CBC pleased with new CMF envelope factors

OTTAWA—The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is pleased with the Canada Media Fund’s (CMF) new performance envelope calculation factors, CBC spokesman Angus McKinnon told The Wire Report. When the CMF launched in April, the public broadcaster had expressed concern about cuts to its funding envelope. Prior to the fund’s creation, the CBC received a guaranteed funding envelope of 37 per cent. Under the new factors for the 2010-2011 broadcasting year, the CBC had estimated it would lose $12.6 million in funding. But CMF chief executive Valerie Creighton had told The Wire Report that the public broadcaster would be better served by the guidelines for the upcoming year, which would include a factor based on the airing of Canadian programming during prime time. The new factors for 2011-2012, released July 30, include audience success, historic performance, above threshold licensing, regional licensing, digital media investment, and the newly added original prime time first run, defined as original Canadian content airing for the first time in prime time. The specific percentage weights to be assigned to each of the factors have yet to be announced. “We are pleased that they have added the original prime time first run to the factors, because that has been something we have been pushing for a while,” McKinnon said in an interview. “ Minister stated when they announced the new fund that the objective of the fund would be to focus money on the production of original prime time programming. This is obviously the way to do that.” But McKinnon noted that the new factor’s impact will be determined by how it is weighted against the other factors. Betsy Chaly, CMF director of marketing and communications, said in an interview that the percentages are in the process of being calculated. “The percentages are based on a number of different factors. We are in the midst of analyzing that and looking at different models, and seeing what works and what doesn’t,” she said. “Each factor has its own objective. We have to look at each one individually to see what makes sense for each one, and then look at them as a whole.” Stephen Waddell, national executive director of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), told The Wire Report in an email his group was pleased with the new factors. "Rewarding broadcasters for airing first-run Canadian drama in prime time is one of the things we asked for in the consultations last year, and we are happy to see the CMF is going this route. Our hope is that the added incentive will convince broadcasters not to tick off their CanCon requirements with endless reruns," he wrote. Ian Morrison, a spokesman for independent watchdog group the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, said the new factors are a step in the right direction in the effort to support Canadian content. “Because is public money, it seems to us the fairest way to evaluate how to pass it around is ultimately by … the audiences that are produced. The CBC does produce a fairly substantial audience for Canadian first run shows, and so does CTV,” he said. “This is a move in the right direction … If you allowed second, third, fifth runs to have weight equivalent to first runs, there would never be any first runs. The first run is obviously the key. It’s where the greatest expenditure and commitment is, and it should be rewarded.” But John Barrack, chief operating officer of the Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA), said in an email that the association was concerned by the new prime time first run factor’s potential impact on the industry. The factor may disadvantage smaller broadcasters who are not in a position to fund original Canadian programming, he said. “We are concerned about the potentially destabilizing effect that the introduction of this new factor may have on the system, and in particular, on specialty broadcasters,” he wrote. But Barrack was not entirely critical of the new envelope factor weight. “The CMPA strongly believes that the methodology currently used in the calculation of BPEs is an appropriate approach and one that is fully consistent with the Minister of Canadian Heritage’s stated objectives for the CMF to reward audience success.” Barrack added that while the impact of the digital media investment factor is not yet known, the CMPA believes some groups may find themselves disadvantaged by the CMF’s new guidelines. “We are very concerned about the significant financing gap that producers now find themselves having to fill for projects that have a rich and substantial digital media component attached to them as per the new CMF Guidelines.” The CMF will be holding a round of industry consultations this fall to collect input on the fund and its guidelines. “We’ll have a few issues that we will want to discuss … plus it will be an opportunity for people to ask questions or comments or feedback on some of the new programs we launched this year,” Chaly said. The consultations will touch on the fund’s convergent and experimental streams. The convergent stream, to which the factor weights apply, supports Canadian television shows and related digital media content. The experimental stream encourages the development of non-linear, interactive digital media content and software applications. Ian Kelso, president and CEO of digital content trade organization Interactive Ontario, said the number one priority for the experimental stream should be making sure the right projects get sufficient funding. The experimental stream has an annual budget of $27 million. “The industry right now, the pace that it’s growing at, the amount of opportunity that exists now is huge … if you don’t have an adequate amount of capital to feed that there is sort of an opportunity cost. You are missing out on what the potential is,” Kelso said. “We need to make sure we are feeding the industry here to an adequate degree that we are going to create strong, viable products and companies. Where it was before at $14 million for the interactive media stream under the Canada New Media Fund we thought was very inadequate to service that. Certainly the jump to $27 million a year is a positive first step.” kfournier@thewirereport.ca

CBC pleased with new CMF envelope factors

Broadcast | August 6, 2010

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