The following is a chart indicating where independent production companies spent their money in 2003.

Montreal: The lovable rogues are back. Les Bougon, the hit series about an irreverent clan who milk Quebec’s social assistance programs, started shooting its second season on April 19.

Selling Innocence in Edmonton

No, the other kind of Genie

Winnipeg production company Les Productions Rivard, formed in 1995 by Louis Paquin and Charles Lavack to enhance the voice of francophone communities in Western Canada, continues to pursue this goal with five projects currently in production including the company’s first sojourn into the HD format.

Reach for the top

‘Killers killed

The Banff Television Foundation dropped the biggest bombshell of its 25-year history in April when it filed for bankruptcy protection in a Calgary court – blaming SARS and mad cow, openly criticizing the management of former CEO Pat Ferns and warning that, if certain legal and business proceedings did not go forward, its landmark festival would die just two months short of its silver anniversary.
On April 12, Madame Justice Horner of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta appointed the accounting firm Richter, Allan & Taylor as the foundation’s trustee in bankruptcy and a deal has been struck with a Toronto company that is expected to keep the festival afloat.

Cannes, France: With ‘super formats’ Survivor, Big Brother and The Apprentice firmly entrenched in the television landscape, buyers and sellers went to the south of France for the 2004 edition of MIPTV March 29 to April 2 in the hopes of grabbing the rights to the next big thing. Canadians were right in the thick of it.
But the activity took on an almost surreal quality in Cannes, as buyers looked beyond the reality shows that have become synonymous with the format craze to comedies and dramas.

CanWest Global says it wants out of international production and will soon offload its challenged subsidiary Fireworks Entertainment, producer of Canadian-content action-adventure series including Mutant X and Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda. The media company says it will, however, continue to produce programs for the domestic market.

Las Vegas: For those who thought all the talk about high-definition TV was still just a lot of hype, the attention it has received at NAB2004 strongly indicates otherwise.

With a new slate of commissioned series on the horizon and the need to compete on the same footing with CTV and Global to acquire programming, CHUM’s acquisition of Craig Media couldn’t have come at a better time for the Toronto-based media company.