Muse Entertainment has launched a new division to distribute international and re-versioned domestic television properties to French-language broadcasters and cable companies in Canada.

The new Montreal-based company, Muse Distribution International (Distribution Internationale Muse), will carry the full French-language catalogue of Pearson Television International, which includes among its thousands of hours of programming the comedy series Mr. Bean, the doc series The World at War and drama series Homicide: Life on the Street.

‘Muse has been developing a distribution division for a while, but it’s still an undone deal except for the sales part,’ says communication director Betty Palik.

Muse Distribution will also sell French versions of mows and series produced by Muse Entertainment and its affiliates Pebblehut Productions in Toronto and Vancouver’s Dogwood Pictures, including The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Ricky Nelson: Original Teen Idol, Daydream Believers: The Monkees’ Story, Hound of the Baskervilles and the series Twice in a Lifetime.

‘Muse Distribution wants to expand activities in the future with the hopes of selling English products as well, but until the corporate structure is in place, we can’t say,’ says Palik.

At the helm of the new division is the newly appointed vp Sonia Thibault, formerly of Mediamax International – the previous distributors of Pearson’s French-language catalogue.

At Mediamax, a division of Le Groupe La Fete, Thibault was responsible for selling the Pearson catalogue to French-Canadian broadcasters, as well as selling the company’s tv properties to foreign broadcasters, so she is already quite versed in her new portfolio.

Pearson also has a minority stake in Muse. ‘We always went to (Pearson) if we had a product to sell overseas, but our distribution company is operating independently,’ says Palik.

Muse is still looking for financial partners on the new venture and further details are expected within the next month.