SO WHY NOT a little abject depression with your coffee?
Why are creatives alternately depressed & pissed off right now? Well, let Will Dixon tell you.
And then there's the fact that the only place that IS actually spending money on Cancon just basically absorbed a cut that equals, oh, one series.
The Canadian Television Fund used to allocate a funding envelope of 37 per cent of its total to programs destined for the CBC, but the new fund eliminated that fixed percentage. The CBC allocation under the new fund is closer to 27.5 per cent of the total.Richard Stursberg, executive vice-president of English services at CBC, said he finds the envelope-allocation process "mystifying.""When the CTF became the Canada Media Fund, the minister said, very sensibly, that the envelopes would be structured to reward success for first-run original Canadian shows in primetime," Stursberg said. "That's a good idea."But rules to reward first-run shows in primetime have not been implemented, he said. Instead the new fund has adopted old CTF rules, which allowed broadcasters to consider reruns of old Canadian shows and also shows shared with sister stations in calculating viewership, he said."It does seem ironic that the result of the process is to reduce the amount of money available to the one broadcaster in the system that is most committed to realizing the new goals of the fund," Stursberg said.
Good thing we went to all those CMF consults, right, Minister Moore? How bout you Tweet about that?
Ah well, it doesn't matter. After all, nobody spends what they're supposed to on anything, right? And there are, like, no consequences neither.
Community channels were created in the 1970s to enable Canadians to actively participate in their own broadcasting system. The CRTC's current policy requires cable companies to ensure that at least 30% of their community channels' schedules consist of "access program": that is, produced by members of the community. The companies have been having difficulty meeting this minimum (reporting only 27% access production last year). The CRTC audits found that Cogeco, Rogers, Shaw, and Persona all classified staff-produced news and other programming-even MTV promos in one instance-as "access programming". Some Eastlink systems reported no access programming at all."The CRTC's data show that Canada's 'community' channels have become promotional tools for cable companies," said Catherine Edwards, spokesperson for CACTUS. "Canadians should know that cable companies collected more than $120 million from them last year so that they could have an entry point into their own broadcasting system, but very little of that money is being spent on training or access." In 2004 the CRTC concluded there did not "appear to be any promotion of community access on any of the channels monitored."
But hey, at least Copper ... er... sorry, I mean, "Rookie Blue" got an airdate!
Scuttlebut is that ABC sent this for testing in Las Vegas, and people loved it. It tested through the roof. But of course that doesn't matter anyway because next week somebody will just claim that all Canadian TV sucks again and nobody wants to watch it so nobody should have to make it and then the big pockets will spend money on lying & lobbying and the whole fucking catastrophe will just keep going on, while sweetheart deals and backroom handshakes will generate false praise & ink for shows and films that are unworthy & unwatchable.
And slowly, the shiny eyes in the new filmmakers & TV writers I've met over the last year will darken, then go slack, and then somebody will decide, "fuck it," and get out or go south or die, which is probably what they're waiting for us to do anyway.
Insane. I'm clearly insane.
UPDATE: 7:00 PM. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGH! BLAM! Thud. Silence.
8 rumbles:
What part of 'disband the CRTC' was ugly again?
I don't think it's a matter of 'disbanding' the CRTC.
To me, the concept behind the CRTC is fine -- certain broadcasters and cable companies and telcos have proven that the Canadian consumer NEEDS protection.
The problem seems to lie in getting commissioners on the CRTC who have the gaul to actually do their jobs and protect Canadian citizens from exactly these sorts of shell games. (aka. um... regulate)
Or, to put it another way, find some commissioners who'll stand their ground when those hiding in the bunker below start wailing about how the sky is falling.
What bugs me most is that those who actually really care about -- and are effected by -- these things don't really get a say in it.
For my 2 cents, I think that, at the very minimum we should adopt a 'one of us, one of them' approach.
One on the board who's been neck deep in the trenches alongside someone who's been handling the overall day-to-day 'big company' stuff.
Perspective and balance.
Compromise.
And yes, I know, I'm entirely talking crazy talk at this point.
But hey, why not dream big?
CRTC is a government agency. They are there to do the government's bidding. Much like how the country is run - it has nothing to do with asking the "people" what they would like. The only recourse for a citizen is at the voting booth.
The public is completely unaware of our problems. The only item the public will recognize is the increase in their cable bills. And you might say, well, just cancel your cable. Doesn't matter, because you buy your internet access through the same people who will increase those prices to offset the decreasing cable market.
A major factor in our struggle to be heard is that Canada produces so little, that if there were no Canadian drama on the air it would hardly register. It's not as if all the channels would suddenly go dark and people would be screaming - as they would if the American programming were to be yanked from our screens.
And now everyone is focused on web series. That makes me laugh as the broadcasters equate web with cheap. It is not cheap. It costs the same to produce drama for the web as for television. The difference right now is that web creators are eating those costs themselves in the hope that their web series is picked up for broadcast or international distribution.
This problem of dwindling Canadian drama has been with us since 1999 and I call the campaign ever since a slow march to death by attrition. A very Canadian solution to a problem - just talk about it endlessly and it will eventually go away.
Like your update, DMc. I heartily agree.
thank for share, it is very important .￣︿￣
I read these comments from you Deb and I wonder at the marshalling of energy.
I try, I try to maintain a positive or at least a "keep fighting" attitude, which is naturally prone to slips now and then. And I figure rather than give myself colon cancer, I'll opt for honesty and vent when due.
But then you lay out 16 or 20 lines like that, and all you bring is the bleak. You always stop short -- the little black cloud that says, "it will never work," "we tried that, it didn't work," or "what we do doesn't matter." It occurs to me, strongly, why even bother? I mean if you have no solutions, nothing even to try, if you're that worn out and that bitter, then what does endlessly expressing the bitterness get you?
What is the virtue of sitting around complaining endlessly? I've never gotten that about Canadians. It just doesn't make sense to me. There is always something you can do. And when the cause is a longshot, then that's when you need to do it most. But that's just me. Clearly.
BTW, I'm American.
I have talked about solutions, before, but only get grief for those as well: double the minimum license fee (they pay more in Australia than they do here); better protections for writers under the IPA and a change in how payments are made.
We are not broadcasters -so we are not in a position to change them.
We are not members of the CRTC, so ditto.
If you want a change - vote the current government out and make it clear to the opposition parties what needs to be done. If they won't make changes, vote them out.
Hell, I often wish the Bloc were running candidates in Ontario. At least they have a high regard for culture.
Sorry to hear that.
I wish we would get more Canadian TV here -- I'd love to see some fresh ideas and not the same three premises re-cast and re-shot over and over again, or the plethora of reality crap that creates celebutards.
As a viewer and CanCon fan and voting citizen: I've been doing my part to vote the frakkers in question out for as long as I've been legally entitled to vote. But that damned first-past-the-post rule keeps reinstalling the same guys - or same-groupthinking competitors - over and over again.
Doesn't stop me from keeping on voting as I've been voting, though. Sooner or later, the viral outbreak of sanity has to happen.
As for the Bloc running a slate outside of Québec? The other eight circles of Hell as envisioned by Dante Alighieri will freeze over first. On that, you may rely in complete safety.
Wondering if anyone's interested in putting together a "co-op" style TV network. The "Saskatchewan Wheat Pool" of Canadian TV content?
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