Unparalleled

opportunity

worldwide

Cannes: As new windows open in Europe, at home, and around the world, Canadian exporters anticipate real competition for more domestic product. Their goal is to rapidly build their catalogues and program volume in order to maximize what the industry clearly views as an unparalleled opportunity.

Paragon International president Isme Bennie characterized the selling climate at this year’s mipcom as ‘very, very businesslike. mip-tv was good, but I feel the industry has picked up again, after bottoming out in 1990/91,’ she says.

Bennie, and many other large and mid-sized sellers from Canada, made one thing very clear at this year’s market: they are on the prowl for more product.

‘You can put this in bold,’ says Bennie. ‘We would like more product. Paragon will be really aggressive in this area. Smaller Canadian producers shouldn’t be out there selling anyway, they don’t have the resources. I would rather put up some money so producers can supply me.’

Filmoption Internationale president Maryse Rouillard reports the Montreal-based company had a ‘fabulous market,’ selling over $500,000 worth of product after the first two days.

‘It’s the first time in a long time people are buying. The tide has turned, everybody is back in business,’ says the veteran exporter.

New day for documentaries

Rouillard says the new specialty channels, at home and abroad, herald ‘more and new business for documentaries, which often had only one window in the past. Cable will be looking for that second window because they might not be able to afford (a first) for some time.’

‘Everyone I talked to said (this year’s market) was very gratifying, really up,’ says Bill Niven, interim director of Telefilm Canada’s London, Eng. office. ‘People are selling, preselling. What I’ve noticed is that with our clients, who tend to be the small and medium-sized companies, they’ve all been very happy.’

Niven says the larger Canadian operations – Nelvana, Alliance, Cinar and Atlantis – are talked about wherever he has traveled, in London, Paris and Los Angeles. He says credit must be given ‘in large part to the success of 10 years of support of the Broadcast Fund and its role in helping undercapitalized Canadian companies.’

At mipcom, The Multimedia Group of Canada played an instrumental role in arranging a coproduction deal for a new puppet series called The Big Garage. Producers are Montreal’s Prisma Productions and Winchester Pictures, a prominent Birmingham, Eng.-based operation that’s increasingly active in Canada. Winchester is the coproducer on the $12 million high-definition feature film Rainbow, and is headed by ceo Gary Smith, who will be in Montreal from Oct. 27 and Nov. 2 ?? to do what??.

Prisma president Claude Godbout says The Big Garage has a $2 million price tag and is a u.k. concept aimed at the three- to six-year-old crowd. Talks are underway with home broadcasters cbc and Radio-Canada. Meanwhile, meetings held in Cannes led Godbout to believe a second season of the high-profile Anna Banana series, coproduced with g.u.m. of Germany, will soon receive the go-ahead.

‘Coproducing (has become) more open and there are more presales, probably because licence fees are lower and financing is more difficult,’ says Godbout. ‘Having a coproduction partner opens up markets. For a distributor, it suggests a (coproduced) program has qualities likely to interest other markets.’

The right demographics

Sari Buksner, Multimedia’s vice-president, international sales and development, reports buyers from Norway TV and Japan ‘really loved’ Anna Banana and says bbc intends to screen the series prior to mip-tv next spring.

‘Discovery (Channel) in the u.s. wants to look at it because the five- to eight-year-old group is not as well covered as the preschool market,’ she adds.

New live action

As the stands were coming down at mipcom, an over-amped but happy crew from Nelvana, led by chairman Michael Hirsh, told Playback the company is actively prepping for a major boost in production for 1995 and a ‘renewed thrust’ into live-action film.

Hirsh says Nelvana has consolidated its position in the u.s. television market in the past two years, emerging as the number one supplier of Saturday morning network programming, edging out such formidable competitors as Disney and Warner Bros.

‘We are looking to increase our coproductions,’ says Hirsh. ‘In the past seven years we have generally done one coproduction a year; next year we expect we’ll be doing at least two.

‘In terms of trends, or at least other things we’re doing, we are looking to translate our leadership in animation in the family area to success in the live-action area for children. It is a renewed thrust (for Nelvana) in live action, and there are three shows we are completing financing on – Jake and the Kid, Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys. So we expect to come back big in live-action next year.’

Nelvana used mipcom top launch Wildca.t.s, Stickin’ Around and The Magic School Bus.

David Ferguson, Nelvana’s London, Eng.-based director of coproductions, says the new series will ‘probably be seen in 40 to 50 countries within a yearÉand 90 countries by the end of the cycle.’

All 13 episodes of Wildc.a.t.s sold immediately to rtl, while the fourth cycle of Rupert the Bear (52 episodes complete) was recommissioned by the ITV Network in the u.k.

‘(mipcom) has really, really been great. I have never said it before, but people are actually signing deals (right at the market). Germany is just going nuts,’ says Ferguson.

MIP-Asia looms large

The fast-approaching inaugural MIP-Asia (running Nov. 30-Dec. 3 in Hong Kong) will see all the major Canadian players present, as well as a surprising number of increasingly ambitious small and mid-sized operations.

‘The Asian marketplace is one of the most highly populated marketplaces in the world,’ says Hirsh. ‘None of us (in Canada) have been seeing as much money from that market as we’d like. We would like more direct contact with our customers, and this new market will give us a unique opportunity to really build our relationships with those customers, in the same way we have with Europe and Latin America.

‘We really think this is going to turn out to be a very important market. It should be the equivalent of having gone to mip or mipcom 20 or 15 years ago. mipcom is only 10 years old, but in the early years of mip, people were only seeing a fraction of the money out of international that they’re seeing today. And I’m sure it didn’t look as wise to be spending this kind of money at a mip 15 years ago, whereas today, there’s a real pay-off coming to a well-established mip.’

Paris-based Alliance International Television president Rola Zayed was in high spirits at mipcom as the new head of a revamped tv sales structure with an expanded support staff and mandate, and more acquisition money.

Money is on the table

Zayed says the push is on ‘to advocate Alliance services to independent producers, because we have been fortunate enough to represent certain independent producers. And now, with the restructuring, Alliance International Television has a system in place, which I call `the front room and the back room.’ We’re building an infrastructure that allows (dramatic) product to be fully and properly exploited worldwide. I am being very aggressive with the clientÉand I’m putting money on the table to acquire these rights.’

At mipcom, Alliance reported cbs ‘has ordered a minimum of five additional hours’ of Due South, bringing the 1994 total to 13 hours, plus the two-hour tv movie pilot.

All 15 hours of the new series were sold to BBC-1 and Sky Broadcasting in the u.k., with Sky acquiring the first window. Other broadcasters in major markets buying in were TF1 in France, RTL-2 in Germany and Antenna 3 in Spain.

Zayed says different tiers or windows are being exploited for the preteen series The Odyssey, an exciting development from an international presales and sales perspective. In the u.k., the 39-episode series will be broadcast by both Nickelodeon and Channel 4.

After sales

Zayed is counting on Alliance’s after-sales program – the co-ordination of demographics, advertising campaigns, on-air promotions, sponsorship, and potential contest strategies and promotions involving actors and creative talent – to get the company’s aggressive sales message across to producers and program suppliers.

For Paragon’s Bennie, MIPCOM ’94 was her 23rd trip to the Cote d’Azur, ‘It’s like going to the mall,’ she says. However, this year was the first with a popular feature film library in hand, and Bennie says it helped elevate Paragon into a ‘new league.’ (Earlier this year, Paragon acquired u.k.-based HandMade Films’ feature film catalogue)

Paragon chairman Jon Slan puts it this way: ‘We spent the last number of years trying to figure out coproduction, but we’ve never actually done one. Having acquired a British company (HandMade), we realized we don’t actually need coproduction to be in business in Europe, there are other ways of doing business. It’s like a great weight has been lifted from our shoulders.

‘We can do business on a strictly commercial and creative basis, and we don’t have to walk into the bbc and ask if there’s something that will qualify for both British and Canadian interests. It’s great not having to serve all these masters, at least not all at once.’

As for product sales, Paragon sold the 23-title HandMade library to the star tv satellite service, which covers both the Far East and the Middle East, including the Indian subcontinent.

The cpi 90-minute imax concert film, Rolling Stones – At the Max, was sold to Scandinavian tv, all of Eastern Europe, throughout Asia, and to many tv stations in Latin America. And the preteen series Ready Or Not was picked up for renewal in two key export markets, France and Germany.

At Filmoption Internationale, the four-hour Gwyn Dwyer documentary series sold to Premiere, the German pay-tv service, while talks were initiated with both the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the national funding organization for pbs stations in the u.s., and an American syndicator. Rouillard says the bbc also expressed an interest in the thoughtful series, produced by Montreal’s Green Lion Productions.

Discovery was active

Mexico purchased 41 more hours of Coscient’s The Science Show (OmniScience), with strong interest and a new u.s. window for the show from The Learning Channel.

Filmoption also confirmed sales of Jean-Louis Frund’s one-hour documentary on the snowy owl, Prince of the Arctic, to tsr, Canal+ in Belgium and TV2 in Denmark. The veteran filmmaker’s latest production also attracted inquiries from The Discovery Channel in the u.s., very active at mipcom this fall, and the bbc.

As soon as mipcom wrapped, Filmoption headed directly to Bristol, Eng., home of the bbc’s Natural History unit and the annual Wildscreen film festival and market. Filmoption will also be attending MIP-Asia.

Volume on high

Catalyst director of program distribution, Jill Keenleyside, says, ‘I’m amazed at how busy mipcom has been. Maybe even busier than mipÉbecause of all the new services and buyers. Almost everybody has asked for cassettes of sctv (185 half-hours), and of course, we love having the volume.’

Catalyst recently obtained an injection of fresh working capital, and will also be among those attending MIP-Asia.

Keenleyside reports strong interest at mipcom in three Citytv programs, MediaTelevision, the tres hot FashionTelevision and its new streetside adaptation, Ooh La La. Interest came from a wide spectrum of foreign broadcasters, including Channel 4 and the bbc in the u.k., abc and Nine Network in Australia, and rtl and Premiere in Germany.

CBC International Sales launched two major titles at the market, Side Effects, the new big-city medical drama series, and the timely Harry Rasky film Prophecy, which, in production terms, was a truly frightening story in its own right.

The u.k.’s itv is screening early episodes of Side Effects – ultimately, it will help sales if there are more than 13 hours – while Prophecy attracted keen interest from pbs and Discovery Channel in the u.s., says Christina Hajek, cbc’s acting director of sales.

Right direction on pricing

‘Sales have taken off at this market,’ reports International Tele-Film Enterprises president Stuart Grant, adding two Canadian series, Times Exposures ?? and Life’s Little Lessons, sold well in both the Middle and Far East.

‘Prices are heading back in the right direction after serious problems in the past,’ says Grant, who will also lead a delegation to Hong Kong next month.

Pat Ferns’ Market `Stimulation’

The first-ever Pat Ferns Market Simulation at mipcom attracted about 250 delegates, and according to an observer from Telefilm, made two things clear: Ferns emerged ‘as a strong and versatile animator, and the event, with some fine-tuning, could work at other international venues. We understand that mipcom is already considering it again for next year,’ he added.

On the official coproduction front, Telefilm coproduction manager Deborah Drisdell says there was a huge volume of inquiries from animation producers at MIPCOM ’94.

Hosted by the Paris-based Reed Midem Organization and headed by ubiquitous chief executive officer Xavier Roy, this year’s mipcom attracted 2,006 participating companies from 85 countries, up 8% over last year.

Participation by Canadian companies rose to 95 this year, up from 87 in 1993. This made Canada the fifth largest contingent at the market, behind the u.s., the u.k., France and Germany.