Indie producers waiting for word from the CBC on indie series pick-ups will need to wait until after next week’s CRTC hearing on the Local Programming Improvement Fund.

The Apr. 16 hearing to consider whether the industry fund should be maintained, changed or cancelled will have a direct bearing on the pubcaster.

CBC/Radio-Canada depends on the LPIF to subsidize 20 local stations, eight in English-speaking Canada and another dozen in French-speaking markets.

Now comes word from the CBC that it will make no pick-up announcements until after the LPIF hearing in Gatineau, Quebec next week.

That’s leaving a host of indie producers, many of which have potential TV shows in active development with the CBC, on tenterhooks until next week’s announcements.

The LPIF was created by the CRTC in 2008 to support local programming from conventional TV stations in small markets.

A year later in 2009, the regulator ordered cable and satellite TV operators to bump up their LPIF contribution from 1% of gross broadcasting revenues to 1.5% in response after conventional broadcasters complained of collapsed TV ad revenue and a broken broadcast model.

Three years later, the CRTC will decide the future of the LPIF when conventional broadcasters have seen TV ad revenues rebound, and after CTV and Global Television were swallowed up by major carriers amid industry consolidation.

At the same time, the CRTC will need to consider the impact of reducing or eliminating the controversial industry subsidy on the CBC, which has just been slapped with a $115 million budget chop by Ottawa over three years.