OTTAWA — Independent producers complained Thursday that no progress was made in a meeting a day earlier with private broadcasters on programming rights agreements that would include new media.

The CFTPA said the sticking point remains CTVglobemedia, Canwest and Rogers Broadcasting’s insistence they have the right to negotiate collectively on terms of trade with the producers.

‘Broadcasters are competing with each other, and they each have a different business model, so they should be negotiating individually,’ said CFTPA president and CEO Guy Mayson in an interview.

The producers’ principal advisor on the terms of trade, Gordon Ritchie, said in a statement he was ‘disappointed and surprised’ the broadcasters were advocating for an approach that would not lead to substantive and enforceable terms of trade.

Terms of trade agreements have long been advocated by the CFTPA because they would define a framework and agreed-upon principles for valuing program rights. The approach has received the blessing of the CRTC, which has told the broadcasters to have terms of trade agreements signed with the producers by their licence renewals.

The CFTPA has told the broadcast regulator on many occasions that terms of trade agreements are needed to even out their negotiating power in the wake of broadcasters becoming more powerful due to consolidation. The CFTPA has alleged that the broadcasters have tried to impose blanket fees that include new media as they turn to the web to counter audience fragmentation on their TV properties.

A media release issued Thursday by the CFTPA noted it’s exploring ‘a variety of options’ to try to break the impasse and commence negotiations. Mayson refused to elaborate on those options, but said he thought it was too early for CRTC involvement.

‘There’s no need to jump into that [regulatory help] right now,’ he said.

Although there are no further meetings scheduled on the matter, Mayson said he was hopeful negotiations would move forward throughout the fall, as the broadcasters will likely have to submit their licence renewal applications later this year prior to public hearings in 2009.

The Canadian Association of Broadcasters refused to comment on the matter, saying none of its staff were present at Wednesday’s meeting. CTVgm and Canwest representatives said they had no comment on the matter at this time. Rogers had not responded to requests for an interview at press time.