"Around the world, one of the first questions a Canadian selling a product will hear is, `Who is buying it in the United States?' " says Robert Morrice, senior manager, entertainment software, Royal Bank of Canada.

Programs can be financed without the u.s. sale, but it remains the favored "seal of approval" almost everywhere in the world.

In dollar terms, the u.s. market represents anywhere from 40% to 60% of a program's worldwide potential and, like it or not, our European coproduction partners often see Canada as an opening round conduit to the u.s.

Ted Riley, president of Atlantis Releasing, says distribution is playing an ever greater role in program financing.

With the decline of Canadian incentives, Riley says revenues from the u.s. syndication market are essential to new shows like Psi Factor and Sinbad. "Presale financing is typically better than coproduction financing because it is straight revenue and not investment," says Riley.

Filmline International president Nicolas Clermont says virtually no one outside the major film studios can produce without international cofinancing.

Clermont says the classical approach uses the treaty coproductions, but the alternative, which works well for many Filmline projects, is "to have privileged relationships with partners in key territories."

For Clermont (Silent Trigger, Rainbow), the American market is the kingpin.

"The secret for me is to have a certain amount of the budget covered with a u.s. deal, in tv or feature films. Every time you are able to generate between 30% and 50% of your budget in the u.s. you may be certain your project will be profitable. Sometimes you start with that (the u.s. sale), sometimes you finish with that, each project has a different (more European, or more North American) life."

The brass ring

Says Morrice: "If you can say you are on network tv in the States, or a major studio is opening your feature film, it adds tremendous value. Obviously, there are very few Canadians dealing with thisbut that really is the brass ring."

That's not to say hbo and Showtime pictures do not command good prices in foreign markets, they do, he adds.

According to Riley, "Germany is the hottest market in the world right now (and) the British market is heating up somewhat. The Italian market should heat up now that there has been an election. But there is still a problem in the French market (lack of available series slots and language rule restrictions for coproduction).

"But the main coproduction partners for Canadians continue to be the Americans," he says.

TV movies

On the world stage, Canadian companies increasingly face off against consolidated media giants.

This reality no doubt was a motivator for Atlantis to sign a partnership agreement with a leading German distributor/broadcaster. The new match gives the partners added leverage in Hollywood, says Riley.

Atlantis and Tele-munchen Gruppe will invest in the acquisition of third-party tv movies, with the big German outfit investing in Atlantis fare as well. And because the two companies share the risk, they also share the up side, says Riley.