CHUM Ltd. has put up $34.8 million in benefits packages related to its proposed purchase of Craig Media. According to recently released CRTC documents, the Toronto broadcaster, seeking fed approval to buy its troubled rival, is pledging to assume Craig’s $14.8 million in outstanding production commitments – promised through the A-Channel and Toronto 1 station launches – and will add another $20 million in benefits all its own.

The production benefits mean that CHUM will honor the $3.8 million left in the original A-Channel Production Fund and the $10-million ‘top up’ associated with the launch of Toronto 1, along with the existing Craig commitments for script and concept development. The additional $20 million will go to priority programming, local program and social/talent benefits.

On top of the new and assumed benefits package, CHUM is expected to pay $265 million to purchase Craig and will plead its case to the feds at public hearings in September.

CHUM’s $20 million includes $9 million over seven years for priority programming expenditures and licences, 75% of which will go to independent producers, with the balance earmarked for unspecified in-house production. Half of the fund will go to national drama production, and half to western producers except those in B.C., who have benefits packages at CHUM’s The New VI and Citytv Vancouver.

The $20-million deal sweetener includes another $1 million over seven years for script and concept development of priority programming and a bridge-financing program worth $500,000.

CHUM also wants to open new storefront bureaus in Lethbridge, AB and Red Deer, AB, for a combined cost of $4.2 million over seven years, and is committing to produce 13 half-hours per year of a cross-cultural program called Caravan! – about a troupe of improv comedy performers who travel to Prairie communities – at a cost of $2.6 million over the same period.

Among the social benefits and talent development initiatives, CHUM has a long list of recipients sharing $2.7 million over seven years, including the cash-strapped Banff Television Festival ($350,000), the Media Awareness Network ($250,000) and historical groups including the Canadian Broadcast Museum Foundation ($150,000).

CHUM has earmarked $680,000 over seven years to be shared by production talent groups such as the Women in Media Foundation and $465,000 over seven years to be shared by industry support and development organizations such as the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.

If approved by the CRTC after the Sept. 7 hearing in Gatineau, QC, CHUM will buy Craig’s CKAL-TV Calgary, CKEM-TV Edmonton, CHMI-TV Portage La Prairie/ Winnipeg, CKX Brandon, Toronto 1 (CKXT-TV and CKXT-DT), MTV Canada, MTV2, TV Land and unlaunched diginets including Stampede.

Because CHUM already operates Citytv Toronto and The New VR in the Toronto area, Toronto 1 is already for sale through TD Securities and is valued in the CRTC proposal at $64 million. Speculation has Torstar and Quebecor among the interested purchasers. CHUM hopes to have a binding Toronto 1 purchase agreement in place in August.

‘When you make a decision like this, you’ve got a whole lot of business factors to consider,’ says Peter Miller, VP of planning at CHUM, when quizzed about the risk of assuming production promises and the struggling Toronto 1. ‘There are wildcards. Toronto 1 was and remains in an urgent financial situation.’

In the CRTC proposal, CHUM says it will continue to operate the troublesome diginets MTV Canada and MTV2, despite the threat to MuchMusic. ‘We were unhappy with how MTV was launched,’ says Miller, ‘and we worked extensively with the commission, [which] required Craig to bring it into compliance. We are broadly satisfied [with the outcome.]’

Through the Craig assets, CHUM will be the third-largest multi-station group in the country, reaching 85% of English Canada.

-www.chumlimited.com