OTTAWA-GATINEAU — Shaw Communications wants to give the money distributors pay into the Canadian Television Fund back to TV subscribers because the ‘subsidy’ model has failed to create a viable homegrown production industry, representatives of the cable giant told the CRTC on Thursday.

‘We don’t believe in funds,’ said Shaw SVP of regulatory and corporate affairs Ken Stein, shooting down Rogers Communications’ earlier proposal for the creation of a separate fund stream for more commercially minded productions.

‘The model will always be flawed if it’s based on a subsidy model,’ added Michael Ferras, VP of regulatory affairs.

During the company’s at-times combative appearance before the commission, Stein argued that the fund has not created a viable domestic production industry, citing an increase in viewing of foreign, mostly U.S., programming in 2005/06 from the previous year in the priority genres supported by the CTF.

He pointed out that non-Canadian shows account for 83% of all English-language drama viewing, and that just 4% of English-language drama viewing is to CTF-supported productions.

Stein also attacked private broadcasters, saying they use the fund to reduce the amount of money they pay in licence fees for Canadian programming.

‘Private broadcasters use CTF money to subsidize their Canadian-content obligation,’ complained Stein. ‘At the same time, Canadian private broadcasters have devoted an increasing share of their programming expenditures to U.S. shows.’

Shaw Communications’ top gun was not in the room. Company CEO Jim Shaw — who one year ago temporarily stopped his monthly contributions to the fund — told the CRTC that he would not appear at the hearings because chair Konrad von Finckenstein isn’t overseeing them and, hence, the commission isn’t taking the matter seriously enough.

Both Shaw Communications and Quebecor Media, which also briefly stopped its payments, have been under heavy fire from the creative side of the industry this week.

Quebecor appeared before the CRTC right after Shaw and again said it should be allowed to put its CTF contributions into a separate fund that it would control.

Company chief Pierre Karl Péladeau pledged to augment the current contributions made by its cable company Videotron from $19 million to $30 million and to spend $100 million over three years. Quebecor would retain copyright to much of the funded programming, and funds would also finance content for video-on-demand, the web and other new media initiatives.

‘The CTF doesn’t finance productions destined to be exploited on new distribution platforms…The youth are going there en masse and they don’t have sufficient access to our productions,’ Péladeau told the commission.

Péladeau and Quebecor’s other representatives refused to take a stance when panel chair Rita Cugini asked if the alternate proposal put forward by Rogers would be acceptable.

‘We have one clear proposal and it’s well thought out and rigorously developed. It’s the one that would best serve the Broadcasting Act,’ responded EVP Luc Lavoie.

In an interview with Playback Daily, Péladeau was equally evasive about his thoughts on Shaw’s proposal to return the fees to TV subscribers.

‘I would not comment on Shaw’s proposal. I don’t think it’s our role to comment on the proposals of others,’ he said. ‘We think that our proposal is the best one.’

The idea of splitting the CTF into two streams — one for culture productions and the other for more commercial fare — was adamantly opposed by the creative community during appearances by unions and associations on Monday. The hearings will conclude on Friday.