OTTAWA-GATINEAU — Describing their relationship with broadcasters as ‘severely and increasingly imbalanced,’ independent producers called for a ‘use it or lose it’ provision that would apply to digital content.

The proposal — put forward by CFTPA national EVP and counsel John Barrack as the CRTC’s hearings on new media continued — would see new media rights ‘automatically revert back to the independent producer’ if the broadcaster in question had not exploited them within a reasonable time, such as 12 months.

Barrack noted that producers are increasingly losing their digital rights to broadcasters, without compensation, during negotiations for traditional broadcast windows. More often than not, the broadcasters do not exploit these rights, stalling Canada’s new media industry and distribution of Cancon across multiple platforms, he said.

While shelf space may be unlimited in cyberspace, the Writers Guild of Canada also told the CRTC that Canadian content is getting lost.

WGC head Maureen Parker showed the commission the layout of CTV’s video player webpage, on which the U.S. series Lost was prominent.

‘Canadian shows are available, but you have to work hard to find them [online], just like on television,’ she said. Parker also criticized Treehouse for not putting its Canadian programming on iTunes, cutting producers and talent from a ‘potentially lucrative revenue stream.’

The CFTPA wants its ‘use it or lose it’ clause embedded in terms of trade agreements that are being developed with the broadcasters. The organization urged the CRTC to continue to press for these deals, which producers said are at a standstill, to be finalized.

CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein made clear that he expects the terms of trade agreements to be filed with the regulator during the network licence renewals this April.

At one point, he wondered aloud why broadcasters aren’t exploiting digital rights. ‘It seems like irrational behavior,’ said von Finckenstein.

CFTPA president and CEO Guy Mayson noted that broadcasters may not have the money to put into digital products, but still want to see those rights on their books because they are assets. Von Finckenstein suggested the CFTPA file comments that spell out in greater detail what a broadcaster would have to do to not lose the digital rights.

The producers organization also wants the CRTC to continue to exempt new media and mobile broadcasting from regulation, with the exception of large ISPs and the like. Like most of the creative community, the CFTPA wants big ISPs and wireless providers such as Bell and Shaw to have to pay a portion of their revenues into a new media content fund.