Karen Wirsig of the Canadian Media Guild (Letter to the Editor, January 30, 2007) makes several arguments that are self-serving and wrong.
1. It is untrue that the CTF was funded with money taken away from CBC/Radio-Canada. When the CTF was created, Telefilm Canada’s broadcast equity-investment fund was rolled into the new joint public-private entity. No new public money was allocated to independent production.
2. Wirsig complains that broadcasters do not qualify for CTF money to produce their own shows. It’s true, they don’t. But this does not leave broadcasters "in a serious bind," as she says. In fact, it allows broadcasters to acquire programs for a fraction of their production costs. When the CTF was set up, broadcasters continued to commission programs from independents, but were able to roll back their license fees to 15%-20% of the production’s budget, expecting the CTF and tax credits to cover much of the rest.
3. Wirsig complains that the CTF "only finances independent productions whose producers hold the program’s license, which limits a broadcaster’s ability to use the material on other platforms." Let me get this straight. Does Wirsig expect independent producers to take all the risk, produce programs for ever-smaller budgets, and then turn over all the rights to the broadcaster in exchange for 20% of the budget? Broadcasters are welcome to purchase a license for other platforms, whether a second window on the Documentary Channel or VOD, for an additional fee.
4. Wirsig makes the unbelievable claim that "broadcasters could sometimes produce a show more cost-effectively than an independent producer." This may or may not be true for in-studio talk shows, certain Alliance Atlantis design shows, and other infrastructure-heavy productions, but it is patently untrue when it comes to any productions that are eligible for CTF funds. And nowhere is it more untrue than at the CBC.
Unlike the CBC, independent production companies aren’t saddled with an ever-growing class of middle managers who contribute nothing to any actual production. Unlike the broadcasters, independent producers don’t have the option of going over budget and hiding the losses by cutting back on the photocopy budget or laying off a few publicists.
And unlike the deep-pocketed networks, if independent producers go over budget, they quickly go out business.
The Guild has been gunning for the CTF for ten years, naively hoping that if independent producers are put out of business, TV production will somehow go back in time to the 1960s, when virtually all Canadian programs were produced by salaried union members at the CBC.
If you actually believe that, you’re ready to believe that Mr. Dressup lives in your TV.
Eric Geringas
Red Herring Productions
Toronto
