We will not refute all of the arguments made publicly by Shaw and Vidéotron about what they deem to be the CTF’s “failings”. In our view, they show a surprising lack of understanding of and respect for a funding body they helped create and direct, and near contempt for Canadian programming and audiences.
Shaw and Vidéotron have expressed their dissatisfaction with the CTF’s “performance, operations, and governance”. In this regard, we point out that sound governance of the CTF was recently noted by both the Auditor General of Canada in October 2005, and more recently confirmed by an independent review by Renaud Foster of Ottawa in June 2006. In our view, the CTF’s comprehensive board composition, including representatives from the broadcast distribution sector since the fund's inception, has allowed it to be responsive to all industry stakeholders. It’s also worth noting that several past chairs of the CTF board of directors have been representatives from the cable industry—very able ones, I may add.
Shaw has suggested that CTF-supported programs are watched by few people and have no commercial or exportable value. The CTF, whose funding decisions are increasingly driven by audience success, has made possible many highly successful Canadian programs, such as Shania: A Life in Eight Albums, a movie of the week with 1.2 million viewers; One Dead Indian, a movie of the week with 1 million viewers; Degrassi: The Next Generation, a huge success story averaging 737,000 viewers; and Little Mosque on the Prairie, recently averaging 1.5 million viewers. These and many other CTF-supported programs are watched and loved by millions of Canadians, and are proof that Canadian programs can attract large audiences.
Don’t just take it from us. CTV’s CEO, Ivan Fecan, told the CRTC’s recent review of over-the-air television that CTV’s “Canadian programming currently gets very good audience response”. In terms of exportable value, CTF-supported dramas, such as Degrassi: The Next Generation, Da Vinci’s Inquest, and Cold Squad; and children's and youth programs, such as Life with Derek, Franny’s Feet, and Renegadepress.com, are seen and loved, in some cases, in well over 100 countries around the world. The list of programs in these and other programming genres that have found export markets is a very long one. Recently, Da Vinci’s Inquest, for example, received an average 3.4 million viewers in the U.S., outperforming the popular CSI: Miami in syndication.
We could spend the entire day here providing examples of successful CTF-supported shows. The bottom line is that Shaw is just plain wrong when it claims that Canadian programming is of low quality and non-exportable.
It's interesting to note that more than 30 television programs have received funding support in the last couple of years alone from both the CTF and the Shaw Rocket Fund, the independent production fund set up by Shaw in 1998. Presumably, if these projects are worthy of support from the Shaw fund, then they are equally worthy of support from the CTF.
This morning the CTF provided an overview of some of the key accomplishments over the years. We won't repeat all of these, but we would like to point out that since its inception, the CTF has provided $2.2 billion in funding support to 4,470 independently produced Canadian English and French-language productions in the genres of drama, children's and youth, documentary, and variety and performing arts. That financial contribution from this unique partnership has helped create over 23,000 hours of great Canadian television, triggering total production budgets of $7.4 billion. For every dollar the CTF has invested over the years, it has leveraged an additional $3.3 from other sources. The leverage fact of this fund cannot be overestimated.
An estimated 21,000 full-time equivalent jobs out of 46,700 jobs in the television production sector are the result of CTF-supported productions. It's a powerful statistic. Would any government let a company employing more than 21,000 people simply close its doors without trying to do something about it?
Put simply, without the CTF independent producers could not afford to make their programs. The Canadian market is simply too small to finance the high cost of these shows. Without the fund, Canadian broadcasters would not have been able to exhibit the amount of high-quality, distinctively Canadian television programming they have presented over the past decade.
The CFTPA has two representatives on the CTF board. Over the years, our representatives have been vocal in expressing the views of the independent production sector on the fund’s workings. The CFTPA considers the CTF to be the single most important initiative supporting distinctive Canadian television production, and we remain committed to the fund and its overall objectives.
In closing, we were extremely pleased with Minister Oda’s January 26 announcement of the government’s contribution of $200 million over two years to the CTF, and for confirming the government’s commitment to the Canadian television production industry and a strong broadcasting system. Now it’s up to Shaw and Vidéotron to hold up their end of the bargain, and for the CRTC to ensure that these licensees resume timely payments to the fund.
We appreciate the standing committee’s interest in this issue, and encourage it to express its support for the Canadian Television Fund in its recommendations.
Thank you for your time. We'd be pleased to answer any questions.