Canadians Want Drama

JOHN DOYLE is on fire again this week. With his column in the Globe this morning, one can't really seem to shake the feeling that he's writing very pointedly to a group of CRTC commissioners sitting in a conference room in Gatineau, Quebec.

I realized something interesting last night, post-last post: I actually do want the CTV Globemedia - CHUM Merger to go through. I mean, in a perfect world, no. But now it's in motion, and the assets if the merger didn't go through would be less valuable. And if CTV was forced to sell some of the CityTV stations, then what did they pay money for? Obviously those are the big assets. That thought made my head hurt.

CTV has also been the best of the Canadian privates when it comes to the cause of indigenous programming. That praise is dubious, but it's true.

But Doyle picks up the baton this morning and goes somewhere else with it, by going back to those articles last month, the study that showed that Canadian networks spent way more on buying U.S. imports than they spent on producing programs. Doyle takes it a step further and points out that they even spent more money on supposedly "cheap" U.S. Reality programs than Drama. Ouch.

Last month, some figures were released by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. They showed that, as usual, commercial Canadian TV broadcasters have been spending more on buying U.S. drama than Canadian drama, but for the first time ever they are also spending more on rinky-dink reality and entertainment programs. The CRTC figures indicate that in 2005, about $101-million was spent on reality TV, talk shows and entertainment-news programs, while only $71-million was spent on Canadian drama.

As several interested parties have pointed out, this situation was created by the CRTC itself. Its 1999 decision to change the definition of "priority programming" has meant that "priority" now includes entertainment and reality shows, and that let broadcasters off the hook for making and airing one-hour Canadian dramas. Since then, the reality-TV craze waned and the most-watched, talked-about shows have been dramas. When most Canadians watch TV, drama is what they want to watch, and the majority of the most-watched programs in Canada each week are dramas. But we're not making any.

Perhaps, as the CRTC attempts to regulate all the takeovers and manoeuvres, it could take a look at its own record and do something positive for the makers of Canadian TV, not just the executives. It could demand more drama be made. Its own figures, and the situation in the U.S. market, make it an obligation.

Doyle also points out that in the current season, all the U.S. nets are feeling a squeeze from audiences. Everybody's down but FOX, and that's just cause of Idol. In fact, the only thing working on the U.S. nets besides Idol, is drama. Funny dat.

So while the Gatineau boys gavel, where are our players re: Drama?

• CHUM (soon to be CTV) has Across The River To Motor City and Blood Ties in the can, waiting to be scheduled. Also has Murdoch Mysteries shooting, or about to.
  
  
• CANWEST GLOBAL About to bow The Best Years; various other things in development (About to swallow Alliance Atlantis, which between their "drama in permanent downturn" past and "CSI:NY is History Content!" Present isn't looking very rosy right now.) Global is also pursuing a "it needs to have a U.S. sale" strategy before they'll greenlight a show. Practical, but it couldn't save Falcon Beach.
  
  
• CTV - Whistler season 2 in the Wings. Rumors said they were going to pick up another drama, but instead it looks like they may order a couple pilots. Which means they weren't sure. Also, Ivan Fecan is very involved. Pilots = a good step. We'll see.
  
  
• CBC - Slate of 3 new dramas announced, trying to go for broad appeal stuff. Will bow over the fall.
  
  
• ASTRAL/TMN/MOVIE CENTRAL - About to drop Durham County, which is at least a creative home run. Other stuff in development.
  

Will the CRTC step up and reverse the 1999 decision? Remember that instituting quotas isn't enough. We'll just go back to dumping Canadian dramas in bad slots with no promo. Apparently Canadian networks need to be saved from themselves...they're going to need more than a nudge to get them to back away from the cheap U.S. programming crack pipe, and no amount of whispering "Corner Gas, Corner Gas, Corner Gas" is going to get them there.

So is the CRTC going to extract from CTV the first plank in a new drama committment? That's what Doyle seems to be calling for. That would be great.

A girl can dream.

And There You Have It!

From Bloomberg News:

``This deal is done,'' said Stuart Langford, a commissioner with the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission. ``It's highly unlikely that anyone would tolerate us just saying no.'' He spoke at a hearing in Gatineau, Quebec.

``We are not in the business of killing deals,'' Konrad von Finckenstein, the CRTC's chairman, said at the hearings in response to a request to postpone a ruling on the acquisition until the CRTC updates its rules. That would cause a ``tremendous loss of value.''

Please sir, can we have some more? (money for Canadian programming, I mean.) 50% of the advertising market should come with a price, n'est pas?

The Writers Guild of Canada Asks The Big Question

The WGC just sent out a press release about the AA/Global merger news that says it all. Great stuff.

Why is CanWest buying Alliance Atlantis if broadcasters are so poor?

January 11, 2007 – At the recent CRTC hearings into the future of Canadian television, private, conventional broadcasters like CTV and CanWest Global said the rise of Internet programming and other technologies have eroded their revenues and they are too poor to spend money on Canadian drama.

If broadcasting is such a losing proposition, why would CanWest want to buy Alliance Atlantis’ 13 specialty channels, let alone pay $2.3 billion for it?

“We keep on hearing the same story from the broadcasters – they are losing money due to market fragmentation and have no money for Canadian drama,” says Maureen Parker, Executive Director of the Writers Guild of Canada. “Well, this CanWest/Alliance Atlantis deal blows that argument out of the water. It’s obvious that broadcasting continues to be a lucrative business.”

Last November, Glenn O’Farrell, head of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, said it was a losing battle for broadcasters to try to compete for audiences when Internet sites such as YouTube and MySpace show amateur videos for free. But in its December 2006 report on the affect of technology on the broadcasting system, the CRTC concluded that new media technologies are not yet having a significant impact on traditional radio and television broadcasting audiences.

So although technology is offering new ways for Canadians to find entertainment and information, broadcasting remains the foundation for the entertainment industry in our country. And that’s why broadcasters such as CanWest are willing to pay big bucks to buy more television channels.

“At the television policy review in December we asked the CRTC to require private, English-language broadcasters to spend a minimum of 7% of their advertising revenues on the production of Canadian drama,” says Parker. “It’s a fair and manageable requirement, and the broadcasters can obviously afford it.

“The CRTC needs to come to the realization that broadcasting is a lucrative business and the broadcasters have the resources to produce and air more homegrown Canadian drama on their channels.”