Canadian television needs $30 million per year, continued political support, better promotion, and looser regulations in order to boost viewership of English-language drama, according to a report by veteran broadcaster Trina McQueen.

The long-awaited study, one of three released late last month by the CRTC, argues that building audiences is the best way to bolster Canuck drama and calls for significant changes to the system, including more public funds and a complete overhaul of the ‘hideous’ Canadian Television Fund. McQueen was commissioned to study the drama slump by the CRTC and Telefilm Canada.

‘We deserve a flourishing drama community…We should play to win,’ writes the former CTV president. ‘Winning means larger audiences. For that we need an integrated funding and regulatory mechanism that encourages and rewards audience gains.’

The 25-page report calls for the creation of a $30-million ‘audience building fund,’ available every year for the next five years, to support the development of scripts, pilots and, later, to cover extra production costs such as star salaries, music rights and location shooting.

McQueen suggests several possible sources for the new fund, including a restoration of the $25-million recently cut from CTF’s budget, a diversion of certain CRTC fees, and a ‘top-up’ from the federal coffers.

The fund would be administered by the CTF, for which the report also recommends immediate but less specific changes. Echoing popular opinion that CTF’s excessive red tape wastes money and dulls the creative process, McQueen calls for a completely new system to be drawn up as soon as possible by the board, based on new and clear objectives from the Ministry of Canadian Heritage.

Meanwhile, she continues, the boards of Telefilm and CTF should merge the LFP and EIP into a single program in time for the fall round of funding. McQueen is a member of both boards.

‘While this would not solve all the administrative problems, it would give some quick relief,’ she writes.

The report adds that a continued show of ‘political will’ from Ottawa is needed to support drama efforts, and also argues for an assortment of regulatory changes. To increase available airtime, the CRTC should amend the licences of specialty channels, allowing them to carry dramas relevant to their mandates. The feds should also encourage afternoon soap operas, ‘after midnight’ dramas and live-action kids shows with a 150% credit against daytime Canadian-content requirements, meaning one-hour shows would count as 90 minutes for Cancon purposes.

McQueen is also asking the feds to aid promotion and star-building by loosening restrictions on third-party promos and entertainment magazine programs, and to introduce a host of ‘broadcaster incentives.’ Restoring the 150% content credit for 10-out-of-10 dramas, adding a 200% credit against each hour of ‘hit’ drama, and allowing all at-risk equity investments to count towards program expenditure requirements are among the proposals.

McQueen made a point of rejecting two specific ideas, including a proposal issued earlier this year by the Canadian Coalition of Audio-Visual Unions for shotgun licence renewals of the major broadcasters. The lobby group has argued that Canadian nets should have their licences reviewed early, with extra attention to domestic drama.

Such a move would be ‘horrible public policy and against the interests of drama,’ according to McQueen. ‘To say after two years ‘Sorry guys, just kidding’ would make a shambles of all future licence hearings.’

Reaction has been mixed. Telefilm head Richard Stursberg called the report ‘enormously important’ to Canuck media, and applauded McQueen’s plans to boost audiences.

‘I completely agree,’ says Stursberg. ‘But it’s going to cost more money… and it’s not something you can do overnight.’

But ACTRA blasted the report’s ‘five-year plan,’ arguing it will not correct the current drama crisis. ‘This report has some useful ideas, but our industry is in catastrophic freefall and needs a dramatic fix,’ says Steven Waddell, national executive director. He also criticized the lack of new broadcaster regulations. The actors union is a prominent member of the CCAU.

Elizabeth McDonald, outgoing head of the CFTPA, has doubts about the proposed audience fund. ‘I think some of our members are very concerned about those recommendations… They feel the fund she’s proposed… is directed away from producers, and producers are the core of the development business,’ says McDonald. She also doubts the fund can be bankrolled with restored CTF funding.

Phyllis Yaffe, CEO of Alliance Atlantis Broadcasting, says her company is already planning to take advantage of looser restrictions on specialty channels, and is developing at least one drama for HGTV. But she objects to the proposed requirement that specialties turn out at least 6.5 hours of original drama per year. ‘It’s incentive with a stick,’ says Yaffe.

The CRTC and Telefilm will consider McQueen’s recommendations over the next few months and announce decisions later in the year.