If the current pace of equipment rentals is any indication, the summer of 2004 should be a busy one for film and TV production from coast to coast.

The future is finally here, and it’s clear – high-definition kind of clear. Stations including Citytv Toronto, Sportsnet and TSN are already broadcasting in HD, and shows are being prepped for life in the HD age, all of which means producers need the HD tools to do the job – even if they are, as of now, only chugging off the assembly line.

It was all about high-definition production, post and broadcast at the recent National Association of Broadcasters trade show in Las Vegas, with cost and efficiency top of mind.

Indigenous Canadian film and television production was down nearly 7% in 2003, the third year in a row overall production volumes have declined. According to Playback’s 16th Annual Report on Independent Production, Canadian prodcos spent $1.51 billion on production and development last year, down from $1.624 billion in 2002.

A monster year for French-Canadian cinema, and for Denys Arcand’s Les Invasions barbares in particular, culminated with a dominant showing at the 24th Annual Genie Awards in Toronto on May 1.

The CRTC is not convinced that TV drama needs more help and is expected to take little or no action to boost production or viewership of English-language series when, later this month, it responds to recommendations made by lobby and industry groups, say sources close to the process.

While documentary production in Canada is still driven primarily by TV presales, it looks like a new model may be on the horizon. Record audiences at Hot Docs 2004 helped to confirm a growing domestic appetite for docs on the big screen.

It’s not every day you see footage of Hamilton, ON – the industrial, glamour-impaired next-door neighbour of Toronto – in competition at Cannes, much less under the direction of foreign arthouse fave Olivier Assayas, who shot several key scenes for his latest, Clean, on the less-than-savoury streets of Steeltown late last year.

Trying to put its financial struggles behind it as quickly as possible with the Banff Television Festival just weeks away, the Banff Television Foundation introduced a new CEO and a new agenda late last month in the hopes of shifting the industry’s focus back to planned silver anniversary celebrations.

The Canadian broadcasting success story continues, according to the CRTC’s annual report of broadcast distribution undertakings.

Rogers Cable scored some quick but questionable points last month when it extended a deal to satellite TV pirates, offering free installation and set-top boxes to anyone shut out by recent security upgrades at DirecTV. The American DTH caster recently stopped service to an early version of its access cards, closing a widely exploited security gap and cutting loose an unknown number of signal pirates in Canada and the U.S. Rogers almost immediately announced that in exchange for the defunct satellite equipment it would sign viewers to its digital cable service. Rogers offers the same deal to legitimate satellite viewers.

Shutting down its Entertainment Group has turned out to be more complicated than expected, and has again forced Alliance Atlantis Communications to delay delivery of its year-end report for fiscal 2003. The Toronto media giant now says the report, previously scheduled for April 5 and, then, April 23, will be out no later than May 17, although it has not set a specific date.