Now that even the most disorganized among us have caught up with our laundry in the wake of MIPTV, many will tell you that the international market for Canadian television is thriving.

MIPDOC and then MIPTV were full to bursting. Thanks in part to subsidies from Telefilm Canada and other cultural organizations, Canada has never been better represented. Animation and reality continue to be hot, and most exciting of all, scripted is back. You’ve heard the titles – ReGenesis, Degrassi, Da Vinci, Corner Gas, Falcon Beach, and now Little Mosque – they’re snapping them up left, right and center. Some of these programs are airing in more territories and in more languages than most of us can name.

But just how vigorous are international sales? What’s up and coming, and what’s on the outs? Who is selling what and for how much, and how can a producer best get a little of that action? The short answer is, it’s a black art that remains so because no one has been tracking the stats. The best we currently have is a snapshot of a snapshot – a voluntary self-report from Telefilm-supported market participants that the agency began compiling just last year.

Veteran distributor Peter Emerson of Oasis International has noticed one trend fairly unique to the domestic industry. ‘A funny thing about Canada, a lot of producers self-distribute,’ he says. ‘Are they distributors? Are they sales agents? No they’re not. I always ask them if they do their own dental work as well.’

Now, of course he would say that. It’s his dime producers are saving by doing it themselves, and he concedes as much, but he is not alone. Stephen Ellis, another longtime distributor, has made the same observation. ‘Without sounding too self-interested, I’d say if you’re serious about producing, you don’t necessarily want to spend your time distributing, because it’s a separate business. Leave it to the professionals.’

Telefilm and its other cultural partners, meanwhile, have gone the other way: aiding and abetting producers’ efforts to self-distribute by subsidizing their journey to international markets for more than two decades now. Is it working? Depends on who you ask.

Emerson counts himself a supporter of Telefilm’s development and production activities, but he is unequivocal in his indictment of the agency for leading producers down the garden path on this one.

‘What a colossal waste of resources,’ he fumes by e-mail when asked for his thoughts. ‘Telefilm is 40 years old this year. Their baby bonus to producers has become a pension and nobody seems to have noticed. Some of these companies have been on the Telefilm TIT (Telefilm Investment in Trade fairs) since I started in this business 15 years ago. I think it’s time for a little tough love. Shouldn’t these enterprises be able to move out of mom’s basement and get their own place?’

Lise Corriveau, Telefilm’s director of festivals and markets, believes the agency plays a crucial role in helping newbies navigate what is essentially a shark tank. At the same time, she believes the agency is not being frivolous. It discourages young’uns who it believes ‘aren’t ready,’ and in recent years its subsidies have shrunk.

And yet you have to wonder whether producers’ interests are indeed being served. International sales (as in outside North America) play a role that is modest and yet significant to the financing and life cycle of a TV product. Modest, because prices are low and getting lower, tending to account for between 5% and 15% of a series’ budget range.

‘Prices have certainly come down over the years, no question,’ observes Minds Eye Entertainment’s Kevin DeWalt. ‘The market’s never been tougher.’

Significant, because for a broadcaster, that little bit of coin can make the difference between the green light for a series for another season or not.

Everyone on the Croissette is looking for the kind of pay dirt that DeWalt and his team have just struck with Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story. Minds Eye recently inked a deal with Hallmark International that will see the two-parter air on Hallmark’s specialty channels in 156 territories in 18 languages.

Tommy Douglas? Even DeWalt himself sounds a bit awed by the scope of the deal. The father of public healthcare is not exactly a household name outside of Canada, but there is a groundswell of interest in public versus private healthcare – and quality drama.

‘I think it proves to my shareholders and my peers that big-event television, if done well, can still sell and sell well,’ he says.

Minds Eye also has something else that appeals to buyers: volume and history. It has a TV library of upwards of 400 hours, two-thirds of it third-party.

‘You don’t necessarily get a lot of money worldwide for one sale,’ he says. ‘The game is about volume and delivering to buyers consistently in terms of quality shows and materials, and the confidence that they can rely on you on an ongoing basis. When a buyer comes to a booth they want to see you’ve got 15 or 20 titles. Time is money.’

Volume, however, is precisely what one-off producers don’t have. Maybe Telefilm should be spending less to send greenhorns and dead wood to market and more on referring producers to distributors and sales agents – and collecting data that everyone can use.