The Canadian Television Fund is reporting massive oversubscription levels in all program categories, including drama, where demand in dollar terms is more than double the available resources.

The new high tide in rejection points to an accelerated ‘process of dismantling Canadian-made TV,’ says the CFTPA.

CTF says funding available for the spring round is $172 million, or 51% of demand. The fund has received applications for 788 TV programs representing $340.7 million in production funding, up 3% from last year. The numbers represent ‘raw applications,’ prior to any eligibility assessment.

Overall, CTF will have $182.6 million for TV program financing in 2003/04, including both spring and fall rankings, but not including feature film, Aboriginal-language funds, administration costs and the 6% reserve allocation held back until Equity Investment Program decisions are finalized.

This year, out of the $182.6 million total, EIP has a budget of $77.9 million and the Licence Fee Program has a budget of $104.7 million.

‘While the demand for new Canadian programming continues to grow, we’re having to cope with the reality of reduced revenues for the year ahead,’ says CTF president and CEO Sandra Macdonald.

The CTF projects revenues of $230 million this year, down from $260 million last year. CTF injected an additional $37 million in reserves to support last year’s production. The reserve capacity for ’03/04 is either significantly reduced or non-existent.

CTF saw its government contribution reduced by $25 million in February’s federal budget, and faces a further $4 million loss of revenues resulting from changes to CRTC regulations made last October, which allow small cable systems to redirect their contributions to community channels.

‘More than half of the dramas producers have proposed will never be seen by Canadians,’ says CFTPA chair Julia Keatley. ‘This is a real shame given the CRTC’s comment last year that the number of Canadian dramas was at an all-time low. And the same is true for children’s programming.’

Summary

A summary overview of this year’s oversubscription levels is as follows:

Drama: EIP has $47.8 million, while producers filed 87 applications with Telefilm representing demand of $102.6 million. LFP has $52.8 million available, while producers filed 100 applications with CTF representing $104.3 million in funding.

Drama receives the lion’s share of all EIP and LFP funding.

This year’s allocation for drama as a percentage of all CTF funding is similar to last year’s, except, of course, there is less money: 52.3% LFP English and 50.4% LFP French; 62.3% EIP English and 59.5% EIP French.

Children’s and youth: EIP has $14.4 million, while producers filed 46 applications representing $34.1 million in program demand. The LFP has $17.4 million, while demand stands at 51 projects and $35.2 million. The LFP has an additional $6.2 million for the fall round.

Variety and performing arts: EIP has $2.3 million this year, while producers filed 26 applications requesting $3.7 million in funding. LFP has $5.1 million this year, while producers filed 60 applications requesting $11.1 million in funding.

Documentary: EIP has $10.5 million this spring, while producers filed 186 applications representing funding requests of $22.5 million. EIP has an additional $2.9 million for the fall round. LFP has $15.5 million this spring, while producers filed 232 applications representing $27.2 million in funding. LFP has an additional $7.7 million for the fall round.

At press time, CTF communications director Phil Serruya was unable to say when this spring’s LFP funding decisions would be announced. Last year, LFP decisions were announced at the end of March, but fund managers had earlier told clients implementation of the new Broadcaster Priority ranking criteria could delay decisions.

-www.canadiantelevisionfund.ca