– Bittman exits NSFDC

The Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation and suspended president Roman Bittman have parted ways.

An nsfdc release dated June 25 states that the parties have ‘terminated their relationship as of this date.’ Bittman was suspended as president in April as the corporation announced it was pulling out its support for Electropolis, the much-debated soundstage planned for the Halifax waterfront.

Soon after, an impromptu producers group comprised of executives from Salter Street Films, Citadel Productions, Charles Bishop Productions, Imagex Films and Cochran Entertainment protested the suspension and called for the resignation of nsfdc chair Marie Comeau and the board of directors. Salter, Citadel and Cochran formed the alliance behind the soundstage proposal.

The board of directors will be appointing an interim president shortly and a search for a permanent president will begin immediately.

John Chisholm, program administrator, says consultations with stakeholders have been ongoing for three months to look at reorganization strategies for the corporation.

– Alliance/Luke Perry deal

Alliance has forged a first-look tv and development arrangement with Midwest Productions, a partnership between actor/producer Luke Perry (Beverly Hills 90210) and manager Cyd Levin. The agreement covers series, movies and miniseries for network, cable and first-run syndication.

Midwest be will basing its operations from Alliance’s l.a. offices.

Tom Fortuna, formerly from Michael Fillerman Productions at Warner Brothers Television, has joined Midwest as vp. Fortuna’s production credits include Once You Meet a Stranger for cbs and Deadly Family Secrets for nbc.

– Copyright hearings

Comments on Bill C-32, the government’s much-argued copyright bill, are due Sept. 1. Witnesses will be chosen from the submitted briefs for the hearings, scheduled to begin in early October.

Susan Baldwin, clerk for the standing committee on heritage, says the goal of the hearings will be to report back to the house before it closes for Christmas on Dec. 13. Depending on how early the hearings get underway, Baldwin estimates the committee could hear anywhere from 40 to 60 witnesses.

– Specialty groups

The first of two organizations in the works for the specialty channels is out of the closet, with the collective sales and marketing execs launching The Canadian Association of Specialty Television.

The mandate is to spread the word of the sales advantages of specialty channels to the advertising community, and cast will do so by means including the creation of a regular one-page Specialty Channel Update flyer, distributed through Playback’s sister publication Strategy, a comprehensive binder laying out the particulars of all the Canadian English- and French-language specialty channels, and perhaps a specialty trade show a few months down the road.

Meanwhile, a specialty and pay-per-view channel lobby group continues to take shape with Pierre Morrison, president of Pelmorex, chairing the organization committee. An announcement is expected before the end of summer.

– WIC fall lineup

The last of Canada’s major broadcasters to announce its fall lineup, WIC Western International Communications, is out of the gate this season with a couple of potential jewels in tow.

With not a single program regularly in the top 10 for the key Toronto/Hamilton market last season, wic is bringing in-house the likes of Steven Bochco’s new comedy Public Morals to challenge the status quo. Also on the sked are The Nanny, set loose by the cbc, Dangerous Minds with Annie Potts, Pearl starring Rhea Perlman, The Rosie O’Donnell Show, and the return of Brooke Shields in Suddenly Susan. Mad About You in syndication will be wic’s profile signature strip.

Canadian content includes Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys series produced by Nelvana and Great North, Forefront Productions’ Madison, and a new daily, The Morning Market, a two-hour business information program produced by chch and wic.

wic used its Toronto fall launch to announce that Jim Macdonald, president of chch, is the newly elected president of the Westcom TV Group.

As of Sept. 1, Macdonald will replace exiting president Don Smith, a former chair of the cab, bbm and tvb, who is ending a 45-year career in broadcasting. Macdonald will retain his role as president and ceo of chch.

– CRTC happenings

Let the shuffling begin. The Rogers/Shaw/Baton/ytv shuttling of assets and territories is crtc approved and the business transactions in process en route to nailing down a national network for Baton, which now controls 42.9% of the voting interest in ctv.

The first phase of transition will see control of cfcn-tv Calgary and cfcn-tv-5 Lethbridge from Rogers Communications to BBS Western (purchase price $75 million), which will amalgamate the service under the BBS Western umbrella. Phase two will negotiate the licence renewal for cfcn under bbs.

Phase three will finalize the strategic alliance between bbs and Electrohome, which will create two new corporations, Eastco and Westco. The Western contingent will be made up of Baton’s eight stations in Alberta and Saskatchewan, which will be managed by Electrohome. The Eastern arm will consist of Baton’s three Ontario stations and Electrohome’s ckco Kitchener, all managed by Baton.

In the meantime, Rogers will fork out $113.4 million for three Shaw cable systems in b.c. And, hail competition, new cable licensee Pacific Place Cable will take on Rogers for service delivery in the condos being built on the former Expo 86 site. There are currently about 800 subs on site, but that will eventually rise to some 8,500 residential units.

Finally, the commission decision allows Rogers’ 34.3% piece of ytv to go to Shaw for about $30 million and gives it a 69% ownership stake in the service.

With that monster dead, the crtc has three more to deal with before the end of the year. Hearings on a new Vancouver licensee are set for Sept. 23. Deadline for first-stage interventions on the new approach to the regulation of broadcasting distribution undertakings (PN 1996-69) is July 16, second-stage intervents Aug. 15, with the hearing slated for Oct. 7.

CanWest Global, on hold while Cogeco, Videotron and cfcf fought it out, will seek approval for its 51% ownership in ckmi-tv (tva at 49%) at a Dec. 2 hearing. The Tele-Metropole/cfcf transaction will be reviewed at the same hearing.

– Ontario Tax Credit

July 1 is the magic date for Ontario producers hoping to claim the new ofip-replacing provincial tax credit as eligible production costs incurred after this date will be refundable.

Until the actual legislation passes, which isn’t expected to happen until the fall, the ofdc will be issuing interim certificates for eligible costs.

At press time, according to entertainment lawyer Susan Karnay of Goodman Phillips Vineberg, draft regulations for the credit had not yet been circulated, putting some producers, particularly those hoping to attain first-time producer status, ill at ease.

The credit will generally be at a rate of 15% of qualifying labor expenditures, with first-time producers being eligible for a 30% rate. Qualifying labor expenditures can’t exceed 48% of the cost of the production, resulting in an effective tax credit of a maximum of 7.2% of the budget (14.4% in the case of first-time producers).

– PROMAX winners

Canada’s private broadcasters came up huge at this year’s PROMAX & Broadcast Designers’ Association international competition, winning an impressive 22 medals, including eight gold.

The promax awards salute creativity in broadcasting promotion, marketing and design.

chek-tv, Victoria, came out ahead of the pack with four gold and two silver promax medals including a gold and silver in the promotional animation and in-house generic tv announcement categories. chek also took design bronze for promos or identifiers over 10 seconds long.

cict-tv in Calgary came second with five promax medals, three gold and two silver including gold in both the Outdoor/Transit advertising category for Lois & Clark and The X-Files.

itv, Edmonton took a gold and a silver, u.tv, Vancouver three promax silvers, city-tv, a silver promax and two broadcast design bronze. cfcf-tv, Montreal and bctv, Vancouver round out the winners list, each with a silver promax.