The 21-member board of the Canadian Television Fund adjourned Nov. 4 after two days of meetings in Toronto without signing off on major guideline changes designed to simplify next year’s application process.

‘We’re really close,’ says Phil Serruya, CTF director of communications, declining to comment specifically on the outstanding issues. ‘People should stay tuned. We’re really conscious of the need to get the information out as quickly as possible. But we’re not ready to do that until we’ve finalized all the decisions.’

Sources tell Playback that two major changes expected are the introduction of broadcaster envelopes (either in full or in some kind of partial program) to dispense the CTF next year and the merger of the Equity Investment and Licence Fee Programs so that only one application is required.

Sources close to the CTF guideline reform process suggest there is no need to reconvene the board for final approval and that the delay allows for additional research and analysis of key issues. An official announcement is expected by mid-November, with the guidelines available by the end of the month.

Getting this far has been a challenge. While the French-Canadian industry has been onside with the proposed changes, the English-language half has reportedly been more volatile, with 180-degree turns on some key issues.

‘Certainly we’re looking to get rid of some of the problems that we’ve had in the past,’ says a source. ‘Audiences, predictability and simplicity – that is the backbone [of the CTF changes]. There is definitely a recognition that the fund needs to focus more on the type of programming that delivers audiences. Obviously, we’re not changing the genres of programming that are eligible, but rather rewarding those programs that do go out and get audiences.’

Broadcaster envelopes, in practice, would mean that broadcasters would be assigned a portion of the CTF cash to dole out as they see fit – a move to avoid the trouble seen this year when CTV’s The Eleventh Hour, for instance, was left off the funding roster.

At press time, it was unclear how reserved broadcaster envelopes might impact independent producers and what safeguards might be in place to prevent broadcasters from taking the CTF funding in-house. Also unclear was the reserved envelope formula – who gets how much and why – and what exceptions might be included for new broadcasters to access the CTF. The envelopes will likely be determined on past performance in generating audience, but there was no early word about whether that criteria might be waived in year one for broadcasters that so far have been less inclined to promote Canadian production.

‘If the safeguards are meaningful and effective and [the process] is transparent, then maybe one of the things that it will do is align broadcaster priorities with those [projects] that actually get the subsidies,’ says Laszlo Barna of Barna-Alper Productions in Toronto, who welcomes simplification of the CTF application process. ‘One of the problems we had in the past is that a broadcaster would attach a very high priority to a project and it would not guarantee that it would get made. This reverses that logic.’

The possible merger of LFP and EIP also has many outstanding questions. Sources were unable to confirm at press time how a points-driven, top-up grant system might be blended with a selective loan system, or whether the CTF board might abandon one system for the other.

Whatever the changes, there may be less money for everyone. The CTF suffered a 25% cut from Finance Minister John Manley and borrowed against next year’s allotment when the funding crisis hit in the spring. Without reinstating funding – recently promised by prime minister-in-waiting Paul Martin – the CTF will have only $62.5 million in government funds to disperse compared to the regular $100-million kitty.

The CFTPA, which has promoted changes that simplify the CTF application process and introduce initiatives like broadcaster envelopes, is sympathetic to the challenge of remaking the CTF, says spokesperson Jane Thompson. ‘It is incredibly complicated and it’s about compromise,’ she explains. ‘[The CTF] has to function well and be effective and efficient. It has to be about more money for more productions.’

At press time, there was no update on other issues that were being considered by the CTF board including cuts to the regional and small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) bonuses.

Under the old guidelines, CTF offers a 2% bonus, against production budgets, for projects made by qualifying SMEs, and a 5% regional bonus for shows shot outside of Toronto or Montreal.

The CFTPA, for one, wants to remove SME as a ranking criteria and the APFTQ wants Vancouver removed from the regional bonus.

-www.canadiantelevisionfund.ca

With files from Peter Vamos