TORONTO – While it sits tight, wondering when the federal government might issue its edict on how the Canadian Television Fund might be changed, the organization released its annual report today showing just how much work it did during its most recent fiscal year.
This year, the annual report features more extensive trending data, including five-year trends of some funding results and three-year trends of Canadian audience viewing data.
"During the 2007-2008 fiscal year, the CTF supported numerous successful, popular, and critically acclaimed productions," said CTF president, Valerie Creighton, in a press release. "Shows such as Degrassi: The Next Generation, Mega Builders, Carl Squared, Providence, and Les Lavigueur, la vraie histoire are entertaining Canadian audiences and are receiving numerous awards, high ratings, and international sales successes. "
Highlights of the annual report include:
* 466 production and 354 development projects were funded, creating almost 2,200 hours of new Canadian programming, with over $242 million in production funding and almost $9 million in development funding;
* CTF-funded shows garnered 426 nominations and 94 wins at the 2007 Gemini Awards and Prix Gémeaux.
* Peak-hour viewing to English shows originating in Canada has grown by five percentage points since 2004-2005.
* Almost two-thirds of full-day and peak-hour viewing to French shows was to Canadian programming.
* The ratio of non-regional to regional English producing funding remained roughly 60:40 across genres.
* More than 9% of total English and French CTF funds were committed to minority official-language productions.
* A Production Incentive pilot program was launched to balance the cross-country distribution of financial support to English productions where volumes have declined significantly.
* A Digital Media pilot program was developed to build Canadian presence on new platforms and enhance audience experiences.
* Phase two of the CTF’s Guidelines review introduced greater flexibility into CTF policies (phase one was conducted in 2006-2007).
* Administration expenses were 4.7% of revenues, which is significantly lower than the 6% maximum allowed
