Canadian producers may be fretting at home over recent broadcast merger deals and challenges to the Canadian Television Fund.

But on the Croissette at MIPTV, they’ll be breaking out the bubbly, as their TV programming and formats sell surprisingly well with overseas networks.

‘It’s a difficult market out there, with [industry] consolidation and an ever-shrinking subsidy system in Canada. You have to find ways to reach markets overseas or other digital platforms,’ says Ira Levy, cofounder of Breakthrough Films & Television.

Currently, Canuck dramas and kids series are hot, some more so in foreign lands than at home.

Shaftesbury Films’ ReGenesis has been sold to 110 countries and is near to bagging a U.S. sale. Its kids series Life with Derek airs worldwide in 137 countries and 10 languages. The show, airing on Disney, has also placed among the top 10 cable series for tween girls in the U.S.

Christina Jennings, chairman and co-CEO of Shaftesbury, says tentpole hits like that open doors in foreign markets. For example, Shaftesbury made The Murdoch Mysteries originally as TV movies for CHUM, then developed it as a TV series with Britain’s UKTV.

‘There’s no question anymore that Shaftesbury could deliver commercial programming that worked in the international market,’ says Jennings.

Other international hits range from Decode Entertainment’s Angela Anaconda, sold to 70 territories, and Nelvana’s Franklin, 60 countries, to Degrassi: The Next Generation, which has gone to 70 countries including The N south of the border.

Throughout the industry, producers are ramping up production for the world market. Blueprint Entertainment just hired U.S. executives Marla Ginsburg and Ellie Hannibal to expand its slate of international coproductions. Insight Productions recruited former FremantleMedia exec Jane Rimer in New York to help develop series and formats, and Portfolio Entertainment is expanding on the kids front, having just sold its 2D tween cartoon series Carl Squared into Australia and Europe.

‘Our focus is on the major markets, hoping the smaller markets follow,’ says Joy Rosen, Portfolio CEO, pointing to Jetix in the Netherlands buying Carl Squared after Germany’s Nickelodeon also bought in.

Canadian producers have nowhere near the clout or sizeable home market that U.S. studios enjoy, but they’re playing the same game: making up their production budget deficit with overseas sales.

Forging a coproduction that reconciles the demands of foreign broadcasters in different countries with different demographics is a challenge. But Canadians need the deficit dollars, so they take copious notes meeting foreign broadcasters at festivals and markets to gauge their tastes and programming needs.

‘It’s a little bit of voodoo, wishful thinking and looking at the market and what’s being flooded now, and what [commissioning editors] will turn their backs on, and looking to when the cycle changes,’ says Rosen.

Michael Prupas, president and CEO of Muse Entertainment, recalls recently developing a kids series as a Canada/France coproduction. To his surprise, a French broadcaster questioned the need for a French character in the kids series when Prupas raised the possibility. The French TV audience would only wonder what a French character was doing in North America, the broadcaster urged.

Typical of international broadcasters, the French caster wanted a Canadian-made series dealing with universal kids themes that TV audiences would assume was set in the U.S.

‘Canadians identify [kids series] as Canadian, but everyone else sees the U.S.,’ says Prupas.

In the case of primetime drama Falcon Beach (from Original Pictures and Insight Productions), the setting is Lake Winnipeg in the 115 territories in which it has sold – as it is on Global Television – except on ABC Family in the U.S., where it is set in a sleepy New England town.

From Corner Gas, which has been sold into 27 territories – including Superstation WGN in the U.S. market, to Little Mosque on the Prairie, which has foreign deals pending, even Canadian comedies are striking a chord with international audiences.

That popularity extends to formats. Distraction Formats has sold Kenny vs. Spenny, a coproduction by Blueprint and Breakthrough that began as an afternoon show on the CBC in 2003, as a reality comedy format into Britain, Germany, Ireland, Argentina, Spain, Denmark and Finland.

And the TV series, which airs on Showcase in Canada and soon on Comedy Central in the U.S., has also spawned a video game and DVD.

David Paperny of Vancouver-based Paperny Films says his company is growing, mostly by securing presales on shows that also have Canadian buyers.

‘It’s a great model we’re trying to continue working with. It allows us to maintain the copyright and provides us with higher budgets on shows more likely to succeed in the Canadian marketplace,’ Paperny explains.

An example is the lifestyle series Glutton for Punishment, which bowed on Fine Living in the U.S. soon after it launched on Food Network Canada.