BANFF: If the Banff World Television Festival gave an award for delivering a clear, can’t-miss-it message – word to organizers, think about it – this month’s meet-up in the mountains would have seen Konrad von Finckenstein go home with a new trophy for his mantel.

On the heels of its announced $375-million purchase of the five Citytv stations, Rogers Media says there are no major changes in store for the former CHUM channels, which it acquired after the CRTC on June 8 ordered CTVglobemedia to sell them as a condition of its purchase of CHUM.

Robert Lantos is reteaming with Charlotte Mickie and Tony Cianciotta to launch a new distribution company, Playback has learned.

Sure, the mountains are beautiful and the festival – which is almost as inspirational as in the old days – attracts deal makers from across the globe. But those plane tickets, delegate badges and double scotches at the Rundle Lounge don’t come cheap, which, as always, made attending this month’s Banff World Television Festival a difficult decision for many. So, while there, we asked:

• Teletoon has ordered a fourth season (13 x 30) of Carl Squared from Portfolio Entertainment.

• Sandra Collins is joining the Canadian Television Fund, and starts on June 25 as its VP of corporate services and administration. Collins was previously at Alliance Atlantis Communications and the University of Western Ontario, and will be responsible for CTF finance, administration and human resources.

Veteran producer Peter Simpson – maker of some 40 movies and TV shows including The Eleventh Hour and the Prom Night franchise – died June 5 in a Toronto hospital from complications due to lung cancer. He was 64.

The family and friends of Tony Roman gathered in Montreal June 14 to pay tribute to the Quebec film producer, scriptwriter and singer, who died June 8 after a battle with cancer.

Showline Harbourside Studios is owned by its operators, and will not relocate as part of the City of Toronto’s waterfront revitalization plan, although that is expected to happen to Showline Trinity Studios. Incorrect information appeared in the April 30 issue.

So, Banff. Seemed to me the festival this year was hijacked by the new media types.

There’s no bigger cheerleader for Canadian production than Norman Jewison. He was reading through his morning newspaper recently, he told me, when an item caught his attention. It was an article about how Rhombus Media producer Niv Fichman crisscrossed the globe in order to secure the movie rights to Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago’s novel Blindness, which goes to camera in Ontario in late July with an eye to a spring 2008 release.

Broadcasters and producers take note: net neutrality – or, more specifically, the lack of it – could have a big impact on your emerging content distribution models.