On the heels of its 10th anniversary, Alberta’s Great North Communications is going national.

In a strategic move that takes advantage of opening broadcast windows, offers the Alberta company a coast-to-coast presence, and expands its slate, gnc has partnered with local producers in Halifax and Vancouver to create two new regional production outlets, Great North Atlantic and Great North Pacific.

The deal brings gnc’s current production slate to 80 hours, valued at $34 million.

Taking advantage of the production incentives in b.c. and Nova Scotia, unavailable in Alberta since the Alberta Motion Picture Development Corporation shutdown, gnc has taken minority stakes in the new companies.

gnc owns a 49% interest in Great North Atlantic, allowing Thomson to access Nova Scotia’s tax credit and equity fund, with the remaining majority in the hands of partners Bill Skerrett and Whitman Trecartin.

Vancouver producer Robert Duncan and gnc are currently negotiating with B.C. Film to determine the exact share division required under the Market Incentive Program’s eligibility restrictions for Great North Pacific. Revenues are shared in proportion.

Great North president Andy Thomson began exploring expansion opportunities when the company was commissioned by The History and Entertainment Network to produce 16 hours, budgeted at $250,000 per, for the biography series Faces of History, which the new specialty channel plans to launch with in September.

Since the ampdc closure, Thomson has been forced to farm 11 hours of fully financed projects out of province.

‘We couldn’t produce 16 hours out of Edmonton and meet the delivery date, so it made sense to contract it out to areas with provincial incentives and to companies we have a financial interest in,’ he explains.

Production is underway on the first three of eight biographies the Pacific company will produce, including segments on Albert Fuller, owner of the Fuller Brush company, Bill Aberhart and Frances Rattenbury, the famous Empress Hotel architect murdered by his wife and her lover in the 1930s. Great North Atlantic has two biographies on its slate so far.

The new history channel spawned the idea, but Baton Broadcasting’s successful bid for a Vancouver station clinched the Great North Pacific deal. It placed Great North in a carefully maneuvered position to address Baton’s regional licensing conditions, which include over $25 million in licensing fees to independent b.c. producers over the next seven years.

‘We wanted to play in that pond,’ says Thomson. Great North Pacific is on tap with Baton for The Orange Seed Myth, a $300,000 half-hour pilot for a children’s drama series. ‘It was easier for Baton to get involved in the project if we filmed in Vancouver because it satisfies a condition of their licence,’ he adds.

Production on the kids’ program, penned by Edmonton writer Marty Chan, will begin once funding from Telefilm is greenlit, most likely in June.

Increased dramatic series production is also driving the strategy behind the Atlantic deal. The half-hour $350,000 drama Til Death Do Us Part is set for production in Halifax and Thomson is aiming the project at CanWest Global’s New Producers Series with the intent of developing the half-hour pilot into a series.

Again, having a presence in another region is giving the company a competitive edge. ‘They like the script and need to do a program for the series out of Nova Scotia,’ says Thomson, but as yet there is no commitment from the broadcaster.

Thomson plans to develop more drama projects in Nova Scotia where he can dip into the generous provincial incentives. Great North is developing the tv movie Stranger In Taransay with Scottish Television.

Great North Atlantic is opening its doors with 3.5 hours of production worth $1 million. Skerret anticipates doubling these figures in 1998.

Duncan expects Great North Pacific’s 1997/98 slate to ring in at about $5 million, at least $2.5 million by the end of the year. As well as the kids’ show and biographies, the doc In Search of the Virgin Mary is in post for delivery to cbc’s Witness in August. Negotiations are underway for a $1.3 million science-based series for Discovery.

Beyond the Pacific and Atlantic productions, Great North’s lineup is packed: 26 more half-hours of signature doc series Acorn: The Nature Nut for Discovery, ringing in at $1.5 million, and another 13 half-hours of Ribbons of Steel for Life, budgeted at $975,000. Drama series Jake and the Kid, coproduced with Nelvana, will also get the go-ahead, says Thomson, but a broadcaster commitment won’t be confirmed until later this month.

As well, Thomson expects his partners to bring new projects to the fold which will be pitched collectively. Duncan has teamed up with Great North since the company’s origins, including 1991’s In Search Of The Dragon, This Thing Called Love, a ctv Valentine’s Day special, and Ray Bradbury: American Icon (1995) for USA Network, wic and Bravo!

Great North Edmonton will handle the deal-making, marketing and distribution end so the Halifax and Vancouver partners can concentrate on the creative.

The big plus Skerrett gets from the deal is Great North’s contacts with national broadcasters. Although Skerrett has been in the production business for over 25 years, he has found national broadcast windows for regional players limited, a situation the new partnership has already remedied.

The expansion also opens new opportunities for Great North’s distribution arm. The corporate agreements with the new companies stipulate that Great North Communications has first right of refusal and last right to match all distribution offers on Atlantic and Pacific properties.

With a higher profile in Vancouver and Halifax, Thomson also expects Great North Releasing to attract a wider range of acquisitions. Currently its library represents more than 100 Canadian and international titles totaling over 480 hours.

Thomson has further expansion plans in mind. Although Skerrett and Trecartin recently sold their post company Video Post, with seven years experience operating such a facility Thomson says ‘there might be a synergy there’ and a Great North post shop could be in the works.

Great North is also shopping for a partner to go in on a production facility with a shooting stage and on- and offline editing suites potentially in Edmonton although locale hasn’t been determined. He’d like to begin building in September.