Speech
DANCING WITH RISK
Notes for an address
by Charles Dalfen
Chairman, Canadian Radio-television
and Telecommunications Commission
to the Canadian Film and Television Production Association
Ottawa, Ontario
February 7th, 2003
(CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY)
Thank you for that generous introduction. I'm very glad to be here to speak to
the CFTPA for the first time as Chair of the CRTC.
There is no doubt that the Canadian independent production industry has
recently been facing some harsh realities.
In fact, when I look at the titles of some of the American reality-TV shows, I
feel that they might carry a certain resonance for you who work in this industry.
Survivor. Fear Factor. Worst Case Scenario. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. And
then there's Big Brother -- but I assure you, that is not a reference to me.
The economic report Profile 2003 which the Association and its partners
have just released tells a sobering story. Markets in Canada, the United States
and around the world are tightening. After a long and steady period of growth,
production figures in this country are flattening out.
The numbers in dollars and jobs are weakening in several areas, including
service production and CAVCO-certified production. There has been a dramatic drop
in children's programming.
Profile 2003 characterizes drama and comedy as "an endangered species",
especially in English. As you know, this is a subject of special concern to me,
and I will be addressing this a little later in my talk.
There's no doubt about it. The season of 2001/2002 was a tough year for the
Canadian production industry.
We at the CRTC have taken a look at some preliminary figures based on the
annual reports filed by the broadcasters. For the private English-language
conventional broadcasters, revenues were flat. So were the amounts spent on
Canadian programming. Profitability was down.
The picture looks better for the English analogue specialty channels. Their
numbers were up for all three indicators. Notably, they are buying more and more
product.
But overall, the tough times for production do not seem to be over.
There appears to be no dramatic or immediate solution to the difficulties and
challenges. What we need to develop, and I believe we are developing -- is a
sense of common purpose. The situation is ominous not only for you as members of
the CFTPA -- but also for us at the CRTC, together with everyone who has a stake
in a healthy and vibrant broadcasting and production environment in Canada.
We're in this together. Producers, broadcasters, creative talent, the CRTC,
government, viewers -- and in fact the whole country, because our national
identity demands to be expressed in the powerful and dynamic media that we have
at our disposal.
The challenges that our industry faces are well understood by the Government.
The Minister of Canadian Heritage is working to coordinate the efforts of the
agencies under her jurisdiction: Telefilm, the CBC, and the Canadian Television
Fund.
We are awaiting two Government reports that are of particular interest: One is
from the House Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, on its study of the
broadcasting system, with a focus on Canadian content and cultural diversity. The
other, from François Macerola on his review of Canadian content in film and
television.
I would now like to turn to the subject of drama. Some of you may have seen
Tony Atherton's piece in the Ottawa Citizen on Wednesday. He laid out very
effectively some of the issues of public policy, popular taste and international
markets that present serious challenges to the success of Canadian TV drama.
As you know, the production of drama is of great economic consequence to the
industry. As the Profile 2003 report points out:
"Fiction" -- in other words, drama and comedy -- "is much more
cost-intensive and generates far more jobs per programming hour than any other
category."
But the production of drama is also of great cultural consequence to the
country. Drama is storytelling - -and storytelling is close to the heart of all
human culture. Through these works of imagination, a country gets to define
itself and see itself.
Now, nobody would claim that Canadians will ever want to stop watching
American-made TV shows and others from around the world. There's a lot of
entertaining and high-quality material out there, and Canadians watch it and
enjoy it.
But what if we get to the point where Canadians have little or none of our own
dramatic work to watch? What if Canadian creators are denied the opportunity to
develop their talents and bring their work to the Canadian audience? Isn't that
the point at which we become a cultural colony?
It seems to me that Canadian TV drama is not only desirable -- it is
essential. We have vigorous home-grown television drama in French -- and we must
have it in English too.
But what do we find?
If we look at the ten top-rated shows in a typical week on Canadian
English-language television, we find that not one of those shows is a dramatic
series created by Canadians and about Canadians. Now that's bad enough. But it's
worse. Out of the top ten dramatic series, there is still not one created by
Canadians and about Canadians.
So what does this tell us? Do Canadians not want to watch Canadian stories? I
believe they do. Last spring the CBC broadcast its dramatic mini-series about
Pierre Elliott Trudeau. More Canadians were watching that show than any of the
popular American dramas.
So why are we not more successful in bringing our own stories to our own
people?
We decided to look at our situation in a global context. We commissioned Barry
Kiefl, an expert in audience research, to study international trends in
prime-time entertainment programming over the past five years.
His report will be made public at the same time as Trina McQueen's. However,
we have taken note of some of his findings.
In prime time, drama has remained the largest and the most important program
category in Europe, Australia and the U.S.
Over the past five years in Europe, the amount of domestic drama has remained
stable or has actually increased, although it has decreased in Australia.
In all the countries studied, prime time drama audiences remained strong, in
spite of some audience fragmentation following the arrival of new channels.
Now, how is domestic drama in those countries doing against the imported
drama, which is largely American?
In Europe in 2001, first run domestic fiction programming reached its highest
level since 1996. In the U.K., France and Germany, over 50% of prime time drama
is now of domestic origin.
The annual value of European domestic drama has been estimated at more than
$4-billion Canadian.
So Barry's research demonstrates that it is possible for domestic drama in
other countries to flourish even in competition with the very popular American
imports.
In fact, a New York Times report last month produced more evidence that
American shows are no longer as dominant in international markets as they once
were. Many of them are being relegated to fringe time slots as locally-produced
shows move into prime.
The president of Walt Disney Television International has said, "The worldwide
television market is growing, but America's place in it is declining."
Viewers around the world often prefer the shows that reflect their own tastes,
cultures and history. I believe that Canadians will often prefer those shows too.
Now I am not going to pretend that the competitive situation for drama in
English Canada is directly comparable with that in Germany or Italy. We live next
door to the Americans, we share the same popular culture and we speak roughly the
same language. Our situation is bound to be a little tougher. And we are going to
have to be resourceful, because funds for our initiatives will not be easy to
come by. Other countries spend much more both on an absolute and a per-capita
basis.
We also have to ask about the future of television drama itself.
Big changes have been happening with the arrival of the hugely popular
reality-TV shows in the last five or six years.
Barry Kiefl reports that so far, this new genre has had little effect on the
amount of drama scheduled by the broadcasters in Europe and Australia. In the
States, the reality shows have elbowed out a significant number of comedy shows
but there has been no effect on other forms of drama.
But who knows where this is going? Two weeks ago on the American networks,
reality shows won 15 out of 18 half-hour prime-time slots on Monday, Tuesday and
Wednesday nights -- and came second in the other three.
Network executives have begun talking about a complete restructuring of the
television year, abolishing the traditional season that starts in September and
ends in May. Instead, new reality shows would make their debuts in a staggered
pattern all year round. There could be fewer orders for drama and comedy.
The power of reality-TV is its tremendous appeal to younger viewers. Now, I
usually get my statistics in the form of tables and charts that come across my
desk. But in this case I can bring you some raw numbers from personal experience.
Last week my wife and I were on holiday in one of the warmer parts of the
United States. We had with us four members of the younger generation. They were
actually in their early thirties - the older fringe of the younger generation -
but still, the advertisers would rather have them than us.
It was Wednesday night. Unfortunately, Canadian programs are not widely
available in that part of the world so Susannah and I decided to watch The West
Wing.
But the four young thirty-somethings chose unanimously and enthusiastically to
watch The Bachelorette. I felt they had made a clear statement as a
demographically-significant focus group.
My wife and I left the room to watch The West Wing on another set. It became
clear that we were the slightly-out-of-focus focus group.
So we have a broadcasting environment that is constantly changing. We have
tough times in the industry and the economy. It won't be easy to bring more
Canadian drama to our TV screens. And we must work at it.
I have called upon the collective idea-power of people in the industry. We're
very grateful for the submissions that have been received by Trina McQueen, and
her report on new ideas for English TV drama will be ready soon. As an aside, I
am told that Trina got some very interesting help with her report from the
members of the panel she was on yesterday.
Guy Fournier will be providing a report on the success that French-language
drama has been enjoying with its audiences. Is it simply the result of the
language factor? Guy says no; he points to other key elements:
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Drama that the audience can relate to.
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A star system.
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Wide promotion in newspapers and magazines.
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Long-running series.
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Stability in funding, and
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Stability in broadcast schedules.
We hope some lessons can be learned from that experience which will help us on
the English side.
Now of course our industry does not have to wait for reports before plunging
on with new ventures and with innovation. I hope many of you will be watching
next week for the premiere of "Lord Have Mercy" on Vision TV. It's a comedy of
church life in the Caribbean community in Toronto, and even the schedule is
innovative. You can see all thirteen episodes next week starting on Tuesday at 9
pm and running through to Thursday.
I have focused on difficulties and challenges this morning because that is
where the action is these days. But there are a few bright spots.
In their licence renewal decisions, CTV and Global were asked to report
annually on the sources of their priority programming. We have recently received
those reports, and they show that 100% of CTV's priority programming came from
independent producers. Global's figure was 96%. In addition, our expectation that
priority programming be sourced from all regions of the country has been met by
both broadcasters.
On the big screen, there's been a great success with the Cité Amérique film
"Séraphin, un homme et son péché".The story is deeply rooted in Québec, and the
production has been booked widely across the province, backed by a strong
advertising campaign. At the end of January, its box office receipts had reached
$7.3 million and they are expected to surpass 8 million - a record in Canadian
film.
The Profile 2003 report was given a subtitle that says it all: Risky
Business. That's what this business is at the best of times. You in this room
dance with risk every day.
And why have you chosen to do that? Because the rewards that are most worth
winning invariably come with some pretty big risks. The rewards we all want to
win are a stable and prosperous industry, a rich and varied stream of
entertainment and information, and a vivid sense of who we are and how we live in
this country of ours.
These rewards are worth the risks.
Thank you.
- 30 -
Contact: Denis Carmel
Tel.: (819)
997-9403, TDD: (819) 994-0423, Fax: (819) 997-4245
e-Mail:
denis.carmel@crtc.gc.ca
Toll-free #
1-877-249-CRTC (2782)
TDD -
Toll-free # 1-877-909-2782
This document is available in alternative format upon request.
Date Modified: 2003-02-07 |
