Montreal: The crtc is scheduled to begin hearings September 18 on bce’s $2.32 billion take over of ctv. The benefits package advanced by the telecommunications giant is being pegged at $232 million, by far the largest in Canadian broadcast history. Deadline for interventions is Aug. 24.

Following is part two of a q&a discussion of the benefits package with ctv executives Trina McQueen, executive vp, responsible for the network’s overall programming and sales, Bill Mustos, vp dramatic television and bce executive Jim Macdonald, senior vp and chief media services officer.

Last issue’s installment (www.playbackmag.com – search key – bce) examined the package’s priority programming highlights – $45.5 million for mows over the seven-year term, $25 million to extend ctf-funded drama series from 13 to 18 hours, $5 million for dramatic screenwriting and development, $18 million for documentaries, $23 million for broadly defined regional programs and a one-time contribution of $10 million to the Bell Broadcast & New Media Fund.

Here we look at the international distribution of programs commissioned under the benefits package, ctv/bce’s initial plans for new media programming and the role of Landscape Entertainment, a recently launched joint-venture production company. The interview also considers two new documentary streams, including long-form docs budgeted at $1 million, and issues related to regionally produced programs.

On international distribution…

McQueen: ‘First, in distribution we have no plans to build a distribution company and we have no plans not to. We will see what the competitive situation is and how ctv’s interests will be better served.

‘We have had to put in a distribution advance [in the range of benefit financing options] just to make sure that piece of the puzzle was there [and] that producers didn’t have to search for it. We’ll deal with that in two ways without a distribution company: one is that [president and ceo] Ivan Fecan, Bill Mustos and I, and others, have some contacts with people who might buy the program. So if we can deliver in a friendly deal, we’ll do that. We have contacts obviously with people like Discovery in the United States for the documentaries. And we may be able to place programs in that way. If we can’t, we’ll have to subcontract the distribution.

‘We want to see which way the industry is heading and see how necessary this is for ctv’s strategy. At the moment, it is not in our thinking. If that becomes something that broadcasters have to deal with, we’ll have a look.’

On coproducing, and the joint-venture Landscape Entertainment…

Mustos: ‘Treaty coproductions will be completely eligible [in the context of benefits-supported programming].’

McQueen: ‘One of the issues is the amount of funding [in the smaller domestic market] which does not allow [Canadian producers] to have creative control. We think the [proposed ctv] funding is strong enough to let the Canadian partner have real creative control.

‘We’ll have a minority share [in Landscape Entertainment – ctv invested $49 million in the production company and currently has a 50% startup interest, although the network’s equity share is expected to average out to about one-third with the advent of an unspecified third partner]. They will pitch like any other company and we will choose [their projects] only if they are the best. We have no deal with them at all to take any kind of number of projects, so they are right out there with every other production company.’

Will the joint-venture prodco distribute?

Mustos: ‘Not that we have heard of yet. They are very much still in the process of trying to get their offices and people set up. It’s a very early stage, still.’

A new take on developing tv drama…

Mustos: ‘I’ll tell you what the genesis of this idea was. Sometimes when a writer pitches us an idea we really love we have wished that we could have had the opportunity to develop it just with that writer, just for a few stages, so that we really are getting the project that we want.

‘It sometimes can get complicated when there’s a producer involved who may have certain ideas and [their] affiliated distribution arm [has] other ideas. The more partners you have in the mix the more difficult it is to explore a single creative vision or idea.

‘So this notion of spending $5 million over seven years with writers only is to give us an opportunity to work with writers without all of the other trappings of a usual development arrangement and budget.

‘At a certain juncture, a producer will need to be attached, and that’s appropriate. But in the very early stages of development it is very exciting to us to be able to steer a project in exactly the direction we want to go, which is the direction the writer pitched to us in the first place. And I think that is something that the Writers Guild of Canada has also been quite interested in pursuing.

‘We are trying to build the creative process into something that is very pure for a certain number of stages – with the writer only and the broadcaster. We can then decide whether we think it really has potential and we want to get a producer involved.’

Would ctv also acquire life and adaptation rights?

Mustos: ‘I think that’s quite possible. Life and literary rights would have to be sorted out with the writer. Maybe it’s the writer who acquires them, or maybe we acquire them jointly and at a certain point, if the project looks like it’s a go, then all the necessary transfers would be made over to the producer.

‘With all of these productions, it is our firm intention that 100% of the copyright rests with the producer.

‘If we happen to kick-start a project by providing money to a writer to secure life rights or books rights, it’s important to know that essentially when the project goes that those underlying rights will be transferred over to the producer.

‘The $5 million will encompass whatever it takes on any given project to take it to the next few stages. The writer may not have the resources to actually negotiate an option period on those life rights, so our money could pay not only the writer his or her script fee, but also be included in paying the option fee to those rights.’

On a $500,000 licence fee for Canadian mows…

McQueen: ‘The basic [mow] licence fee we are offering in the [benefits] model is $500,000, which is about double the normal licence fee ctv provides. That does not include the top-up. For that we are asking for Internet rights and cable rights. The producer can choose to sell us only conventional television rights or can mix and match in whatever way he or she wants.

‘The point is that in the case of a documentary [which] might be bought, these programs will play on ctv in primetime, but we might also take a window on Discovery. Or it could be Outdoor Life Network or it could be The Comedy Network or The Sports Network. If the producer has a good deal outside ctv, that’s just fine. What we’re trying to do is get these programs done by offering what we call ‘a full-meal deal.’ ‘

On regional production…

McQueen: ‘Specifically, 10% of the entire benefits package – $23 million – has been set aside for programs that are called ‘regional’ [within the crtc regional program policy]. We’ve called it ‘Groundbreaker’ and it can be whatever regional producers want it to be. It is initially identified as entertainment series with an interactive component, but within that we are looking for any proposal from a regional producer. As well, of course, regional producers are eligible for all the other [benefit envelopes].

‘These [Groundbreaker shows] are broadcast programs, but nowadays it seems more and more independent producers are interested in making sure their television programs have interactive elements. So the ability to go to a development office in Vancouver, for example, and not only have input for the tv development but also to have access to an expert in interactive development, has generated an extremely positive response.’

On $10 million for the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund…

Macdonald: ‘It’s payable over five years. But just to add to what Trina said, clearly interactivity represents a new opportunity. But if you were to also ask any number of people what their understanding of interactive television is you’d get an equal number of answers. It is absolutely critical that the interactivity elements be developed at the early stages of the program as opposed to taking a can opener and trying to rework it after the fact. The total area is clearly one that needs expertise, and that is what we are trying to bring to the table.

‘Certainly Bell’s funding of the New Media Fund has taught us a lot and created a lot of interesting programs. But it also demonstrates where producers need assistance, and that has certainly been confirmed in our consultations in the marketplace.

‘There is not a structure that exists within bce at this point, but that is what has prompted us to go forward with the idea that there should be a structure. And that structure should work very well with what in our view is the best development team in the country. The ctv team is the best in this country in terms of regional representation and in terms of the people here in project development. And by pairing that team with really good new people in interactive and new media, we think we can really go forward.’

McQueen: ‘On the issue of development, this additional money for the Bell New Media Fund for the first time provides development money as well as production money.’

Prepping the deal across the industry…

Macdonald: ‘There is no specific amount [reserved] for development. That will be determined in consultation with fund operators. One thing I would like to mention is that the development of this whole benefits package has come from consultation with independent producers and with people like the Bell New Media Fund, and that is what really is at the genesis of a lot of the benefit proposals.

‘The $800,000 we’ve committed to the cftpa Mentorship Program did not come out of the air. It came from consultation with the cftpa and through their discussions with their own membership, producers across the country.’

Mustos: ‘What was interesting was the consistency of responses from producers in Halifax, Toronto and Vancouver. It was a surprise to me that the message coming back from these consultations, which were sizable in each city, was so similar. We kept hearing about the same problem in the same way. And I think this [benefits] package was designed very much with a view to trying to correct those problems.’

On the investment model, and the $25 million for drama series extension…

Mustos: ‘There is a very strict rule at the ctf that allows us to take one [tv drama] series only per broadcast group, up to 20 episodes. And it can’t be a series that is in its first year. We have done this this year with Cold Squad. What this initiative allows us to do is to take a second series and take it from 13 to 18 [episodes]. It also allows us to take a brand new series – in its very first season going to the fund for 13 episodes – and potentially extend it to 18. So in the season when you are trying to build your audience you don’t effectively have it go off-air in February and not return again until the following October.’

Mustos: ‘The model is actually quite simple and it applies to the series extension and the mows and the documentaries. We are taking out the ctf. Where they have a licence fee top-up contribution of x amount, we put in x. Where Telefilm could be reasonably expected to put in y, we invest y. And we take that ctf [replacement] money, add it to our licence fee contribution and come up to the 70% level.

‘For the balance [on top of ctv’s 70% contribution in the case of the extended series hours], we would expect to have a distributor who was involved in the first 13 episodes to continue their participation in the additional episodes, because clearly they are distributing the whole series, however many units, along with the federal and provincial tax credits as well as the private fund money, the Independent Production Fund for drama series and the Cogeco Movie of the Week Fund for [new mow] Heroes, Champions and Villains.’

On $18 million for documentaries…

Mustos: ‘It really is significant. What we are talking about here is a two-pronged initiative. One is companion documentaries to [the mow series]. But I would want to pause there and say where the linkage is appropriate and good, we are going to encourage that kind of cross-pollinization between the movies and the documentaries. It is also conceivable that there will be standalone documentaries that will not have a direct link to the movie.

‘Again, it’s going to be about what’s right for the project, and what’s right for the schedule. The notion is having two [mow-related] documentaries per year, and these will be with substantial budgets of $500,000. And, following the model for the movies, 70% of the [doc] production budget will be provided by bce on a [producer] optional basis.’

McQueen: ‘We are assuming these [event] documentaries will have budgets of $1 million an hour. We feel these programs will be very strongly exportable. We certainly have the documentary talent in this country.’

Mustos: ‘Again, the word flexibility applies here in that the event documentaries may be one hour, [and] they may be feature-length. We’ll look at a variety of formats in which these documentaries can be produced and brought to air. I think it’s especially important for us to maintain flexibility in this category. *

-www.ctv.ca

-www.bce.ca