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BCE’s proposed $2.32-billion acquisition of ctv has spawned the largest benefits package in Canadian broadcast history. A summary of the package’s on-screen component includes $140 million earmarked for original priority programming – or at least 175 independently produced hours not contingent on support from the over-subscribed Canadian Television Fund.

Highlights of the package’s on-screen: priority programming component include spending $45.5 million on new mows over the seven-year term – two per year, on average, providing an additional $25 million to extend ctf-funded drama series from 13 hours to 18 hours, reserving $7 million for third-party promotions, and investing $5 million in dramatic Canadian screenwriters and/or the (shared) acquisition of life and adaptation rights for broadcast. The package also anticipates $18 million set aside for mow companion and big-budget event-style documentaries.

Other direct programming investments in the bce package include $23 million for broadly defined, regionally based, interactive entertainment series, and a direct, one-time contribution of $10 million to the Bell Broadcast & New Media Fund.

Playback spoke to two ctv executives, Trina McQueen, executive vp responsible for the network’s overall programming and sales, and Bill Mustos, vp dramatic television, and to bce executive Jim Macdonald, senior vp and chief media services officer (see next issue for Macdonld’s comments).

Playback will run this question-and-answer dissection of the benefits package in two parts, with the second appearing in our Aug. 21 issue. This issue’s installment keys on the priority programming aspect of the package, its rollout and implications for independent producers.

On the transition period…

McQueen: ‘I guess our ambition is in the first program year after the decision [starting September 2001]. I don’t see any reason why we couldn’t do the documentaries, for example. And I don’t think there is a particular reason why we shouldn’t be able to do the big variety things. I think we can get started on the regional programming. For the viewer and not only the independent producer, I think they’ll start to see ctv looking different in the first year, and being transformed by year two.’

Mustos: ‘Hopefully if we have this decision by December or January we kick into high gear in development, right then. I guess the beauty of not being tied to the deadlines of the ctf means we can aim to be in production certainly in the [program] year that begins September 2001. And then it just becomes a question of how early in the year we actually take delivery so that it shows up on screen that year, or the following.’

Over and above eight-hours of priority programming…

Mustos: ‘I think it’s reasonable to assume we’ll be going to ctf for a significant portion, as much as possible, indeed. We are very present in the ctf, but that is in part why we didn’t want these bce benefits also to be dependent on the ctf, because we thought we’d literally overload the fund and make it impossible for us to know if we were actually going to be able to deliver on these benefits. And secondly, if we were successful, we’d certainly be taking money away from the rest of the system.’

McQueen: ‘The eight hours of priority programming is not affected at all by these benefits. That is something we have to [pay] out of ctv’s normal program funding streams, which includes going to the ctf. The benefits will provide [program financing] over and above those eight hours. They will not be dependent on Telefilm Canada or the Licence Fee Program.’

(The only ‘crossover’ element in the benefits package is the $25-million envelope for drama series extensions. The investment takes the form of a ctv ‘substitute’ licence fee top-up, an equity investment and a distribution advance reserved for ctf-funded series to be extended from 13 hours to 18 hours.)

Flexibility with producers…

Mustos: ‘The most important thing to us is and will always be the creative. I think we have a really solid track record of working with producers, small and large, Toronto-based and regional-based. We’ve got Wayne Grigsby in Halifax, a small company by the name of Portfolio in Toronto, Sarrazin-Couture, Bradshaw MacLeod [in Alberta], Triptych, Keatley MacLeod in Vancouver, Forefront. The list goes on and on.’

‘I think what’s great about this plan under the bce benefits is that it provides total flexibility. I think you’ll see programs coming out of the Heroes, Champions and Villains [a new mow series] that will be 10 out of 10 because that will be the right thing to do creatively.

‘But we’ll always have the flexibility to bring in an American or European star, if that’s what’s right. Right in a way that is not a forced fit as is sometimes the case with treaty coproduction. We don’t have to be tied to the policies of the ctf, and I think that is a really positive thing.’

On the range of new ctv investment options…

Mustos: ‘The quick answer to the $3.5-million budget [for mows] is that it is not a fixed number, or ceiling. If there is an opportunity to do one of these as a coproduction and then a foreign presale, or the large distribution advance for a foreign territory is made available in the production financing, then we could see the budgets of these movies go well beyond $3.5 million, and that is also really exciting. The $3.5 million is kind of a benchmark for a Canadian-budgeted tv movie and to show what our maximum contribution would be.

‘We will not go beyond the $2.5 million [representing 70% of the $3.5 million production budget in the form of a licence fee, a replacement for the lfp top-up, an equity investment offer] equivalent to what one might expect to get from Telefilm Canada, and an offer for a distribution advance for roughly half the world.

I say offer because these things are not being imposed on producers. If they would rather work with another distributor, or if they have their own distribution arm, all that is something that can be negotiated. But there is a lot of room and a lot of different scenarios under which that budget could be enhanced.

‘When we’re talking about the $2.5 million, we’re talking about ‘a full-meal-deal.’ I’m sure each deal will be different, but there’s lots of flexibility to pull back from distribution, or lower the equity amount should there be other equity investors.’

McQueen: ‘The fundamental thing of this [the range of ctv’s participation] is producer’s choice. Even more fundamental is making it as easy as we could for the financing of a movie and provide the producer with a full range of [investment] choices. Then creativity can again be the real job of the producer. The job of financing can overwhelm the creative.’

Three or more ctv-financed mows by year three…

Mustos: ‘We’re not likely going to be able to fulfil that in the first year. I think we’ll be aiming for a goal of three movies by year three and four. The other factor is that if a producer chooses not to take ‘the full-meal-deal’ – the full $2.5 million – then we’ll be able to take that money not being used by that producer and roll it into another movie.’

McQueen: ‘The final thing [in establishing the $45.5-million mow allocation] we did was leave a little room for inflationary costs at the end of the seven-year period. The ambition is to have enough in there to deliver 14 first-quality movies, and say to the crtc, ‘Here is exactly how we spent our dollars.’ ‘

next issue takes a look at the international distribution of programs commissioned under the benefits package, ctv/bce’s plans for new media programming and the role of Landscape Entertainment, a joint-venture production company partnered with veteran Canadian producer Robert Cooper. The interview also considers two documentary streams and issues related to regionally produced programs. *

-www.ctv.ca

-www.ctv.ca