EOne financing savvy a lift for TV

Unlike most Canadian imports around the Large 3, "The Firm" was skedded for any regular-season slot. HalpernMoraynissBarely three years old, the La-based TV arm of indie Entertainment You have designed a mark within the network and cable biz by getting towards the table that many precious commodity: financing.EOne Television, headed by Boss John Morayniss, harnesses its heft like a producer and distrib of film, TV and home theatre fare in Canada, the U.K. along with other areas to cobble together gold coin for TV series in the same manner that lots of indie features are funded, via a combo of foreign pre-sales and advance obligations. It mines the lucrative Canadian system of production incentives and premium license costs provided to implies that lense in Canada but additionally air on the major U.S. network.This patchwork quilt of funding sources enables the organization to provide some series to U.S. systems in a steep discount, frequently in return for large upfront obligations. Its greatest-profile series up to now continues to be the variation of John Grisham novel "The Firm," which arrived at NBC having a 22-episode order.The legal ensembler wasn't that a gamble for NBC in a license fee stated to be with $a million, under what top cablers purchase original drama skeins. Between your gold coin received from Canada's Global TV along with a large purchase to Sony's suite of AXN-top quality worldwide channels covering a lot more than 140 nations, eOne did not need a lot of money in the U.S. to pay for its costs it needed the opening to draw in title thesps (particularly Josh Lucas and Molly Parker) and to guarantee the premium license costs from the other partners. "There is a proliferation of channels which are hungry for American programming that's a particular genre and tone," Morayniss stated. "When an chance arrives obtain a top quality series like 'The Firm,' Sony's AXN arrived without the health of a U.S. purchase simply because they understood i was heavily within this market."People, "The Firm" is going to be a fascinating test situation for if the eOne model can survive the large leagues of network primetime. The Large Three happen to be experimentation with Canadian imports within the last couple of years, but many of these shows happen to be consigned to summer time runs, as ABC has been doing with eOne's cop drama "Rookie Blue.""The Firm," however, arrived a normal-season slot and was recommended at NBC's upfront presentation last May. Around the downside, "The Firm" continues to be mostly panned by domestic experts and also got off and away to an inadequate start (a 3 be part of grown ups 18-49 weak) in the two-hour premiere Sunday. It'll face tough competish in the regular Thursday 10 p.m. berth.But even when "The Firm" does not go the length, the eOne model has spurred the eye from the creative community. Indeed, it had been Grisham, scribe Lukas Reiter and the reps at CAA that introduced the project to eOne having seen what the organization tried with "Rookie Blue" and also the Syfy drama "Haven."NBC, for just one, is settling with eOne for any multi-episode resolve for another drama, medical vehicle "Saving Hope," that has additionally been purchased by Canada's CTV. Filmmaker Paul W.S. Anderson found eOne last fall having a concept for any supernatural procedural drama, "The Reel," that'll be looked overseas lengthy before it seeks a U.S. home.Timing was everything for eOne's push to construct its U.S. TV business. In fall 2008, the organization bought Blueprint Entertainment, the development shingle run by worldwide TV veterinarians Morayniss and Noreen Halpern, who's now eOne's prexy of drama programming. Morayniss and Halpern have been going after the Canadian content/foreign financing model by themselves, however the backing of eOne gave them much deeper pockets.Furthermore, eOne's rollup of Blueprint along with other TV companies came around the heels from the 2007-08 authors strike, that was the shock somewhere that spurred the main nets to search for new and cheaper causes of programming."We'd always were built with a more global approach," Halpern states. "Out of the blue that coincided with an intention within the U.S. of putting shows together in different ways -- getting financing from worldwide marketplaces, while using benefit to have the ability to bring a lot of money from Canada along with other nations in an effort to do high-finish shows for lower license costs." Contact Cynthia Littleton at cynthia.littleton@variety.com