Barry Kiefl is the president of Canadian Media Research, based in Ottawa. Viewing statistics in the article are based on Nielsen Media Research data and have been analyzed using a proprietary statistical model.

Which network had the largest primetime audience for Canadian drama series in 2004/05? I doubt any reader would guess that it was Space: The Imagination Station!

In a recent speech, CBC president Robert Rabinovitch said about Canadian TV: ‘There’s something missing, and that something is drama – televised English-language drama.’ Yet, in the next breath he said, ‘What we are talking about is dramatic series, comedy and entertainment programming…’

I don’t think that comedy or entertainment should be categorized as drama. The CRTC, which has been working on program classification for almost 50 years, defines drama as ongoing dramatic series, MOWs, miniseries, feature films and anthology drama.

In a recent Globe and Mail column, John Doyle questioned the veracity of an analysis we recently conducted of Canadian drama series on CBC versus CTV.

Our data, based on CRTC program categories, were absolutely correct, but Mr. Doyle wanted to quibble about whether one of the shows on CTV should be counted as Canadian, since it is set in the United States and has references to the U.S. By these criteria, a futuristic science fiction series or a historical series pre-Confederation shouldn’t be counted as Canadian. Maybe a drama with a faux beach setting shouldn’t count either?

If Mr. Rabinovitch and Mr. Doyle have trouble defining what they are really talking about when it comes to TV drama, how can we ever develop policy, funding and a program strategy that will change things?

The real truth about Canadian drama is that neither the CBC nor its private counterparts are investing enough in ongoing dramatic series, which account for some 25.9% of all primetime TV viewing – far more than comedy, news, sports, etc.

Drama series in 2004/05 had a larger share of primetime viewing than MOWs, drama specials, feature films, sitcoms, sketch comedy, and stand-up comedy combined. Drama series are the most important program category to audiences, even in an age when reality programming seems so omnipresent.

What about comedy and entertainment programming? The fact is that Canadian producers do compete successfully in these program categories. Shows such as Corner Gas, The Rick Mercer Report and This Hour Has 22 Minutes are among the best TV comedy in the world. Canadian Idol, meanwhile, draws millions of viewers.

We can also equal the best the U.S. and the rest of the world has to offer when it comes to MOWs and miniseries, as demonstrated by such examples as Anne of Green Gables, Trudeau and Plague City: SARS in Toronto. MOWs such as Love and Hate even sold to U.S. networks, attracting big American audiences there as well.

However, the Canadian production sector has never been able to compete in the most important category of TV, ongoing dramatic series.

The 25.9% of primetime viewing spent with drama series is dominated by foreign, mostly U.S. drama series. In 2004/05, Canadian drama series accounted for 3.5% of this viewing and the remainder went to foreign series. Actually, the audience for Canadian drama series in 2004/05 represented a better year than most, which brings me to why that is and another truth about Canadian TV drama.

If you watch Showcase or Space, you will know that much of their primetime schedule contains reruns of old Canadian drama series. Last TV season, Space broadcast programs such as Stargate: SG-1 and Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda hundreds of times, and Showcase aired hundreds of old episodes of Da Vinci’s Inquest and Cold Squad (as well as some original drama).

Showcase aired more Canadian drama series in primetime than any other network – 719 hours in 2004/05. Space was not far behind with 663 hours. The major conventional networks were led by Global (187 hours) and CTV (106 hours), while CBC trailed with only 67 hours.

Space had more eyeballs for Canadian drama series than any other network – a total of some 76 million hours of viewing last TV season. CTV, despite having many fewer hours of Canadian drama series, was not far behind with nearly 62 million viewing hours.

The large number of reruns and repeats of old Canadian drama aired on networks such as Space and Showcase is the primary reason that Canadian drama managed to capture 3.5% of primetime viewing in 2004/05. But is this the way to really compete with U.S. drama? Would it be more productive to allow specialty channels to air a little more foreign programming and concentrate resources on developing more first-run Canadian drama?

CTV was far ahead of any other network with almost 600,000 viewers for each hour of Canadian drama series the network aired last season (which includes repeats). Showcase, the leader in terms of program hours, captured only 79,000 viewers/hour; Space, the channel with the largest number of viewing hours, attracted only 115,000 viewers per hour.

These specialty networks play an important after-market role for Canadian producers, but this analysis shows that the major conventional networks have the most potential for attracting large audiences to drama series. With some additional analysis this data could be used to prioritize funds for the production of drama series.

Canadian drama on English TV has always been in critical condition. Foreign – i.e. U.S. programming – has always dominated English-Canadian TV, even as far back as 1960, when the CBC was the only channel available in most communities and CBC relied heavily on U.S. programming. Even in 2004/05, CBC had twice as many hours of primetime foreign drama series and movies as Canadian programs in these genres.

We will never supplant the important role that Hollywood plays in Canadians’ lives, but we can achieve a better balance of Canadian versus foreign drama. I have analyzed this situation for some 30 years and, unfortunately, there has never been any significant improvement – not because we lack the talent or ability but because Canadian TV producers have never been given the proper resources.

The federal government needs to seriously examine the state of Canadian television, both public and private parts of the system, and provide incentives to produce enough first-run Canadian drama to significantly change the viewing situation.

The time has come to recognize the shortcomings in the Canadian TV system and develop a long-term strategy to establish Canadian sovereignty on our TV screens. This can’t be done by tweaking the current system. I believe that it will require an overhaul of the CBC and considerably more funding for the system as a whole over an extended period of years.

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