The Directors Guild of Canada and ACTRA are again calling for enforced, higher spending on domestic drama following a report released Wednesday that says broadcasters put less money into the genre last year than in 2005.

According to the CRTC’s annual report on broadcaster finances, conventional TV outlets across the country spent $70.9 million on domestic dramas in 2006, down roughly 14%. It was the only genre that took a loss. Human-interest and lifestyle programming enjoyed a healthy gain of 22.3% to $101 million, followed by music/variety, which rose 20.7% to $34.9 million. Spending was also up on Canadian-made news, sports and game shows.

‘This is completely unacceptable,’ said DGC chief Pamela Brand in a statement released Thursday, noting that spending on foreign drama was up. ‘Instead of providing more support for Canadian drama, they increased their spending for Hollywood programs.’

Ad revenue also rose last year — albeit only slightly. Local ad sales were up 3.4% in ’06 to $375.4 million, while national ad revenues held steady at $1.5 billion. The same report noted that sluggish sales and overall higher spending on programming drove profits at conventional stations down by 62% to $91 million.

The DGC, ACTRA and WGC are among the groups that want the CRTC to force broadcasters to spend at least 7% of their ad revenue on Canadian-made drama.

‘Canadian private broadcasters bid against each other at the L.A. screenings each May and spend more on U.S. programming in one day than they do on Canadian drama in one year,’ added ACTRA national executive director Stephen Waddell.

Maureen Parker, executive director of the WGC, added, ‘Private broadcasters operate in a regulated market that protects them from American competition. In return they are obligated to provide something different than the U.S. broadcasters – and that means high quality Canadian drama.’

Representatives at the Canadian Association of Broadcasters were unavailable for comment.