– HandMade loses Lock Stock and…

PolyGram Filmed Entertainment has purchased North American rights to the film Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Paragon Entertainment-owned HandMade Films has lost its financial stake in the pic.

The HandMade coproduction was turned over to the film’s producers when HandMade was unable to make a payment due to the producer upon the film’s completion. The producers sold the worldwide rights to the film outside the u.k. to Summit Entertainment at the Cannes Film Festival. pfe prebought u.k. rights.

Meanwhile, at press time the tse had advised that the common shares of Paragon Entertainment had been suspended from trading for failure to meet the continued listing requirements of the exchange.

Paragon’s board of directors and officers resigned last week, and certain assets are in receivership.

– Catalyst to distrib ABC in Canada

Toronto-based Catalyst Distribution has signed an exclusive distribution deal with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to represent its catalogue of programming in Canada.

The abc catalogue contains over 200 hours of programming including documentary, arts, drama, comedy and children’s shows.

– Universal inks home-video pact with Alliance

Hoping the increased volume of product will create more leverage with video retailers, all Alliance Communications and Universal Studios Canada home-video products will now be distributed jointly through a new long-term venture, Universal/Alliance Video Distribution.

All sales and distribution, as well as certain marketing-related functions, will be performed under the new banner.

Patrice Theroux, executive vp of Alliance Motion Picture Distribution, estimates that Universal and Alliance’s combined volume of home-video sales will likely exceed $150 million this year.

Alliance has video distribution agreements with New Line, Miramax, Artisan, Hallmark and Discovery, while Universal Home Video Canada has output deals with DreamWorks skg, October Films and Playboy Home Video.

– New partners for Amazon

Atlantis Communications has entered a partnership agreement with KirchGroup of Germany, EYEMARK Entertainment (a unit of cbs) and wic to produce the new action-adventure series Peter Benchley’s Amazon. Production starts spring 1999, and the 22 one-hours will begin airing fall 1999.

Atlantis developed the series with Benchley and secured worldwide rights. Atlantis then concluded a coproduction agreement with the KirchGroup, whose distribution arm BetaFilm will distribute the series in Continental Europe. BetaFilm has committed to three seasons (66 episodes) of the series. eyemark will handle u.s. syndication, and wic will broadcast in Canada.

– Satellite app approved

The crtc has awarded Star Choice a licence to operate a wholesale satellite distribution business. The company can now offer an array of authorized Canadian and u.s. television signals to cable operators and other distributors.

The srdu licence allows Star Choice to sell its signals to cable companies, mds operators, smatv/ condos and new entrants to the broadcasting distribution industry.

In other news, Star Choice has introduced new programming for French-language viewers and has opened a Quebec office in Montreal. The additions include Canada’s first integrated bilingual, custom-made dth programming package, an all-French programming package, as well as five new pay-per-view channels.

By the end of June, Star Choice will be adding four new ppv movie channels, one of which will be the French-language Canal Indigo.

– Good indicators at TVA

YVA Group reports net earnings increased by 40% to $24.7 million, or $0.86 a share, for the first nine months of ’98. Revenues rose 9.4% to $172.8 million.

tva president and ceo Daniel Lamarre says higher broadcast revenues, a strong ratings performance, and the launch of headline news specialty channel Le Canal Nouvelles added to the growth.

Meanwhile, Fidelity Management & Research of Boston, Massachusetts, reports several investment companies who use its management services have purchased Class b shares in tva. All the shares held through Fidelity now represent 13.39% of tva’s outstanding stock.

In other news from the broadcast/production company, tva is slated to appear before the crtc on July 20 to request status as a national network. tva announced two other priorities – the accelerated rollout of its turnkey teleshopping service in both the English-Canadian and u.s. markets, and the annual production of two made-for-tv movies. tva also has a new Website (www.tva.ca).

TVA Group is a subsidiary of Montreal-based Groupe Videotron.

– Salter revs up 30%

Newly public prodco Salter Street Films reports a 30% increase in revenues for its second quarter ended April 30 compared to the same period last year.

Salter’s second-quarter revenues were $6.1 million compared to $4.7 million in the same period of fiscal 1997. Net earnings were $590,000 or $0.12 per share, as compared to a negligible loss or $0.00 per share a year earlier.

Salter’s public offering closed May 20 and raised proceeds of almost $12 million. Salter Street president Catherine Tait says the funds will be used to ‘increase our production of evergreen programming for the global market, to pursue selective acquisitions of complementary businesses, and for general corporate and working capital purposes.’

Salter plans to deliver 200 half-hours of proprietary product in fiscal ’98, up from 98 half-hours delivered in ’97.

In other Salter news, Claude Galipeau has been appointed to the newly created position of vp, corporate planning. Galipeau most recently worked at the World Association of Newspapers in Paris, France, and has been a policy advisor in the office of the premier of Ontario.

– People

– Laurier LaPierre has been named the new chairman of Telefilm Canada, replacing Robert Dinan.

– Discreet Logic has started a search for a new president and ceo to replace Richard Szalwinski, the software company’s founder. Szalwinski continues in both positions until a successor is named and then will remain as chairman.

– Tony Allard, ceo of Vancouver’s Pacific Motion Pictures and Thomas Peddie, consultant to the broadcast industry, are the newest members of the wic board of directors.

– Rick Ridgway, former vp and GM of Pelmorex Broadcast Sales, has been promoted to senior vp/gm of the Pelmorex-owned The Weather Network. The appointment went into effect June 18. He joined Pelmorex Communications in 1992 and has since held various managerial sales positions within the company.

– Industry veteran Barry Bittle has joined Montreal-based visual-effects studio Voodoo Arts as vp corporate development.