GATINEAU – Protect Canadian feature films and drama, expand the reach of the Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF), and create a credit system for Canadian content were a few of the things advocated Friday during the CRTC hearings, which wrapped early.
The Canadian Association of Film Distributors and Exporters (CAFDE) urged the CRTC to ensure that more, not less, Canadian drama is commissioned under the new broadcast framework. Canada’s film industry is also in peril because not many homegrown movies are getting shown on the small screen, according to CAFDE president Ted East.
“Of all the sub-genres of drama, we believe the largest decline has been in feature films. Canadian feature films are becoming all but extinct on convention television,” he noted in his opening remarks.
CAFDE and the CFTPA are planning to jointly study the matter, and present their findings to the CRTC during the group-based license hearings next year.
East praised the CRTC for denying a request from Rogers to substitute on its Citytv stations in Toronto and Vancouver its requirement to air a minimum of 100 hours per broadcast year of Canadian long-form features during peak viewing hours with less expensive local programming.
Under questioning, he added minimum requirements on Canadian film exhibition should be extended to CTVglobemedia and Canwest Global Communications.
He explained that while television is not the main business of CAFDE, which represents Canadian owned and controlled feature film distributors, “broadcast sales are a critical component in the life of a feature film, both in terms of revenue and reaching audiences.”
The association said one solution would be to require Canadian broadcasters to match, in some fashion, their programming of non-Canadian drama with Canadian drama.
Canadian independent production and distribution company, E1 Entertainment, called for more “high-quality Canadian scripted programming, particularly drama and documentaries.” Company CEO Darren Throop requested the re-establishment of Canadian programming expenditures on over-the-air networks for this kind of programming.
E1 Entertainment supported value for signal, but said the CRTC had to ensure the money was directed to the Canadian programming that need it most, i.e. dram and docs.
The English-language Arts Network (ELAN), representing Anglophone producers in Quebec, called for the LPIF to change its definition of what constitutes an English-language minority. Under the current definition, Anglophones in Montreal are not considered a minority because anyone with a knowledge of English is considered English.
“It is also true that many people in Stockholm have a knowledge of English. And Istanbul. Using the CRTC’s definition, there is no English-language minority in Montreal. Or Stockholm. Or Istanbul,” said ELAN executive director Guy Rodgers.
ELAN asked the CRTC to change its definition under the LPIF rules so it was in harmony with definitions use by Treasury Board, Statistics Canada, Canadian Heritage, and the Official Languages Act. A definition change would then open the LPIF to English-language producers in Montreal.
Debbie Burke, of Mtroop Creative, suggested a Canadian content credit system. Under this system, broadcasters would be given a certain amount of these credits, which they would exchange for the right to air American or other foreign programming. Once they ran out of credits, they would have to purchase more if they wanted to air additional foreign programming. The money from the purchase of credits would be used to fund Canadian content.
This system, said Burke, would help change the perception that Canadian content was not valuable. She said the idea was derived from other industry, such as fishing in British Columbia. There, a similar system has been used to prevent the over-fishing of halibut, she told the CRTC.
“The credit system has successfully altered behaviour in other industries where regulation could not make an impact,” she concluded.
But just how much of an administrative headache the system would cause was made evident when CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein asked who would administer the credit system. Burke suggested the CRTC could set up a separate entity to do this.
Friday was the last day of the CRTC’s hearing on a group-based approach to the licensing of TV services and on certain issues related to conventional TV. Written final comments are due December 14th.
The next hearing, however, begins December 7, one called at the behest of Heritage Minister James Moore, on the appetite Canadians have –or don’t – for paying for broadcast TV.
If that sounds familiar, well…
