V I D E O • A G E Se p t e m b e r/ Oc t o b e r 2 0 0 9 6 CTV Exits NHL For Cash CTVglobe, the parent company of CTV, one of Canada’s largest TV groups, sold its remaining 7.7 percent stake of the National Hockey League’s Toronto Maple Leaves conglomerate (MLSE) for an estimated C$100 million. CTVglobe will use the proceeds from this latest sale to pay down debt associated with its C$1.4 billion acquisition of CHUM Ltd. three years ago. This is CTV’s second divestment. Last December, the company sold its first stake in MLSE for C$90 million. CTVglobe’s investment had originally been part of a media strategy to match sports franchises with cable channels like Leafs TV and TSN. However, the benefits of a media company owning minority stake in a sports franchise never materialized. MLSE is a sports conglomerate that not only owns the Maple Leafs franchise, but the National Basketball Association’s Toronto Raptors, the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, and some other smaller sports franchises as well. L.A. ITV Fest Celebrated Web The Los Angeles’ Independent Television Festival (ITVF) has discovered the Web. In its fourth year, ITVF took place over seven days in early August at Laemmle’s Sunset 5 Theater, and was attended by a few thousand people. ITVF is organized by ITV, a non-profit organization “with the mission of providing opportunities to people with television industry aspirations.” ITVF received pilot submissions from around the world. The official selections were then screened in front of a live audience. As in past editions, ITVF featured a mix of panels and awards, focused on independent television pilots, web series, and mobile programming. Panels included a “How to Pitch” session helmed by SyFy’s (formerly Sci-Fi) director of Alternative Programming, Damona Resnick-Hoffman, and “Developing for the Web” with Fox’s digital arm 15 Gigs’ director of Programming Ilsa Berg and MyDamnChannel.com’s Warren Chao. Actor Kevin Pollak screened his online talk show Kevin Pollak’s Chat Showafter sitting for a podcast Q&A with the crowd. Merrime.com, produced by Red Ladders Entertainment, won Best Comedy; Barry Gribble’s Dogwon Best TV Series and Darryl Carlton’s Oz Girl won Best Web Series at the ITVF’s Awards Show. Past winners at ITVFest have gone on to secure development deals with NBC and Starz and representation from United Talent Agency and the management/production company, 3 Arts. ( Sara Rinde ) China To Free Foreign Rights The U.S. government successfully argued that certain Chinese laws and regulations were violations of World Trade Organization (WTO) trading rights obligations. The Chinese laws, which reserved the rights to import films for theatrical release and audiovisual home entertainment for wholly or partially state-owned enterprises, have now been revised to permit certain goods (such as DVDs) to be imported into China by foreign enterprises on the same basis as Chinese companies. China has confirmed that non-state controlled Chinese entities may also apply for permits to import and distribute nonChinese theatrical films. “[This revision] is important progress in the effort by independent film and television producers and distributors to gain better access to the Chinese marketplace,” said Jean M. Prewitt, president and CEO of the Los Angeles, California-based Independent Film and Television Alliance (IFTA). “[The WTO panel’s] findings and the anticipated changes to Chinese law and practices will create new distribution opportunities for independent films and television programming. We also firmly believe that China will benefit from increased investment in its distribution infrastructure and enjoy a wider range of entertainment programming resulting from a more competitive and open marketplace.” Earlier this year, another WTO panel completed its work on a separate case brought by the U.S. against China, which involved intellectual property rights, and included a ruling that China must revise its copyright law to extend protection to pre-censored audio-visual works in order to comply with TRIPS (Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights). (Continued on Page 8) (Continued from Page 4) Now 91 episodes available (to be continued)/27‘ each The Peppercorns children‘s detective series Please see us at Stand no. 20.01
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