Critics be damned, CBC president and CEO Hubert Lacroix and his board of directors on Wednesday gave their stamp of approval to a deal to sell the pubcaster’s international distribution rights to Fireworks International.

After a day-long teleconference, the pubcaster’s directors okayed a deal by CBC EVP Richard Stursberg first announced on Dec. 18 that hands the international rights to 135 CBC titles, comprising 700 hours of programming, to a distribution arm of British-based ContentFilm.

The deal drew fire from Canadian distributors and producers, as no one other than Fireworks International was asked to competitively bid on the CBC catalogue.

What’s more, parent ContentFilm in December received a tentative takeover offer from Toronto’s Peace Arch Entertainment. This separate takeover bid raised red flags because Peace Arch CEO Jeff Sagansky is an investor in ContentFilm, and CBC arts chief Fred Fuchs is a former executive at Peace Arch, with close ties to the indie producer.

At one point, Stursberg, in a Jan. 18 letter to an aggrieved Peter Emerson of Toronto-based Oasis Pictures, had to back down from an earlier remark that no Canadian distributor had the scale or expertise to effectively sell CBC titles into the international market.

But brushing aside those criticisms, the CBC’s Lacroix said that the agreement with ContentFilm, ‘represents a significant win for CBC, for Canadian taxpayers and for the producers, actors and others who have a stake in the programming, which will now have an opportunity for greater exposure and sales internationally.’

Lacroix added any foreign sales of CBC titles by Fireworks will benefit the rights holders of the programs, including the CBC.

The newly installed CBC president reiterated that the deal with ContentFilm, the terms of which have not been disclosed, was done in haste in part to produce a possible programming sale to U.S. networks during the current Hollywood writers strike.

‘We made a strategic decision to act quickly to pursue what we see as a unique opportunity to bring Canadian programs to a wide international audience, based on current market circumstances,’ Lacroix added.

Terms of the deal with Fireworks International, which were not disclosed, do not impact on any of the CBC’s current programming rights or its archives. The CBC expects to complete its deal with Fireworks International in the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, the separate deal by Peace Arch Entertainment for ContentFilm is still preceding through the due diligence stage.