Just under six months into operation, $46.2 million of the Cable Production Fund’s inaugural annual budget of $47 million has been earmarked for a total of 165 television projects across the country. Approximately $3 million in requests were turned down, says cpf head Bill Mustos, and many of those applicants did not yet have outside financing in place.

Mustos summarizes the year as one ‘with many, many challenges. It’s not been the smoothest of start-up years, but I think it’s also fair to say we have overcome a lot of obstacles and worked through virtually all the challenges. We are on the road to having a pretty tight and effective program.’

The fund, supported on a voluntary basis by 39 cable companies, was launched last May as a means to finance new primetime productions for television that register high in Cancon points.

Two pilots, Scrounger and The Strike for Nobody’s Business, 11 mows including The Lady is a Teamster: The Diana Kilmury Story for cbc, Lyddie and The Dark Zone, 33 series such as Due South and Parents Malgre Tout, four one-offs, 24 children’s projects, nine variety specials, seven music and dance productions, and 75 documentaries received cash from the cpf.

The response from the community has been overwhelmingly positive. The cpf subsidized three documentaries for Toronto-based Associated Producers this year in the amount of $1.25 million, an average input of 15% overall of the production budgets. President Elliott Halpern says, ‘It’s been really critical, especially given the current scene in Ontario. They’ve come in the nick of time.’

Among others, the cpf supported Alliance Communications’ series Due South (after cbs dropped out following season one) and North of 60. Alliance ceo Robert Lantos says of the fund’s support, ‘These are two programs that are highly popular with Canadian audiences and the cable fund has made a significant contribution to keeping them on the air.’

‘Instrumental’

Kevin Sullivan, head of Sullivan Entertainment, also of Toronto, endorses the impact of the new fund with equal sincerity. ‘The cpf has been instrumental in the ability to finance the final season of Road to Avonlea. More importantly, we owe big thanks to the cpf for their role in making it possible for us to finance Under the Piano and our new production Wind at My Back wholly out of Canada.’

Mustos is witness to the obvious successes of the fund, but he also sees the problems and is therefore planning an eight-city series of industry consultations starting mid-November. On his list for discussion are three topics:

– An assessment of the existing caps, perhaps by either tightening the existing project-by-project caps or examining new types of caps in order to stretch the available monies further. Mustos says this doesn’t mean a revision of the existing formula.

Definitions unclear

– Clarifying guideline definitions that have proven confusing or frustrating for cpf clients. ‘We are here to service five underrepresented categories of tv as an objective fund yet we have been spending a lot of time doing an analysis on a subjective basis to determine whether something fits the definitions,’ says Mustos.

– Examining the process, i