Concerted industry effort needed to overcome drama shortage: McQueen

Trina McQueen, the broadcast veteran hired to assist the CRTC in getting more Canadian drama produced and watched, doesn’t see the matter as a new issue. A 23% decline in spending on English-language fiction programming in the 12 months ended in March 2002 from the same period a year earlier was the figure bantered around last week as a sign that drama has recently become an endangered species on Canadian television. But in McQueen’s books, the problem of Canadian drama not receiving its due is one that has been around for a while, and one that will take time to rectify. "I don’t see a new crisis. I see the same old crisis. We’ve never ever had a golden time in Canadian drama. We’ve always been struggling with it," she tells Canadian Communications Reports. "Yet we’ve managed to bring documentaries up to a state where it’s a healthy part of the industry. Children’s programming has some trouble, but generally it is available for Canadians in good measure, and we do Canadian news and sports well. The kind of thing that sticks out like a sore thumb is Canadian drama. I see this as...the last big problem that the Canadian system has to solve. If you look across a five-year term, you don’t see a huge drop in the number of drama hours. I see relative stability in those numbers…it’s a problem that has been going on for 50 years." The 23% decrease in spending on English-language fiction programming is the figure included in the overview section of Profile 2003, the state of the film and television industry in Canada report prepared by Nordicity Group Ltd. and released February 6 at the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA) conference in Ottawa. When French-language production is included, fiction production certified by the Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office (CAVCO) declined 13% to $1.1 billion, according to the report. Fiction programming includes both drama and comedy shows. Citing different data contained in Profile 2003, McQueen points out that the number of hours of drama supported by the Canadian Television Fund (CTF) hasn’t changed drastically over the past five years. It’s also important to note that those productions with higher Canadian content elements have increased, which indicates a decline in more industrial productions, she says. Profile 2003 reveals that the number of hours of CTF-supported fiction programming declined to 624 in 2001-2002 from 631 in 2000-2001. The latest figure is still above the 600 hours of fiction programming supported by the fund in 1998-1999. McQueen adds that it will take the collective efforts of all stakeholders – from the unions to independent producers to public and private broadcasters to financial backers, both public and private – to ensure that more English-language drama is produced and seen by more Canadians. And it will take time. "You can’t rectify a problem that has been going on since television started in two years or six months. And there has to be a long-term, ongoing commitment that (improving drama) is something that we need to do," she states. "There’s a taste for Canadian drama and if we’re not supplying it, I don’t think we can say that we’re in accordance with the Broadcasting Act." McQueen believes the higher costs of financing drama, its limited shelf space, and competition from high-quality U.S. shows are hampering the advancement of Canadian drama. Need to work together She laments the fact that the various segments of the broadcast industry haven’t been able to put aside their personal agendas to work together for the betterment of the genre. One example of those interests at work was a biting exchange between Joanne Levy of Craig Broadcast Systems Inc. and Maureen Parker, executive director and CEO of the Writers Guild of Canada, during a CFTPA conference session on what ails Canadian drama. In a question and answer session, Levy rose and tersely asked for more flexibility on the part of the unions regarding fees to allow for the creation of lower-budget drama. "I’m quite frankly pretty fed up with having everything come our way, asking us to be flexible," she commented. But Parker retorted, "I think our collective agreements are incredibly flexible, Joanne. I don’t actually recall you actually using them, so I’m not sure how much original programming you’re contracting. But when you look at our rates and conditions, they are geared to budget." Possible solutions for boosting drama, particularly in English Canada, suggested by the panel of nine ran the gamut. Loren Mawhinney, VP of Canadian production at Global Television Network, sees nothing wrong with sticking with reality-based programming, which is cheaper to produce, but has garnered good ratings. It is the number of people who are watching the programming, not the amount of drama that is produced, that is important, she suggested. Norm Bolen, executive VP of programming at Alliance Atlantis Broadcasting Inc., suggested that specialty networks in an environment of fragmenting audiences have a bigger role to play. "We should loosen up the regulatory environment to allow specialty channels that now do not have drama in their genre category to produce original Canadian drama," he said. "If you look at Showcase that plays all-Canadian drama in second window, these programs are getting surprisingly large audiences on subsequent play, and that’s encouraging," he noted. Showcase has recently applied for a licence amendment that would allow it to broadcast first-run shows produced by its shareholder Alliance Atlantis. (see news brief in Short Takes). Some other panelists, such as producer Laszlo Barna, president of Barna-Alper Productions, suggested that it is too hard for producers to create Canadian drama that can compete with Hollywood studio fare backed by multi-million-dollar per episode budgets. That’s a sentiment in tune with the thoughts of Telefilm Canada executive director Richard Stursberg, who has advocated a move away from tonnage (CCR, Nov. 22/02). But Ivan Reitman, Hollywood producer/director and keynote speaker at the CFTPA conference, doesn’t agree that it’s a question of money. "I think that there’s always room for an original idea that’s effectively presented," he tells CCR. In his address, he urged producers not to get too caught up in Canadian content points, but to push ahead instead with original ideas (see Newsmaker). McQueen is due to have a draft of her report on Canadian drama to the CRTC by March 31. At this point and with still many groups to meet, she is moving toward recommendations calling for a united effort by all stakeholders. But as the diverse opinions expressed at the CFTPA conference illustrate, the industry has a long way to go to reach consensus on how to move forward in tandem to give Canadian drama a real push.

Concerted industry effort needed to overcome drama shortage: McQueen

News | 02/13/2003 5:00 am EST

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