Great North Productions and Barna-Alper Productions have inked deals to produce The History and Entertainment Network’s two premiere flagship series.

Produced in conjunction with Duncan Productions in Vancouver, Great North’s 16 one-hours, The Faces of History, and 13 one-hours of Barna-Alper’s 24 Hours in History will account for a cumulative $5.4 million piece of t. h . e. n.’s $18.5 million inaugural season indie production slate.

Faces of History (working title, like most of the projects queued) will examine famous and not-so-famous dead Canadians. ‘Heroes, rogues, saints and sinners, with drama and lots of surprise,’ says Norm Bolen, vp programming for t. h. e. n.

Great North president Andy Thomson will executive produce and will be subcontracting some episodes out to other production companies. Duncan Productions’ Bob Duncan will produce several of the episodes.

Barna-Alper’s 24 Hours in History will recreate historical events from Armistice Day to Pearl Harbour to the day Buddy Holly died, using input from key players to minor spectators. Laszlo Barna is executive producing.

Cumulatively on tap for t. h. e. n. are two 13-plus episode one-hour series, four 13-episode half-hour series, a 52-episode daily archival program through Toronto’s Breakthrough Films, and seven one-offs, documentary and miniseries for a total of 100.5 independently produced hours.

Also greenlit but in production for season two are 13 half-hours of Battlelines from Flightpath executive producer Michael Maclear, and 13 one-hours of The Greatest Journeys on Earth from Les Productions Les Plus Belles Voyages Du Monde in Montreal. The one-hour docudrama will cover the history of the development of the greatest cities on earth. One episode will cover Quebec City; the rest will be international.

The door for season one isn’t closed, says Bolen, whose wish list still includes a historical quiz show, 85 half-hour episodes, to be produced in-house at about $10,000 per, which would bring the indie-produced hours up to 143.

Without clarifying budgets for specific strands, Bolen says the average budget per hour of the total slate is about $150,000. Although there are exceptions, the mid-range budget for a 13-episode, half-hour production is $66,000. At the high end, the budget runs $1.4 million or $110,000 per episode. The low end of the spectrum is 13 half-hours on a budget of $566,000 or $44,000 per episode, although there is a project on the slate that runs $24,000 per half-hour.

t. h. e. n. is taking Canadian broadcast rights only, with the exception of one project where it’s corralling educational, publishing and cd-rom rights. Contracts are running 18 play days over five years, at a minimum. In some cases, t. h. e. n. is pushing for 50 play days over five years. ‘Particularly for the archival material, we’ll be getting new subscribers all the time, so it will be new for them,’ says Bolen.

A ‘play day’ is an unlimited number of plays in a 24-hour period. On t. h. e. n.’s eight-hour wheel, a program will normally play three times in that period.

As one of the four new English-language analog licensees, t. h. e. n. is in negotiations with vision.com, the cable lobby. Word is fees-for-service are a sticking point, as is the allocation of what will be a hefty promotions budget for the new services package. A third tier is expected, complete with new additions to the Eligible Services Lists, should they be approved by the crtc.

In the interim, promotion for t. h. e. n. will start on Showcase in May. The primetime schedule is complete in rough form. t. h. e. n. programming is skewing slightly male, higher income, and a little older. Bolen sees Discovery Channel Canada, a&e, and to a certain extent, cbc and tvo, as t. h. e. n.’s main competition. ‘We’re doing largely scientific programming.’

Former ctv staffer Janet Eastwood has been hired as vp marketing communication.

The remainder of series blessed include: Time Capsules (13 x 30) on the history of Canadian historic sights produced by Mitch Azaria of Good Earth Productions; Scattering of Seeds (13 x 30), a close-up of individual immigrants who settled in Canada from award-winning producer Peter Raymont of Investigative Productions; Witness to Yesterday (13 x 30), to be added to the 39 Patrick Watson interviews of the same name, produced this time by The Film Works’ Victor Solnicki; and Dressing the Part (13 x 30) on the history of fashion produced by Up Front Entertainment’s Barbara Barde. Breakthrough’s 52-episode It Seems Like Yesterday will utilize ctv’s archival footage with a kind of this-day-in-history program.

Acquisition strands and strategies include War Stories, a one-hour doc series consisting of a mix of Canadian and international shelf product; The Way We Were, a daily half-hour being prepared and formatted by the nfb to maximize its short film library; Timelines, the best of Maclear’s war docs, reformatted for t. h. e. n.; Great Crimes and Trials of the 20th Century from the bbc, destined for an early evening slot; Small Objects of Desire, 18 half-hours on the history of objects like syringes, dentures, eyeglasses and condoms, slated for late-night fare.

To date t. h. e. n. has purchased 900 hours of acquired programming, of which 140-150 are Canadian.