Canuck content providers are getting killed.
Arnie Gelbart has survived the cyclical waves of the Canadian broadcast industry before. But there is no way to sugarcoat this recession. "It's been a tough year," says the president of Montreal-based Galafilm Productions Inc.
"Canadian broadcasters ordered very little new material compared to other years," says Mr. Gelbart, who admits to laying off some of his staff last year.
Mr. Gelbart's fears-- and the overall production blues of the industry -- were lost in the cacophony around the CRTC hearings last November to determine whether or not cable operators should compensate over-the-air broadcasters for carrying their signals.
As the rhetoric flew in Ottawa, production houses wobbled.
You see, this past year has been a sort of 'wait and see' limbo for most TV and Film creatives and producers and craftspeople in Canada. Wait and see what the old CTF new CMF is going to look like. Wait and see if tax credit rebates in various provinces are going to go up or stay the same or be reduced. And most importantly, wait and see if our broadcasters will or won't receive some sort of value for signal or fee for carriage from the BDU's/cable/satelite providers (aka you the consumer) so everyone can get on the with business of MAKING CONTENT AGAIN!
But even though the CRTC granted broadcasters the right to negotiate value for signal, it still has to clear the Canadian courts and then and only THEN can the Broadcasters and BDU's get on with business of negotiating.
Wait and see.
"The way the issue had been framed, misdirected the discussion entirely," says Michael Prupas, president and chief executive of Muse Entertainment Enterprises. It devolved into a battle over the survival of local television versus a so-called television tax, he says. But it should really have been about the survival of Canadian production and whether or not cable and satellite would lift a hand.
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How the industry reshapes itself going forward depends on how the CRTC will handle television licence renewals in 2011 and how much cash there will be for producers within the revamped Canadian Media Fund (CMF) now new media players and broadcasters can dip into it for some in-house production.
Also at stake is whether or not Canadian producers will be able to monetize their shows online, and increase sales in overseas markets. While international sales rose to $2-billion in 2008-09, they have not returned to the heights of 2002-03.
Yep, you read that right. It's the 2011 television licence renewals that are so important apparently, as in next year. And EVERYONE is still trying to figure out how to monetize online programming, not just Canadian content producers.
Wait and see.
Everywhere I look or turn, companies are laying off personnel or even closing down...very little new work is being commissioned...writers and producers are giving up....craftspeople and technicians are packing it in and finding another line of work. It's BRUTAL.
We're dying out here CRTC and Broadcasters and Cable Providers of Canada...you're killing us softly but surely with your song of indecision and indifference.
Do you even care?
6 comments:
no, will darling, they DON'T care. Canadian "production" has always been a loss-leader for the government, in order to create a "culture" in the country. The occasional "bubble" of production here or there - whether in Ontario this year, Vancouver last year, Nova Scotia the next - is just a shell game to create the illusion that the government of Canada gives a rat's ass about the cinema or television industry.
In truth, the encouragement of the half-talented, half-witted and half-conscious "workhorses" who've been snuffling the public truffles for the past twenty odd years (and don't make me name names, darling, because I will and i've got NOTHING to lose...) have "created" such drivel and "showrun" so many series into the ground through a combination of bad writing, lousy direction and hideous acting, that the Canadian audience simply tunes them all out in lieu of yet another "talent show" which is, in reality, nothing more than CHCH-11's "Tiny Talent Time" with better lighting.
The solution? Simple. Enough with the freakin' "culture" crap - demand that the government bodies sponsor "entertainment"-based films and tv. You can't mandate "culture" - you simply nourish creativity and it will develop a culture onto itself.
C'mon, since there's no drama on TV "name some names" it is hump day
I know they don't really care, but I enjoy asking from time to time.
It is tough though, RCENO 'dahling', to produce shows and series that audiences won't be turned off by when the opportunities to produce content (hone craft, get BETTER) are so far and few between.
And though I can probably guess most of the over encouraged 'workhorse' names on your list, RCENO, I'd still enjoy hearing you spit them out.
Ummm... just an idea - potentially a dumb one... but I'll throw it out there:
Why don't we lobby to get some of our more experienced Industry folk onto the CRTC commission?
Right now it's all bureaucrats with, from what I see, very little experience in being neck-deep in the trenches/consequences of their actions.
Let's get some pros, who have a solid vision of how it should work, to get out there and bring some perspective to things.
Hell, I'd do it if I understood everything better... Let's get some pros up and kicking ass on the CRTC.
Just a thought.
I'm Mark Fraser: An opinionated, forty-two year-old, twenty-year-long card-carrying member of ACTRA whom you've never heard of. And I've never snuffed a public truffle in my life. So, I'll do it.
Just tell me what to say.
Peace
Damn. I wanted those names so I could razz my friends but I guess dude actually did have something to lose
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