TORONTO – While broadcasters and TV distributors fight it out over fee-for-carriage, ACTRA is calling on them both to commit to supporting Canadian programming.
Noting that private broadcasters spent $740 million on U.S. and foreign programming versus $54 million on Canadian English-language drama last year, the performers’ union said that private broadcasters and BDUs should reverse this trend “by giving more back to the system without passing the buck on to Canadians”.
"Performers will support fee-for-carriage if broadcasters commit to putting the money back into producing Canadian programming”, said national executive director Stephen Waddell, in a statement. “We agree that cable companies can and should contribute more to the system but we can’t support a new form of revenue for broadcasters if they’re just going to take the bag of money and spend it all in Hollywood."
ACTRA said it will also urge the CRTC to impose spending and content requirements for Canadian drama on broadcasters.
ACTRA is a national organization representing 21,000 professional performers working in the English-language recorded media in Canada.
