Top 20 TV Programs tracks ratings for the top 20 television shows in Canada for the period Dec. 11-17, 2006.

The thriller Eastern Promises marks the first collaboration between David Cronenberg and Robert Lantos in seven years, but it hasn’t been for lack of trying.

* Former Mainframe CEO Rick Mischel is now an executive producer at Rainmaker in Vancouver, following the latter’s takeover of his company last year. The transition will keep Mischel with his previous Mainframe team.

* Degrassi: The Next Generation has been sold for U.S. syndication, and will reach 60% of households south of the border when it launches in the fall, according to distributors Thunderbird Films in Vancouver and Program Partners in Venice, CA. The teen drama has also gone to outlets including Belo, Clear Channel, Granite, Gray, Hubbard, the Pegasus groups and The CW Plus stations.

Canadians who’ve been going to American sites such as YouTube to post and view videos online now have the option of going homegrown.

Samantha Hodder is the executive director of the

The year just passed burst at the seams with significant industry stories. One major broadcaster bought another; much debate surrounded the direction of our national pubcaster; a Canadian feature film smashed box-office records; more production found its way onto new media platforms; the CRTC heard arguments aimed at influencing its TV Policy review; and union conflicts across the country threatened production stability.

Playback readers by and large want the regulator to step in. In a recent online Playback poll asking ‘Should the CRTC reimpose Cancon spending requirements on broadcasters?’, 79% of respondents voted Yes, and 21% said No.

Christina Cox, backed up by Kyle Schmid and Dylan Neal, star in the 22 x 60 Blood Ties, a supernatural thriller underway in B.C. at Insight Film Studios. The CHUM series, a copro with Kaleidoscope Entertainment in Toronto, follows the love-triangled trio as they battle the forces of evil.

Despite borrowing its name from the original series created in the ’70s, the reimagined version of Battlestar Galactica shot in B.C. definitely taps into a 21st century zeitgeist, with its handheld HD cinematography and politically charged storylines.

Actor David Hewlett quietly hypes his feature directorial debut A Dog’s Breakfast in B.C. The dark comedy stars Hewlett as a man driven over the edge by his sister (played by his real-life sibling Kate Hewlett) and her new TV-star fiancé (Paul McGillion). The under-$1-million HD movie was shot in Vancouver by members of the cast and crew of Stargate: Atlantis and Stargate SG-1 (both of which feature Hewlett) during a production hiatus early last year. MGM picked up the project last month for broadcast and home video.

Vancouver: When Partition opens on 30 screens across Canada on Feb. 2, veteran director and cinematographer Vic Sarin will realize a lifelong dream.