lesra Martin is a one-hour doc about the kid from Brooklyn who helped wrongfully imprisoned boxer Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter.

The NFB’s sales team, based in Canada, Europe and the U.S., includes documentary and animated short sales specialists such as Johanne St-Arnauld, director general of distribution. ‘We’ll be focused on sales to broadcasters,’ says St-Arnauld. ‘We want to ensure we have global penetration and make sure they know what the NFB is.’

Joanne Leduc, head of new business development, will be looking to acquire doc series and ‘edgy’ one-offs that fit with the NFB’s programming strategy – more evidence of the film organization’s commercial focus.

The NFB, meanwhile, will finalize a multi-picture agreement with the Sundance Channel during MIPTV to supply programming for the channel’s new DOCday slot launching in March.

Who else has what else

Montreal-based Filmoption International will represent The Old Man and the Sea, the 20-minute 2000 Oscar winner by Productions Pascal Blais, based on the Hemingway novella. Other titles include The Crocophiles (a one-off one hour by Vancouver’s Force Four Entertainment); Stones of Fate and Fortune (7 x 1 hour, Connections Productions); Pretty Ladies, Fast Horses (a one-off one hour, Trick Rider Productions).

‘The markets have evolved,’ says Nathalie D’Souza, director of international sales. ‘But we have a bit of everything and we feel we should be able to fill the buyers’ needs.’

Alliance Atlantis is pushing the four-hour Origins of Evil miniseries about Adolf Hitler, produced for CBS, and The Eleventh Hour. CSI: Miami’s 23 hours are also available.

AAC is selling the Oscar-nominated doc Prisoner of Paradise. For kids, AAC has Mental Block (13 x 30 minutes), a live-action comedy series about a high school student and his friends.

Toronto’s Portfolio Entertainment has acquired three new series to pitch at MIPTV: Bump, a gay travel and lifestyle series; Toad Patrol, an epic, animated, action-adventure show; and Punch Like A Girl, six half-hour portraits of female boxers.

CBC will be pushing its tainted water MOW Betrayed along with the edgy French-Canadian series Musical Hall (6 x 1 hour).

‘The programs have to have some cache, something that will make them stand out,’ says Jennifer Stewart, CBC’s director of international coproductions, sales and acquisitions. ‘The markets are bad and continuously in decline, so you have to be really smart about where you put your money.’

On the doc side, CBC is selling its Life and Times special on Pope John Paul II and the Radio-Canada program Iraq Revealed.

CHUM Television, with its own booth, will focus on ‘Fashion, Music and Celebrity Glam’ with six new series at MIPTV including Exposed (10 x 30 minutes, a MuchMusic production) following top music stars of today on the road. CHUM also has Listed (6 x 30 min, a MuchMusic production), a weekly look at the top-10 trends and The Morning After (5 x 30 min, a Star! production), a celebrity oriented reality show.

-www.miptv.com