Prime Time 2009: Terms of Trade not ready for prime time

By Susan Tolusso

OTTAWA - Gordon Ritchie had a lot more success negotiating the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement than he has had trying to inch Canada’s broadcasters toward a Terms of Trade agreement with producers. Ritchie, the Canadian Film and Television Production Association’s (CFTPA) principal advisor as it seeks an agreement on the terms under which producers sell content to broadcasters, was a panelist discussing the state of the negotiations at the CFTPA’s annual conference this week in the nation’s capital. He says he’s been “surprised and disappointed” by the months of stagnant talks. “Absolutely nothing has been agreed at the bargaining table.”...