Montreal: Canal Evasion and z, two of the four new French-language specialty channels, have surpassed first-year Cancon requirements with combined program investments of well over $10 million.

Science, sci-fi and technology channel z, a part of the Astral Media family, has commissioned or acquired more than 600 hours for its first seven months on air, an investment of close to $5.4 million, says senior vp Marie Collin.

Collin says more than half the spending is on original Quebec and Canadian production and acquisitions, adding the overall first-year investment already matches z’s second-year licence requirement.

Tourism and adventure channel Evasion, majority controlled by BCE Media, has a first-year Cancon commitment of $2.4 million, but the actual investment is much higher, closer to $5 million, says president and ceo Michel Chamberland.

The new travel channel has a 60% Cancon requirement and has licensed 850 hours of original and acquired programming, the latter mainly u.s. and European series from minority partner Pathe/ Canal Voyage of France, says associate producer Louise Forest.

New Canadian shows make up 50% of z’s primetime sked and include Technofolie, a magazine on the latest in high-tech gadgets (Motion International); C’est Mathematique! (Telefiction); Le Grand Test, a look at F1 racing technology and its commercial applications (Altau tv); Technotronique, a ‘digital revolution’ mag (Denis Boucher Communications); Revanche des nerdz, a science-tech news show broadcast live from Cite du Multimedia (Productions Pixcom); and KT:3Z, a computer series (Pixcom).

Collin says producers should know z has branded itself ‘the television of the future’ and is definitely not a talking-head channel. ‘We don’t want to talk about technology, we want to see it. That has really guided our program choices.’

In drama, z has acquired much of Alliance Atlantis’ sci-fi library including Total Recall 2070, TekWar, Psi Factor, The Outer Limits and Gene Roddenberry’s Earth: Final Conflict.

Other important suppliers include u.s. specialty service zdtv (two daily series, Zip Files and Game Spot, and a daily feed), cnn, pbs Boston affiliate wgbh, Adler, New York Times Television (Science Times), Ten Thirteen and 20th Century Fox, producer of Millennium. bbc tv series include Tomorrow’s World and Stephen Hawking’s Universe, adapted as Big Bang.

z has dubbed 215 hours at a cost of $1.3 million, using Quebec services, says Collin. z is keyed to adults aged 18-49, with the focus on ‘demanding, videoclip-trained’ males 18-34. z is owned and operated by Les Chaines Tele-Astral.

Evasion spotlights Quebec

At Evasion, locally produced primetime entries include Pret a Partir, ‘an everything you need to know about travel’ series with a brief travel-guide advisory following each show (Motion International); Evasion romantique, a romantic destination show (Serdy Video); Plaisirs champetres, a Quebec b&b touring show (Serdy); Travel, Travel, cfcf-tv’s long-running, syndicated holiday show; and Le Quebec vu d’en haut, a Quebec ‘as seen from the air’ series (Tele.Vision).

Pickups from English Canada include the golfing series Golfs du Monde, distributed by Canamedia; the scuba-diving paradise show Aqua Planet, distributed by DPI International; and the delightful family adventure Voyagez en famille/Travels with Mom, produced by Ottawa’s Almadon Productions.

Earlier, Evasion announced it had bought a 292-hour package of largely European and u.s. programming from partner Pathe/ Canal Voyage of France, along with a scattering of other non-Canadian shows such as Lonely Planet (bbc).

A word to producers: Forest says shows on all kinds of destinations are of interest but closer to home is best, because 60% to 70% of Quebecers take their holidays in Quebec or nearby Ontario, New England and the Maritimes.