Next month Insight Film & Video and Shavick Entertainment head into production on Young Blades, described as a next generation of Musketeers set in 17th century Paris. Karen Cliche (Mutant X) stars as a woman posing as a man among the new group of swordsmen. The 22 hours will air on CHUM in Canada some time in Fall 2005 and PAX TV in the U.S. The per-episode budget is in the $1-million range.
The two prodcos are also working on another CHUM project, a $1.6-million MOW. Fatal Reunion, a thriller about marriage and fidelity, stars Calgary resident Erika Eleniak (Baywatch) and Canadian David Millbern (Zolar).
Courtesy sister pub Playback, October 25 2004

St. John’s-based Pope Productions and Toronto’s Shaftesbury Films are now shooting a new half-hour comedy series for Family Channel. Production of 13 eps of Life With Derek wraps Dec. 1.
The series is about two brothers, aged 10 and 15, battling for power after their father remarries, forcing them, their young sister and two teen stepsisters to form an instant family.

Above and Beyond, a $9-million CBC miniseries, will start shooting in the new year. Originally intended to be six hours, the story about one of Canada’s unsung contributions to World War II has been revamped as a four-hour mini. The story focuses on Newfoundland’s Gander Airport, then the largest airfield in the world, and the ‘suicide missions’ that left there to bring much-needed bombers and fighters to Great Britain across the stormy North Atlantic. Copro partners are Pope Productions and Shaftesbury Films.
In addition, CBC is backing the series Atlantic Sound, eight one-hours, which draw on the striking similarities between Newfoundland and Ireland. The dramatic series is about a small radio station in an island community and will start shooting at the end of 2005. Pope is producing with Ireland-based Grand Pictures. Pope’s daytime soap-opera pitch Changing Tides has also been selected as one of 12 finalists in CBC’s countrywide competition. Changing Tides is about a Toronto business that comes to rural Newfoundland set on making big profits.

Television (Specialty) – 4.5 out of 5
Both English and French specialties are having a killer fall season and doing well according to buyers surveyed by Media in Canada. Avails for the most desirable channels are tight right up to December.

It’s been a little more than a month since the fall TV season took off in full swing and speaking with media experts, MIC thought it’d be a good time to determine which Canadian net is winning the all-important Thursday night race.

Le Réseau des sports (RDS) is launching a new all sports news and information service Le Réseau Info-Sports (RIS), tonight at 7 p.m. RIS will broadcast sports news bulletins in 30-minute loops that are updated continuously and coverage will include international, national and regional professional and amateur sports. Luc Bellemare, Yannick Bouchard, Stéphane Langdeau and Patrick Mahoney will be the featured anchors on this new sports news service.

New research from Decima’s The Digital Domain: Tracking the Growth and Development of the Canadian Digital TV Distribution Market found the number of Canadian households subscribing to digital TV services has bypassed the four million mark in the second quarter of 2004. In households that subscribe to a TV service, roughly four in 10 now receive a digital TV service (digital cable or satellite TV) in comparison to analog cable.
The report also found that Canada’s TV service providers added roughly the same net digital TV subscribers in Q2 of 2004 compared to the same period last year and the number of Canadian households increased their digital TV subscription services by an estimated 3% (or 110,526) in Q2 (February/March 2004 to May/June 2004), compared to an estimated 3 % (or 113,429) the previous year (February/March 2003 to May/June 2003).

CBC’s premiere episode of The Greatest Canadian, which counts down the 50 top greatest Canadians, grabbed an audience of 1.115 million viewers across Canada on Sunday night. The series continued on Monday night (at 8 p.m.) with their first one-hour documentary episode feature of Tommy Douglas, presented by advocate George Stroumboulopoulos.
http://www.cbc.ca/greatest/

Advertising: Product Placement Moves to Cartoons (New York Times, October 21). In another conquest for product placement, a new Comedy Central cartoon for adults joins the trend.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/21/business/media/21adco.html

CBC’s 2004 Canadian Urban Music Awards has nabbed Honda as their key sponsor for the program, which is co-hosted by Master T and Jully Black with feature performances by urban artists including Jacksoul and Keshia Chante on Thursday, October 28 at 8 p.m.
As part of their sponsorship deal, Honda’s logo is featured on billboards in the broadcast as well as brand-sell spots. Ad space remains available in this hip program – geared to the 18-24 urban (or wannabe) demographic.

Hawaii is the first casualty of the 2004-05 TV season. NBC had originally announced that the hour-long series was being put on hiatus to make room for LAX but now says production on the show has ceased.
CanWest had scheduled Hawaii in simulcast with NBC on its CH nets Wednesdays at 8 p.m., but due to the cancellation will now be replaced with LAX.