With the highly anticipated launch of the diginets early this fall, the new television landscape looks only slightly more certain than it did several months ago. Industry sources say a few diginets may even postpone their launch to October or November, when they will not be competing with the roster of new fall shows. In Quebec, the only channel to launch out of the five French-language licences awarded by the CRTC is Reseau Info Sports, set to be on air in late October.

In English Canada, while schedules for the fall were, at press time, almost completed at most of the Category 1 services, many of the Category 2 services were still negotiating cable carriage.

On the other hand: ‘It could be entirely possible that we go up without contracts,’ says CTV president and COO Trina McQueen. ‘Of course the distributor and broadcaster would have to agree to proceed that way. The Category 1s have to launch as if we’re ready, then we can wrangle about contracts during the preview period.’

In addition to rates and packaging issues, McQueen suggests one reason why the process is so slow is ‘believe it or not, people are at their summer cottages while all this is happening.’

The most common reply to the question of whether a Cat 2 will reach eyeballs early this fall? ‘We’re still in negotiation.’

Not surprisingly, the exceptions are mostly highly branded and recognizable services such as BBC Kids, BBC Canada and National Geographic Channel, all from Alliance Atlantis. The programming for the channels includes the Canadian premiere of the National Geographic Presents anthology series and EarthPulse, a biography series on environmental activists on NatGeo. Over at the eagerly awaited BBC Canada, current favorites like EastEnders will share space with new BBC series like Human Remains, which follows six couples, and the successful music show Brit Beat.

The opening-night jitters aren’t just affecting the second tier of channels. The vast majority of must-carry channels are concentrating their resources on getting off the ground, which means few are accepting proposals from independent producers until later in the fall. While there will be some new, original programming on most of the channels almost at launch, the bulk of the shows are off the shelf.

‘Our argument to the CRTC was that there was not much time between the approval of the licence and airtime,’ says Alison Clayton, general manager of The Biography Channel, TechTV and MSNBC. ‘They had to look great coming out of the gate, so for the first year there isn’t that much commissioning.’

As subscribers sign up, however, Biography expects to turn to independents for 95% of its programming.

In theory, the 40 new services, and particularly the 16 must-carrys, could pump hundreds of millions of dollars into Canada’s independent production community. Many have estimated their Canadian programming budgets at $30 million and above over the seven-year term of the CRTC licence. The reality, however, is that a portion of those funds will be used for in-house productions. More importantly, most of the money designated for independents will not be available until at least the second year in the digitals’ licences, once revenues have stabilized.

It’s also worthwhile remembering that the production financing promised by the diginets is an estimate based on projections of advertising and subscription revenue. In other words, entirely dependent on the whims and fancies of the viewing public, and on the number of households which are even ready to receive the channels. So far, 2.2 million households are equipped with either satellite or set-top boxes. Finally, with Jim Shaw, CEO of Shaw Communications, grimly predicting this spring that 50% of the channels will not survive, it’s also possible that the long wait for the flow of production funds will end up being a trickle.

Still, there are some factors arguing against that doomsday scenario. One is that the channels’ programming heads are drawn from a who’s who of Canadian television and film talent. At the Independent Film Channel Canada, Johanna Lunn Montgomery was head of programming, Atlantic Canada for CTV; at WTSN, seasoned sports broadcaster Sue Prestedge is senior vice-president; former Newsworld program director Michael Harris is heading up Country Canada and the Documentary Channel; Gemini Award-winning producer/director Bruce Glawson is at PrideVision (his credits include several documentaries on Canadian singer-songwriters like Jane Siberry and Holly Cole); and Mark Prasuhn, once general manager at SaskFilm and COO at Minds Eye Pictures, is at One, the Mind, Body & Spirit Channel. The other executives are of similar experience.

Another bonus is that with a few exceptions the channels will be using tried-and-true programming already popular with Canadian viewers. Vision TV’s One, for example, will feature shows on alternative healthcare (or wellness). From yoga, to herbs, to options to Western medical care, the channel looks set to cash in on both the popularity of lifestyle programming and the healthy living craze.

In fact, lifestyle will rule most of the diginets’ airwaves. MenTV promises programming for the ‘urban professional [who is] healthy and socially active.’ TechTV is about the digital lifestyle.

And at Discovery Health, programming will fall into three streams, says Barbara Williams, senior VP of lifestyle programming for Alliance Atlantis Broadcasting. Condition Critical will focus on emergency care, Medical Wonders on scientific breakthroughs, and Being Human on the workings of the body.

This means the channels are searching for producers with ideas for series, particularly series that can have windows on the other diginets. ‘I can think of a series on Canadian high-tech entrepreneurs which would work both on Biography and TechTV,’ says Clayton.

Repurposing key to survival

The FashionTelevision Channel’s Marcia Martin, Chum’s vice-president and general manager, agrees that repurposing is the key to survival. At a meeting of independent producers and digital channel reps late this summer, she explained how a series could work on Fashion and Bravo!. Someone in the audience piped up: ‘If it had sex and space it could work on SexTV and the Space channel [Space: The Imagination Station] too.’ Someone else came up with the concept, ‘Alien fashion.’

With relatively low individual licensing fees, such a scenario is not quite as much of a joke as it may seem. While an average at this point is at best an educated estimate, an hour of acquired programming might net an independent $3,000 to $5,000, while an hour of commissioned programming could go from $5,000 to the current public uppermost range of $35,000. The latter number comes from Discovery Health and is for a first window, but a few other channels are also discussing relatively high licence fees for exclusive commissions.

On the other hand, the Documentary Channel and the IFCC are looking for anything but repurposed content. ‘The art of reality is an endangered species,’ says Christina Pochmursky, Documentary’s program director. The channel will be offering higher fees for one-hour commissioned documentaries to encourage filmmakers to develop one-offs. The fees being discussed at the moment are in the range of $25,000, available for 12 projects a year. (Those numbers may be further revised.)

More programming freedom comes from the IFCC. Lunn Montgomery says the channel is even looking for ‘accessible experimental work.’ First-time and low-budget directors will also have access to the airwaves, with every Monday of every month at this point devoted to a digital film.

‘No one is going to be making money,’ Lunn Montgomery says of the fall launches. ‘But it’s a humble beginning.’