Cannes: Eight-year-olds with flip phones, dogs with pedicures and 10,458 tv execs from 2,560 companies from 104 countries shared the Croisette, and when all was finally sold and bought, Canadians who immersed themselves in the Palais and the network of Cannes hotels, boats, bars and restaurants that harbor the deal-making had a good mip-tv.

Exhibiting companies were up 18% at the 33rd edition of mip-tv, and Canada had the fifth largest representation.

While the dust has yet to settle in terms of how increased competition and mega-mergers will eventually affect the equilibrium, at this market sellers reported little change, other than the fact that prices were good in Germany, England, France and Scandinavia, and that sometimes bids were being tendered by two divisions of a parent company.

Concluding that all the usual network suspects were there, as well as some new ones such as the preparing-for-launch Channel 5 (which had an allowance of $100 million), consensus was the international program deluge was offset by a whack of new bulk-buying b’casters.

In terms of strategy, some European broadcasters predict more people will be going into projects at an earlier stage as one method of getting a jump on the competition, looking for more output deals, coproductions and prebuys.

More new nets

And new networks were promised: April 20, Discovery announced a 50/50 partnership with KirchGroup for Discovery Germany, a subs/ad-based service which will launch on Kirch’s new DF1 package in July (or September, depending on who you’re talking to) in German-speaking territories. When asked about the potential for Canadian producers, Trina McQueen, head of Discovery Canada, said ‘every time a new Discovery starts there’s more opportunity, especially when it’s a country we have a coproduction treaty with.’

Discovery’s global vision includes exclusive international annual event coverage such as the Eco-Challenge, a team adventure endurance race taking place in b.c. this year, which each Discovery Network will do a doc on. Discovery Canada will have daily coverage.

Virtual actors were hot at mip, with many a booth drawing a crowd around actors suited up for cyberaction, which comes off convincingly as a realtime cgi meld of movement mapped onto an animated figure. Numerous takes on interactive television were also on offer, although some were received as a tad more virtual than reality.

Brisk presales

Canadian presales at mip-tv were certainly real and brisk, and distributors report buyers are more interested in hearing about projects sooner, doing more homework (in the increasingly small space of time) between markets. Fortuitously, this coincides with many distributors’ plans to swiftly put catalogues online.

And while buyers are making their minds up faster than in past years, sellers are having to deeply ponder offers as the balance of power shifts in some markets, and as there are more elements to be factored in, including merchandising plans.

In addition to the anticipated Traders sales to Tele-munchen of Germany, Scandinavia and other lucrative territories (Norway’s TV2, Indonesia’s RCT1, RPN9 of the Philippines, and into Malaysia and Thailand), My Life As A Dog will clear in most major European countries (picked up by Ravensburger of Germany, Norway’s NRK, TV 4 of Sweden, and by Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Israel), and on Psi Factor natpe followup led to more sales.

With Germany ‘hotter than a pistol’ and Channel 5 putting England in second hottest place, new Middle Eastern buyers plus new satellite bouquets all add up to a very pleased Ted Riley, Atlantis Releasing president. With three-way German bidding driving prices up and the newer, less-well-heeled players providing new older catalogue revenue, Riley tallies it as a seven-figure market. ‘It’s a market most Canadians underachieve at, but it’s starting to get a lot better.’

‘Thailand was good for us this year,’ reports Paragon International’s senior vp Kirstine Layfield. As was the rest of the map, where Paragon’s tv movies Frequent Flyer and Kissinger and Nixon sold briskly in Europe, Latin America, Australia and Asia.

Children’s product distribbed by Paragon also picked up healthy renewals. The HandMade Film catalogue was sold to clt for French and German Europe and Benelux, and also to Channel 5.

‘Mergers create more catalogue sales,’ says Layfield, referring to the sudden cash injection in tandem with the need to tie up product syndrome. Paragon set a market goal of us$11 million, which Layfield reports surpassing halfway through the market as ‘done deals.’

Lexx sales ‘phenomenal’

‘Absolutely phenomenal,’ is how Lynn James, director of international sales for Salter Street Films, describes response to Lexx after closing 10 deals with good territories mid-market on the strength of a trailer for the miniseries, which is quickly morphing into a series based on market sales. Presales of 20 hours were picked up by several territories, and the video deal competition was hot.

James says market sales have gone a long way to start series production, explaining the sci-fi entry’s popularity by saying ‘$12.6 million is nothing to sneeze at. There’s nothing like it at the market. People can’t afford to let these things slip through their fingers.’

Alliance’s new series garnered sro screening response. While the fate of series pilots Toe Tags and Once A Thief will be known post-l.a. screenings, Rola Zayed says Beast Wars, which is not tied to a network pickup, sparked bidding wars in a number of territories.

Once A Thief, being sold as a tv movie, sold to Germany, France, Spain and several other European territories, as well as Australia and New Zealand.

Sullivan’s Aldo Di Felice reports a similarly good market, summing up sales by saying everyone who has Road to Avonlea wants Wind At My Back. Sullivan is mulling over the interest to maximize sales, says Di Felice, who adds that in addition to evaluating the new players with an eye to the best placement, ‘it’s also a question of packaging product. A few months ago we looked at the deals done in the previous year, half were new clients, networks that didn’t exist before.’

Urgence is a shoo-in for Germany, where a bidding war is certain, and is undergoing focus work in France, where Jean Vezina of The Multimedia Group says Jasmine also sparked interest. The Netherlands wants Jasmine as well.

Miniseries well received

Currently Telescene Communications is looking at offers from major territories in Europe and Asia, and is talking to North American broadcasters regarding presales for its four-hour miniseries The Fist of God, Frederick Forsythe’s blockbuster about an American spy in the Gulf War. The budget is in the us$12-15 million range and Canada is one of several locations. Roger Spottiswoode will direct and production is targeted to begin in `97. Park Entertainment is handling non-North American presales.

The 11-hour drama Marguerite Volant from Cite-Amerique, which the company screened in a lush trailer at mip-tv, was also very well received.

And not surprisingly, Dog’s World from Punch International has sold to France 2 as well as Germany and Portugal, with negotiations underway with the u.s., Japan, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands. Orders are for 26 episodes.

Kids fares well

Heather Wyer, director of sales for Astral Distribution says Black List had a good market debut, and that buyers are a lot more specific in their film requests, and also more interested in staying in touch to find out what’s going on in new product. Wyer would like to add children’s product to the lineup to meet the numerous requests.

Many distributors found a particularly underrepresented programming niche is the eight-to-12 set.

And with its Are You Afraid of the Dark? rep, Cinar was positioned to take advantage of the preteen live-action drama drought, racking up Space Cases presales.

Cinar’s Louis Fournier echoes the ‘good market’ refrain. ‘We seem to have the right palette of product,’ he says, commenting on presales of The Country Mouse and The City Mouse Adventures for major territories, and with major videocos chasing rights, it’s ‘looking like another franchise product.’

On the coproduction front, he says Cinar is being solicited by ‘a very serious company.’

Consolidation means less programming is loose, says Fournier, ‘which is good for us.’ Cinar is hoping to do more family films, as it’s easier for buyers to pick up a six-pack.

Nickelodeon Germany, the country’s first kids’ channel, acquired 52 hours of Nelvana’s Rupert Bear.

Kevin DeWalt of Evergreen Releasing had a good mip debut, to the tune of around $500,000 of business with On My Mind, Lyddie and The Lost Daughter. With On My Mind presales, DeWalt is confident enough to go forward on another 13 episodes of the currently six-part series, which is also in the eight-to-12 thirsty genre. Dean Oros, formerly of Multimedia Group, will take on director of operations duties as of June 1.

Portfolio secured u.s., u.k., German, Australian and Latin American sales for Groundling Marsh, totaling us$1.25 million in new sales for the puppet series, says president Lisa Olfman. Portfolio’s Suzanne Wilson, who has been brushing up on sprechen Deutsch, says the extra attention paid off. ‘I’m excited that the company cracked the German market this mip.’

Cambium closed several sales for Nilus, and was also getting the news out about kiddy series pilot Monsters By Mistake, the company’s new joint venture cgi production with Catapult Productions, for which Cambium has worldwide distribution rights.

In line with its Cancon mission, cbc is embarking on a coproduction with the Children’s Television Workshop to produce Sesame Park, which will begin an uncommonly confidant three-year run in fall ’96. The 65 annual half-hours will be set in a Canadian eco-park, and retain some of the fave characters from the Canadian version of Sesame Street (as well as Yanks Bert and Ernie). And Sesame Street’s Cancon also got a boost in Germany, thanks to Mediamax’s sale of Max the Cat.

Malofilm International sales action ran the gamut from Little Star, Mirob and Turtle Island to Associated Producers’ docs, of which Plague Fighters was particularly hot. As children’s slots grow, Natalie Vinet reports family features as well as the children’s series were very good sellers at this market.

Forefront Releasing sold Madison to Spain, Fox Latin America, and the ubiquitous South African Broadcasting Corporation, which was on a spree as it morphs to a more commercial entity. sabc also bought The Perfect Man, which also sold in Italy.

The Adventures of Shirley Holmes, looking for presales, garnered positive interest from France and Germany. Forefront’s Mickey Rogers says talking to the French and Germans about coproduction is the company’s next strategic goal.

Meanwhile, the Banff market-simulated Castaway Island series is now looking like a tv movie/pilot for Showtime, with the go or no probably coming towards the end of May.

sabc was also at the Filmoption booth and picked up 10-07, which also earned strong interest from France. Sales for the company included a jazz catalog sale to Jazz International, a docs package to ab sat, La Cinquieme, France 2, Planete Cable, Canal + Africa and cable in Spain, and a jazz package to Muzzik in Europe.

Catalyst Distribution sold rights for three sketch comedies to Germany, Sat.1 took Bizarre, and indie producer Brainpool picked up sctv and Painless Productions’ Four on the Floor rights for formatting into original German shows.

Travel shows were hot, as niche-casters abound in this category. Catalyst sold the first season of Heatherwood Film Productions’ On The Loose In Wildest Africa to Travel Europe and Travel US, with the latter coproducing the second season.

Les Harris of Canamedia also played host to travel suitors from bbc, Channel 4, Discovery Europe and u.s. Discovery Channel for Get Lost, a comedy travel series in development featuring syndicated political cartoonist Adrian Raeside. The half-hour comedy verite takes place on Raeside’s yacht, and the humor comes from the daily grind of churning out a cartoon and attempting to outwit an editor who’s always on his case.

Harris also made progress with Discovery Europe on Flightpath, a 13-episode one-hour aviation series from Michael Maclear for Discovery Canada. Twenty-six more hours are anticipated. Canal + committed us$100,000 to Nanook: The Next Generation for France and Germany, and may also sign on for other territories. Deals were also inked with rvu Netherlands and svt Sweden, and Canamedia was also in negotiations with bbc.

Demand for doc series

Docs, series especially, are in demand. Ellis Enterprises president Stephen Ellis reports Germany and the u.s. as two of the hot fronts for wildlife shows, citing Discovery’s new Animal Planet. In addition to preselling the wildlife/comedy series Buck Staghorn’s Animal Bites to Germany and Discovery Canada, and working on coproduction partnering, Ellis is acquiring 50 new primetime hours.

Andy Thomson of Great North also commented on the increased appetite for doc series as more broadcasters come online, and additionally was fielding a lot of copro pitches. Given his company’s steady market presence, ‘a lot of people are coming to us with fully developed coproduction proposals, with a lot of substantial funding in place,’ he says.

Acorn The Nature Nut was sold to Discovery Kids, u.s., and in another 26-episode sale, was sold to Taiwan. Great North’s Paul Black says the definition of the doc genre is expanding, but pegs natural science and action/adventure as the hottest doc genres, to which cohort Nola Wuttunee adds the hope that more Canadians will research and produce product geared to the market.

cbc’s Sarah Irwin also reports docs sold well this market, with The Nature of Things leading the pack, and that cbc rang in a lot of older programming package sales. Apparently Danger Bay is still selling. Fashion File was sold to Japan, music specials did well, and Dangerous Offender had strong interest, but as per usual in the case of strong content, buyers were mulling it over.

New buyers, new wares

tvontario made its first sale to Iran Broadcasting, which picked up three series.

Sheena Macdonald of Rhombus Media says the new specialty arts channels don’t have a lot of money, ‘but it really adds up when they buy a package.’ Which was happening in all program categories.

Soph-Can’s Vladimir Kobakov, selling a four-pack of tv movies, says Gospa, a Martin Sheen starrer, has prompted hot sales. Presales for a new series, Animals and Us, being produced by Susan Petit Grossman, were also positive, with a deal inked with a German distributor.

Cochran Entertainment, in addition to a mondo cute Theodore Tugboat clothesline for kids, got a good response to custom foreign-language companion Web site bundling with its Internet programming. Andrew Cochran reports a high degree of interest in the shows, which sparked a bidding war in Korea.

Also not content to just sell shows, ChumCity International vp/gm Stephen Tapp says the volume of sales was phenomenal, and in addition to program sales, the company’s station format licensing/startup agenda is taking a whack of new opportunities home from mip. ‘The strategic direction is to bring format licensing and startup management revenue to a higher percentage than program sales.’