Baton/ctv has acquired the free television rights from Alliance Communications for eXistenZ, director David Cronenberg’s next feature film which begins lensing in Toronto this April.

The deal follows Baton’s pickup from Alliance for Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

With the industry focusing on ways to increase support for Canadian feature film, the news of private network Baton/ctv licensing features is being welcomed. However, Baton/ctv’s vp dramatic programming Bill Mustos says the acquisitions are more of an experiment than part of an overall network initiative to support features.

‘It’s out of the norm for what we’ll be doing in the future,’ says Mustos. ‘Our focus is going to be on the kind of big made-for-tv movie premiers that you can only get when you tune in to Baton/ctv.’

Mustos points to The Sheldon Kennedy Story, which the network is currently developing with Suzette Couture, as the kind of product it likes to program in its movie slots. ‘It’s not our expectation that these films (eXistenZ, Sweet Hereafter) will surpass the kinds of audiences that we can get on a really well-crafted, well-written Canadian story like Sheldon Kennedy,’ says Mustos.

Since it is in the broadcaster’s best interest for a film to perform well in the theater before running on television, Mustos says Baton/ctv may entertain the idea of helping to promote eXistenZ with commercial time to assist in Alliance’s theatrical marketing campaign.

Baton/ctv would not release the financial details of either deal. ‘We might pay something for an Atom Egoyan picture that we wouldn’t pay for something else,’ says Mustos.