Every animation company in the country must be shaking their collective cerebrums at the very idea of self-dealing restrictions when they look at the volume of Nelvana and Cinar Films closing windows on the teletoon schedule. Both companies own a piece of the specialty.

Similarly the smaller independent producers are surely disgruntled looking at the cbc’s new all Canadian prime time and seeing the amount of repeat programs and the vast majority of original prime-time drama series work produced by the big dogs. Maybe it’s funding-driven, this return of series with a recognizable brand identity. Ratings may not be fabulous but odds are greater that Telefilm is on-side once the product has roots. Three months into the CTCPF’s $200-million year and the rose-colored glasses are fogged up, ripped off, beaten with a blunt object and in pieces on the ground.

New cftpa chair Linda Schuyler has her hands full bridging the gap between the large and small indie production companies. Maybe they’re not the same thing anymore. The smaller prodcos are certainly less able than the pubcos with financial and regulatory infrastructures in-house to get applications in first come, first served on the License Fee Program side of the equation. How motivated Telefilm is to finance a truly independent production is the stuff of symposium debate.

If the ctcpf’s region and envelope-driven philosophy ­ causing chaos to the nth degree ­ actually works as intended, there will be more options for the broadcasters to choose from next year when they’re filling Cancon quotas. Or maybe the democratic demographic approach puts financing in the hands of those less experienced and therefore less able to make the quality of product which will inspire broadcasters to pick up over the larger producers’ shelf product.

In the meantime, the mad rush for programming de facto necessitates a certain reliance on the archives. It’s not like the cable situation is inspiring anyone to rush headlong into commissioning an abundance of indie production only to do a head plant come fall if the great unknown ­ penetration ­ falls short of optimistic expectations. Everybody’s got shareholders. Shareholders don’t like risks. They like profit.

But this month, although the wider broadcasters agenda would relegate the smaller production companies into extinction or at least beholden to the public companies for a way into prime time, Baton Broadcasting’s entry into Atlantic Canada is spearheading a little optimism.

It’s not going the way of CanWest Global’s Alberta application which, in part because of its lack of clearcut investment in the region and the local production community, lost the bid. Rather Baton is putting $2.3 million into a regional production office in Halifax. The licence fees for The Storytellers are micro. Still, it’s on the evolution track for those producers that can’t afford four tables at the Geminis.

Particularly in an environment where the regional producers are increasing marginalized and the little pieces of the financing crossword are as fundamentally important as the big pieces, it’s a welcome contribution. Now if this ctcpf conundrum would just sort itself out’