Private broadcasters call on federal gov’t to develop new strategy for Canadian content

The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) took its newest lobby campaign to the backroom of Canada's press corps last week in an attempt to build widespread support for a new and less intrusive regulatory regime. CAB president/CEO Michael McCabe delivered his industry's vision of how broadcasting must evolve during a breakfast speech at National Press Club on May 5. The speech put some more meat on the bone of the CAB's recently released FuturePlan report, which describes in general terms how private broadcasters plan to compensate for shrinking advertising revenues in an era where the Internet is promising new competition and new opportunities for transactional revenues. The CAB is calling for a new public policy for broadcasting, one that encourages a strong industrial base for Canadian content development. According to McCabe, achieving that goal will require the removal of restrictions that make it difficult for broadcasters to become distributors. It would also require a new content strategy, he says, that strengthens Canada's export potential for programming. "Government policy has put us in a position where we are able to contemplate playing a more substantial role in the development of Canadian content," he told journalists in Ottawa. "This next level, if you will, won't be government driven. Rather, it must be driven by the market and by private sector players." That's not to say there isn't still a role for federal funding. The CAB wants the federal government to renew its financial commitment to the Canadian Television Fund. It also wants restrictions lifted that prevent broadcasters from acting as program distributors for Telefilm Canada-funded projects. With access to both Telefilm and CTF monies - and an incentive to create Canadian programming for foreign markets - McCabe says broadcasters could inject $30 million in new financing for Canadian content productions. "We are ready and willing to increase investment in programming if we see a return for the risk that we take," he explained. "To do that, we have to remove the artificial barriers that limit our involvement as producers and distributors of projects that have government investment." The CAB is seeking a new content strategy that would see federal funds used to create Canadian programming (with longer episodes) for foreign markets. According to the new plan, federal funding would be awarded on the basis of domestic audience and foreign sales success. The end result, said McCabe, would be programming that does not follow the Anne of Green Gables format. "To think you can build an industry on that sort of programming alone, I would argue is misled," he noted. "There just isn't enough of it and we never will be able to develop enough of it to maintain a vibrant production industry in Canada. Our market is too small." Planning the transition to digital In its FuturePlan document, the CAB also calls for changes to the Copyright Act to protect broadcasters. Prompted by companies like iCraveTV, the association wants an amendment to the Act that would bar Internet broadcasters from being described as retransmitters. "Job one is to pursue an immediate change to the Copyright Act to ensure that Internet-based broadcasting is clearly understood to be a different medium, and that the copyrights of creators are fully respected," McCabe said in announcing the launch of FuturePlan on March 28. As part of the next round of copyright reform, the association also plans to ensure exclusive broadcast signal rights are more clearly protected. "We are committed to enshrining these rights in international treaties so that the Internet develops in an orderly way that encourages creators to take their products to that market," McCabe said in March.

Private broadcasters call on federal gov’t to develop new strategy for Canadian content

Broadcast | May 11, 2000

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