Cannes, France: The Canadian Television Fund Review Task Force on Coproductions has approved new guidelines eliminating the distinctive coprod envelope, capped at $10 million this year. Deborah Drisdell, director of international relations at Telefilm Canada and chair of the ctf’s coproduction committee, says it was important to ‘go public at mipcom and inform our partners of the new position.’

Drisdell says Canada’s European partners, including France, a major investor in coproduced programming, were prepared to ‘retaliate’ against Canada, citing the ’99/2000 cap limitation as a violation of treaty coproduction principles.

Besides scrapping the cap, the rule changes deem content from the foreign coproducing side qualifies as Canadian content, with the additional requirement the Canadian broadcaster(s) meet the minimum licence fee threshold based on the entire budget. This year, the licence fee threshold for coproductions was against the Canadian portion of the budget.

In relation to the new threshold requirement, which will oblige producers to reconsider their coproduction financing strategy, a source close to the issue told Playback a system of program caps or maximums for licence fees required of broadcasters will also be introduced.

The rule changes effectively treat coprods like any other Canadian program applying for ctf money, but in a sense raise the bar for broadcasters, says Drisdell. With the threshold against the entire program budget, up to an anticipated maximum, fewer coprods may be eligible for next year’s ctf funding.