I hope you’re all having a relaxing summer, because it’s about to get really busy. In case you didn’t know, this industry is at a crossroads, and upcoming events will go far in steering the future course of independent production in this country.

As I write this, the production community and the private OTA broadcasters are gearing up for the long-anticipated terms-of-trade negotiations, through which the two sides look to arrive at a new template for doing business with one another. The CRTC, sympathetic to the concerns of producers in this era of consolidation and the digital revolution, requested that these terms be hammered out ahead of the broadcaster licence renewals that are fast approaching.

If it all seems rather quiet at the moment, that’s only because most people have gone fishing. Come fall, all concerned will roll up their sleeves and get at it. What the two sides are doing at present is trying to agree on process. According to a source close to the negotiations, the broadcasters involved – CTVglobemedia, Canwest and Rogers (now part of the inner circle since its Citytv buy) – want to negotiate together, while the producers want to sit down with them one at a time.

The producers feel, first of all, that the casters are individually powerful enough as is, especially after CTVgm and Rogers divvied up CHUM and Canwest swallowed Alliance Atlantis. They also see very different business practices going on at CTVgm and Canwest, and Rogers is a wild card, so no blanket agreement will suffice. And they think that negotiating individually is in the spirit of what the CRTC has asked for.

Talk to indie content makers in this country and they will tell you that they are feeling negative effects of the recent takeovers: longer licence fee periods, digital rights taken for what they characterize as little or no money, and programs being offered in various platforms – including multiple TV channels – for meager compensation. In some instances – but this is hardly the norm – broadcasters have displayed outright hostility toward indie producers.

Producers believe, and rightly so, that their broadcast partners should have digital rights, as they are the ones best equipped to exploit them, but they want to be paid in terms they deem fair. Quantifying the value of digital content remains a nebulous area, but the CFTPA – negotiating on behalf of English-Canadian producers, while the APFTQ will look after the French – believes that great strides have been made in terms of assigning dollar values to content on the web, and says it has plenty of research that it is more than happy to share.

And the CFTPA means business, having recruited Gordon Ritchie, Canadian negotiator of the North American Free Trade Agreement, for these talks. Ritchie knows a thing or two about representing the underdog.

Meanwhile, the producers association has had a preliminary meeting with the CBC ahead of formal negotiations, which are expected to go forward with the pubcaster in late August or early September.

Just a few weeks ago, the Ceeb sent a curious submission to the CRTC as part of the regulator’s ongoing reassessment of new media. In it, the net totally downplayed new media’s role in displacing traditional TV or bringing any significant revenue to broadcasters. It was a head-scratchingly anachronistic stand, and one that flies in the face of CBC English boss Richard Stursberg’s recent bullish statements about all things digital. (‘We are a content company, no longer just a television or radio company,’ he said not so long ago.)

The CBC’s submission comes across as a thinly veiled pre-emptive strike in its forthcoming bargaining with producers. Let the games begin!

For the moment people are putting on a happy face ahead of negotiations. ‘We’re partners in production,’ each side will say of the other, ‘we’re being reasonable, and I expect they will be reasonable, too.’

Well, that would be nice, but if other recent talks involving bargaining in the digital age, including the ACTRA strike, the Writers Guild of America strike, and the current unrest between the studios and the Screen Actors Guild, are any indication, we know that smiles can turn sour pretty quickly.

It’s with heavy heart that I announce that this is the last issue for TV columnist Tamsen Tillson, who will be stepping away from journalism to focus on her involvement with the Arts Council of Muskoka.

Tamsen made a name for herself in the pages of Variety. She began contributing to Playback more than two years ago, and quickly made a significant impression. When our magazine adopted a more column-driven format, she took over the ever-important Small Screen space, and quickly made it her own. Her deep industry knowledge, insight and barbed wit quickly made The Small Screen a must-read, as well as something that lightened the mood for staff on many a late press night.

On a number of occasions I have had to field calls from unhappy broadcasters who felt dissed by one of Tamsen’s most recent missives. Invariably, they would add, ‘but don’t get me wrong, I think she’s great.’ One industry heavyweight suggests Tamsen would make a good CRTC chair.

While Playback will of course continue to closely follow the latest goings-on in the world of television, we will unveil future directions for The Small Screen in coming weeks. Until then, we thank Tamsen for making such a tremendous contribution and for being a good friend, and we wish her all the best on her new adventures.