Eight weeks into the ctcpf’s fiscal and there’s trouble at the $200 million funding trough.

Disappointment and frustration simmer across the land as the once warm feeling of what seemed to be almost unlimited funding dissipates.

The reality, as June and the tv shooting season harkens, is a demand for English-language tv funds at Telefilm Canada to the tune of $73.9 million, oversubscribing the $48.2 million in available funding by $26.7 million. With 10 months remaining in the term, it’s not the end of applications.

In Western Canada, 25 producer-applicants received letters in May indicating that their projects ­ which already have broadcast licences ­ will not be funded by Telefilm this year, and are ‘on hold.’

‘There is not enough money to satisfy the demand,’ says John Taylor, director of Telefilm’s western region.

Demand for funding is at an all-time high with the onset of the new specialty channels and free stations like Baton’s civt creating a surge of funding-hungry production. The cash crunch at hand surprises everybody, says Taylor.

‘We created the expectation that there would be funding to satisfy all the demand. But we can’t hope to satisfy it because of all the splits that have to be made. It looks like a lot of money in the beginning, but when you start to take into account series renewals ­ which are a priority for the broadcasters and for us ­ you get down to the short strokes fairly quickly.’

The ctcpf funding reality for English tv this season is as follows: Telefilm effectively has $48.2 million for continuing and new production while the Licence Fee Program has a budget of $48.6 million. Telefilm’s 1997/98 ctcpf English-language tv envelope is in fact $75.1 million, but just over $26 million of that amount has gone to fund new programs committed to last year.

Of the remaining $48.2 million, Telefilm says private broadcaster productions will receive $28.6 million, while cbc-destined projects will receive $19.6 million. ctcpf rules state that cbc can access up to 50% of lfp money, on a first-come, first-served basis. cbc’s portion of Telefilm’s Equity Investment Program funds is a fixed 50%, all categories combined, over three years.

Referring to the $73.9 million oversubscription tally, Suzan Ayscough, director of communications, public affairs and festivals, says the agency assumes most of the major funding requests for 1997/98 have been filed.

(The overall Telefilm envelope includes $3.4 million in development funding and a $650,000 allocation for aborginal-language programs.)

Peter Katadotis, Telefilm director, Canadian operations, says approximately $8.9 million will be spent on new projects commissioned by private broadcasters, with $14 million allocated for new cbc programming. Depending on one unspecified and undecided renewal, the amount used for new programs at cbc could be closer to $10 million.

Of the $8.9 million earmarked for new private tv series, Katadotis says 80% of the funds will be committed by the end of June. Telefilm will be telling them yes very fast, he says, but it’s cold comfort to those producers with rejection slips already in hand.

The big squeeze

Vancouver producer Rae Hull received a letter from the western office of Telefilm saying her application for funding for her documentary Cold War ­ commemorating the 25th anniversary of the legendary Canada-Soviet hockey series ­ is in limbo. As co-executive producer, she says the bad news makes it ‘difficult, if not impossible, to complete the documentary’ in time for a late September airdate on The History and Entertainment Network.

Hull and partners were looking for about one-third of the estimated $350,000 production budget.

‘We don’t expect it to be like Christmas,’ she says. ‘That said, in our conversations with people [at Telefilm], we were given no indication that the crisis was approaching. It’s very disappointing.’

Meanwhile, television producers lucky enough to squeak into this year’s broadcasting allocation are having their requests slashed. The situation is chaotic, and producers, believing that they were in the final stages of financing their productions, have had to scramble at the last minute.

Julia Keatley, co-executive producer of the new Baton series Cold Squad, was negotiating last week to get funding from Telefilm. In better times, the 13-hour primetime cop series shot in Vancouver could get as much as $4 million toward its budget.

‘We’re not going to get anywhere near what we asked for now,’ says Keatley, adding that problems arose in May. ‘It’s a big squeeze. We’re extremely concerned about the equity side of the ctcpf.’

The last-minute haggling with Telefilm, meanwhile, has pushed production back two weeks to June 30, putting even more pressure on the Cold Squad producers to deliver episodes for the fall premiere.

Taylor, responding to what excluded producers or the new channels working to fill their fall schedules (and their crtc content requirements) are expected to do in this situation, says: ‘They can’t be blamed for what we don’t have. Our problem is their problem. I wish we could fund all these projects.’

He adds that despite growing expectations, Telefilm’s budget cuts mean it actually has $10 million less in cash to hand out this year. ‘Think of what’s going to happen next year when we have half the money.’

With the desperate scrambling for ctcpf funds, how the two landmark drama-sharing deals between wic, CanWest and the cbc are playing into the funding picture is raising many questions and consternation that the cbc may be somehow accessing a piece of the private sector pool.

Telefilm and the lfp both say they have as yet no clear position on how the sublicensing arrangements between the private and public broadcasters fit into fund access criterion, and that the issue will be discussed at the June 9 ctcpf agm in Banff.

But in the meantime, speculation is rampant, particularly considering wic’s Emily of New Moon and CanWest’s Traders could claim more than $6 million from the private sector English-language envelope this year, no small potat’es when there seems to be little if any money remaining in the kitty.

The private broadcaster induced series are eligible for getting up to 39% of their budgets covered by Telefilm. Add in the provincial and federal tax credits which could recoup up to 30% of the budgets, and the private broadcasters end up paying for about 30% of the production costs. Adding in a sublicense fee from the cbc could bring that percentage down, leaving critics concerned that while the broadcasters are in a sweet position, the situation undermines access to funds for smaller producers.

What’s left at LFP

Adding to the funding frolics, ctcpf Licence Fee Program managers cannot reserve and commit a significant portion of their funds until Telefilm puts its business in writing. Of the requested but as yet uncommitted lfp funds, 44% of the English-language applications (likely a higher percentage in dollar terms) have included Telefilm funding in their financial structure.

On the French side, 53% of pending lfp applications have Telefilm in the financial structure, says Phil Serruya, lfp’s manager of communications. lfp has $75.5 million available for ’97/98 made up of $42.5 million from both the Department of Heritage and the cable companies less $9.5 million in carryover costs from last year.

The $72.9 million lfp budget consists of a $48.6 million English-language envelope and a $24.3 million French-language envelope.

(Telefilm’s French-language tv allocation this year is $39.4 million with $24.2 million ‘available’ as of late May.)

In a memo mailed to the industry May 22, lfp says 137 applicants have requested $47.3 million out of the total English envelope of $48.6 million. However, only $6.2 million has been committed.

Because lfp can’t predict the rate at which incomplete applications become complete, nor the level of new applications, it has warned producers ‘it is impossible to accurately gauge the rate at which our remaining funds will be allocated to eligible projects.’

In 1996/97, 80% of all lfp applications received funding. As of May 22, lfp had received 137 English-language applications and 45 French-language applications.

‘What we are really looking at here is potentially the number of files (56% not dependent on Telefilm funding) that could still go forward if in fact the rumors are true and Telefilm is out of money,’ says Serruya.

Katadotis replies Telefilm ‘burns’ its money off much faster than lfp, typically at a three-to-one dollar ratio.

As the frustration and disappointment sinks in, and much of the year’s booty is assigned, the charge emerges Telefilm has embarked on the new year ‘without a plan,’ downplaying the ctcpf’s commitment to new production.

??But Telefilm replies not only are its regional ‘targets’ on track but that $49 million or two-thirds of this year’s $75.1 million English-language tv allocation will in fact go to brand entirely programming.

On the private broadcaster side, renewed 1997/98 series include Traders, Emily of New Moon, Madison, The Adventures of Shirley Holmes, Dudley the Dragon and Due South.