WGC settles contract early so it can take on big issues in broadcasting

Canadian screenwriters and groups representing TV and film producers have agreed to extend their labour agreement, which is to expire at the end of December.

Members of the Writers Guild of Canada have voted in support of a one-year extension of the contract with the Canadian Film & Television Producers Association and the Association des producteurs de films et de télévision du Québec.

The WGC said it moved quickly to extend the contract so it can devote its efforts to preparing for CRTC and other regulatory hearings.

"At the end of '09 and through 2010, we'll be looking at a very different broadcasting landscape," WGC executive director Maureen Parker said in an interview with CBC News.

Hearings and proposed changes include:

• CRTC hearings on new media broadcasting in January.
• Renewals of broadcast licences by conventional broadcasters CanWest and CTVGlobeMedia in 2009.
• Renewals of specialty channel licences.
• Terms of trade negotiations between the producers and the broadcasters.
• Responding to proposed changes to the Canadian Television Fund.

The WGC says it intends to support initiatives by the producers' groups to get more Canadian drama and programming on Canadian airwaves in CRTC hearings next year for the conventional broadcasters. 

"We've pushed for them to reinstate the spending requirements on conventional broadcasters so they are spending a certain percentage of their revenue on Canadian programming," Parker said. "That requirement was removed in 1999 and the amount of Canadian drama fell right off."

In the area of new media, "it's time to re-examine the exemption order" that allows new media to operate without CRTC regulation, Parker said.

"Our writers and members are working on products on all types of platforms."

The only change in the contract between the WGC and producers was the financial terms.

There is a three per cent increase in the minimum script fee, paid on delivery of the script and in the fee paid when the script goes into production.

In the U.S., screenwriters struck for three months over compensation for electronic rights.

Other things 'up in the air'

In Canada, the issue of electronic rights was not an irritant for the WGC. Canadian writers already had compensation for reproduction of their work on DVD and over the internet, said a WGC spokesman.

It took only a couple of meetings to reach an agreement, Parker said, adding that the WGC usually extends its contract for three years.

"It takes a lot of concentration and a lot of resources to negotiate a new contract," she said. "Right now, there are too many other things up in the air."

The CFTPA welcomed the quick resolution of the labour negotiations.

"All parties recognize that the collective bargaining process is time consuming and costly, and it was easy to agree that we would be far better to devote these resources to our common cause of improving the production landscape in Canada," John Barrack, national vice-president for the CFTPA, said in a press release.