CTF forges ahead in advance of CRTC report

Last year, the board and management of the Canadian Television Fund faced some tough questions from producers and artists at the stakeholder breakfast it hosted at the Banff World Television Festival. At this year's festival breakfast, however, it was clear that many had circled the wagons over the past year to unite in the face of external threats."It's no secret that it's been a volatile year," said CTF president Valerie Creighton at the event on June 12. "We're all awaiting the outcome of the CRTC task force."That task force - created in February after Shaw Communications Inc. and Vidéotron ltée temporarily withdrew their financial support for the CTF - is due to deliver its report in August. The group is headed by vice-chair of broadcasting Michel Arpin.Nevertheless, Creighton and board chair Douglas Barrett said they were heartened by the quick and positive action taken by allies in the federal government - including Canadian Heritage minister Bev Oda and the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage - to pressure Shaw and Videotron to restore funding in advance of the task force's findings being released.During her address opening the 2007 Banff World Television Festival, Oda said the federal government was re-examining its co-production and tax credit policies on the film and television side, and commended CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein for quickly moving to establish the CTF task force. "I look forward to the task force report and will be reviewing its findings very carefully later this summer," she said. "I'm confident that a resolution will be reached because what is clear from meetings with all stakeholders is that there is a shared responsibility to invest into the production of quality Canadian content."For the 2006-2007 period, the CTF brought in $120 million worth of revenue from Heritage, and $149.2 million from cable and DTH companies. The federal government's contribution was shaved by $15 million over those 12 months, since the CTF no longer administers projects for feature film.However, at the beginning of the year, Oda announced a $200-million contribution to the fund for 2007-2008 and 2008-2009, a slight dip from current levels. But Creighton predicted that the share of funding the CTF derives from BDUs will increase over the next year, based on the 10-year historical trend.Indeed, at the conclusion of the event, chair Doug Barrett thanked by name all the BDUs financially supporting the CTF, including Videotron and Shaw. "All these organizations provide the resources that make it possible for broadcasters to order programs and producers to make them," he said.The fund did manage to find an extra $3.2 million last year when it moved its file management function to Telefilm Canada's Television Business Unit, which processed 2,305 files on behalf of the fund in 2006-2007. That move began in March 2006, and was completed a year later.The move to handoff file management to Telefilm has also given the CTF an opportunity for further tweaking of its internal processes, including a move to accept applications submitted under its Broadcaster Performance Envelope that have funding commitments for just 60% of the production budget in place at the time of application, rather than the previous 100%.That lower limit for eligibility, said Creighton, was designed to smooth out the rush - and increased workload - around application deadlines. "We're hoping that those of you who are 60% financed will bring in your projects a little earlier and we can reduce that spike," she said.The fund's board and management will also be reviewing numerous additional aspects of both the CTF's program policy side and its broadcaster production envelope side. In the case of the former, key issues include the fund's continuing review of its guidelines, crafting a "new platforms" policy - a "burning issue," according to Creighton - equity investment, co-productions, and more."Simplicity and flexibility is what we're looking for on the program policy side," Creighton said.On the broadcaster production envelope side, the fund will consider increasing the 15% flex amount afforded to broadcasters, review audience measurement metrics, study the effect of the CBC on allocations, and re-evaluate its treatment of educational broadcasters.

CTF forges ahead in advance of CRTC report

Broadcast | June 14, 2007

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