If you want cash for a TV show next year, odds are you’ll go through a broadcaster to get it. The Canadian Television Fund this month revealed its newly overhauled set of rules for the coming fiscal year and, as previously reported in Playback, will funnel most of its money through a system of broadcaster envelopes, allocating funds to ‘casters that, in turn, will dole out to producers on a per-genre basis subject to CTF approval.

CTF has also done away with its dual application process, merging the Licence Fee Program and the Equity Investment Program into a single unit to be jointly administered by the fund and Telefilm Canada, and has earmarked a percentage to help boost English-language drama.

The new deal consists of three categories: broadcaster envelopes, English drama and a stream for ‘special initiatives.’ Producers may apply to only one stream.

CTF is assuming it will get $62.5 million from the Department of Canadian Heritage, although prime minister-to-be Paul Martin has pledged to restore the federal contribution to $100 million. Cable and satellite companies are expected to chip in $115.5 million. Funding for fiscal year 2004/05 becomes available April 1, although broadcasters and producers may begin talks as early as the new year.

English drama applicants will be evaluated on a point system similar to that of the former EIP, taking into account the show’s marketing plan, content, the licence fee and the broadcaster’s previous ability to draw audiences to other CTF shows.

Most other shows will put in for the envelopes, which cover all other genres and will be proportionate to each broadcaster’s history of supporting CTF programs. Broadcasters are expected to finance CTF-eligible genres that they have aired in the past, and must pay minimum licence fees set by the fund for each genre.

Producers will negotiate with prospective broadcasters and, if approved, will then file papers with CTF to confirm their eligibility. The process does not tie either side to specific deadlines – allowing shows to be greenlit throughout the year.

Both the English-language stream and the broadcaster envelopes retain aspects of the former LFP and EIP. CTF contributions equalling the first 20% of a production budget (25% for major one-hour dramas) will be given as licence top-ups, but any additional contributions will be equity investments subject to a new, standard and non-negotiable recoupment schedule.

CTF has been working to revamp itself for several months, spurred by its springtime funding crisis and calls from the industry for a simpler system. A single application, broadcaster envelopes and year-round funding were foremost among the demands from stakeholders.

‘I’m pleased we actually came up with a set of rules that makes sense,’ says Ira Levy, CTF board member and executive producer at Toronto’s Breakthrough Films & Television. He feels the new deal makes CTF more stable, efficient and able to respond more quickly to the creative process.

Producers are generally pleased. ‘We believe this new and improved fund will put more money into production instead of administration. I think the board has done a lot of hard work here,’ says Guy Mayson, acting president and CEO of the CFTPA. ‘These changes will send a message to the government that the whole industry will do whatever it takes to make the fund work.’

David Smith of Toronto’s S&S Productions is pleased with the single application point, but is reserving judgement until the full, final CTF plans are released, most likely in December. ‘The devil is always in the details,’ says Smith.

Moving the bulk of the decision-making onto broadcasters, however, could make them unpopular among producers if shows are turned down. But Glenn O’Farrell, president and CEO of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, isn’t too worried. ‘I think what we have here is another step in the right direction,’ he says. ‘We have no objection to having a more active role in the system.’

The old small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) and regional bonuses have been axed and revamped, respectively.

Despite an aggressive lobby effort to the contrary, Vancouver is still considered a region, making productions there eligible for bonuses not available to those in Toronto or Montreal. The regional bonus is now part of the broadcaster envelopes.

There is no longer a cash bonus, but broadcasters active in non-Toronto and non-Montreal markets will have a bigger kitty with which to play. A regional incentive will work to bump up a broadcaster’s annual envelope, depending on the investment the broadcaster made to the regions in the past year. Increased regional production expenditures this year increase next year’s incentives and vice versa.

‘This is a good surrogate for the regional bonus,’ says Rob Simmons, CFO at Vancouver-based Studio B Productions. ‘It means more money in the hands of broadcasters we work with.’

With 93% of all CTF funding last year given to SME producers, it didn’t make sense to continue to bonus what the vast majority of the industry was collecting, says Phil Serruya, CTF director of communications. The SME bonus was known to some as the LCP – or ‘large company penalty.’

The SME bonus loss is a ‘potential concern but not a grave concern’ going forward, says Simmons.

-www.canadiantelevisionfund.ca

with files from Ian Edwards