The Cable Production Fund has made some changes to its rules in order to extend the life of its granting allocation. Since its doors opened May 8, $60 million in requests have poured in from 200 applications and $20 million has been assigned.

‘We have made changes that are not basic eligibility changes, just amendments to try and turn the spigot and to ensure our monies get spread out across more projects,’ says cpf executive director Bill Mustos.

By changing its fiscal year from Aug. 31 to Feb. 29, the cpf’s projected budget climbs to $47 million from the original $38 million, if the cable companies which support the fund on a voluntary basis continue to subscribe at the current level.

The incentive behind the calendar change was twofold: potentially more revenue and an alignment with the production cycle. ‘We want to try and stretch out the period of time to collect money from the cable industry that would in turn be available for the production season that peaks in the summer and the fall,’ says Mustos.

The projected addition of more revenue is welcome, but not a solution to the serious problem of oversubscription. Two measures – implementing a cap and a ceiling – are the answers the fund has come up with to contend with the massive demand.

Michael MacMillan, ceo of Atlantis Communications, applauds the action taken by the cpf. ‘I’m not surprised by the demand, it just shows the robust nature of the industry. I think their response is a very smart and respectable one. They’ve done the right thing and they’ve done it quickly,’ he says.

cpf contributions are limited to the existing percentages that have been implemented from the outset, whereby 12.25 % of the budget is eligible for drama productions in Toronto and Montreal, 15% for drama in the regions, and 10% of the budget for all other eligible genres. ‘There is no change to thresholds,’ says Mustos, ‘it’s just that now our threshold is also the ceiling.’

A $1.5 million cap has been placed on cpf contributions, largely because the licence fees for eligible productions were coming in at higher levels than the cpf anticipated. The difference between what the fund expected in licence fee rates and the reality is in part due to an oversight in the cpf’s research that neglected non-government supported series.

‘What we’ve seen is instead of 35%, licence fees are coming in at 40%, 50% and sometimes even 60% of the budgets.’ Teleromans – Quebec series which tend to attract large audiences – are the prime example, says Mustos. Also, he says some lower budgeted documentaries and variety programming are coming in with licence fees of 60% and sometimes higher.

Another factor which was not anticipated was the volume of activity, in part triggered by the new specialty channels, which were not up and running at the time of the cpf’s research.

‘I am taken aback by the volume of production that is coming in and able to satisfy our licence fee thresholds. It’s just coming in at staggering levels,’ says Mustos.

Although not confirmed, there is also the impression the fund has increased licence fee contributions. Says MacMillan: ‘I think (the cpf) has nudged up some licence fees, but the small nudge-up has not been the cause of it being so actively subscribed for.’

Another reason for the high demand for the cpf is what Mustos calls a ‘cautious approach’ to the fund on the part of Telefilm. He reports the agency is sometimes decreasing its equity investment by the anticipated cpf contribution, which in turn allows Telefilm to spread allotment across more projects.

Mustos estimates the changes could add up to about $17 million that will be available to new projects.

With 70 projects committed to a total of $20 million, the average per-production contribution is $285,000. To date, the smallest contribution is $13,000 and the biggest is $1.4 million.

When word got out the cpf would be changing its rules as of July 21, the fund was inundated with applications that would stand to gain as much as $2 million or $3 million. Approval of those projects – which are said to include the series Destiny Ridge (Atlantis Films/Great North Productions) Due South (Alliance Communications), Road to Avonlea (Sullivan Entertainment) and North of 60 (Alliance/Alberta Filmworks) – is still pending. Mustos would not comment.

Another wrinkle Mustos and his staff are ironing out is the high percentage of applications from Quebec and the need to stick to the original mandate to align the one-third of the fund to French-language projects and two-thirds to English-language projects.

Among titles that have been approved are The Adventures of Dudley the Dragon (Breakthrough Films and Television), Under the Piano (Sullivan), Lise Payette’s documentary series Femme, The Un-Canadians from Joanne Smale, Footnotes for Bravo!, Chambre en Ville (Filmoption), Moi et l’Autre (Avanti Cine Video) and Liberty Street (Epitome Pictures). PC