Canal Famille is in the process of renewing its broadcast licence which expired at the end of August.

‘We have asked the crtc to go to a 24-hour basis,’ says programming vp Monic Lessard. ‘We told them we’d keep the non-revenue [aspect] during daytime. At nighttime we want to go with older kids, 12 to 17 and 18 to 24, but for sure we need commercial revenues.’

The authorization would make a world of difference for Canal Famille, a Chaines Tele-Astral children’s service in its 11th season. The service is currently limited to 12 hours a day of commercial-free programming. And if that isn’t tough enough, it competes directly for youthful eyeballs with the animation hordes from the popular Teletoon channel.

Lessard says the launch of Teletoon two years ago continues to represent a major challenge, but ‘the balance is back’ following a rigorous branding effort on Canal Famille’s part. Lessard accepts that ‘kids are excited by animation – it’s fast food and it’s addicting.’

As a counter strategy, Canal Famille has dropped all investment in original animation production and instead puts $3 million a year in live-action shows, including sitcoms, people-oriented and game shows, and kids’ talking heads. The balance of the program budget, another $3 million, goes to acquisitions, largely Canadian.

Under the circumstances, namely that it is off-air by 7 p.m., Canal Famille’s rating performance is impressive. During its on-air hours, the service has a 20% share among kids aged two to 11, and a 10% share of kids 12 to 17. ‘We have an overall [2+ share] on a 24-hour basis. We are very happy with our numbers,’ says Lessard.

Thirty-five percent of this year’s schedule is animation, all acquired, with the balance live action.

Original production

Canal Famille has invested in 150 hours of new production this year.

Half of the ’99/2000 program budget is going to new, high-volume, live-action shows, including:

* the youth ‘mind-game’ game show Operation Cameleon, 100 half-hours from Productions Sogestalt;

* the slightly naughty ‘fun to know’ infomag Zone de Turbulence, 80 half-hours from Match tv;

* the fifth season of the top-rated early teen sitcom Radio Enfer, 26 new half-hours produced by Tele-Action;

* the third season of the play-charged youth multimedia magazine Generation ‘w’, 26 half-hours produced by Cirrus Communications; and,

* the very successful Dans une galaxie pres de chez nous, a 26 half-hour sitcom set in space produced by Motion International (sda).

Three of this year’s original productions, Radio Enfer, Dans une galaxie and Zone de Turbulence, are among the service’s top 10 shows. ‘What we love about these two sitcoms, Radio Enfer and Dans une galaxie, is that they attract family viewing, which is tremendous for us,’ says Lessard.

Other top-rated shows which draw between a 37 and 18 share (Nielsen, Media Master, Aug. 30 to Oct. 3) among two- to 11-year-olds are Eric la panique, Clueless, Animorphs and Hercules contre Ares.

The service buys exclusive five-year rights to original production for the French-language Canadian market. Acquisition buys are made for three years exclusive; two years non-exclusive.

Lessard says it’s easy making up the 60% Canadian content requirement. ‘We have no problem with that because there is lots of available production and we like it.’

’99/2000 acquisitions

Canal Famille’s ’99/2000 acquisitions include Les Ailes du Dragon (Productions Roger Heroux), Anatole and Rupert (both Nelvana), Spirou (Cine-Groupe), Robinson Sucroe (Cinar), Au Gre du Vent (the French-language version of Sullivan Entertainment’s Wind At My Back), Pin Pon (Telefiction), Sinbad (Alliance Atlantis), Megabogues (Mainframe’s ReBoot), Zigotos (Prisma) and two Radio-Canada magazine acquisitions, Sur la piste and Retour des Debrouillards.

The foreign lineup includes shows from France, Germany and Spain and several u.s. shows, including Clueless, Dawson’s Creek, Rugrats, He Arnold, Cat Dog (Michatmichien) and Spider Man.

As for highlights from this year’s MIPCOM Junior, Lessard says she was impressed with ‘the evolution of 2D and 3D animation.’ She says the technology is becoming less ‘cold, distant’ and better at telling stories.

Canal Famille’s core audience alternates throughout the day, with shows for the off-to-school crowd at breakfast, for the tiny tots in the morning and afternoon, and for six- to 14-year-olds in late afternoon and early evening.

And while shows are conceived for a specific demographic, Lessard says Canal Famille still has to please the whole family. ‘So it’s not easy having to reach these multimedia types of kids. We have to hold on to our own values, it’s family-oriented. We need parental approval, but we don’t want to be too removed from kids. And we certainly don’t want to be so politically correct, it’s too dull.’