To jumpstart its stalled application to change advertising policy at the CRTC, the Canadian Cable Television Association is sweetening its offer, which could generate up to $10 million per year for the beleaguered Canadian Television Fund.

The original application, filed in October, asks the CRTC to allow cable companies to sell the two minutes per hour of free, localized promotional time called ‘availabilities’ on U.S. specialties as a way to improve the health of its cable members and the Canadian broadcasting system as a whole. If approved, the sale of the avails would represent the first time cable companies have an opportunity to generate advertising sales.

However, since the original application was filed, the funding crunch at the CTF has become headline news and a political quagmire.

As a result, in May, the CCTA offered to amend its original request and is upping its proposed contribution to the CTF from the new revenue from 5% (what members pay to the CTF anyway) to 25%, a potential remedy to offset some of the $25 million in cuts from the federal government this year.

‘The benefit of increased contributions to the Fund cannot be overstated,’ says CCTA president and CEO Janet Yale in her letter to the regulator. ‘The Fund continues to be heavily oversubscribed. The additional funding that would be contributed through the local avails would ease pent-up demand for production support and offset the negative impact on the CTF’s revenues that has occurred this year.’

Inserting paid Canadian advertising into the local avails on U.S. specialties would capture unexploited value for the Canadian broadcast system with no material negative economic impact on licensed Canadian programming services, argues Yale.

‘It’s not so much about promotion, but financing the Canadian broadcast system,’ she says. ‘The revenue would contribute to infrastructure. In addition, the requested policy change would allow distributors to take immediate action to counter the growing harm to the broadcasting system caused by black-market activity.’

New advertising revenue data released by the CRTC in February, meanwhile, means that the original projected revenues from the ‘commercialized’ avails has jumped from $25 million per year to up to $40 million per year. The increased ad value is based on growth in advertising value in 2003 and the improved value of specialties such as A&E and CNN in comparison with higher-ranked Canadian specialty services.

‘Even at $40 million, the value represents less than 2% of the total revenues earned in 2002 by private television stations and specialty services,’ says Yale.

The CCTA has asked the CRTC to expedite the application to address the ‘pressing financial needs of the Fund.’

-www.ccta.ca