ACCESS, Tele-Quebec, Television Northern Canada and tvontario, scn and Knowledge Network have joined in a lobby group, the Association for Tele-Education in Canada, which is pressing for some major changes in the Canadian Television Fund’s funding guidelines to recognize educational broadcasters as an entity in their own right, alongside private broadcasters and the cbc.

In particular, atec is recommending that:

* distinctively Canadian (10 out of 10 Cancon) long-form docs broadcast in primetime should be entitled to the 150% Cancon credit given to dramatic programming;

* the portion of the ctf allocated to docs, performing arts and variety programming be increased from 20% to 25% to 30%, respectively, and a specific portion of the fund be set aside for children’s programming;

* when a program is licensed for only a portion of the country, the broadcast licence trigger for regional broadcasters be lowered from 20% to 15% for kids’ programming and from 15% to 10% for docs and performing arts; and

* the current split of the Equity Investment Program allocating 50% to cbc and 50% to all other broadcasters be reconfigured to create a separate envelope of money dedicated to educational broadcasters. This envelope could be created, atec says, by taking 15% of the eip total equally from the cbc and private envelope or taking the amount entirely from the cbc or private broadcasting envelope.

The educational broadcasters all point out that regional programming – mainly current affairs, documentaries and information shows – is expensive, and that the programs are time-sensitive and location-specific, limiting the opportunities for national windows, coproductions and foreign sales. By Cheryl Binning