Pamela Brand is executive director and CEO of the Directors Guild of Canada.

How can we increase the amount of Canadian drama that Canadians want to see?

In the last few years, the CRTC has placed increased attention on the goal of increasing the ratings for English-language Canadian drama. The increased viewing of series like Corner Gas and Degrassi: The Next Generation on CTV have encouraged many to think that audience success is attainable, notwithstanding the challenge of U.S. competition and increased audience fragmentation.

But what are the secrets to success?  

Recently, the Canadian Coalition of Audio-visual Unions reviewed 22 years of data using the fall BBM surveys – which were the only ratings data available. Because Canadian broadcasters often use sweep weeks to program highly promoted U.S. ‘event’ shows, the numbers understate year-round viewing of Canadian drama. However, the data does teach us some interesting lessons.

The viewing of Canadian English-language drama as a percentage of all drama viewing increased significantly, from only 4% in 1983 to 11% in 1999. This period coincided with the imposition of drama expenditure requirements on private free-to-air broadcasters and the rise in Canadian pay and specialty services, a number of which also have scheduling and expenditure requirements for Canadian drama. It also coincided with the increase in subsidies from sources like the CTF and tax credits. What becomes clear is that regulatory requirements combined with meaningful public support can drive ratings.

However, another lesson emerges when you look at the viewing data from 1997 to 2003. BBM fall surveys showed viewing hour levels for Canadian drama in the 22 million hours range in 1997, 1998 and 1999. However, these levels did not rise in the next five years. They stayed stubbornly at about the same level.

Why did this occur? The reason becomes apparent when you break out the levels as between the CBC, private TV broadcasters and the Canadian specialty and pay broadcasters.

What happened during this period is that Canadian drama ratings actually declined significantly on the CBC and private TV stations, in particular where viewing numbers for Canadian drama fell from 7.2 million hours to only 2.7 million in 2003. But making up the difference was the stellar performance of the Canadian specialty and pay services, where viewing of Canadian drama rose from 7.5 million to 13.9 million hours during the measured sweep weeks.

Again it is important to note that these are sweep weeks, and private TV would do better if year-round numbers were examined (Canadian-content drama is often scheduled in times other than sweeps weeks). However, the decline in private TV viewing occurred precisely at the time the CRTC removed any Canadian programming expenditure requirements from Canadian private TV stations, but kept them (and in fact increased them) as a percentage of revenue for Canadian pay and specialty services.

CRTC statistics show that expenditures on Canadian drama by private TV stations dropped from a high of $73 million in 1998 to a low of $53.6 million in 2004, while the CCAU estimates that private expenditures on Canadian drama by the pay and specialty sector increased from $50 million in 1999 to almost $97 million in 2003 – all as required by CRTC conditions of licence.

The conclusion is obvious. If you want to increase ratings for Canadian drama, first you have to require broadcasters to spend money on that drama. In the absence of such expenditure requirements, as we have seen over the last six years, broadcasters will spend less and deliver less.

Both Corner Gas and Degrassi have been delivering exceptional ratings. It is worth noting that neither of them would exist but for the drama expenditure requirements imposed on CTV by reason of the ‘benefits’ arising from its takeover by BCE in 2000.

Those benefits run out in 2008. The CCAU will be urging the CRTC in renewal hearings in the next two years to impose a regulatory ‘safety net’ on TV broadcasters, requiring them to spend a specified percentage of their revenue on Canadian drama.

The CRTC has suggested that 6% of revenue should be a ‘target.’ However, as history demonstrates, we need more than a target. If we want to achieve results – namely Canadian drama that Canadians will want to see – we need meaningful expenditure obligations imposed on our broadcasters. In the long run, nothing less will lead to ratings results.

(CCAU members include ACTRA, the Directors Guild of Canada, NABET/CEP and the Writers Guild of Canada.)