The Canadian Television Fund is an effective tool for putting high-quality Cancon into primetime, but should establish audience benchmarks that more clearly define its success or failure, according to a recent report from its parent, the Department of Canadian Heritage.

The report, released last month, recommends renewal of the 10-year-old private-public fund but notes CTF should move faster on HDTV and asks Telefilm Canada to re-examine its recoupment policy – which it says may be discouraging private, and particularly foreign, investment.

The report also notes that CTF’s 2003 move to a system of broadcaster envelopes has reduced administrative costs and helped to overcome the problem of oversubscription. But as a side effect, it warns that the system has concentrated decision-making in relatively few hands.

The report landed within days of a second study by Auditor General Sheila Fraser that criticized Heritage and its agencies, including CTF and Telefilm, for a lack of diligence in their practices (see story, p. 1).

CTF also recently hired a new president, former SaskFilm boss Valerie Creighton, in preparation for its consolidation with Telefilm early next year (see story, bottom).

The authors of the report also note that CTF-backed shows have drawn declining ratings despite winning positive reviews and a good number of awards – finding that ‘the total audience share of CTF-financed programming has slipped from 4% in 1998/99 to 3.3% in 2002/03 for English-language television, and from 13.3% to 10.1% for French-language television over the same period.’

It also notes that in 2003/04, CTF-supported productions earned 1.4 industry awards per $10 million of production spending. Non-CTF productions earned just under 0.98 awards.

CTF chairman Douglas Barrett welcomes the overall approval of the report, but bristles at the criticism that there are too few decision-makers.

‘Virtually every broadcaster has access to an envelope,’ he says. ‘The fact that they have them is not in and of itself a sign of concentrations.’

He says that applications must still proceed to the CTF and meet all criteria.

Barrett also argues it is too early to add audience criteria to the two year-old envelope system.

‘Not until we’ve seen the effect of two or three years of the envelope system,’ he adds. ‘It will allow us to track year over year whether audiences are growing or shrinking. It’s fine to say, ‘I want 5% of audience,’ but if you don’t have a predictable way of [measuring], it’s not a useful conversation to have.’

Barrett says he also wants more time for study before making definitive statements on the impact of HDTV, the next-big-thing format that’s expected to significantly hike production budgets. He says the CTF already funds ‘lots of shows’ that budget for HDTV, but those applications haven’t been broken out for analysis.

‘There’s a tremendous amount of anecdotal evidence. We just don’t have any hard data on the actual impact, and there’s a lot of conflicting [numbers],’ says Barrett.

Barrett says CTF is dealing with a very full plate. It’s in the process of moving its file-management function to Telefilm, so that next February or March, applications will be filed there. ‘That involves a big change. A lot of employees are affected. It’s a huge transformational issue… HD is not the highest priority.’

Barrett says CTF resources are also being dedicated to preparing a case for increased funding. ‘I’m not talking here about a modest increase,’ he says.

Calls to broadcasters for comment did not yield any interviews.

The report is based on research by the Nordicity Group. Telefilm has since hired the research firm to look into its recoupment policy.

The federal half of CTF’s $200-million-plus annual budget is due to expire in 2007.

www.canadiantelevisionfund.ca