CALGARY – In case anyone was wondering whether or not Shaw Communications was prepared to soften its stance on paying into the Canadian Television Fund, a press release this afternoon put any such thoughts to rest.
"Shaw Communications today announced its conclusion that the Canadian Television Fund ("CTF") is simply the wrong way to support the production and exhibition of high quality Canadian programming," says the release.
"The CTF is broken and cannot be fixed" said Jim Shaw, CEO. "Our customers pay for the CTF through their taxes and subscription fees. We would prefer to return the money to our customers, rather than continue funding an entity that has no accountability and is clearly failing to achieve its objective of creating high quality Canadian programming."
Shaw’s comments back up his regulatory VP Ken Stein, who told Cartt.ca last week the fund was "Dead. Done. Gone," from Shaw’s point of view, a comment which raised hackles in the House of Commons and caused hearings to be called into the fund’s future.
Shaw has determined that there are too many fundamental problems to fix the CTF, including governance, performance, the way the money is allocated through broadcaster envelopes, and the fact that CBC receives 37% of the money on top of the $1 billion it already receives from Canadian taxpayers. "We can no longer support such a wasteful and inefficient use of taxpayer and customer dollars," said Jim Shaw.
"In an intensely competitive environment, Shaw is devoted to bringing the best available choice and quality in programming to its cable and Star Choice DTH customers, including high quality Canadian programming," continues the release.
"Our customers are our top priority. It’s that simple", said the CEO. "This is not about trying to undermine Canadian programming – it’s about taking action to ensure that Canadian programming is relevant, commercially successful and market driven."
While there have been some programming success stories, the CTF’s $2.3 billion expenditure should have generated many more high quality Canadian productions, says Shaw. "This is an enormous amount of money," he added. "Unfortunately, it cannot honestly be said that Canadians have seen any return on this investment.
"The irony is that the CTF is simply a system of subsidies that lets broadcasters save on Canadian productions and spend more to purchase U.S. shows. This is just wrong," Shaw continued.
"In fact, according to CRTC data, since the inception of the CTF, spending by Canada’s private broadcasters on Canadian drama has actually decreased. They now spend more money on U.S. programming than they do on Canadian programming, and amounts spent on American programming continue to increase while expenditures on Canadian programming decrease," concludes the release.
