Stakeholders from across the television industry met in Ottawa Oct. 1, at the request of the Department of Canadian Heritage, to discuss the future of the Canadian Television Fund and English-language drama. The department was seeking comments before issuing its response to the Lincoln report, and spent several hours hearing from some two dozen broadcasting, production and union reps, including brass from the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, the unions, the Ministry of Finance, the cable companies, CFTPA, the CRTC and CBC. The meeting was hosted by Deputy Heritage Minister Judith LaRocque.

Topics on the agenda included how to build or track audiences, English-language drama, the governance of CTF, and how to ensure the availability of funding.

MP Clifford Lincoln and the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage filed an 800-page study of the broadcast industry in June, recommending a more stable and efficient CTF and a funding boost to CBC. Heritage is due to respond to the report in early November.

Glenn O’Farrell, head of the CAB, says the roundtable was an important step in developing relations among industry heads. ‘The only way to address these issues in a constructive way is to get the right people around the table,’ he says.

‘I didn’t have high expectations going into it, but I was pleased to hear consensus, by and large, that CTF monies need to be restored or even enhanced,’ says Stephen Waddell, national executive director of ACTRA, noting that only the cable companies were opposed.

The room also agreed on the need to merge the CTF’s LFP and EIP into a single staff and single set of rules, but was split on the so-called drama crisis.

Broadcasters and cablers continued to downplay the importance of TV dramas – one exec remarked he doesn’t even watch them – and suggested resources could be put to better use in less expensive genres. Unions, on the other hand, have long argued that drama needs more money and tighter CRTC regulations.

‘The broadcast side, including the CBC, does not want to acknowledge that there’s a crisis in English-language drama,’ says Maureen Parker, head of the Writers Guild of Canada.

O’Farrell says CAB and its members want to consider all options. ‘We feel Canadian programming, going forward, will require a variety of genres, of which drama is a core component, but let’s not dismiss other genres,’ he says.

Many also expressed concern that the Ministry of Finance did not send a senior representative, taking it as a bad omen for the future of broadcast funding.

‘What does that mean? Is there a commitment to CTF? Is there a commitment to public money?’ asks Parker. ‘There really don’t seem to be any serious answers coming out of Finance.’

Guy Mayson of the CFTPA is looking on the bright side. ‘I don’t think it’s a negative signal. I was pleased just to see someone from Finance in the room.’

-www.canadianheritage.gc.ca