If one thing came into focus at the Playback Production Innovations Forum March 8 in Toronto, it’s that the time is now for a concerted push on the part of the TV industry, government, and the regulator to accelerate the take-up of high definition in this country. If not, the consequences will be severe.

Federal budget restates fondness for market forces, announces independent review of policies due before next budget

If you’ve got a Canadian passport, you might as well fit yourself for an eyepatch and tricorn hat. The Americans have lately been crowing that we’re a band of content pirates, but Hollywood can help itself by doing business with iTunes Canada and providing a library of legal content to download. That, and some stronger legislation from Ottawa, would go a long way to keeping us honest.

When they put the handcuffs on a twentysomething in L.A. last month for uploading Flushed Away and Happy Feet to the Internet, it was thanks to a hot tip received by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. And it wasn’t CSI: LA that cracked the case, but Deluxe Postproduction Toronto.

The Hot Sheet tracks Canadian box-office results for the period March 2-8, 2007.

Hi, I’m common sense. I was one of the six million Canadians who tuned in to the Academy Awards and, Hooray for Canada, we bagged an Oscar! The Danish Poet. Best animated short. Good old NFB, love those cartoon shorts, they’re world class. Then I turned on the telly to have a look for it…

Top 20 TV Programs tracks ratings for the top 20 television shows in Canada for the period Feb. 26-March 4, 2007.

CHUM Television is getting in on the peer-to-peer TV community promised by Joost.com with a revenue-sharing deal announced earlier this month that will make a long list of shows and clips from MuchMusic, Space and FashionTelevision available to users when the site launches later this year.

Vancouver animator Verne Andru has worked for Hanna-Barbera and Nelvana, and now wants to bring his own character Halbert ‘Hal’ Lighter to the silver screen. So how does a one-man animation studio find the money? Andru’s strategy is to build Hal’s fan base by publishing his adventures on the web and in comic books, and then, with luck, use the buzz to woo investors.

Vancouver: Love, connections and the lighter side of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings are at the heart of My Name Is Sarah, a B.C.-shot romantic comedy from Vancouver director Paul A. Kaufman (Honeymoon With Mom) and exec producer Norman Stephens (Bang, Bang, You’re Dead).

VANCOUVER: The makers of Legend of Earthsea and Snow Queen are returning to British Columbia for another imaginative long-form project – and go to camera later this month with the $19-million miniseries Tin Man.

Calgary: The slayings of four RCMP officers in small-town Alberta will be revisited this month as Calgary’s Seven24 Films and Toronto’s Slanted Wheel Entertainment roll cameras on To Serve and Protect: Tragedy at Mayerthorpe, an MOW for CTV.