Broadcasters including the Disney Channels in the U.S., Italy, Germany and Spain have picked up the Shaftesbury series Life with Derek

Breakthrough Animation has signed a licensing deal with Jetix Europe for Captain Flamingo

In an exclusive one-on-one with Playback, Heritage Minister Bev Oda defends her performance during the CTF crisis, and talks of changes needed at the CBC and CRTC

IT may not steamroll traditional platforms overnight as many predicted, but new media is certainly digging its heels into the international market.

The head of CBC Sports is defending his network’s new deal for NHL broadcast rights, and dismisses the suggestion that the Ceeb will lose money on the six-year contract, despite reports that it will be paying $100 million or more per year – 50% more than it is currently.

CBC has put more of its programming online, following a deal announced in March with DivX that has added a selection of its shows and clips to the recently launched video-sharing site Stage6.

While new media appears limitless, delegates attending the ICE 2007 conference were thinking small – and not just screen size. Smaller communities of consumers with similar interests are breaking out from the larger social settings such as YouTube and MySpace, and delegates were told the future of online programming is to target programming to these niche groups.

MONTREAL: The president of Quebec’s TVA Films is trying to grease the wheels of English Canada’s sputtering star system by using a tried-and-true Quebec promotional tool: taking the talent to the people.

Like aerosol cheese or wine in a box, Slice is, if we understand its ads, both enjoyable and bad for you. The Alliance Atlantis cable channel formerly known as Life Network relaunched in March – looking to lure women aged 18 to 49 with a schedule heavy on ‘guilty pleasures’ such as Beauty and the Geek and Brat Camp. And so we ask:

• Licensing firm m4e has acquired the German-language rights – covering new media, music, merchandising and publishing – for the Storm Hawks cartoon by Vancouver-based Nerd Corps. The 52 x 30 action-adventure is due this fall on the Cartoon Network and France 3.

I just finished reading your March 19 story ‘Is the Green Goliath too big for Toronto?’