Groundbreaker Fund consultant defends regional requirements, clarifies focus

Andrew Cochran, the hired gun consultant to CTV Inc.’s Groundbreaker Fund, says despite industry objections to some of its guidelines, he believes a requirement to work with companies outside Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal shouldn’t be a hurdle to anybody’s participation (CNM, July 25/02). In a frank session with delegates at the International New Media Festival in P.E.I. on October 18, Cochran said he believes that the requirement to give up copyright control by big city companies is a red herring in any discussion of restructuring the fund and that companies in Canada’s largest urban centres would have to look for outside partnerships to create the innovative content CTV is seeking anyway. The Groundbreaker Fund was established as part of the BCE Inc. benefits package to acquire CTV. The $23-million, six-year fund has come under fire both for its requirement that copyright be held in the majority by regional companies and for its lack of focused criteria. While executives for the fund were recently bemoaning a lack of applicants during the recent Banff Television Festival, industry sources believe funding guidelines are to blame for the pool’s lack of impact to date. A CTV spokesperson recently told Canadian NEW MEDIA that the fund has approved development funding for five projects thus far in its short life, but questions remain about its utility. As audience members peppered Cochran with questions about the project ownership issues, he defended CTV’s position. "I frankly don’t think it’s that big a deal," he said. "I don’t know of too many teams or the content that could pull all that off in one project," he said of the cutting-edge, broad-ranging content CTV is seeking. "Copyright is really valuable where there’s a market. There is no market; you can’t exploit the copyright," he said in response to a pointed question from Snap Media VP Roma Khanna. He later added, "I hope that part of this message is not to self-select yourself out based on where you live." Cochran further clarified that the funding won’t be doled out on a straightline basis, with a given portion allocated for one year or another. Instead, he noted, the money will be used at CTV’s discretion in the amount the network believes can best bring a project to prime-time fruition. Asked by one audience member whether the amount is too small to accomplish that goal, Cochran said the fund can be used as a bargaining chip. "I think what it gets is terrific table stakes…The expectation is that this fund is going to lever even more funding." He also told delegates to the conference workshop that CTV considers the money as risk-taking funding with which CTV can gamble. He also expressed personal disappointment that industry players seem to be focusing on winning public interest funding to the detriment of experimenting with new forms of narrative. "One of the laments I have (about) where we have, as an industry, ended up – we’ve ended up being fund guideline oriented and not creative storytelling oriented." CTV continues to refuse to publicly discuss the fund or the allegations made against it that it is ineffective, but early indications from sources are that the broadcaster is not considering changes to the regional structure. CTV has attempted, however, to more clearly define the types of projects it hopes will result from the fund. As examples, Cochran cited programming he termed "organic," which allows for multiple inputs into a story, such as viewer voting. A second is "deeper"programming, which would show complementary information to a television show on the same screen. He also cited a third category, "wider" programming, which would put original narrative on another platform. Finally, CTV would be interested in projects that create a fusion of all three other types.

Groundbreaker Fund consultant defends regional requirements, clarifies focus

News | 10/30/2002 5:00 am EST

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