Broadcasters are increasingly providing small licence fees for tie-in interactive web properties for animated TV shows, a packed room of producers, creators, distributors and buyers heard at the Television Animation Conference that opened the Ottawa International Film Festival on Wednesday.

‘I’m not saying we shouldn’t ask for money, but that we should try to sell online episodes and other interactive elements through licence fees,’ said Montreal-based Tribal Nova partner Pierre Le Lann, a member of a panel debating online trends and audience expectations of television.

Most of the nearly 300 producers, creators, distributors and buyers attending the sold-out two-day forum were there not only to catch up on the latest trends, but also to network and possibly ink some deals.

Channel Zero president and CEO Romen Podzyhun came looking for short content for the digichannel Movieola and its online portals on Joost, Vuze and Hulu. Channel Zero will also soon be providing mobile content for Sprint Mobile in the U.S., says Podzyhun.

‘Television is important for us because of the mass audiences that are possible, but the online portals are enabling us to spread into the United States and worldwide,’ he tells Playback Daily. ‘Shorts are a hot commodity with younger people who are major Internet users, so we need content for that market.’

Animation is indeed rapidly on the rise, according to a presentation made by Joan Vogelsang, president and CEO of 2D software manufacturer and conference sponsor Toon Boom, in a breakfast address.

Quoting stats from a recent study, Vogelsang said the size of the global animation industry, including special effects, has risen from $40 billion in 2003 to about $130 billion in ’07, and is projected to reach almost $160 billion in ’08. She also noted that 2D animation accounts for 90% of total TV animation content.

Marblemedia partner and executive producer Matt Hornburg says he’s in Ottawa to network with broadcasters, check out up-and-coming animators, and talk about issues plaguing the industry.

‘The key is to build eyeballs. In the next five years, content creators and broadcasters will have to work together to engage their audiences, which are going elsewhere,’ he notes.

It’s Hornburg’s third time at the festival. Last year he had dinner with Teletoon and YTV executives at OIAF. ‘We now have series with both of them, but it’s really hard to pinpoint when a deal really gets going,’ he says. ‘We’re all from Toronto, but it’s nice to be able to meet in a setting like the OIAF, which is removed from daily life.’

Along with the TAC, the OIAF will also feature workshops on activist animation, writing visually, and effective storyboarding, and will screen 97 films in competition and 31 out of competition.

The opening day also featured an animation pitch session and an animation celebration that introduced local elementary school children to animation through discussion and the screening of animator Janet Perlman’s film Bullydance.

An opening party was to follow an evening screening of the opening film, the controversial Persepolis, set in Iran at the time of its 1979 revolution.

The second-largest animation festival in the world, the OIAF runs until Sept. 23. About 2,000 out-of-town visitors and a total audience of more than 20,000 are expected.