In the rush to predict the future content of television and how it will be delivered to us, commentators seem to be devoting little time to talk about what’s here and now.

TV94 promises to do better.

It’s the fourth in an annual series of day-long seminars put on by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. It will be held March 4 in the Empress Ballroom of Toronto’s Park Plaza Hotel, timed to coincide with the Gemini Awards (March 3, 5 and 6).

This year’s agenda will try to predict future tv content and technologies, but will also examine ‘current available technologies.’ University of Toronto economics professor David Foot leads off by discussing his research on the relationships between economics and demographics, on Canada’s aging population and how this aging has affected economic performance and policy.

Demographics

Atlantis Films prsident and coo Kevin Shea, also a member of the TV94 advisory committee, says the tv and film production communities lack ‘a significant understanding of demographics’ and the shifts in audience which can occur between the time a production starts shooting and when it’s aired. ‘Producers need to know about their (productions’) targets before they roll the cameras,’ he says.

The main morning panel will discuss ongoing and imminent consumer tests involving interactive technologies. The panel, moderated by cbc’s Pamela Wallin, will look at coming techno change and try to establish where Canadian-owned services will fit in.

Issue of content

‘We want the discussion to move beyond the telco-cable debate,’ says Bev Oda, chair of fund and a member of the TV94 advisory committee. ‘There’s this whole issue of content…What’s going to be on this highway is critical. What role do content-makers play and how are the content-makers gearing up for the future environment?’

Oda expects program producers will come out of the session wondering about the volume of material required in years to come, whether programs’ structures – the half-hour or hour-long format – will change and whether combinations of computer and video technologies will produce a new array of services.

Once these services become available – by whatever means – the issue of privacy comes up, as does the question of the changing structure of the broadcast industry. These will be some of the jumping-off points for the first afternoon session, to be run in a ‘town hall’ format. The day’s final session will focus on how the information highway will be financed.