– Disney positions to take Sunday prime

Sunday primetime is one of the bigger stories this season, the latest in the line of Must-See tv evenings courtesy of the relocated X-Files, and most recently, of The Simpsons/King of the Hill adult animation package at 8 p.m.

The considerable powers of Disney are looking to change the rules next season. On tap is a relaunch of The Wonderful World of Disney, above and beyond the one-hour block of the Tinkerbell-introduced Disney repeats that have aired via cbc in the 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. slot for as long as anyone can remember.

As of Sept. 21, abc, owned by Disney, will broadcast a feature-length family film in the 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. block. All told, 35 films will air in the 1997/98 season, 18 library product and 17 produced specifically for the Disney window.

Destined for the slot are Babe, Casper, The Santa Clause, Pocahontas, and, although Disney won’t confirm, Toy Story. Among the 17 new projects in production via Disney’s newest production tentacle, Disney Telefilms, are a remake of Oliver Twist starring Richard Dreyfuss and From Garbage to Gridiron featuring Tony Danza.

All of the above will be introduced each week by a warm couple of minutes with Disney president Michael Eisner, harking back to 1954 when Walt hosted the just-launched Disneyland. The Wonderful World of Disney is the longest-running primetime series in the history of the u.s. networks, airing a total of 34 seasons, including 18 consecutive years running from 1961 to 1979.

All of this opens up several scenarios for the television spectrum north of the border.

With cbc heading towards an all-Canadian primetime and Sullivan Entertainment product like Wind at My Back maintaining the regular 1.3 million-plus audience established by Road to Avonlea in the 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. hour, a two-hour Disney block seems an unlikely possibility. The setup will, however, likely take chunks away from cbc’s current scoop on family viewing in early Sunday primetime.

Next up: Baton, which already has a healthy, lucrative program supply relationship with The Mouse House. The bbs 8 p.m. Sunday offering, Lois & Clark: The Adventures of Superman, has already been shuttled to Saturday night in the u.s. Seems a kind of lovely fit, all this high-profile family/children’s programming spanning the country on the new Baton. If, of course, Disney decides to sell it to a Canadian broadcaster, which is no small caveat.

Talent and production costs spiraling out of control in the u.s. are said to be working in the foreign buyer’s favor. When an average u.s.-produced 110-minute theatrical feature costs the equivalent of cdn$77.9 million to make, it becomes progressively more difficult to corral the film on the u.s. networks and block foreign sales as in Schindler’s List and The Lion King. But having said that, Disney can do whatever Disney wants to do. Stay tuned, as we say too often.

Meanwhile, this may not bode well for ontv, the reinvented wic Ontario affiliate chch-tv. Its contender for Sunday family time, Touched By An Angel, made the ACNielsen Toronto/Hamilton People Metres for the first time in March, the only wic drama series to make the chart, year to date. It acquired the property in January, 1997.

For the week of March 10-16, it ranked 9th place with a 7.5 rating in the 8 p.m. slot on Sunday. Global’s replacing 3rd Rock from the Sun with The Simpsons simulcast at the top of the hour, followed by King of the Hill, may have pushed the family audience over to Touched.

Incidentally, Touched By An Angel approaches er ratings in the u.s. The series is three years old. But expect it and any other family drama with a six-figure budget to hightail it out of early Sunday primetime next season, rather than take on the undisputed champion.

In the shorter term, Disney will launch a subscription-based Internet service for kids, Disney’s Daily Blast, at the end of this month, targeting the three- to 12-year-old audience. All typical Disney fare will be available including original programs daily, games, and stories. Disney Online and Microsoft have a strategic partnership in place which will see Daily Blast available free for 10 months to members of The Microsoft Network.

-Oscar ratings gold for CTV

The jokes went downhill from the opening sequence, but more than five million viewers stayed tune to the 69th Academy Awards and pushed ratings for a ctv program over the five million mark for the first time since the Blue Jay-victory game six of the 1993 World Series.

According to ACNielsen preliminary numbers, the March 24 Oscars recorded 5,008,000 viewers nationally, compared to 4,984,000 last year. The 18-49 and 25-54 demographics were almost evenly split at 2.6 million and 2.7 million respectively, compared to a clean 2.8/2.8 last year. The biggest increase this year came from men 50+ who recorded a 810,000 audience this year compared to 660,000 in ’96.

-CanWest Fires Up internationally

With The Practice not drawing glowing ratings numbers in the u.s., Global is back with another swing at a mid-season keeper with Fired Up, premiering April 10.

Starring former NYPD Blue talent Sharon Lawrence, the plot follows a fiery promotions executive and her assistant as, downsized out of the upper corporate echelons, they start their own pr business.

Kelsey Grammer is co-executive producer. It’s got that all too familiar Frasier/Friends pace and tone, which won’t help set it apart from the other mid-season fodder. It is, however, privy to the sunny Thursday 9:30 p.m. slot behind Seinfeld, which could cinch ratings strong enough to send it through to next season just by virtue of positioning.

While we’re on the topic of CanWest, Australian broadcaster Network Ten announced a six-month pretax profit of cdn$94.5 million for the year ending Dec. 21, representing an almost 15% increase over last year.

CanWest has a 15% voting interest and a 58% ownership stake in the Australian network, although foreign ownership regulations are under review. (CanWest execs are taking more regulatory grilling Down Under in stride. Word has it Ireland will be the Winnipeg broadcaster’s next frontier.)

Meanwhile, Network Ten ceo Peter Viner is on the record with the Aussie trade mags confirming that CanWest has recently completed a ‘multiyear’ extension of a program contract with Columbia TriStar to ensure a continuing supply of top-rated tv programs.

Lengthier supply agreements are priority for all program buyers. The length of a multiyear is an interesting question, one of those program buying-related specifics no one ever answers directly. abc set a new standard in March, renewing the broadcast rights to The Ten Commandments through the year 2009. The Alphaweb has telecast it for almost 30 years.

-Multi plays giving producers grief

The History and Entertainment Network’s Norm Bolen, Discovery Channel president Trina McQueen and Bravo! station manager Paul Gratton were on the hot seat to justify multitudinous program repeats at the Hot Docs! symposium, which wrapped in Toronto at the end of March.

Producers expressed concern with the first-window rights specialty channels are demanding when negotiating deals. Bolen said frankly, ‘We want [your programs] for as long as we can, to run them as many times as we can.’ The other specialty reps agreed that faced with small niche audiences and the increasing multichannel options viewers have available, a primary programming strategy is to build audiences through numerous repeat broadcasts.

But the indie producers argued that low presale figures at the specialties make second-window deals crucial, which are difficult to negotiate after their program has already been ‘run to death.’

In other specialty service news; just in case we thought this genre-stretching trend was a Canadian thang, Discovery Channel in the u.s. has ordered 50 episodes of gimme shelter, a magazine-style show using real experts like architects, decorators, plumbers, electricians and landscape architects to offer do-it-yourself advice and techniques on home improvement and repair. Sounds familiar, although not exactly science and exploration-like.

-April’s flowers

Parts one and two of the long-awaited Lexx – The Dark Zone will air on Citytv consecutive Fridays, April 18th and 25th at 9 p.m., up against Millennium. Dates for episodes three and four have not been announced.

Described as ‘Star Trek’s evil twin,’ the sci-fi package is reported to be dark and sexy. Up to 65% of each episode is effected by computer animation.

In episode one, ‘I Worship His Shadow,’ Zev, Stan and 790 steal The Lexx, a Manhattan-sized, mechanically adapted insect (really a spaceship and a deadly weapon) with the help of Thodin (Barry Bostwick) and escape from the Cluster.

‘Thoden is killed by Kai who is being manipulated by His Shadow. But Kai retrieves his memory, learns his real identity, and joins The Lexx.’

Episode two, complete with the infinitely watchable Tim Curry as Poet Man, sounds even better. The package, perhaps destined for series, is produced by Salter Street Films, Time Filmund TV Produktion of Germany, with Showtime Networks and City.

At the other end of the spectrum, the final episodes of Road to Avonlea will be released on video this month via Sullivan Releasing. The two episodes – ‘Return to Me’ and ‘So Dear to My Heart’ – come on one video complete with 12 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with stars and exec producer Kevin Sullivan. The video sleeve will feature detachable collectors’ cards. All for $19.95 and available April 29 in time for Mother’s Day. Sales in Japan alone will likely require another printing before Christmas.

Dan Aykroyd’s new sitcom Soul Man will roll out April 15 in the Tuesday 8:30 p.m. slot. No Canadian broadcaster has been announced yet.

Finally, TVO Kids celebrates its third anniversary this month, officially April 4.