While dramatic series have been given a lifeline with injections of additional ctcpf monies, other genres of programming may fall off broadcasters’ schedules if producers are unable to fill gaping holes in financing structures left in the wake of reduced eip and lfp support.

‘We have had to dig very deep for Traders and Justice and spent a lot more than we budgeted, which has made us very careful about the rest of our schedule,’ says CanWest Global’s Loren Mawhinney.

Global had structured its season around 22 eps of Traders, but Telefilm only supported an order of 17, so the broadcaster increased its licence fees and added equity investment to complete the budget. As a result, Mawhinney says she cannot afford to commission ‘a number of’ short-order comedy series, sitcoms and specials as had been originally planned for the upcoming season.

Global had licensed a documentary special on the Reichmanns from Montreal producer Alan Handel and a doc on the Montreal hockey riots from Montreal’s Galafilm. Both programs were turned down by the eip when the fund ran dry, and Mawhinney says the projects will go ahead only if other Telefilm projects fall through and more money becomes available.

cbc’s Jim Byrd says all of its dramas have complete financing packages in place but less than half of the documentary projects licensed by the cbc have been approved and the pubcaster is working with Telefilm to solve the problems.

While Baton’s drama series Power Play, Flesh and Blood and Cold Squad are set for production, only one of six tv movies – the David Milgaard Story – has complete financing in place, says vp dramatic programming Bill Mustos. The broadcaster has a commitment to air 24 Canadian movies a year, and if these commissioned movies, which Mustos dubs ‘distinctly Canadian,’ fall through, he will have to prebuy films made for the American market that fulfill Cancon requirements, such as shows produced for Showtime and USA Network.

Among the Baton movies Telefilm was unable to support and which received a reduced rate of lfp money in the $2-million envelope are Sheldon Kennedy, a copro between Pierre Sarrazin and Suzette Couture in Toronto and Doug MacLeod in Alberta, and Proof Positive from Ontario’s Roy Croft and New Brunswick’s Doug Sutherland.

Accent Entertainment’s Rebellion at Burger High, starring Sarah Polley, missed out on eip and lfp funds, as did Alliance’s Final Decree. Mustos says Final Decree does not have much presale potential in foreign markets so he is not optimistic about its fate.

A pilot, Fall Down Easy from pmp in Vancouver and Decode Entertainment in Toronto, was turned down by the eip and too far down the line for the $2 million envelope.

In all these cases, Baton has stepped up to the plate and increased licence fees and taken equity, says Mustos, but the gap left by the lack of Telefilm money and reduced lfp support has been too large for the broadcaster to fill.

Discovery Channel had planned to order three to four new series and several one-offs this summer in anticipation of accessing the lfp’s $6-million September envelope, says programming director John Panikkar. But with a reduced amount, $4 million, in the English-language pot, he says he may have to commission fewer projects.

Other doc producers are concerned about the impact of the reduced September kitty as many planned their slate under the assumption that since series would take a large chunk of the first window, the next round would offer them more support.

Peter Raymont specifically staggered his projects, applying for one doc series in the April window and waiting for September to apply for a three-part series. ‘Now our planning has been blown out the window,’ he says.

While reports have been circulating that the ctcpf has been dipping into the $4-million pot, the lfp’s director of operations Michel Lozier denies the charge and says the money will be available for the second round.

In jeopardy at History Television is Up Front Entertainment’s Dressing The Part, the history of fashion. Budgeted at $70,000 per half-hour, History’s Norm Bolen has increased his licence fee, but to make up the difference would have to double his contribution, which he simply is not in the position to do. Producer Barbara Barde is now seeking European presales to make up for the shortfall when the eip and lfp ran dry.

Also in limbo is Vancouver producer David Paperny’s chronicle of the Winnipeg general strike. Paperny cut the two-hour special down to one-and-a-half hours, reducing the budget from $260,000 to $160,000 when the project was refused eip funds and History maintained its original $60,000 contribution. Paperny has had to cancel the director he wanted for the project and direct himself, taking a deferral of his fee.

Some performing arts programs have hit a snag at the lfp. To be eligible for the distinctly Canadian bonus (dcb), performing arts shows must be based on an underlying Canadian artistic work, achieve nine out of 10 Cancon points and be shot primarily in Canada.

Withdrew project

Neil Bregman at Sound Venture Productions in Ottawa withdrew his performing arts project from the lfp when he found out it was not eligible for the dcb and was therefore shut out from the regional bonus.

Titled Past Forgetting, his project combined song, dance and scripted segments to chronicle a wwii Canadian music troupe. The problem was the group played the popular music of the day – American big band – and the lfp ruled that the music represented the underlying rights of the project and it was thus not distinctly Canadian. Otherwise, says Bregman, the project was nine out of 10 on the Cancon scale, scripted by a Canadian, and recreated a 1940s Canadian setting.

The loss of the dcb and regional incentive meant a 15% shortfall on the $500,000 project licensed to History and Bravo!. International presales proved impossible. Distributor Rhombus Media could not sell it because, ironically, foreign broadcasters found the project too Canadian.

A project on a Canadian ballet company would fall under similar difficulties since most ballets are based on traditional music scores from overseas.

In response to the situation, Lozier says the point of the dcb is to encourage producers to go the extra mile in terms of choosing Canadian projects, and in the performing arts genre that means original Canadian music scores.

tfo/tvontario licensed a 26-episode order of returning performing arts series Boite au Chansons, a look at the musical culture of francophones. The program was to include the history of Acadians expelled to New Orleans where they continued their cultural heritage through song and dance. Coproducers Connections Productions in New Brunswick and Toronto’s Mediatique were informed by the lfp that the $1.1-million series would not be eligible for the dcb if the New Orleans segments were included, and the concept was quickly revamped to a Winnipeg setting.

‘The project is being produced exclusively for the Canadian market and international presales are difficult to pick up,’ says tfo’s Bruno Beaulieu.

‘It is unfortunate because the Cajun angle is part of Canadian history,’ he says. ‘We could not tell a part of Canadian history in order to get the distinctly Canadian bonus. That is frustrating.’

tfo’s jazz series fall under the documentary category, as opposed to performing arts, because it profiles individual artists, so underlying music rights are not an issue.

The funding crunch will be top of mind at the upcoming Canadian Content hearings, says A-Channel executive director Joanne Levy, who is advocating that broadcasters’ Cancon spending requirements should be more flexible and include not only licences but fair market-value equity and other rights.

Most broadcasters are dealing with the volatile nature of financing scenarios by over-licensing, says Bolen. ‘I overbook by roughly 20% of my slate,’ he says. ‘It is only prudent because aside from the lfp and Telefilm, there are so many players in financing scenarios these days that any one of the partners could fall off the table.’

Levy is also calling for special priority at the funds for projects which broadcasters have supported with development money.

Specific envelopes for different genres of production will also be on the discussion table, she says, and many producers and broadcasters are expressing concern that as demand for the ctcpf increases, projects outside the drama category will bear the brunt of the money crunch.

‘A larger percentage of the fund has to be made available for documentaries, the proportions are unfair,’ says Barde, noting the expanding slots for high-quality doc series with all the new specialties.

Comedy, kids

concerned

Broadcasters in the comedy and kids’ market echo similar concerns.

‘The pecking order worries me,’ says The Comedy Network’s vp, programming Ed Robinson of the eip program, which is mandated to reserve 80% of its funds for drama. ‘Variety and comedy are third and fourth on the list and get second-class treatment, especially as the constraints on the fund only get worse. It could have a real impact in the future of Canadian comedy.’

Vancouver producer Nick Orchard says the 22-ep political satire Double Exposure, airing on Comedy and ctv, will go ahead although the budget ‘will be trimmed to the bone’ after the series secured only about a quarter of the $800,000 needed from the ctcpf.

Orchard says large deferrals will be required to make up the shortfall and will mean financial losses both corporately and personally.

Orchard was among those producers considering their legal options when the funding crisis went awry for them. However, he has now decided that legal action would be an ‘uphill battle’ because federal and political jurisdictions would work against him.

Peter Moss reports that all the kids’ series commissioned by ytv and Treehouse were ‘damaged’ by substantially reduced Telefilm investments, particularly projects from smaller prodcos.

‘With the run on the Telefilm fund, kids’ programming just wasn’t given the priority returning series and other bigger projects were given,’ he says.

Talk is circulating that the lfp’s first-come, first-served process may instead involve criteria such as Cancon points and size of licence fee to determine the likelihood of accessing the fund.