✖
TV distribs make deals at DISCOP
Sales reps came home upbeat about prospects in eastern and central Europe last month after the DISCOP market in Budapest, a three-day huddle in the Hungarian capital that, like the territory it represents, is making significant gains as a hub for the film and TV trade, attracting large numbers of regional buyers who are hungry for western-made content.
Jump Cuts
LGE posts US$94.2M loss
BBM and Nielsen set to merge on TV ratings
It looks like the battle between Canada’s competing ratings sources is coming to an end.
CHUM cuts 29 staff in Victoria
Vancouver: CHUM Television’s The New VI in Victoria laid off 29 full- and part-time employees July 7 as part of a restructuring that also includes changes in programming and management.
Jump Cuts
Monte Carlo loves Bugs
Report: Atlantic provinces and the North lack training
Canada is well stocked with screenwriting programs, but is low on training for producers and directors. There is a dearth of production training in Northern and Atlantic Canada, but an overabundance of the same in Vancouver and Toronto. Short film producers have more skills development programs than feature filmmakers.
CTF hands out first round of development cash in Quebec
Sixty French-language television projects took home $1.6 million in development cash from Telefilm Canada and the Canadian Television Fund earlier this month in the first round of funding for the fiscal year 2004/05. Only five applicants were turned down, an 85% acceptance rate.
CIFVF endows $1.5 million to 56 productions
The Canadian Independent Film & Video Fund has awarded $1.5 million to 56 Canadian film and video productions. A third of those received the largest grants – amounts ranging from $39,000 to $50,000.
CTF hands out first round of development cash in Quebec
Sixty French-language television projects took home $1.6 million in development cash from Telefilm Canada and the Canadian Television Fund earlier this month in the first round of funding for the fiscal year 2004/05. Only five applicants were turned down, an 85% acceptance rate.
Sound ideas – can you trademark a noise or a song?
Alice-Anne Morlock is a partner in the Toronto law firm McMillan Binch LLP and a member of the firm’s KNOWlaw group. This article was prepared with the assistance of Kate Krestow, student-at-law.
Nothing against regional prods
We’ve been getting a lot of flack recently for a column I wrote last month questioning the sense of supporting seven production centers. I pointed out that nowhere in the world is there a country that supports seven film and TV production centers.
Letter
Where’s the love?
Playback Readership Poll Results
The Ontario production sector has several obstacles to overcome. At least, that is what results from the latest online poll of Playback readers would indicate. When asked ‘What is most responsible for Ontario’s production decline?’ 26.1% of participants believed it was no OMDC equity or development funding, followed by competition from other provinces (22.6%), inadequate studio infrastructure (20.9%), low labor tax credit (19.6%), and federally initiated regional incentives (10.9%).
Correction
The series Sue Thomas F.B.Eye is produced entirely by Toronto prodco Pebblehut Productions. It is not a service production as reported in the July 5 issue of Playback.
Celebrating a decade of service
Launched a decade ago with a deal from U.S. cabler Showtime Networks, Dufferin Gate Productions rode the wave of Hollywood MOW shoots to become Canada’s biggest service provider. It subsequently saw the MOW bubble burst, yet lived to tell the tale. Today, the Toronto prodco marches on – more healthy than ever, according to founder and president Patrick Whitley – but in a radically reimagined form.
The definitive CDN broadcast and production resource.Over 5,000 company listings!
