Unions call for CRTC to force broadcasters to air 2 hours of drama during peak hours

A coalition of audio-visual unions is calling for regulation that would force broadcasters to air at least two hours of original, non-industrial Canadian drama a week during prime time. The recommendation is aimed at rectifying what the unions say is a dramatic decline in drama, caused in part by the implementation of the CRTC's 1998 TV policy. Pamela Brand, national executive director of the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC), which is part of the coalition, says such a requirement would result in 104 hours of drama being produced annually by each broadcaster or major station group. "It could be a mix of series, mini-series, movies of the week, and that would go a long way toward stemming the problem almost immediately," she tells Canadian Communications Reports. "We feel that that recommendation could be put in place by September of this year." The recommendation is contained in a report entitled The Crisis in Canadian English-language Drama, which was commissioned by the unions and publicly released last week (CCR Update, March 19/03). The unions say they have been working on the report for about a year and a half. Brand notes that the release of the report is just the first phase of a drive to focus attention on a shortage of Canadian drama on television. "We now intend to work very closely with Mr. (Charles) Dalfen from the CRTC. …The solutions are there, and we hope efforts by the entire industry within this year and next year will make a difference," she adds. Stephen Waddell, the national executive director of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) - another union involved in putting the report together - calls the report balanced. He points out that while the report asks broadcasters to commit to more 10-point Canadian drama during prime time, it is also willing to allow them to air a half hour more a week of high-end American programming. The report recommends that the 150% credit in priority programming for 10-point drama be applied not only to the eight hours per week of Canadian programming that must be aired during prime time, but also to the 50% Canadian content requirement for evening hours. "The effect of this would be to allow an extra half hour per week of U.S. simulcast programming to be broadcast for every new 10-point Canadian drama program that is run in prime-time that week. This is a major financial incentive for broadcasters to commission 10-point Canadian drama," the report states. Brand takes note of the report's assertion that Australia and European countries have turned the tide on drama by imposing quotas and increasing broadcaster licence fees paid for indigenous drama. "I think we have to do exactly what they've done in Australia and what they've done in Europe," she says. "A few years ago, Europe and Australia had exactly the same problem that we have in Canada. They were overrun by the big popular American shows, and what they did was increase quotas and licence fees for their indigenous drama. As a result of the quota system, local drama in all of the European countries - France, Spain, Germany, U.K., Italy - increased. Now, in Germany, ten out of ten of their most popular shows are German, and it's the same in the other European countries. In Australia, five out of the top ten shows are Australian. And that's been a direct result of the support for their own indigenous drama - support through higher broadcaster licence fees by broadcasters, greater support from their government, and also focusing on drama rather than just news, sports and other genres." The unions contend that drama has taken a massive hit in Canada since the implementation of the CRTC's 1998 TV policy. It replaced Canadian programming expenditures for large conventional television broadcast groups with a requirement that eight hours of Canadian priority programming be aired a week during prime time. Broadcasters were given more flexibility with the policy, which broadened the definition of priority programming to include such genres as documentaries and regional shows (but not local news), and extended peak viewing hours by an hour. The report has been submitted to broadcast veteran Trina McQueen, who was hired last year by the CRTC to produce a report with recommendations to increase the amount of Canadian drama produced and watched. While McQueen contends that the shortage of Canadian drama on television is a longstanding problem (CCR, Feb. 13/03), the unions say there has been a definite decline. "Clearly, there has never been a boom in Canadian drama. However, there have been better days. And that's what we're concerned about," Waddell tells CCR. "We've left a period - principally in the 1980s and 1990s - when there were expenditure requirements, which did mean that there was production of hour-long dramas." Brand says that there were 12 Canadian drama series produced two and a half years ago, but that number has fallen to just four series today. Private broadcasters are expected to oppose the recommendation that at least two hours of prime time per week be devoted to original Canadian drama, which is more expensive to acquire than U.S. programming and commands fewer advertising dollars. Such a recommendation would, however, give the broadcasters a reason to push ahead in the area of drama with a model that they have been advocating. The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) has said that a new business model focused on Canadian content is crucial for the survival of Canadian broadcasting in the digital age (CCR, Nov. 9/01, Oct. 26/01). The CAB has referred to the model whereby broadcasters acquire money-making U.S. content and use it to subsidize money-losing Canadian content as a recipe for extinction. The CAB declined to provide any comments on the report. Elizabeth McDonald, president and CEO of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA), welcomes the report, but notes that the recently announced $25-million cut in federal government funding for the Canadian Television Fund (CTF) will make it more difficult to produce more Canadian drama (CCR, Feb. 28/03). "I think it is an excellent report," McDonald tells CCR. "What it absolutely underlines is that issues that we raised when the (1998 TV policy) decision came out are turning out to be true. I think one of the things that is missing that we're all going to have to deal with is the reduced Canadian Television Fund. It's not just an issue that the commission has to deal with. This is a government policy issue. What I'm concerned about is that this is going to allow broadcasters to say, 'But we can't do it, because there isn't enough money.' So we'll end up in this Catch-22 situation." The coalition of unions' report on drama does address the cut in the CTF. As a result of the lower government contribution, it recommends that contributions by distributors to the CTF be "maintained and enhanced." Waddell recognizes that the cuts to the CTF will make producing more drama that much more difficult. "Taking $25 million out (of the CTF) means that the crisis in Canadian drama is just going to get worse," he says. "I mean if they are not going to put $25 million back into it, we want to see some other actions being taken." Waddell notes that the coalition of unions and the CFTPA are lobbying toward having tax credits for Canadian productions increased to the same level as the foreign services production tax credits. In this year's federal budget, announced in February, the government increased the foreign services tax credit, while cutting its contribution to the CTF. Waddell says the groups want the tax credit for Canadian productions raised from 11% to 16%. ACTRA, DGC, the Writers Guild of Canada, the Association des réalisateurs et réalisatrices du Québec, and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada are among the unions belonging to the coalition that issued the report.

Unions call for CRTC to force broadcasters to air 2 hours of drama during peak hours

News | 03/27/2003 5:00 am EST

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