The CFTPA has introduced 10 new awards to showcase excellence in Canadian production — an area that has recently come under pressure for not appealing to the general public.

‘Given recent coverage and comments made by [Jim] Shaw about Canadian content, we felt it was time to raise a glass to excellence in independently produced domestic programming,’ said CFTPA director of communications and media Jeff Brinton. ‘These awards are a great platform to generate recognition, not only with our members but also the public.’

CFTPA Indie Awards will be given out for best feature film, best miniseries, best TV movie, best primetime drama, best convergent new media production, and best program or series in the following genres: documentary, comedy, children’s and youth program, and lifestyle or reality. There is also a special jury’s choice award.

Deadline for nominations is Oct. 15, with the awards to be presented on Feb. 20, 2008 — the opening day of the CFTPA’s annual conference in Ottawa.

‘With the announcement of the CFTPA Indie Awards, the association demonstrates its ongoing commitment to the promotion, support and celebration of excellence in the field of production,’ said CFTPA president and CEO Guy Mayson in a statement.

When he withdrew his company’s monthly contributions to the Canadian Television Fund, Shaw Communications CEO Jim Shaw complained it was financing shows that weren’t generating large audiences. Shaw resumed the payments after the CRTC formed a CTF task force. The task force’s controversial recommendations have divided the industry, and the CRTC still hasn’t announced its final decisions on amendments to the fund.

Last Wednesday, the CFTPA told the CRTC that a strong independent production sector is a key to creating a diversity of voices in the media, as the regulator held a weeklong public hearing examining the effect of consolidation.

‘Canadian independent producers provide a rich diversity of programming sources and creativity to the broadcasting system,’ said Mayson.

Producer Julia Keatley, who also appeared on behalf of the CFTPA, said greater access and thus more diversity would be achieved by upping the amount of priority programming major broadcast groups must source from independent producers to 85% from the current 75%.

Media giants including CTVglobemedia, CanWest MediaWorks, Quebecor Media and Rogers Communications all argued no new rules were needed because diversity has increased with the proliferation of specialty TV channels and new distribution channels, such as the Internet, despite several recent large media mergers.

But organizations representing journalists, such as the Canadian Association of Journalists and the Canadian Media Guild, countered that more outlets didn’t equate to more diversity if content was just repurposed across more platforms and TV programming was incessantly repeated.