CBC Sells Catalogue of Programs to UK Company

by Jarrett Martineau | January 9, 2008 at 11:15 am

455 views | 0 Recommendations | 0 comments

The CBC is coming under attack for selling off rights to several of its programs without fully disclosing details of the transaction or the bidding process that led to the sale.

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.

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.