As part of its recent expansion plans, Toronto’s Deluxe Sound & Picture, a division of Deluxe Laboratories, has announced the opening of a large new ADR stage.

Recent award-winning underwater director of photography Pauline Heaton says it’s easier to get up and go to work these days.

The Francois Macerola report on Canadian content in film and TV opens the door to more foreign content in certified productions. The system would be based on a sliding scale approach that ties various forms of public-support benefits, including the content tax credit and direct participation by funding agencies such as the Canadian Television Fund and Telefilm Canada, to a production’s content level.

A massive 872-page two-year study of the Canadian broadcasting system calls on the government to create a single communications ministry bringing together the divided responsibilities now held by Industry Canada and Canadian Heritage.

Like a bus trip through the Rockies, the Banff Television Festival has its ups and downs – and this year the weeklong industry fete hit more than the usual number of potholes. Attendance was down, especially among key international guests, and a new price scheme irritated many fest-goers, giving rise to security problems and the so-called ‘NATPE syndrome’ of unregistered attendees.

Montreal: Quebec Finance Minister Yves Seguin’s June 12 budget reduces the refundable production tax-credit benefit for all categories of productions by 12.5%, with the notable exception of the production service credit. The cut yields a general maximum tax credit for French TV and English-language production of 14.6% against total costs.
APFTQ president and CEO Claire Samson says the tax-credit reduction will cost producers $21 million next year.

Some finessing of CBC’s internal budgets means the next season of workhorse comedy This Hour Has 22 Minutes could still go into production – despite failing at the 2003 Licence Fee Program sweepstakes and being ineligible for a new batch of money being handed out by Telefilm Canada’s Equity Investment Program.

Corus Entertainment has discontinued operating EdgeTV, the digital television provider of rock and alternative music videos. Kerry Morgan, VP of communications at Corus, places the blame entirely on the lack of sufficient satellite carriage.

Post-production giant Command Post & Transfer is consolidating most of its Toronto divisions under one roof and doing some rebranding.

AAC in line for CSI bonus bucks

With the Canadian fall spend at hand, broadcasters are lighting candles and praying that they’ll see just some of the manna that fell from heaven during the U.S. upfront.

CTV’S Canadian Idol drew more than two million viewers for its premiere episode on June 9. That’s a big number for a Canadian show under any circumstances, but given that CI, another international version of U.K. smash Pop Idol, went head to head with the first period of game seven of the Stanley Cup Final between the New Jersey Devils and the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, it’s a near miracle it was even competitive. As it stands, game seven generated about 2.6 million viewers for CBC.