The Canadian Television Fund will go without nearly 20% of its annual budget until it can better account for how it spends its money, says Shaw Communications boss Jim Shaw, who defended his company’s withdrawal of its annual $56-million contribution to the TV funder in a recent interview with Playback Daily.

Shaw says he is withholding the money until CTF provides a ‘statement of accountability’ listing which shows it has supported, plus what ratings and revenue they earned.

‘Is that too much to ask when you pay $56 million a year?’ he asks, noting that the fund has had $1 billion to spend since its inception.

Shaw’s sentiments echo those in a November 2005 report from Auditor General Sheila Fraser that slammed the CTF on a variety of governance issues and a lack of clear goals.

‘We keep paying, but what shows are being made? Am I just getting shows like Trailer Park Boys with all those guys running around half-naked, swearing and smoking weed? Is that what Canadians are getting?’ he asks.

Shaw informed CTF chair Doug Barrett of the decision last month, prompting a statement from the fund that said it would meet with the cable giant sometime in January in hopes of working things out.

Shaw says there will be no meeting until he sees CTF’s records. Repeated calls for comment to the fund were not returned.

The loss of funding puts dozens of productions for 2007/08 in jeopardy.

‘It’s a huge hit… and I’m hugely concerned,’ says Laszlo Barna, president and CEO of Toronto-based Barna-Alper Productions. ‘A lot of people are on pins and needles because of this.’

Barna, a former CTF board member, concedes that the agency has problems, noting, ‘we’ve all been frustrated by the CTF at various times.’ But he takes issue with Shaw’s allegations that CTF money produces few hit shows.

‘Look at Little Mosque on the Prairie. It took everyone by surprise,’ Barna says of the new CBC sitcom, which attracted two million viewers to its premiere episode, and a still-strong 1.2 million for its second. ‘The nature of the television business is [that it’s] all about doing a body of work so that the hits can emerge,’ he adds.

Shaw is also vexed over the 37% slice of CTF money earmarked for independent productions airing on the CBC. ‘I don’t know what for – I paid [the CBC] already!’ he says, referring to taxpayer dollars. ‘Where is the incentive to produce anything good if you’re gifted everything? It should be matched dollars at minimum, or give the money back to Canadians.’

Cable and satellite companies are required by the CRTC to contribute 5% of their annual revenue to the fund. The federal watchdog could take Shaw to court, but is saying little for now.

Rogers and Bell ExpressVu are also major CTF contributors. A Rogers official declined to comment, and calls to Bell were not returned.