Vancouver: Programming executives are scrambling to complete a new primetime Canadian drama, in time for the Sept. 1 launch of civt in Vancouver.

While details about the series are still sketchy, Baton Broadcasting’s senior vp of original programming Suzanne Steeves says they should gel soon.

The series, and the new business it means for the b.c. film and television industry is, of course, the direct result of the successful bid by Baton-Electrohome to secure the first television signal in Vancouver and Victoria in more than 20 years. The crtc approval was announced Jan. 31.

At least one series under consideration is Cold Squad, a female cop drama, through Vancouver’s Keatley Films. Producer Julia Keatley says Baton and Keatley Films, in a coproduction partnership with Atlantis, have been developing the project for over a year.

Steeves admits it will be a challenge to get civt ­ also known as Vancouver Television ­ on the air Sept. 1. At the moment, finding a broadcast site and opening a development office are priorities. ‘We have to move quickly,’ she says. ‘We have a lot of hours to fill.’

While promising to be a huge boon to b.c.-based filmmakers, Vancouver Television will be the region’s fourth conventional, English-language signal, competing with bctv, CBC Vancouver and u.tv.

Compared with the other applicants, the Baton licence will ‘have the greatest possible positive impact on the Canadian independent production industry, particularly those producers located in British Columbia,’ says crtc chair Francoise Bertrand. ‘In addition to the station’s own financial commitments, its owners will inject substantial amounts of money into the regional production of new Canadian drama series and will also bring the stories of b.c. to viewers in other parts of the country.’

Steeves says that Baton was pitched a lot of ideas while the application process was underway. ‘We have a fairly good idea of what’s out there and more [development material] is arriving daily,’ she says.

Says Baton ceo Ivan Fecan in a release: ‘The decision makes it possible for Baton to bring much new Canadian programming to the Vancouver market, particularly prime-time Canadian drama. Our presence in Canada’s second-largest and fastest growing English-language market is of crucial strategic and economic importance to Baton’s future.’

The Baton promise

Expenditures from civt of $72 million over the licence term. That tally covers news and local programming and the Vancouver station’s $17 million share of Baton’s $53 million kitty (paid from all 23 stations) that is dedicated to licensing independent production.

At least $28 million of the licensing pool will be dedicated to b.c. producers. Each year, Baton will acquire 121 hours of original Canadian programming, including 95 hours from b.c.-based independent producers.

Other highlights of the Vancouver Television application include:

– At least 21 hours per week of original local programming, including 12.5 hours of first-play local news. Bilingual reporters will cover issues affecting local neighborhoods and ethnic communities from six community news bureaus, including one in Victoria.

– An average seven hours per week of Canadian entertainment programs in the under-represented categories of drama, music and variety in primetime.

– A new half-hour children’s series by an independent producer in b.c., an expenditure of $1.8 million over seven years.

– Expenditures on Canadian programming equaling 35% of the total advertising revenues earned during the licence period.

– Two new Canadian drama series consisting of hour-long episodes; a development series of 20 half-hour dramas by new independent producers in b.c.; and a series of family dramas from independent producers in Western Canada.

The impact

The decision, in essence, puts competitors wic, CanWest Global and Baton on the same footing. ‘They all get about the same amount of eyeballs in English Canada,’ comments Vancouver commissioner Sally Warren about the impact of the civt decision.

But beyond that, few want to predict how the introduction of civt will affect broadcasting both nationally and locally. And even though the crtc considers those macro-economic issues in its deliberations, Warren says she’s in ‘no position to say how it will unfold.’ She won’t speculate, for example, on how this affects the future of a third Canadian network.

Baton’s approval d’es little to sort out the issues around ctv’s ownership.

Baton-Electrohome owns about 43% of the network, while wic will own about 28% once the transfer of ownership of chch is approved by the crtc.

Several broadcasters are in similar situations in other Canadian markets in which their independent stations compete directly with a station in the ctv family, says Steeves. How Baton will wield its influence regarding ctv’s affiliation with Vancouver stations is a question Steeves says she can’t answer. For now, civt is an independent station, and no one wants to confirm Baton’s goal to make Vancouver Television the ctv affiliate.

That kind of thinking, meanwhile, puts wic’s bctv in the line of fire. The news leader has seen its share of entertainment viewers shift to u.tv because of CanWest’s aggressive acquisition of national rights to popular u.s. shows. And bctv has been buying u.s. programs from Baton’s inventory of u.s. shows, a relationship that will end when civt g’es on the air.

Shows that will move include Home Improvement, Melrose Place and Drew Carey.

Jim Macdonald, president of WIC Television, says wic undertook its own national rights acquisition plan about 18 months ago, in part to prepare for this situation. ‘There will be a short-term loss to Baton, but we are building our own schedule.’

wic will open its acquisition wallet again at the May screenings of new shows, he adds.

What kind of poaching of talent and technicians will go on also remains to be seen. ‘They’ll want to recruit top people, no doubt,’ says Macdonald.

‘But bctv’s people are among the best paid in the industry. It will be expensive.’

Advertising revenues will also take a hit with an expected decrease in the cost-per-rating in Vancouver, a drop that some say will take two years from which to recover.

Generally, the value of lost revenue is proportional to the market share the company controls. bctv claims a 21% share of b.c. viewers, while chek claims about 7%.

b.c. represents about $282 million per year in television advertising (compared to about $750 million per year in Ontario).

Last but not least, one lingering effect of the introduction of Vancouver Television could be the calming of the Vancouver production community and its perennial claim of being short-shortchanged by federal funding agencies. Vancouver Television’s dedicated licence fees for b.c. filmmakers will provide creative catalysts and the necessary triggers to attract more federal money.

The other applicants

Baton’s proposal was examined at a Vancouver public hearing last September, along with competing applications by CanWest Television, CHUM Ltd., Craig Broadcast Systems and Rogers Broadcasting, which were denied.

Rogers’ proposal for an over-the-air multilingual station (through the acquisition of pay service Talentvision) was dismissed because it would ‘bring little additional diversity to the market’ and a reduction in the number of hours dedicated to Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese and Korean, says the crtc in its decision

CanWest was the only applicant to focus a proposal on Victoria and Vancouver Island, arguing that the province’s capital is underserved with only one station ­ wic-owned chek. In its decision, however, the crtc says ‘CanWest d’es not present an acceptable remedy.’

crtc chair Bertrand made special mention of interventions from Vancouver Island, hinting that the crtc would entertain applications for the Island that are consistent with the commission’s policy of licensing only one owner per market. The crtc considers Vancouver-Victoria one market even though wic operates a station in Victoria and Vancouver.

The applications by chum and Craig, meanwhile, were called excellent submissions that could have been licensed by the crtc. But on balance they did not offer Baton’s level of funding for news, drama and variety.

Why only one station?

Rumors abounded about the one-and-a-half option. Research showed that Vancouver could absorb 1.4 stations, which raised speculation about more than one approval. Commissioner Warren says that Baton presented the best proposal and that other applications were ultimately denied because of the expectation that b.c.’s economy might take a downturn over the course of the licence.

civt will employ 119 people and will air on channel 42 in Vancouver and Victoria. Its licence term expires Aug. 31, 2002.