Canadian TV artists lament big spending on U.S. programs

The creative people behind Canada's TV production industry say homegrown drama is in danger of disappearing.

The unions representing Canadian actors and screenwriters andthe lobby group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting have criticized Canada's private sector broadcasters this week over their spending on American-made TV.

There's beena huge increase in spending on foreign drama by private broadcasters like CTVglobemedia and CanWest, while spending on Canadian drama shows has dropped, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting pointed out.

In 2006,Canadian networkinvestment in foreign drama was $478.6 million, a 15 per cent annual increase, while they invested just $70.9 million on Canadian drama, the watchdog group said.

"Private broadcasters enjoy a substantial amount of public funding every year that is intended to encourage more Canadian content. It would seem that the unintended consequence is simply to deepen the pockets of private broadcasters for their annual trek to Hollywood," said spokesperson Ian Morrison.

Canadian broadcasters enjoy preferential tax treatment and get more than $200 million in incentives from the Canadian Television Fund and Telefilm, he said.

The criticism comes as the networks return from a buying spree in Hollywood intended to fill out their fall schedules.

One of the biggest buyers is CanWest MediaWorks, the parent company for Global Television and E!, which has announced it has bought 13 new dramas for fall 2007 from U.S. networks.

It has bought a drama about a Miami-based Latino family, a crime drama set in the destruction of New Orleans and a comedy about a Pittsburgh newsroom.

Only one Canadian production has been announced — The Best Years, a series set in a college in Boston.

The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) has called on the federal broadcast regulator to insist on minimum spending by private broadcasters on Canadian drama.

It suggests at least two hours a week in prime time, and spending to equal seven per cent of their advertising revenue.

The networks go for U.S. programming because it makes more money, ACTRA spokesman Steve Waddell told CBC Radio.

"And they're investing very little in Canadian programming because the CRTC which regulates broadcasters has let them off the hook," he said.

In 1999 theCanadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission loosened the rules governing what types of Canadian shows must air in prime time.

Cheaper-to-producereality programs and news magazines, as well as Canadian drama, qualified.

The result was the creation of celebrity news magazines, about U.S. stars but with Canadian hosts, and a plethora ofreality shows.

"Seems a little out of wack to me," said Maureen Parker, executive director of the Writers Guild of Canada, which represents TV screenwriters.

Opportunities for Canadians in television production are declining, she said, and talented people are fleeing to the U.S. to find work.

Parker said it's time the CRTC started protecting the public's interests.

She said: "… it can't all be about making money. Our public airways have to have stories about ourselves at least somewhere on this schedule."

Screenwriter James Hurst said Canada is losing its ability to talk about itself.

"We will lose our identity," he said. "We're a storytelling culture. We've been doing it since there was fire, and we sat around a fire and we tell stories. Television is that, we gather around a fire that is a light source and we tell each other stories of who we are."

While the CRTC has acknowledged the decline in Canadian-made drama, it won’t be examining the issue until the broadcasters come up for licence renewal next spring.