Anthena Georgaklis Supervisor, Original Production, TELETOON
The Canadian Market: Meet the Broadcasters
Fast Track Session 1

Athena Georgaklis is the Supervisor, Original Production for TELETOON Canada Inc., the country’s first and only 24-hour animation station, with English and French language networks. In this role, she is responsible for supervising the development and production of original programming for both the English and French networks.Since joining TELETOON in July 1997, Ms. Georgaklis has been involved in all aspects of television production. She has been instrumental in the growth and success of such series as Yakkity Yak, What’s With Andy?, Braceface, My Dad the Rock Star, and Undergrads, to name a few, and has supervised over 40 half-hour series for the network. Ms. Georgaklis is currently supervising the development and production of 15 series. Ms. Georgaklis is fluent in English and French, and has a Bachelor of Arts in Film and Communications from McGill University. She is a member of Women in Film and Television in Montreal (FCTNM) and also serves on the Board of Directors. Ms. Georgaklis is married and resides in Montreal, PQ.

1. What are your animation programming blocks and the audience demographic for each?
TELETOON programs animation for all ages. Our schedule varies from programming targeted to young children all the way to adults. Our core focus is kids aged 6-11.

2. How many hours do you program per year?
We are a 24 hour animation station, round the clock, 365 days a year.

3. How many hours of new programming do you acquired per year?
We acquire our programming in 2 ways, through our acquisitions team, who looks for ready to air animation and our original production team, who licenses original Canadian animation and participates in the development and production of programs. We are committed to developing and producing original animation for our network and so we set aside 47% of our annual revenue for this purpose. The number of new hours varies from year to year but on average we license and acquire at least 20 new titles a year.

4. Where do you generally find your new shows?
We generally find our new shows at the various markets and festivals around the world and from Canada's animation producers.

5. What are some of your recent acquisitions?
Here's a list of the Canadian series we've licensed for this fall and winter season:
Atomic Betty II (Breakthrough Films & TV), 6TEEN II (Nelvana/Fresh Animation), Carl2 (protfolion Entertainment), Class of the Titans (Studio B Productions), Delilah & Julius (Decode Entertainment & Colleidascope), Di-Gata Warriors (Nelvana), Kid Paddle II (Spectra Animation)
Planet Sketch (Decode & Aardman), Skyland (9Story Animation & Method Films), Sons of Butcher (S&S Productions), Station X (CiteAmerique), The Wrong Coast (Blueprint), Totally Spies IV, Wayside (Nelvana)

6. What kinds of shows are you currently looking for?
We look for highly entertaining shows with a strong vision and graphic style that are competitive, compelling and creative.

7. What are you NOT looking for?
We are not looking for preschool shows or educational series.

8. Have there been, or will there soon be, changes to your development/programming structure?
We are a commercial network and therefore if you are a producer, who'd like to pitch to TELETOON, take the time to explore the competitive environment in which we exist.

9. What new shows/ technologies/ approaches are you excited about?
We have a number of new shows launching this fall that we are thrilled about. Sons of Butcher and Stations X, aimed at teens, are very distinctive in their design and content, and merge animation with live action like you've never seen before. They are a must see because they take risks and succeed.

Other gems are Delilah & Julius (Decode & Colleidascope) & Carl2 (Portfolio Entertainment) which have taken flash to another level and of course Atomic Betty and 6TEEN which have wowed our audiences with a strong design quality and amazing writing and animation.

Class of the Titans (Studio B Productions) goes back to tradition with 2D animation that leaves the viewer in awe. This series promises BIG action and comedy and will premiere on TELETOON this New Year's Eve.

One of the most anticipated series coming to TELETOON in the New Year is Skyland, a motion capture series from Method Films (France) and 9Story Animation (Canada) using state of the art mo-cap technology from Canada's own Kydara. It's going to be a great year for TELETOON and for animation in Canada.