The Banff Television Foundation dropped the biggest bombshell of its 25-year history in April when it filed for bankruptcy protection in a Calgary court – blaming SARS and mad cow, openly criticizing the management of former CEO Pat Ferns and warning that, if certain legal and business proceedings did not go forward, its landmark festival would die just two months short of its silver anniversary.

On April 12, Madame Justice Horner of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta appointed the accounting firm Richter, Allan & Taylor as the foundation’s trustee in bankruptcy and a deal has been struck with a Toronto company that is expected to keep the festival afloat. A subsidiary of Achilles Partners LLC, an investment firm with experience in the world media market, will now run the festival under a 10-year licence from a newly formed Banff Television Foundation, which bought the assets of the now-dissolved original foundation. Achilles’ Robert Montgomery is the fest’s new CEO.

Montgomery says the 2004 festival will proceed as planned. ‘We’re creating a stable environment and background for this event to keep happening,’ he says. ‘The whole point in us getting involved is to [put on] the kind of festival the industry expects.’

Montgomery was previously managing director of Kagan World Media, a California-based media research firm. He has never attended the Banff festival. He says he and Achilles were attracted to the deal by BTF’s broad Canadian and international reach, even though the previous management had over-expanded.

‘The previous management’s expansion strategy was a major factor in the bankruptcy, although all international media events have struggled over the last few years,’ he says.

‘The thing we’re banking on is that Banff is a must-attend event for the Canadian TV industry… We need to get together and figure things out over drinks and dinner. That’s where the deals get made, where ideas get hatched, where relationships get formed. There’s no way that dynamic is going to disappear.’

He insists the fest will still run its popular pitch sessions and craft-focused panel talks, although he also speaks of making the week-long mountain retreat ‘more vital’ for business interests.

‘I don’t know why you can’t have both,’ he says, citing the business-with-pleasure atmosphere of MIPCOM and MIPTV. ‘There you are on the French Riviera, but people either play golf of they sit down and negotiate hard on the deck of the Majestic. I don’t see why the deck of the Banff Springs is any different.’

Montgomery replaces Ferns, who stepped down as CEO and president shortly before news broke of the bankruptcy. Ferns’ poor relations with staff and other ‘structural defects’ contributed to Banff’s downfall, according to an affidavit filed by Richter.

‘[Ferns] is a talented and respected visionary in the industry, but is not an effective manager,’ it reads, adding he ‘no longer has the support of the staff.’

Ferns, who was traveling in New Zealand promoting the festival and therefore not available to comment for this story, will now run the fest’s conferences and pitch sessions. Richter noted that BTF’s office space and 30-person staff were ‘excessive’ and that relations between management and the 12-person board of directors had become strained, mainly because the board is scattered over the country, preventing regular meetings or communication. The foundation is based in Canmore, AB.

BTF briefly employed a chief operating officer, Jim Byrd, to solve the staff problems, but this was ‘not effective’ because Byrd lives in Newfoundland.

No changes to the board are expected. It is also believed that all or most of the staff will have their contracts renewed, according to a source close to BTF.

Rumors of the foundation’s ill health have swirled since the low turnout at last year’s festival, which was hit hard by the outbreaks of SARS and mad cow disease, losing $250,000 according to court documents. That fall the foundation launched three new events – Newsworld, NextMedia and the World Congress of Art Producers and Performers – hoping to boost the Banff brand. But cost overruns and poor attendance only made a bad situation worse. Newsworld alone lost $400,000, and by early 2004, the foundation was down $800,000. Costs related to the impending TV festival threatened to push that number to some $2 million.

BTF hired Richter and went looking for partners or other white knights, but found no takers except for little-known Achilles. The Toronto outfit agreed to a deal on the condition that Banff file for protection from its creditors. The future of BTF’s other events remains unclear, although Achilles has an option to license them as well.

-www.btvf.com