In his closing remarks at MIPCOM 2002, Reed Midem’s Michael Weatherseed told the press, ‘Despite the complicated and difficult economy, the figures have surpassed our expectations. There are little shoots of recovery in our industry – it’s very positive.’

As we consider our own post-MIPCOM recovery process, the industry in Canada needs to take another serious look at our shared export and marketing assistance programs.

There’s absolutely no doubt the Canada Pavilion at venues like MIPCOM has helped strengthen our brand. ‘We were all a bit nervous about lumping ourselves in altogether. In that way, I know we were subsidized because I couldn’t have that kind of space on my own,’ says Sheena Macdonald of Rhombus Media.

But a program review isn’t only about the number of participants under the umbrella. It should also gauge the effectiveness of current policy, how our shows are selling, and the direction of Canada’s status in the export program market, coproduction aside.

Less and less Canadian content production, and specifically Canadian Television Fund-supported production, is exportable, says Jacques Bouchard, president of The Multimedia Group of Canada. CTF’s primary goal is to build domestic audiences for content programming, a formidable challenge in the tough English TV market, dominated in primetime by American series. But Bouchard says those same policies undermine our export position.

In recent years, Canada, once a world leader, has lost ground in the international documentary category to the U.K., France and Europe in general, and the U.S. And specialty channels have had an impact. With some notable exceptions, they mostly commission light, inexpensive factual programming not designed for export. And those same services benefit from a growing chunk of CTF monies, providing 47% of all the licence fees used to trigger CTF contributions.

Danny Iron, a producer with Rhombus, says it’s ‘impossible to finance anything’ in Canada except for low-budget specialty shows. ‘Often we just put that [financing gap] up ourselves as a distribution advance. But really it’s our fees. And it’s harder and harder to make foreign presales.’

Iron says, ‘fewer and fewer of our shows are being accepted by the CTF.’

The $3-million SME Distribution Fund, a CTF program administered by Telefilm Canada, is under review.

That fund was created when broadcast-affiliate distributors were granted wider access to Canadian programming. Now the CBC and National Film Board have entered the commercial distribution game, looking to acquire private-sector product, and, without putting too fine a point on it, make a buck.

SME distributors, who have made a huge contribution in overseas markets, deserve Distribution Fund guidelines that are concise. They need to quickly regain lost ground. But with the present rules, which prohibit exporters from acquiring extended series or productions with budgets of under $200,000, some distributors are only able to use a portion of their available envelopes.

There was no money whatsoever for Telefilm’s International Marketing Assistance Program at MIPCOM. And that program, which most benefits quality, difficult-to-market programs, will not operate at the next NATPE, either.

Our industry export programs, with the notable exception of the popular European Immersion series, pale in comparison to the resources available to the industry in France. TVFI’s programs include trade missions, subsidized database research and special events like the St-Tropez screening program.

Canada can certainly do more.