Alliance Atlantis Communications’ acquisition of Salter Street Films may have sounded some alarm bells regarding the future of the Halifax prodco and the overall well-being of the East Coast production industry. However, as the dust settles on the change of hands, business is marching forward with little detriment and some new advantages.

On Dec. 13, the CRTC approved the transfer of Independent Film Channel Canada’s digital broadcast licence from SSF to AAC. The formality completed AAC’s $78-million acquisition of SSF assets announced in the spring of 2001 and triggered a $1.25-million regional benefits package.

As part of the CRTC green light, AAC will create a $500,000 fund for Atlantic Canada producers, payable over the next three years. It will also spend $700,000 over seven years on a post-secondary training program for filmmakers. The Atlantic Film Festival, meanwhile, will get $50,000 paid over five years. According to Deborah Carver, IFCC’s GM and VP marketing, the promised funding is on top of what the IFCC already pays out as part of its licence agreement to secure Canadian content, both commissioned and acquired (IFCC must have 37% Canadian content).

The magazine show indieNATION, reporting on international independent production in 26 weekly half-hours, launched in January and is an example of a program produced without the benefits package in place. IFCC is also involved with features such as the doc Words of My Perfect Teacher (Ziji Productions, Halifax), for which it has the second broadcast window, and the drama Fade to Black (Stranger Productions, Halifax), for which it is the only broadcaster attached and which is now traveling the festival circuit.

The CRTC also requires that while IFCC’s broadcast signal emanates from AAC’s master control in Toronto, the digital channel’s creative control must remain in Halifax. That means that all scheduling, programming, marketing and promotion decisions reside with the 12 IFCC workers in Halifax.

Although IFCC will enjoy a certain degree of autonomy, Carver acknowledges the bottom line that AAC is now the owner. ‘We are an Alliance Atlantis network,’ she says. ‘What we do will fit within the corporate strategy.’

And even if IFCC was not owned by AAC, there would be no getting around doing business with AA Motion Picture Distribution, the kingpin of the Canadian business. Carver acknowledges the relationship is friendly, but IFCC still pays market rates for broadcast licences of AAC-represented features, and IFCC doesn’t get AAC shows any faster than other tiny broadcast start-ups with small audiences.

However, one specific benefit brought by the merger is that IFCC can share licensing costs with other AAC networks such as Showcase, allowing it to afford films it couldn’t have bought as an independent.

SSF, meanwhile, operates much as it did before the merger, albeit without its distribution division and without 22 employees from its pre-merger staff. SSF currently employs about 35.

‘Salter Street continues to operate as a regional producer,’ says Charles Bishop, the company’s executive VP. ‘We are really focused on our regional voice.’

Production may be slightly down this year over last, but that has nothing to do with the merger, says Bishop. Made in Canada and This Hour Has 22 Minutes continue production along with a new preschool series and a miniseries. Comedy series Blackfly was cancelled after two seasons by Global and showrunner Paul Donovan ended cult sci-fi series LEXX after 65 episodes. A LEXX spin-off is in development this year.

With SSF’s distribution arm absorbed by AAC, SSF productions are now being exposed to more territories, Bishop says, ‘simply because Alliance Atlantis has more leverage.’

The Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation reports that the AAC’s SSF acquisition has not impacted overall production volume.

‘And it’s not expected,’ says Ann MacKenzie, CEO of the NSFDC. ‘Salter Street is still producing and still has a [local] development team in place.’

MacKenzie points to the volume of domestic activity outside of SSF as evidence that Halifax could survive even if AAC’s future corporate consolidations were to shrink SSF out of existence.

Producers such as imX Communications, Topsail Entertainment, Big Motion Pictures and Cochran Entertainment are strong contributors to the local community.

‘There is definitely a difference in the community, with production broadening,’ says producer Jan Miller of Lowenbe Holdings in Halifax. ‘There is more even distribution of development and production.’

According to Miller, one drawback in the AAC deal is the elimination of SSF’s distribution division, as local producers do not now have a local television distributor to meet with.

-www.salter.com

-www.allianceatlantis.com

-www.crtc.gc.ca

-www.IFCtv.ca

-www.film.ns.ca