Industry players continue to disagree on how best to boost domestic TV drama

The CRTC faces a regulatory morass in fixing Canada’s TV drama problem as the major broadcast industry players clash on how to fix the system. The commission’s job looks to be a mission impossible as it struggles with disagreement over what should be considered TV drama, how to fund it (see article in this issue), where it belongs on the schedule, how it should be promoted, and whether there should be a "carrot or stick" approach to ensuring it gets produced. Further, there is also no consensus on which "carrot" or which "stick" initiatives would be most effective. As noted in several interventions filed with the CRTC by the November 28 deadline in its written proceeding on how to ensure that Canadian TV drama gets produced and watched, the problem is further complicated since the regulator has no control over many aspects of the complex system (CCR, Sept. 18/03). It has no say in how much government funding goes into the Canadian Television Fund (CTF), for example, or how that money is administered. On what should qualify as drama, it is not surprising that the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) is calling for as broad a definition as possible. "It is important that the commission retain its own broad definition of drama, and not seek to define it more narrowly. Canadian drama is much broader than just 22-episode, CTF-financed, high-risk drama," reads the CAB submission. "Canadian viewers are interested in exploring new formats, wherever they can find them (whether it be pay and specialty as well as conventional stations). The success of non-traditional drama productions and formats like MOWs (movies of the week), long-form and miniseries provide evidence of this." The Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA) concurs. "You really want to broadly define drama, because clearly if we look at where the younger demographic is going today, with the way they multitask and absorb a lot of narratives at the same time, the importance of storytelling maybe isn’t necessarily the hour-long dramatic production," acting CCTA president Michael Hennessy tells Canadian Communications Reports. "We shouldn’t try to narrowly define what the product is or it will be that much more difficult to obtain the audience objectives." The CAB notes that broadcasters are likely to feel more "audacious" about non-traditional drama production because of the lower risk level, and that low-budget drama can help entry-level talent gain national exposure, which could drive a star system. The CAB’s submission points to Showcase’s Trailer Park Boys and Global Television Network’s Train 48 as examples. But the Coalition of Canadian Audio-visual Unions (CCAU) - which includes the Directors Guild of Canada; the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA); the Writers’ Guild of Canada; and others - states that it is "concerned about the type of Canadian dramatic programs being made." While recognizing that there is a place for a broad range of Canadian drama including low cost, medium cost and high cost, the CCAU contends that the networks should not be allowed to focus their support only on low cost drama. The CCAU brief states that Global is showing far less drama than CTV Inc. or the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) and that it has generally opted for the cheapest type of drama and has garnered lower ratings as a result. It notes that Train 48 has been a ratings disappointment, drawing only 23,000 viewers (2+) per episode in the Toronto area over the six-week period from Sept. 29 to Nov. 7, 2003. On the other hand, Degrassi: The Next Generation had an average Toronto audience of 176,000 viewers per episode over the same period. It further notes that while CTV paid three times in licence fees for each Degrassi episode than what Global paid per episode for Train 48, Degrassi attracted seven times the audience. The Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA) states that stand-up comedy and improvisation, currently included in Category 7 with drama, should be excluded from the definition. The CBC notes that the focus on higher audiences may be a good way to motivate drama production by the private networks, but complains that the incentives mentioned in the Trina McQueen report (CCR, June 5/03) are not applicable to the public broadcaster. The CBC writes that the CRTC must ensure that room remains for programs that are culturally significant. As a public broadcaster, it sees its mandate as leaning more toward cultural and educational components. The CBC further states in its submission that the definition of a drama program must explicitly exclude programs such as reality television productions. Reality television, the CBC argues, is not necessarily a cornerstone of Canadian society and that as a format-based production, proceeds often flow out of the country. Ian Morrison, spokesperson of Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, tells CCR that Canadian Idol cost about $300,000 per episode to produce, and a substantial portion of that amount was a payment to the overseas company licensing the format. "As the definition (of drama) constitutes a huge grab bag, the commission should ensure that high-quality story-telling with a long shelf life takes priority over genres such as reality and stand-up (comedy)," Friends says in its submission. While advocating more of a "stick" approach (increased regulation) to getting more drama on the private networks, the CCAU notes that it isn’t against offering "carrots" to the broadcasters. It sees merit in McQueen’s proposal to increase the amount of advertising minutes from 12 to 13 per hour for every hour of distinctly Canadian TV drama for which broadcasters have paid a licence fee of $200,000 or more per hour. CHUM Ltd. denounces this suggested incentive in its submission to the CRTC. It states that advertisers will increase advertising buys during broadcasts of the most popular U.S. programming and decrease the commercial dollars available for spot buys, specialty services and smaller multi-station groups, such as CHUM. It also notes that the approach could drive up the price of foreign acquired programming since more advertising dollars could be generated when that programming is aired. Hennessy says the cable industry is resisting an industry movement that is calling for the overpayment in Part II licence fees to be diverted to funding Canadian content, rather than going to general government revenues as is currently the case. He says that the Part II licence fee overpayment made by cablecos should go toward financing the conversion to digital from analog. "What is critical for us now is to develop the platforms necessary to deliver the services of the future - the VOD platform, the high-definition platform, interactive platforms - all of which will contribute to the success of the Canadian broadcasting system," he notes. "We’re not going to make the digital tradition happen if we’re taxed on something other than expanding that." The CCAU, Friends and the CFTPA also call for the regulator to ensure that Canadian TV drama is given a more prominent place in private broadcasters’ schedules. The CFTPA wants the designation of prime time to change from the current 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. to 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friends suggests that the CRTC require conventional broadcasters to air two of their total hours of Canadian drama between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. from Monday to Wednesday, and to announce the time slots of their Canadian drama at the same time as they present their U.S. programming to advertisers. The Monday to Wednesday scheduling "would avoid putting these drama hours up against the very strongest U.S. simulcasts (Thursdays) or ghettoizing it when available audiences are lower (Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays)," Friends notes. But Peter Miller, CHUM’s VP of business and regulatory affairs, replies, "That’s getting into a level of detail that doesn’t make sense." In contrast, the CAB is calling on the CRTC to recognize that "while prime time is extremely important, there is also room for good drama during other periods of the broadcast day."

Industry players continue to disagree on how best to boost domestic TV drama

News | 12/10/2003 5:00 am EST

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Reuse & Permissions

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us