CBCquietly sells off catalogue of programs to British company

This is from the Globe and Mail. I wonder if CBC has a story on this! This is another example of privatisation by stealth. This was done without any motion or even discussion at the CBC board level. It was done without even notifying other interested purchasers that the catalogue was to be sold! Someone should be sacked for this.
The article does not even discuss or even consider the possibility that the CBC should continue to distrubute the items. It gives no reason why there was a sale in the first place. It is not necessary. Privatisation is regarded somehow as a good in itself I guess! We subsidise all this stuff and then we just sell it off to let private enterprise gain any profits.

CBC quietly sells off catalogue of programs to British company
GAYLE MACDONALD

January 9, 2008

The CBC's low-profile pre-Christmas sale of its taxpayer-funded international sales catalogue to a foreign buyer is drawing the ire of some of the biggest guns in Canadian television, who question why homegrown distributors weren't invited to bid.

Even some members of the CBC board of directors privately complain they weren't properly informed of the sale of a significant chunk of the public corporation's international sales arm last month to Britain-based ContentFilm for an undisclosed sum.

"At issue is the cloak-and-dagger nature of the transaction," said Laszlo Barna, whose Toronto-based Barna-Alper Productions has co-produced series for the public broadcaster. "It makes no sense why the CBC never attempted to invite Canadian companies in particular to participate in a transparent auction of publicly owned assets. If this had been any other Crown corporation who had transferred hard assets without tender ... heads would roll."

The below-the-radar deal saw 135 titles and 700 hours of CBC's international sales catalogue, including new dramas such as The Border and Heartland, sold to ContentFilm just days before Christmas.


The CBC has released few details of the deal, which allows ContentFilm to sell the rights to the CBC shows to broadcasters around the world.

"This is a public trust that every Canadian taxpayer has contributed to in this library," veteran actor Paul Gross said. "The fact that it appears to have been sold with absolutely no open bidding, discussion, or presentation to the public is bizarre. This is a question of national ownership. What's up for grabs next? Algonquin Park? PEI?"

While CBC board members would not return calls yesterday, several sources in the CBC's directorial ranks say they had no knowledge of the negotiations between ContentFilm and the CBC. Nor did they approve the deal. Two board members have confirmed they had no clue the deal had been cut until they saw a brief press release about it that was issued just after the sale.

Yesterday, Steve Billinger, executive director of CBC's digital programming and business development, disputed the assertion that the board was kept in the dark. "The board was informed that we were in discussions with them. I don't know if they gave a stamp of approval to the deal ... but we're proceeding with it, so ..."

Asked why no other players were informed the asset was on the block, he said: "There are no other substantive Canadian distributors who would have been interested in these titles."

Robert Lantos, the Toronto film producer and part-owner of Toronto distributor Oasis International, said yesterday he would have jumped at the opportunity.

"It should have been a transparent process whereby the highest bidder takes it," said the founder of boutique movie house Serendipity Point Films.

"There is no way to know how good or how bad the deal is without disclosure. But I can't imagine any reason why they wouldn't want to sell it to the highest bidder. This is an asset that was 100-per-cent taxpayer financed. As a former CBC director, it seems to me this should have been a matter for board approval, scrutiny and full disclosure."

Distribution newcomer Entertainment One, based in Toronto, said it also would have considered buying the international sales catalogue.

Two days after the deal was struck, ContentFilm issued a news release saying Toronto-based Peace Arch Entertainment was buying ContentFilm, majority owned by U.S. multimillionaire Jeff Sagansky.

Mr. Sagansky is also Peace Arch's interim chief executive officer since its former CEO, Gary Howsam, was charged last November with seven counts of fraud in the United States. The Peace Arch acquisition is slated to close at the end of March.

Several industry sources note that Fred Fuchs - CBC's executive director of arts and entertainment programming, who they say played a significant part in this deal - was a senior vice-president at Peace Arch before joining the CBC in April, 2006.

Mr. Billinger denied that Mr. Fuchs smoothed the way for the transaction. "I run the business. It was my deal. International sales report through me."

Mr. Fuchs declined to comment last night.

Mr. Barna says it makes sense for CBC to get out of international sales since that is not its core business, and is an area that could likely be better handled by a seasoned distributor. "But that's not the issue. It's accountability that's off kilter here.

"I have the greatest respect for the CBC's mandate to make the institution and its programming stronger. But not in transactions that don't stand up to public scrutiny. This is fundamentally wrong."