Distributor Peter Emerson on Thursday declared the decision by the CBC’s board of directors to endorse selling international programming rights to Fireworks International a giant gift from Canadian taxpayers.

‘I’ve still not seen the deal, but my guess is it has a big gold Christmas bow on it with a card that reads ‘To: Fireworks, From: The Canadian taxpayer,’ said the Oasis International president.

He was speaking a day after the CBC’s board of directors rubber-stamped a deal to sell the pubcaster’s international distribution rights to Fireworks International, a division of ContentFilm.

Emerson led a rear-guard effort to get the CBC to reverse course and allow Canadian distributors to bid on the 135 CBC titles, comprising 700 hours of programming, that Fireworks International acquired as part of a controversial back-room deal.

At one point during their public battle, CBC EVP Richard Stursberg in a Jan. 18 letter to Emerson had to back down from an earlier accusation that no Canadian distributor had the scale or expertise to effectively sell CBC titles into the international market.

After he received approval from the CBC board of directors, Stursberg argued it was the pubcaster that lacked the muscle and leverage in the international distribution marketplace that ContentFilm would now lend the CBC.

‘We know that we lack the scale, resources, investment capital and risk tolerance required to be competitive in a market dominated by large, specialized companies,’ Stursberg said.

‘Fireworks, and its parent, ContentFilm, are among the best-known and most respected organizations in the industry, with extensive international reach and sales capability,’ he added.