Cab To Gov't: B'casters Need More Subsidies

Anticipating a time when they can no longer rely on U.S. programming, Canadian private radio and TV broadcasters asked the federal government Thursday for increased subsidies and policy supports during a "transition" period when they will need to make the airing of homegrown programming commercially viable.

Appearing before the parliamentary Heritage Committee studying the domestic broadcast system, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters recommended that the departments of Canadian Heritage and Finance establish a joint working group on the future of television program financing in Canada.

"The current economic realities are such that, commercially speaking, outside of television news and television sports, other program categories [of Canadian shows] do not always make money," Glenn O'Farrell, newly installed CAB president and CEO, told reporters after his committee appearance.

"They make money very irregularly, and by that I'm referring primarily to high-end expensive dramatic programming. You do not make money by airing that programming when you consider all the sources of revenue that go against the cost of buying it, and we want to change that," he added.

Canadian broadcasters in recent years have moved to prepare for a future of greater audience fragmentation due to more U.S. signals reaching into Canada via emerging technologies.

O'Farrell and other CAB executives also suggested that the government commit to long-term stable funding at current levels for the Canadian Television Fund, the main source of public subsidies for domestic independent producers looking to get their TV shows on primetime schedules here.