Canada’s federal TV regulator says it’s bringing in new rules to encourage bigger budget, higher quality Canadian programs, but homegrown performers fear the changes could ghettoize Canuck fare.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission said Wednesday from Ottawa that it wants broadcasters to dedicate a minimum percentage of their budgets to homegrown production, instead of guaranteeing eight hours a week of Canuck shows during key prime time hours.
It said it will also allow CTV and Global to put a portion of their Canadian content onto their sister specialty channels, which include Bravo and Showcase.
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), which represents 22,000 performers across the country, said that could marginalize homegrown shows.
“We agree that broadcasters need flexibility, but ghettoizing Canadian drama on specialty stations would not be the answer,” alliance president Ferne Downey said Wednesday in a statement.
“In a world where Canadian content creation will rise and fall in proportion to broadcasters’ revenues, we’re definitely all in this together.”
The changes were announced as the CRTC renewed the licences for English-language services operated by several media conglomerates.
Over the next five years, Bell Media, Corus Entertainment and Shaw Media must allocate at least 30% of gross annual revenues to the production of Canadian programs while Rogers Media must spend at least 23% over the next three years. Previously they had no such financial obligation.
CRTC commissioner Rita Cugini said the move is a bid to address years of criticism that broadcasters were not spending enough money on Canadian fare.
“The allegation was that broadcasters quite honestly were spending way too much money in Hollywood,” she explained.
“They were spending way too much money on American programming and weren’t dedicating enough of their resources to Canadian content.”
Even though they are no longer required to air Canadian shows between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m., she says conventional networks would still be obligated to air 50% Canadian content between 6 p.m. and midnight.
Cugini said the shift to financial minimums, instead of prime time obligations, is a return to policy that existed before 1999 when the eight-hour weekly limit was introduced.
Of the revenues that will have to be spent on Canadian programming, at least 75% must go to shows for the main network. That will allow a channel like CTV to fund CanCon shows on sister specialty channels like MuchMusic and MTV Canada.
But ACTRA said it’s not enough to just fund Canadian programming.
“You also have to put it where the most eyeballs are, and that’s on the conventional television networks,” said Downey.
The Writers Guild of Canada also expressed caution over the new rules, fearing they could result in “even less quality Canadian drama.”
“We’re concerned about the potential impact on production in Canada,” said executive director Maureen Parker.
“We will monitor carefully how these numbers play out on our screens, and work with the CRTC to ensure there is a real choice of quality Canadian drama.”
