TORONTO and MONTREAL – A group of broadcasters along with the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) have filed a complaint against the Bell Fund pertaining to the guidelines of its new TV Program and the composition of its Board of Directors.
A not-for-profit organization founded in 1997, the Bell Fund invests in Canadian digital media and TV content and is certified by the CRTC as an independent production fund eligible to receive and administer contributions from broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs). It receives annual contributions of approximately $17 million from Bell TV as part of its BDU contributions.
Blue Ant Media, CBC/Radio-Canada, the CMPA, Groupe V Média, TVO, Groupe Média TFO, OUTtv, Télé-Québec and TV5/Unis TV allege that the Fund’s process for determining which productions are funded under its new TV Program does not meet the CRTC's requirements of Certified Independent Production Funds (CIPFs).
“Our concerns relate to the TV Program’s process for allocating funding in a manner that favours large broadcast groups, including Bell Media, as well as the two tiered evaluation process for project applications”, reads the joint letter, addressed to CRTC secretary general Claude Doucet.
“While the TV Program rules provide that the allocation formula is based on broadcasters’ 2016 CPE (Canadian programming expenditures), our review of CRTC data demonstrates that the broadcaster funding allocations do not accurately reflect the actual share of spending on Canadian programming by ownership group overall or in their respective language market”, the letter continues. “On the contrary… the effect of the Bell Fund approach is to reserve 65% of the TV Program funding to three broadcaster groups (Bell Media, Corus and Quebecor Media) who represent only 57% of the total eligible CPE in 2016. Consequently, the Bell Fund envelope structure on its face constitutes a case of preferential treatment for these broadcast groups.”
Noting that the majority of funding from the Bell Fund will ultimately flow to independent producers, “it is critical that some broadcasters are not favoured over others due to actual or perceived conflicts of interest in the application process to the Bell Fund”, adds the letter.
The groups also claim that the Bell Fund’s current Board of Directors does not meet the requirement that at least two thirds of the members be independent, as per the CRTC’s CIPF Policy. The letter says that the Board consists of eight members, of which five are independent, meaning that independent Board members represent 62.5% (less than two-thirds) of its members.
The letter asks the Commission to deal with the complaints on an expedited basis given that the Bell Fund's TV Program will start releasing funds on June 4, 2018.
