Given government cutbacks and its current distribution arrangement, Television Northern Canada chairman Abraham Tagalik says tvnc has reached a crossroads and has about a year to survive.

Speaking at the national network hearings Nov. 6 in Hull, Que., Tagalik told the crtc ‘Time is of the essence for aboriginal broadcasting,’ and requested intervention from the commission to leverage the distribution of tvnc in southern Canada.

Since 1992, tvnc has been programming approximately 100 hours per week of aboriginal programming and reaches, via c-band and some smaller cable companies in northern Saskatchewan, Quebec, Newfoundland and Northern Ontario, approximately 106,000 subscribers.

In hand is a deal with ExpressVu to be carried when transponder space becomes available and a contract with HomeStar at five cents per sub. But the service has been lobbying for access to Class 1 cable systems in southern Canada for about eight months with no success and is meeting a similar response from the Part 2 and 3 systems, says Jerry Giberson, director of network relations.

‘Cable companies are more interested in making money. We don’t qualify as a mainstream service. They say five cents is too much to charge.’

After an initial $10 million in startup funds from the federal government, tvnc’s funding through Heritage Canada’s broadcast policy division’s Northern Distribution Program was initially $3.1 million per year. It was cut last year to $2.6 million and will lose another $600,000 in 1998.

Although tvnc garnered approximately $200,000 in advertising revenue last year, costs, including Telesat Canada rental fees of approximately $40,000 per month for transponder space, in tandem with budget cuts are increasing the pressure to secure cable distribution in Southern Canada in the short term, says Giberson.

crtc commissioner Gail Scott raised the idea of applying for dual-status carriage, thereby changing its delineation to specialty channel and giving tvnc protection under the Access Rules, but Tagalik makes the point that distribution on a specialty tier would be pointless considering the average income of its audience.

‘If you regulate us to a specialty channel, that’s going to stop our audience from receiving our programming.’

The latest income stats from the 1991 Statistics Canada census put the average income for aboriginal people over 15 at $16,967 compared to the national average of $24,001.

Detailing the extensive ways in which the aboriginal channel fulfills several of the demands of the Broadcasting Act, tvnc is instead pitching for modified dual status which it says would permit larger cable systems to distribute its signal on their basic service.

‘We don’t believe we are a specialty service, targeting a niche audience like the Golf or Space channel. If tvnc is distributed on a wider scale, we could generate the revenue needed to ensure our programs stay on the air,’ says Tagalik.

Giberson says tvnc will weigh its options in terms of requesting a change of licence status.

‘If being a specialty gets us the penetration, then we’ll have to think about it. But we really do believe we are a national service and would like to be licensed accordingly.’

As of this month, tvnc is administering a $12,000 production fund for independent aboriginal producers in the Yukon and Northwest Territories. The new fund comes from Northwestel Cable and Arctic Cooperatives, cablecos which serve the territory.

At the Banff Television Festival this year, tvnc together with Telefilm Canada launched the Telefilm/TVNC Aboriginal Production Award, two awards at $10,000 apiece to the best aboriginal-language production and to the best English-language or French-language aboriginal production.