The CRTC’s plan to boost homegrown TV drama has met with mixed reviews, and yet all of Canada’s major broadcasters – with the exception of CBC – have now signed up for the deal, or are in the process of doing so.

Global, CHUM and Alliance Atlantis were approved for the plan following applications filed late last year. Corus and CTV applied recently and are waiting for approval. In Quebec, TVA and TQS are also on board.

The drama incentives allow broadcasters to sell additional minutes of advertising during their primetime schedule in exchange for producing more homegrown dramas. The plan allows for ‘between 30 seconds and eight minutes’ of additional ad time for airing an hour of original Canadian drama, depending on criteria including budget, the time of broadcast and the source of funding. The plan for English Canada was introduced last year, followed by a variation for French-language broadcasters.

‘We’re very behind this, we’ve thought it was a good idea for a long time,’ says Luc Lavoie, EVP of Quebecor, the corporation that owns TVA. ‘TVA has the highest level of Cancon in the country, so for us it’s not about making more Canadian drama. Rather, it’s about enhancing the budgets of the shows already in place and making them of a higher quality. We’d like to venture into more expensive productions. This will allow us to develop new models in terms of funding.’

Barbara Williams, SVP of programming and production at Global, also applauds the deal. ‘This is the first time the CRTC has flipped the model, and offered an incentive, rather than making it punitive,’ she says. ‘I think in general it’s just better to motivate people that way.’

Though broadcasters have signed on, the drama incentives remain controversial. Critics including ACTRA and many producers argue that they are a Band-Aid solution to a complex problem and continue to blame the CRTC’s 1999 Television Policy for the drama slump.

Some smaller broadcasters were also wary of the plan, but have since changed their minds. ‘Our big concern was always that an ad-based initiative of this sort is bound to work best for the bigger players,’ says Peter Miller, CHUM VP of planning. ‘And that might mean a disadvantage for us.

‘In the spirit of moving forward, we have decided to opt into the plan though,’ he says, adding that he’s cautiously optimistic about the effects the incentives will have on the sagging production of drama.

As critics of the offer also note, allowing more advertising in primetime means that broadcasters with flashier and more popular American shows – such as the Superbowl or the Oscars, say – will be in the best position to cash in.

These misgivings are echoed by Ian Morrison, spokesperson for the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, even though the lobby group supports the plan in spirit. ‘It’s an imaginative idea, though it’s entirely experimental and it’s impossible to know whether it will work – but it definitely is inherently inequitable. It will favor the bigger players, without a doubt.’

Like many industry-watchers, Morrison agrees it is hard to tell if the plan will be effective. ‘We have supported this as a risk venture,’ he notes. ‘But the jury’s out on its long-term effectiveness. This is a new idea and we’ll have to see how it plays out.’

Broadcasters do agree, however, that nothing can replace the Canadian Television Fund, and that one of the best ways for the federal government to bolster homegrown drama would be to enhance its coffers.

‘We welcome additional ways to bolster homegrown production,’ says Global’s Williams, ‘and a healthier business means more opportunity to proceed with new projects. But this should be seen as an additional thing, not a replacement for the CTF. The government has to remain committed to the CTF.’

The one major player who has not opted into the drama incentive is the CBC, which has nothing to gain because it doesn’t air U.S. programming. ‘This clearly was not designed with us in mind,’ says Richard Stursberg, the net’s EVP of English TV. ‘There’s zero in it for us.’

And in the equation, Stursberg sees a danger: ‘If there are a number of minutes added for advertising sales during American programming, that may pull advertisers away from buying time during Canadian programs. As it stands, the benefits in this incentive are greater if you’re using CTF money. If there is greater use of the CTF, that could crowd us out.’

Thus, Stursberg has been pushing for 50% of the CTF to be earmarked for CBC. ‘They have to ensure that the CBC has a certain percentage of the CTF set aside for them. We make as much drama as we possibly can.’

CRTC chair Charles Dalfen championed the plan, and is optimistic it will pan out. ‘Drama is the most popular kind of programming around the world, but in Canada, at least in English Canada, our own drama is the least watched. That puts us out of step with the rest of the world. We have not been watching programs made by ourselves. This was clearly something that needed fixing, and this drama incentive is part of that.’

The key difference between the incentive plan for French- and English-language drama programming, Dalfen notes, is that the plan for the former was to maintain the current strengths in that market, while the plan for the latter involves trying to bolster already-sagging figures.

-www.crtc.gc.ca