Industry execs keep CTF debate alive at CFTPA conference

It was more hug-fest than slugfest during an hour-long panel session on the Canadian Television Fund at the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA)'s Prime Time conference in Ottawa Thursday. But although all panellists were CTF supporters, there certainly was no consensus on how best to restructure the fund. "Since there's no one from Vidéotron or Shaw on the panel, we can start the campfire and sing Kumbaya," said David Goldstein, CTVglobemedia's senior VP of regulatory affairs, noting the absence of the two biggest CTF dissenters. "The fact that Shaw claims CTF-funded shows don't get audiences is not true...The CTF is not broken, we just need to take her in the shop and change the tires and oil." Canwest Media Inc.'s proposal is more along the lines of a new transition. VP of Showcase and drama content Tara Ellis reiterated the broadcaster's suggestion to allocate 50% of CTF drama monies to conventional broadcasters, instead of the current 30%, and apportion the broadcast performance envelopes (BPEs) based on total hours tuned to each broadcaster. As Canadian Communications Reports reported two weeks ago, Canwest's formula would increase CTV's BPE from $18.5 million to $23 million, Canwest's from $8.2 million to $19 million and Rogers/Citytv's from about $1 million to $10 million. "As Rogers is one of the largest contributors to the CTF, it would be nice if Citytv could get access to more money," said Rogers Communications Inc. VP of regulatory, broadband and video Pam Dinsmore when asked about being the greatest beneficiary of such a realignment. "But we think our own proposal will allow us to increase our envelope, it just may take more time." Goldstein was less amiable to the Canwest proposal. "They're basing their readjustment by looking across their entire schedule, which means they will rely on the success of American programming to dictate their BPE, and I don't think that's what the government had in mind," he said, adding that the best way for a broadcaster to increase its envelope is to air more non-CTF-funded Canadian content. Ellis said Canwest's primary objective in its total-hours-tuned proposal was to stress the importance of getting the BPE measurement tools right. "We are boxed in and need an opportunity to grow our envelope," she said. On his second pass of the panel, moderator, and Fasken Martineau senior partner, Robert Buchan found the panellists were split 4-4 over separating the CTF monies into private and public funding streams. CBC executive director of arts and entertainment Fred Fuchs warned that a dual-funding stream model will increase administrative costs. "That's more money not going onto the screen and that's not good for anybody," he said. The last thing president and CEO of Minds Eye Entertainment Kevin DeWalt wants to see is CTF money not going to programming since, according to him, the biggest problem with the CTF is simply a lack of funding. He said it doesn't have enough resources to fund enough shows and therefore reach its potential, and suggested the government contribution to the fund should match that of the BDUs, which increases every year with their revenues. CTF's Valerie Creighton opened the panel by saying the fund should be measured on more than the success of its shows because it also provides research and development for the industry, and she ended the session by noting the CTF is ready for new rules, but there are no guarantees they will result in more commercial successes. "Can you legislate a success?" she asked. "One or two streams? Eight-out-of-10 or 10-out-of-10 programming? It's like they told the dinosaurs, adapt or die. We are willing to adapt."

Industry execs keep CTF debate alive at CFTPA conference

News | 02/22/2008 2:55 pm EST

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