Carlton sells $1.5M to Canada

IN the aftermath last year of Vancouver-based Sextant Entertainment Group’s collapse, U.K.-based distributor Carlton International had to reorganize its Canadian territory representation, which had been handled by Sextant International.

‘We are now working on a direct basis out of London, in partnership with our Canadian representative, Roberta Colombin in Vancouver,’ says Carlton’s Dominic Rayner, territory manager for Asia-Pacific and Canada.

According to Carlton, more than 200 hours of programming have been sold to Canadian networks in the past six months, achieving sales of more than $1.5 million.

CBC, for instance, bought the new Robbie Coltrane drama The Plan Man and Citytv/CHUM has TV movies Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story, starring James Woods; Family Doctor with Olympia Dukakis and Paul Sorvino; and Open House with Christine Lahti.

Carlton has also sold to W, YTV, Alliance Atlantis Broadcasting, TVOntario and Series+.

Sonic sells entertainment assets to Deluxe

Media services provider Sonic Foundry has closed on its sale of the assets of its entertainment-based business to global giant Deluxe Media Services for approximately US$5.6 million cash.

Combining this revenue with funds Sonic Foundry expects from its recent sale of desktop software to Sony Pictures Digital, the company will use the approximately US$24 million for debt repayment. It will also move ahead with plans for market expansion through development of rich-media content creation, management and distribution systems.

Sonic Foundry, based in Madison, WI, has a facility in Toronto.