• Corus Entertainment has signed with Singapore Technologies Electronics to coproduce animated DTV titles though its Nelvana Studios, starting with Puff the Magic Dragon and Franklin the Turtle. The deal follows a previously announced long-term partnership between the companies to collaborate on animated series and DVDs, the first of which, the 26 x 30 The Future is Wild, is due on Discovery Kids and Teletoon later this year. Nelvana Enterprises, meanwhile, has teamed with Amazon.com to sell animated and live-action content through the latter’s Unbox video download service, while its popular Babar property will go online with Vuze, a new service from U.S.-based Azureus. The Unbox deal provides download-to-own eps of The Adventures of Tintin, Di-Gata Defenders and others to U.S. customers for $1.99 each. Vuze, meanwhile, will wire all 78 episodes of Babar plus the franchise’s two feature-length films into the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Italy, the U.S. and Russia.

• Teletoon has made its first foray beyond traditional broadcasting with a series of deals that will see its shows and brand carried on video-on-demand and wireless, starting with the Shaw and Rogers cable systems. Titles including Braceface and Di-Gata Defenders will be bundled into 10 packages for Shaw and Rogers VOD subscribers. The 24-hour cartoon channel has also agreed to provide some of the same titles to Telus Mobile TV starting this month, and plans to sell full-length episodes and other content through its website by this summer.

• Open Door and HRH Media have sold Independent America: The Two Lane Search for Mom & Pop to the Sundance Channel, where the road trip documentary will have its U.S. premiere on July 4. The U.S. specialty acquired the doc, by NBC and CBC veteran Hanson Hosein, for its special Independence Day programming, at MIPTV.

• Shaftesbury Films has closed deals for both Life with Derek and The Murdoch Mysteries. The Toronto outfit has signed a deal with licensing firm JTMG as the agency of record for Derek, and has handed the 13 x 60 run of its Murdoch murder series to Granada International.

• CBC has signed with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment to broadcast the games of the Toronto FC – Canada’s first Major League Soccer club – for its inaugural 2007 season. The Ceeb will broadcast 14 regular season games this year, and has the exclusive Canadian broadcast rights to the 2007 MLS Playoffs and MLS Cup, as well as the All-Star Game. CBC has picked up Bo on the Go! from DHX Media, and slated the 26 x 30 preschooler series for a fall debut on its kids block of programming. The series – created by Jeff Rosen (Poko), Cheryl Wagner (The Big Comfy Couch) and Michael Donovan – comes from the Halifax Film division of DHX, and will be distributed by its sister outfit Decode Entertainment.