International markets eyed by renamed Banff World TV Festival, says Montgomery

The annual television festival is putting more of a focus on international players, and is expanding into new program areas such as reality television, news and lifestyle programming, according to Achilles Media principal Robert Montgomery. With its new name the Banff World Television Festival, he says that the June 12-15 event will also offer more opportunities for peer-to-peer and face-to-face sessions whereby creators and broadcasters can network. "There was a view that Banff was an international event and that the name should reflect that to reaffirm its status with non-Canadians who attend, and frankly to let Canadians know that they have the important international event that happens in their backyard," states Montgomery. "The sessions this year will cover a lot of topics around funding and how producers and indeed broadcasters can look at other options to fill the void or gaps in the production funding," he noted. "And we’ll be looking at high definition in detail, and there is a tag line for the event, which is ‘Where great television is born,’ but this year’s event is focusing on ‘Tuning in the world, turning on the future.’ So we will definitely be talking about international co-production and where Canada fits in the world in that regard." He adds, "The co-production treaties that Canada has have not been as productive as in the past. We will be analyzing how to get more production, either within or without a treaty, and analyzing what the status of these co-production treaties means to broadcasters and producers in that they’re not as productive as they used to be. We’ll definitely be looking in detail at how the industry has evolved and why the decline has taken place and what’s happened in other markets that has caused that." To facilitate deal-making, Montgomery notes that a who’s who of broadcasters from around the world have been invited to the event, and that they have been asked to set aside blocks of time for Canadian broadcast players. "People will be able to pre-book meetings with key broadcasters from both Canada and around the world," he tells Canadian Communications Reports. "We have an electronic appointment system, where people will be able to request and book meetings with each other online with us as the facilitator. Everyone who is coming to Banff will have a profile, which will describe who they are and what they’re looking to accomplish…When one requests a meeting with the other, they can look at the profile to figure out: a.) if they are someone they need to meet with, and b.) if they want to take the meeting." Stressing that creative inspiration will continue to be another important aspect of the festival, Montgomery says that that master classes will be back. As well, the general sessions will be more customized to specific areas and there will be more breakfasts and lunches with decision makers. "There are more sessions than before because the whole goal of Banff is to provide great value – to offer more sessions and more networking opportunities than ever before," he says. "All the market simulations will be done by genres…Banff has traditionally been known for drama, docs and kids. We’ll be looking in more detail at reality, at formats, at lifestyle programming, at news and current affairs (programming)." To cater to emerging talent, Montgomery also says there will be "pitch this" sessions, during which new producers will be able to meet broadcasters. He adds that not a single sponsor has dropped out since last year, when Achilles stepped in to rescue the cash-strapped Banff Television Festival (CCR, April 22/04). "Indeed, we have some new sponsors coming on board," he adds. But he says that it is too early to announce any names. "The festival is such an important part of the industry here, and it’s going to be great this year, because we have so much stuff going on and it’s so oriented to getting business done and creating opportunities," he notes. "But it’s still going to maintain obviously the special environment that Banff is."

International markets eyed by renamed Banff World TV Festival, says Montgomery

News | 02/25/2005 5:00 am EST

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