TORONTO – Consultations around the Canada Media Fund (CMF) will be ongoing forever, and any issues not captured in its inaugural guidelines could be incorporated later, Canadian Television Fund (CTF) president and CEO Valerie Creighton noted during a virtual townhall held Thursday.
The guidelines must be finalized and approved by the CMF board by April 1, the date the new fund is set to replace the CTF. The $300-million-plus CMF will have two streams – convergence (TV component with a tie-in to at least one other platform) and experimental (no TV connection needed).
Given the deadline to produce the guidelines, there will not be time “to touch on every issue,” but a list of concerns will be compiled, she stated. “The consultation process will be ongoing. We will never stop asking your advice.”
In answer to Cartt.ca’s question, she noted that “no concerns would be ignored,” but they could be delayed. She added that issues connected to the 13 key policy areas unveiled at the virtual townhall would be given priority.
The policy priorities are:
1. Allocations of money between the convergence and experimental streams.
2. Criteria for what constitutes a converged project.
3. Mechanism for making video on demand (VOD) eligible (i.e. should envelopes be created?).
4. Audience success and return on investment (i.e. How do you define return on investment and measure success?).
5. Marketing and promotion. The CMF may not have any funding for marketing, but it is considering making it a requirement to tap into the new fund.
6. Content in the convergence stream will be allocated by genre (only to priority programming, which includes drama, kids and youth, variety and performing arts and documentaries).
7. Documentary production (i.e. How do you prevent slippage to reality TV-type documentaries?).
8. Canadian elements of CMF projects.
9. Third-language production (i.e. Should this be determined though envelopes?).
10. Broadcaster-affiliated and in-house broadcaster production (i.e. What should the maximum level be and over what time period should it be phased in).
11. Performance envelopes – eligible entities (i.e. What entities should have access?)
12. Audience success and the CMF – emphasis on original, first-run, prime-time programming.
13. English regional production (i.e. Should Vancouver be considered a region?).
The priority issues were derived from three of four guiding principles developed by Canadian Heritage: Reward success and require innovation (priorities 1 to 5), Focus the investment on what Canadians want (priorities 6 to 9) and Level the playing field (priorities 10 to 13). The other directive is to get governance and accountability right – something that Creighton said was achieved at the Banff World Television Festival when the new CMF board was announced. One board member remains to be appointed; Shaw Communications has not yet name its representative.
The first round of CMF consultations kicked off with the priorities, accompanied by extensive briefing notes, being released Thursday. Other key dates:
• Deadline for written comments – September 4, 2009, with submissions being posted on the CTF website.
• Deadline for responses to written comments – September 4 to 18, 2009.
• Focus group held across the country – September 8 to November 30, 2009.
• Program guidelines issued – March 1, 2010.
• CMF launched – April 1, 2010.
The focus groups are open to anyone who wants to participate, Creighton clarified during the Q&A session. She also said they were expecting about 50 participants in small towns and hundreds in large cities. She added that they would accommodate everyone who wants to participate.
Also revealed during the Q&A were that there could be minimum budgets for new media, that caps were being contemplated for each platform to ensure an adequate volume of production, that it will take a month to get the first check in the convergence stream provided all the paperwork is in order and the broadcaster’s licence has been issued, and that related CRTC processes were being monitored and the CTF was meeting with regulatory officials.
“We will take into account what comes out of the CRTC,” Creighton noted, but added that April 1 was a tight deadline, and the CRTC may not have released all its relevant decisions by then.
Not all of the questions submitted could be addressed during the hour-long virtual townhall, but Creighton said the outstanding ones would be answered by email on an individual basis. There were a number of crazy questions, such as Can I order a cheeseburger? and Will you ever let me down?
“I’d say no,” Creighton responded to the second question to end the virtual townhall.
