The Women’s Television Network, recently purchased by Corus Entertainment for $205 million, was merely a twinkle in the eye a decade ago.
As early as 1989, Ron Rhodes, working as a ‘hired gun’ on the startup of the Family Channel, discerned a need for a channel that cast its net a little wider.
‘Although we called it the Family Channel we showed Disney movies. And I thought that we really needed a family channel that dealt with family issues and was information-based.’

The CanWest Western Independent Producers Fund initial round of grants has been announced and results include an interesting statistical blip: of the 107 applications received from the four Western provinces, 19 came from Saskatchewan. Of the 52 projects chosen for funding, nine are from the province.
Sandra Green at the CWIPF says she is heartened by the response from what has been to date the lowest-profile Prairie province.

The Okanagan is a lush area in inland British Columbia that markets itself as a summertime vacation destination. But this fall, a film set in the Okanagan might shoot in a location that makes for an unlikely stand-in: the Yukon.
Sean Williamson of Shavick Entertainment in Vancouver was one of the producers included on a familiarization tour organized by the Yukon Film Commission earlier this year. As a result of that tour, he is tentatively planning to return to the Yukon to shoot the feature film Peachland.

Vancouver is known as the location of choice for many service productions – but the homegrown filmmaking community is thriving. And the lifeblood of this resilient indigenous industry? Documentary….

Tween series AD2030 is one of those rarest of Prairie beasts: a Saskatchewan/Alberta/Manitoba coproduction. …

Calgary-based DB Entertainment’s titular president Doug Berquist, a filmmaker since 1973, is almost understated about the genesis of his two-year-old company….

MONTREAL: Blackwatch Communications has filed a ‘notice of intention’ to creditors to reorganize its debt and has hired accounting firm Richter, Usher & Vineberg to handle negotiations and reorganize the company….

IN the storm of consolidation that has swept through the broadcasting industry in the past year, Paul Robertson is among the elite few ascending the corporate food chain at the speed of convergence….

MONTREAL: Over-subscription levels for Licence Fee Program top-up money for Canadian documentaries declined considerably this spring, in dollar terms, to the tune of 7% on the English side and 20% of the French side….

IF competition really spurs the industry to produce the best possible product, then commercial production companies in the Toronto market had better be churning out award-winning work with every board coming over the fax machine. As if the batch of new,…

WHEN Richard Bullock and his wife Toni purchased Boz Films from Greg Bosworth in 1997, the two jumped head-first into the world of Vancouver commercial production….

The focus of this regular section is on agencies in Canada. Looking for agency business strategies and creative teams’ secret weapons? We tell all in Ad Missions….