Snow business

Vancouver: The Year of the Monkey means a year of concessions for Vancouver’s service production sector, bracing for a 25% downturn in volumes because of the rising Canadian dollar, declining drama volumes and international competition for locations.

The final details for establishing an official coproduction treaty between Canada and India, the world’s largest producer of film and television, are being ironed out, with the official treaty expected in the next six months.

There has been much media ado over Conan O’Brien’s impending visit to Hogtown.

Federal financial assistance to the film and video industry grew 9.1% to $234.8 million in fiscal year 2001/02, according to a new StatsCan report on cultural spending published Jan. 7.

Folks came back from NATPE noticeably happier and with more signed contracts than in recent years, following three days in Las Vegas that by all accounts saw the troubled TV confab regain some of its former glitz. Buyers, sellers and organizers are fairly upbeat about the January conference – reporting that business was brisk on the floor thanks in part to the return of industry heavies such as CBS, Sony and MGM.

Denys Arcand’s Les Invasions barbares may have the Oscar clout, but Jean-Francois Pouliot’s La Grande seduction leads the pack in the recently announced Prix Jutra nominations, the film awards in the movies’ home province of Quebec.

* Charles Bird is Bell Globemedia’s new vice-president of government affairs, overseeing public relations efforts regarding federal policy. Bird was policy adviser to MP Ralph Goodale from 1993 to 2000 and was recently a senior consultant at Earnscliffe Strategy Group.

Playback readers for the most part don’t see eye to eye with Alliance Atlantis Communications’ prognostication on the future health of drama. In an online poll that asked readers if they agree with AAC that the current downturn in drama is permanent – the main reason AAC cited in its recent retreat from domestic production – 81% voted no, 19% voted yes.

Stephen Waddell is executive director of ACTRA.

YOUR article ‘CTV preps Idol 2’ (Jan. 5, p. 2) states CTV is ‘seeking ‘through the roof’ prices’ for the second season of Canadian Idol. Your reporter supports this claim by writing: ‘The cost of Idol’s ‘big winner’ package, for example, has reportedly jumped some 50% since season one.’

This summer marks the fifth anniversary of the official release of the CRTC’s 1999 Television Policy document. The policy came into effect Sept. 1, 2000.