All drama funding will move to broadcaster envelopes, and the CBC will receive nearly 40% of all available funds, if proposed changes at the Canadian Television Fund become official later this month.

CTF plans to move English-language drama to its broadcaster performance envelope stream, meaning all genres for both English- and French-language production will then be financed through the two-year-old system.

‘The broadcaster performance envelope stream has been successful in reducing oversubscription and making things more efficient and predictable for both producers and broadcasters,’ says Danielle Dansereau, the CTF’s interim president. ‘Moving English drama away from the selective process to the envelope stream [is] a natural move.’

Since the CTF overhaul of 2004/05, applicants to English drama have been evaluated on a point system, taking into account the show’s content, marketing plan and potential audience. Under the envelope system, CTF money is allocated by the broadcaster.

Guy Mayson, president and CEO of the CFTPA, has mixed feelings about the switch. It will be more efficient, he says, but the producers association has concerns about how much power this will give the broadcasters.

‘We’re going to try to be optimistic about it, but we know there are some real issues there,’ says Mayson. ‘It’s such a passing of power to the broadcasters to have an envelope. We’d like to see the fund keeping track of business practice, too, so there is a monitoring of what goes on. It puts so much authority in the broadcasters’ hands you have the potential for some abuse, so we’ll have to keep track of that very carefully.’

None of the broadcasters Playback contacted were willing to comment until after the final CTF guidelines are published.

CTF’s 2006/07 guidelines will also allocate 37% of all CTF resources to CBC/Radio-Canada – not the long-term renewable envelope of 50% sought by programming boss Richard Stursberg. Its 37% will support all CBC/SRC content, including Newsworld and RDI shows. It also states that two-thirds of its allocation is earmarked for English-language activity, with French-language work receiving the balance.

Also new to the guidelines this year, the minimum licence fees for English drama programming will be increased. Projects with budgets less than $800,000 per hour will get a minimum of $315,000 per hour from their broadcaster envelopes; MOWs and miniseries with budgets less than $1.8 million per hour will receive a minimum of $325,000 per hour; those with more will get a minimum of 17.5% of the total production budget. The CTF’s caps and licence fee thresholds will be otherwise unchanged.

For 2007/08, the CTF plans to adjust the weight of broadcaster performance envelope factors. It will drop its 5% leverage factor from both French and English envelopes ‘to increase the volume of regional production,’ says Dansereau. The English-language envelopes will also receive increases in audience share factors.

The guideline changes come at the beginning of a big year for the CTF, as it completes its union with Telefilm Canada – becoming a one-administration funder for TV and film projects – and welcomes new president Valerie Creighton.

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