The cable lobby says it’s only fair that cablecasters are now allowed to own analog specialty channels, but what is not clear is whether this rule change will one day lead to a distributors’ monopoly on specialty ownership.
The CRTC announced earlier this month that it will now allow cablecos to gain controlling interests in analog specialty channels, so long as certain conditions are met. While the regulator promises to provide the reasons for its decisions later, it does not put an upper limit on the number of specialties a cablecaster can own, nor does it deal with the marketplace fallout if cable companies buy out all the independent specialtycasters such as Alliance Atlantis, Astral and Chum.

Montreal: The Canadian Television Fund elected a new board of directors at its June 12 annual general meeting convened at the Banff Television Festival.
A new CTF policy document on governance structure is in distribution after being passed by the boards of directors of both the CTF and Telefilm Canada.
Highlights of the governance reorganization include a streamlined CTF executive committee and the creation of an independent board committee charged with dealing with all conflict of interest issues.

Following the federal government’s recent $60-million commitment to the CBC, it has been confirmed that English Television will receive almost half of it. At the same time, the Corp will lay off 50 employees in a move to further generate funds for programming and bolster the pubcaster’s level of ‘efficiency’ – a primary goal of its Transformation Plan.
The new funds will be allocated entirely to programming as follows: English Television – $29 million; French Television – $18 million; English and French radio – $5 million each; and new media – $3 million.
The money on the English Television side, as announced in early May when the federal government said it would infuse the Corp with an extra chunk of cash for the first time in 15 years, will be directed toward the CBC’s Transformation programming priorities.

Vancouver: Production volumes in Vancouver will drop about 75% July 1 in part because of the negative effects of a potential Screen Actor’s Guild strike.
At press time, U.S. studios and networks were negotiating with SAG – a positive sign that, like the Writers Guild of America talks last month, a strike may be averted at the 11th hour. The current SAG contract expires June 30.
For local crews dependent on U.S. service production for their livelihoods, however, the dramatic downturn will hit whether or not negotiations succeed.

New $10-million fund supports new media…

Some days, fairness is the weakest link….

Banff: Canadian Heritage Minister Sheila Copps and International Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew made it clear Canada intends to promote cultural diversity in upcoming WTO and GATS talks. …

Banff: The door is wide open for Canadian feature film producers looking to gain entry into European coproduction….

Vancouver: Proving that fact-based production is still the mainstay of the domestic industry on the West Coast, 21 documentary singles and two long-form documentaries received investment from funding agency British Columbia Film, which has announced its choices for television support for…

Montreal: Radio-Canada’s tiny feature film department has received close to 60 movie screenplays and production proposals since the beginning of the year, a huge volume of work for Suzanne Laverdiere, SRC’s director of independent production, acquisitions and feature films, and Louise…

Banff: Corus Entertainment used this year’s Banff Television Festival to announce the launch of a new production fund that is set to finance close to $8 million in original Canadian productions….

Banff: While this year’s Banff Rockie Awards saw the U.S. and U.K. garner the majority of wins, with four each, the biggest winner was the French documentary La terre des ames errantes (The Land of Wondering Souls), which took home the…

* Philippa King, head of business affairs at Rhombus Media for the past five years, has been made partner at the company, joining Niv Fichman, Daniel Iron, Sheena Macdonald, Larry Weinstein and Barbara Willis Sweete….

The scale of digital special F/X produced by Montreal’s BIG BANG FX/Animation for the new live-action family series The Neverending Story may accurately be described as fantastic, with as many as 250 to 300 F/X shots in the first nine (of 13) episodes alone.
F/X on the show include ‘complete virtual cities ready to be used from any angle – cityscapes in which we can actually land a plane,’ says series F/X producer and BIG BANG president Mario Rachiele.
Rachiele calls F/X such as The Neverending Story’s cityscapes ‘amortized effects, because it takes four months to build, but once it’s built it can be used throughout the series.’

Canadian animators claimed major awards at this year’s International Animated Film Festival in France. The celebrated festival, held in Annecy, a fairy tale town near Geneva, June 4-9, saw big showings for two NFB shorts: Paul Driessen’s The Boy Who Saw…