Lions Gate Entertainment’s acquisition last October of California-based Trimark Holdings is already paying dividends – at least in expanding the Vancouver company’s reach in the digital marketplace.

Toronto-based Rogers Cable has launched Rogers Interactive tv for Toronto, Ottawa and Southwestern Ontario, representing the cable giant’s first move into the itv realm.

La Societe de developpement des entreprises culturelles (sodec) and its European marketing partner, Linking Market Forces, are planning a third edition of Contact – Europe, a feature film financing, distribution and coproduction exchange forum.

The Canadian appetite for programming just got a lot bigger – 289 channels larger, to be exact – after the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s announcement late last year of the new digital pay and specialty television licences.

Christopher Eberts, a producer on the Universal Pictures thriller The Watcher, has launched Screenworks Media, a Canadian entertainment production company, in partnership with Remstar Corp. principals Julien and Maxime Remillard and writer/director Malcolm Clarke.

Post-production company Global Vision of Montreal and Deluxe Laboratories of Toronto have announced a strategic alliance to build, equip and operate a state-of-the-art film laboratory. The lab will be located in north central Montreal and will start operations by May 1.

The future of Canada/u.k. movie coproduction should see an increase in internationally ambitious projects as well as a wider diversity of projects. At least that’s the ultimate hope of 24 Canadian producers who attended the successful U.K. Immersion program on feature films recently held in London, Eng.

Tele Munchen Group of Germany has purchased a minority stake – less than 10% – in Montreal animation prodco CineGroupe. Privately held, CineGroupe declined to name an exact figure, but says the deal allows Tele Munchen – which is involved in theatrical distribution, video, cinema, television distribution, production and merchandising – a first look at CineGroupe’s international coproduction opportunities and presales.

Natpe 2001: conference organizers are predicting the largest conference ever – more than 25% bigger than last year’s record-setting numbers. Tout le monde will be there, but not just to buy syndication. There’s much more to natpe than that, as the programming leaders of the Canadian networks see it.

When it comes to animation, one thing is for sure: broadcasters are chasing tweens. And with little programming aimed at this group, trend-savvy producers could be on to big opportunities….

Children’s television might seem all fun and games, but according to Ken Faier, vp of television distribution for AAC Kids, ‘it can be quite scary on some fronts.’…

Demand is high for factual – so can producers afford to sit on their hands?…