Vancouver: Regional sensibilities took a back seat to the broadcasters’ structural agenda in Alberta, but it’s all eyes on Vancouver in this round of crtc hearings with pitches for new tv licences in Canada’s second largest and fastest growing English-language market.

On the other side of the Vangroovy hearings, which wrapped Sept. 27, the commission is in part left weighing the option of lightening the $1,500 cup of coffee load for feature film producers or for series producers with competing applications from CHUM Ltd. and the new Baton/Electrohome.

The Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre played host to fine regulatory theatrics for new crtc chair Francoise Bertrand’s first hearing, which came complete with Korean students picketing the crtc outside for more programming, a wayward, agitated intervenor rising up to protest procedure mid-application presentation process, and the first testimonial from a provincial premier as Glen Clark went on tape in support of the chum application for Vtv.

At the end, it’s a difficult call to peg a front-runner amongst the applications from Craig Broadcasting, Rogers Communications, CanWest Global Communications, chum and Baton/Electrohome. Speculation has it that chum’s signature community approach and its multicultural incorporation mentality may give it the edge, although Vancouver, with its projected ad spending of $188 million in 1997 rising to $241 million by 2004, could be ripe for more than one new service and with the crtc licence-happy of late, many are optimistic two could be greenlit.

But while the winner(s) will remain a mystery over the next three months, what is clear is that by next year, when one or more of these services are up and running, a sax will not bleat in a local bistro without a camera crew on the scene.

Yaletown, Cedar House, Youth Chronicles, Applause, Counterpoint, Storytellers, Cross Currents, First Story, New Worlds, all are among the avalanche of program proposals designed to cover local news and current events, the ethnic community, and the arts and entertainment scene.

Vancouver, with its heavy youth skew, ethnic quota projected to grow to 835,000 or 37% of the population by 1999, accelerated social conscience and peripheral treatment on the national agenda, is seemingly on par with Quebec in terms of unique status, and all applicants have focused in their own way on what Bruce Cowie, president and coo of Electrohome’s broadcast group, calls ‘the new mainstream’ of Vancouver.

Baton’s Vancouver Television will reflect ‘an inclusive and positive approach to the changing socio-cultural environment,’ says Cowie.

‘This concept has tremendous resonance, especially among those concerned with the social fabric of Vancouver’s future. Our new plan, with its community bureau staffed by bilingual reporters, springs from the heart of this philosophy, but we see it permeating all our original Canadian programming.’

Canadian independent drama production is high on the agenda for both Baton/Electrohome and chum, albeit each with a different focus. In the offing from Baton is a kind of national benefits package, which quantifies its production investment post last month’s merger with Electrohome that left Electrohome owning 23% of bbs and gave Baton a total of 24 stations across Canada.

Baton/Electrohome is committing $53 million over seven years to the underserved programming categories of drama and entertainment programming. The incremental drama monies specific to the Vancouver Television application – added production financing that will be spent contingent on the nod for Vancouver – is $1.7 million per year, although with a green light, a cumulative $28 million or $3.7 million per year is guaranteed to flow to b.c. indies for the production of drama, children’s programming and documentaries.

Of that $3.7 million, drama will absorb the lion’s share – $3.4 million per year – mainly through two one-hour primetime drama series operating on a $200,000 per episode licence fee; documentary production will take $78,000 per year and a new 26-episode children’s series $260,000. A seven-year, $1.4 million development fund for local producers is also part of the benefits package.

Vancouver has become more a roadhouse province than a supplier of its own stories, and that’s something Baton’s proposed Vancouver service aims to rectify, says Baton president and coo Ivan Fecan.

‘They can do the technical things, but the writing, acting and producing I believe is also second to none in the country and it makes me crazy that there isn’t the opportunity for the exposure. In this application, our intention is more than our commitment. Everything we have that is strong Canadian we want to broadcast on all our stations.’

chum, calling the Vancouver bid ‘a defining moment’ in its future, is capitalizing on its feature film-heavy sked, offering $9 million in pre and post licensing for local independent feature producers and stimulating a projected $50 million in indigenous long-form production. An extra $1 million in script and concept development for local producers is also on the table, plus a guarantee that a minimum of 100 hours per year of Canadian films will be broadcast on Vtv in primetime.

‘We don’t chase after and push up the price of X-Files; we do make the biggest, most consistent market in Canada for all those who express themselves in extended form,’ says Citytv president and executive producer Moses Znaimer.

‘We have licensed just about every Canadian film ever made and participate energetically in facilitating and promoting most new Canadian pictures. So far we’ve done this with only one major-market, movie-based outlet. If we had two, we could invest that much more into Canadian dramatic expression.’

Jay Switzer, vp programming for CHUM Television and CHUMCity, also makes the point that Canadian films are without a Canadian window in Vancouver. Case in point, Murder at My Door, an mow produced by Vancouver’s James Shavick, will air on Fox this month even though it was produced locally and partially financed by chum.

‘It was made available to local broadcasters here but they didn’t buy it. They’re not in that business and we are, but we’re not able to purchase the Vancouver rights. Hard Core Logo also has no apparent home here in Vancouver. It’s frustrating both financially and as a programmer to not have an outlet in b.c.’ says Switzer.

Although chum and Baton/ Electrohome are widely considered the front-runners, Rogers and Craig are not going quietly. Rogers’ cfmv-tv application is offering a $5.1 million national benefits plan focused exclusively on ethnic production. The Craigs are in with vitv and, a la Alberta, a $14 million drama fund for Vancouver producers only, which Brenda Collins, past executive director of the British Columbia Motion Picture Association, says is key to triggering more regional production.

‘When I look at what it is that we have, what it is we can show, in last year’s Telefilm Canada catalogue, there is one feature from Vancouver, Live Bait, and one series, Madison. We are starving and we desperately need to have this fund here.’

For its part, CanWest, which is applying only for a Victoria licence, is playing the structural card, bucking for two stations in the market to counter WIC Western International Communications’ chan-tv and chek-tv, and coming in with a 60,000-strong petition and 1,500 written interventions from Victoria locals.

Key to the proposition are five new local news bureaus on the island and a 5% incremental increase in the budget of six CanWest documentary specials.

What role structural arguments like those which took precedence in Alberta will play in the Vancouver decision is up for debate. Flags are down on the Baton application, with both wic and u.tv president Jim Rusnak pointing out that should Baton get a new licence and take control of ctv, it could own three stations in the marketplace. chum is also waxing the structural argument, with vp and coo Fred Sherratt saying a place in the second biggest Canadian market is key for chum to continue its development and support of the production infrastructure.

Like Alberta, wic, its territory threatened, has filed another comprehensive 60-page, blindingly comprehensive intervention with dire predictions of the impact on its local stations and overall Canadian production spending, but given the hefty Vancouver ad revenue base, applicants are devoting little time to pleading minimal impact on the incumbents, save one: it’s open season on kvos, the Seattle-based u.s. border station infiltrating Vancouver with Seinfeld repeats and sucking up $25 million in Canadian advertising dollars.

When it comes to kvos, the mentality for all the applicants is perhaps best summed up by u.tv general sales manager Jack Tomik: ‘We know their strengths and we know their weaknesses and we can’t wait for the opportunity to come and take some money out of their pockets.’

Estimating that about $8 million of kvos’ coffers is ably repatriated, the goal is twofold: to outbid kvos for the programs to which it currently buys Vancouver rights, and depleting its ad revenue resources to the point that bottom feeder programming for Vancouver would be its only option.

With a chum licence, kvos’ Vancouver hold on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Voyager and Deep Space Nine, Maury Povich, syndicated Seinfeld, chum’s New Music, FashionTelevision, and MediaTelevision would go the way of the dodo, says Switzer.

With a Baton licence, strip programming including Home Improvement, Blossom and Dinosaurs are already owned by Baton, which would blow that option for kvos. As for its two hours of Disney product, ‘We have a terrific relationship with Disney,’ says Baton senior vp marketing and sales, Paul Robertson. ‘And we’d take those away too.’

Craig is projecting $3 million back in Canadian coffers ‘instantly’ from getting the Canadian rights to Seinfeld and would, like chum, Baton and Rogers, be able to joint buy for its stations in other markets, says Drew Craig, vp of Craig Broadcasting.

kvos is also hampered by its American status, unable to buy features and mows aired on nbc, cbs, abc or Fox through its Canadian supplier. ‘We don’t have that limitation,’ says Craig. ‘We could buy in volume.’

Who has the opportunity to take the knees out from under kvos and set up shop in Vancouver will likely be announced in January. In any case, it looks like the winner will be saddled with a new licence stipulation.

The commission surprised Baton, which pitched to join CanWest in having its Canadian programming commitment defined by a number of exhibition hours in primetime versus the revenue formula, by asking if it would be willing to commit to both a number of hours and a percentage revenue. chum and CanWest fielded the same question.

Word is, that as this broadcasting chess match plays out and the market readjusts, an added safeguard is necessary to ensure that the applicants spend on Canadian programming what they’re projecting to spend by using exhibition hours as their Cancon benchmark. AV