Over $100,000 in Pitching Prizes at Banff World Television Festival

TORONTO, March 26: Over
$100,000 in development money and a host of new, internationally-funded
pitching programs will be offered in partnership with Canadian, U.K. and U.S.
broadcasters at the 28th Banff World Television Festival (BWTVF) this year in
Banff, Canada, from June 10-June 13, including a US$10,000 prize sponsored by
The N.

Canadian partners who
continue to offer financial sponsorship of pitch programs include CTV, and the
Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund. CTV Inc. is once again sponsoring the CTV
Canadian Documart pitch, with $60,000 in development funding to be awarded to
the top three documentary pitches, while the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund
returns to present iPitch 2007 with a $10,000 development prize. The winner and
runner up of this year’s iPitch will also win scholarships and tuition to the
Banff Centre’s New Media Institute’s Interactive Screen Program, valued at
$5,500.

As part of the festival’s
all-new Pitch It! program, the best pitch in the Youth Drama category will
receive a US$10,000 prize that is sponsored by the New-York based, nighttime
network for teens, the N. The winner
of the Youth Drama pitch will also receive a $5,000 motion picture film product
grant as the prize for this year’s Audience Choice Award, which is provided by
returning sponsor Kodak Canada Inc. UKTV Style, one of multi-channel provider
UKTV’s 10 channels, will sponsor the £5,000 cash development prize for the best
pitch in the Pitch It! Lifestyle category, and the best pitch in the Comedy
category will receive a $10,000 prize that is sponsored by CTV Inc.’s Comedy
Network in Canada. For the first time, the U.S. network fox 21 is also offering
a development deal, for the winner of its reality pitch.

In addition, selected
pitch finalists will have the opportunity to turn their concepts into
productions when they pitch their ideas to commissioning editors before a live
audience in a career-making moment.

“Banff is excited that so
many high-profile broadcasters have come onboard to support our pitch
competition,” commented Jennifer Harkness, BWTVF’s director of content.