Ottawa: The CFTPA’s 2003 edition of Prime Time in Ottawa, Feb. 5-7, was a sold-out success with more than 600 delegates and guests in attendance. Highlights included keynote addresses by CRTC chair Charles Dalfen, L.A. Consul General Colin Robertson, The Globe and Mail political correspondent Jeffrey Simpson and Canadian ex-pat and Hollywood movie producer Ivan Reitman.

‘No More Drama? Changing the future of home-grown drama’ emerged arguably as the conference’s most important panel session, moderated by Trina McQueen, who again was front and centre, almost as if she had never, or could ever, retire.

McQueen is preparing a report on the state of Canadian drama for the CRTC, a process that will encompass ‘listening to 200 individuals’ from across the industry.

McQueen told Playback she’ll have a ‘preliminary chat’ with Dalfen. ‘Based on that I’ll start thinking about a coherent set of recommendations, which will be delivered in late March or early April.’

The Prime Time panel discussion on drama looked at the issue from three perspectives: What’s the problem?, Who cares? and Let’s Just Fix-it, the latter in the form of summary recommendations.

‘One of the most important things,’ says McQueen, ‘is the ‘Who cares?’ part.’ She says there is some consensus as to what the problems and solutions might be, but there has to be a will to change the situation that extends beyond the industry and industry institutions, ‘an almost national will… that [drama] is something really important to citizens.’

‘My belief is that if there were a way to make drama, or at least a lot of popular drama, profitable, we wouldn’t have any problems because broadcasters would do it naturally,’ says McQueen. ‘And I think that should be the long-term goal. In the short term, however, I think drama is going to need public subsidy, and that means [fostering] a public will that drama is something the public should invest in.

‘My hope is that long term, people will get rich making cop shows in Canada just as they do everywhere else in the world; and the more auteur, creative or risky drama is what will use the public money.’

‘Financial horizon’

Looking at the ‘financial horizon,’ McQueen pointed out the $232-milllion CTV Bell Globemedia benefits envelope will expire in five years, there is the possibility the Canadian Television Fund could be cut back and that ‘more than half the public funds’ are already going to dramatic programming.

Loren Mawhinney, VP production Global Television Network and CH, said recent ratings results are ‘totally depressing; all that hard work resulting in such dismal numbers.’

Writers Guild of Canada executive director and CEO Maureen Parker said the decline in WGC-contracted one-hour drama is unacceptable – from 173 hours in ’99 to 65 hours in ’02.

And while no one disputed the new WGC numbers, Paul Gratton, VP and general manager Drive-In Classics and station manager Space: The Imagination Station and Bravo!, said he expects a huge demand for LFP and EIP drama funding in ’03/04, predicting a major oversubscription crisis. Two quirkier drama series proposals are part of CHUM Television’s Alberta licence bids, as well, he said.

More drama orders

Bill Mustos, CTV senior VP, dramatic programming, told the Prime Time crowd CTV has not decreased its order for Canadian drama programs, and that the network’s 2003/04 drama order ‘is our biggest drama slate ever.’ (see story p. 2).

Norm Bolen, EVP programming, Alliance Atlantis Broadcasting, said his specialty channels are also looking at an increase in drama orders.

With virtually all the programmers looking to commission more drama, there seems to be deep-seated worry the CTF will be completely oversubscribed this year. Broadcasters are worried they won’t get very far down their priority lists.

Rene Bourdages, senior VP, broadcasting and operations at Groupe TVA, said there ‘will be some casualties,’ adding French broadcasters ‘expect [to pay] higher licence fees.’ He said broadcasters in Quebec will introduce some measure of industry cooperation by ‘staggering priorities’ and capping any one network’s Broadcaster Priority point envelope at 40 points, instead of the maximum 75 points.

Laszlo Barna, president of Toronto’s Barna-Alper Productions, said reduced production budgets are robbing shows of interesting setups, locations and story twists, but the audience will continue to compare Canadian shows with high-end one-hour U.S. dramas. (He said The West Wing is produced for US$5.4 million per episode, ‘basically my budget for 13 hours.’)

Mustos confirmed the growing differential between Canadian and U.S. drama budgets ($950,000 to $1 million compared to $4 million, in terms of series), but he said ratings are ‘not completely dire.’ TV movies are working well, he said, pointing to some 20 Canadian TV movies that attracted at least one million viewers, and in some instances, up to 1.5 million.

On the resource issue, Wayne Grigsby, president and CEO of Chester, NS-based Big Motion Pictures, said U.S. drama series have an average of 11 writers, while ‘we’re lucky to have four.’

Gratton questioned ‘the obsession’ with the top-10 ranking perspective and ‘the U.S. model’ in general.

Spirited responses

The issue of ‘Who cares?’ raised several spirited responses.

Mustos invoked the cultural complexity of individuals and said drama is important because it ‘gets at the truth of human experience.’ He said it would be a big mistake for Canada to be left out of ‘film fiction, [which] is the dominant art.’

Gratton raised the issue of collective experience and said dramatic stories are essential in ‘reflecting our values and mythology. Drama is an essential component of what constitutes a country.’

Barna said there has to be an industry commitment ‘to creators who will continue to lead the way.’ He said the drama report has ‘to struggle with the creative destiny and vision of the country… and it’s all about industrial jobs.’

Many-sided solution

Bolen said the ‘specialty pattern’ represents an important alternative to the ‘too imitative’ one-hour cop show model. He said Showcase series like Bliss, Paradise Falls and Trailer Park Boys are cost-effective and have had good audience numbers and invoke second-window and multiple plays as a way to build cumulative ratings.

In an off-panel comment, Slawko Klymkiw, CBC executive director of network programming, said he also anticipates a huge demand on public funds. He said the discussion should not be limited to series, and recommended a separate CTF envelope for the public broadcaster. He said the system needs ‘a mixed economy’ of higher- and lower-budget programming.

Gratton followed suit by saying all broadcasters should have their own CTF envelopes. That model would look at each service’s profile and traditions in a drama framework, setting network growth and ratings targets for specific categories of drama.

Mawhinney said Canadian drama series will have to forget about foreign financing and suggested ‘a mixed palette’ of style and budget genres should be explored. She said the industry could also look at evolving models in markets such as Australia and Quebec.

Claire Samson, APFTQ chair and CEO, said the slew of talk shows, print and media outlets profiling stars have helped build the popularity of Quebec drama series. And she wondered if big-budget Canadian drama wasn’t one of the first casualties of the deep-seated dependency on simultaneous substitution of U.S. primetime series.

The WGC’s Parker recommended ‘broadcasters have to put more money into [the system].’ She said licence fees for drama are higher in Europe than Canada and that Australian broadcasters, as a percentage of total revenues, are investing almost twice as much as Canadian broadcasters.

Mustos said it’s ‘important not to rewrite the TV Policy,’ but perhaps audience results should be tied to content credits as a form of incentive.

Like others, Mustos said program planning is ‘a big problem. The CTF needs an overhaul,’ he said.

‘We really need some stability,’ added Bolen.

Dalfen is positive

In a separate address to Prime Time, Dalfen agreed ‘the situation is ominous,’ but he was mainly upbeat, saying a solution could emerge if all sectorial players continue to develop ‘a sense of common purpose.’

In addition to the McQueen report, Dalfen said the commission has asked audience research export Barry Kiefl to prepare a report on international primetime programming over the past five years. He said two upcoming government reports would also be of particular interest, the report on the broadcasting system by the House Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, and the review of Canadian content in film and TV undertaken by Francois Macerola.

Dalfen said writer/producer Guy Fournier has been asked to file an accompanying report on French-language drama with specific reference to accessible programming, a star system, wide-scale cross-media promotions, and the impact of relative stability in program financing and scheduling.

The full text of key Prime Time 2003 speeches, including L.A. Consul General Robertson (‘Canadian, eh! A View from Los Angeles’), Dalfen (‘Dancing With Risk’) and ‘Ivan Reitman tells producers how to boost their box office’ are posted on the CFTPA website at www.cftpa.ca.