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Independent Producers United on Eve of Talks

OTTAWA/MONTREAL - July 22, 2008 – Canada’s two principal independent producers groups expressed mutual support as each gets ready to embark on negotiations aimed at securing fairer deals for program rights, across a variety of delivery platforms and media, from the country’s major television broadcast networks.

“Canadian independent producers are united in their determination to negotiate terms of trade agreements that will ensure a sustainable independent production sector in this country,” stated Claire Samson, President and CEO of the Association des producteurs de films et de television du Québec, the organization that represents the majority of film and independent production companies in Quebec. “We fully support our English-language production partners in their negotiations with both the private and public English-language networks.”

On Wednesday, the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFPTA), which represents the majority of English-language independent producers, is slated to sit down with CTV, Canwest Global and Rogers to begin negotiating so-called “terms of trade” negotiations - framework agreements aimed at defining and valuing program rights. These framework agreements would apply to individual negotiations between broadcasters and producers for program rights – something that producers hope will alleviate the severe imbalances in negotiating power caused by broadcaster consolidation.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has mandated that all broadcasters negotiate terms of trade with English and French-language independent producers. While the CFTPA will handle negotiations with the English-language private networks, the public educational networks outside Quebec, and the CBC, the APFTQ will be entering into talks with the private French-language networks TVA and TQS, the TV5 and Astral specialty channels, as well as with the public broadcasters, Radio-Canada and Télé-Québec, later this fall.

“The challenges that independent producers face, whether in Quebec or the rest of the country, are essentially the same,” said Guy Mayson, President and CEO of the CFTPA. “The core issue for all of us is ensuring that the program rights that independent producers license to broadcasters are properly defined and valued. We believe that this is best achieved through terms of trade, which would help mitigate the imbalance of negotiating power that currently exists when individual independent producers negotiate program deals with broadcasters.”

Last week, the CFTPA announced that Gordon Ritchie, one of the principal architects of the Free Trade Agreement, had joined their negotiating team. His appointment reflects the high stakes with which independent producers view the upcoming negotiations.

“We regard this as the most important negotiation that either of our organizations has ever entered into,” stated Samson. “We will marshal all of our collective efforts to ensure they are successful, for both the good of our sector and to the benefit of the entire broadcasting system.”

The CFTPA is a non-profit trade organization that works on behalf of almost 400 companies engaged in the production and distribution of English-language television programs, feature films, and interactive media products in all regions of Canada. The CFTPA promotes the general interests of members provincially, federally, and internationally; negotiates and manages labour agreements with guilds and unions; administers copyright collectives; trains new industry entrants through several national internship programs; and undertakes a number of other specific initiatives that help increase awareness and enhance communication within the Canadian and international production communities. The independent production sector directly or indirectly employs more than 61,000 people in communities across Canada.

The APFTQ represents the vast majority of film and independent production companies in Quebec. It represents and defends the interests of its members with governments and film- and television- related organizations, both federal and provincial; offers its members consulting services on industrial relations, copyright, financing and taxation; negotiates collective agreements with Quebec-based artists’ associations and technicians’ unions; organizes an annual convention involving the industry’s key players; publishes an annual economic profile of the production sector; provides various training and professional development opportunities; and intervenes on international issues such as coproduction, copyright and cultural diversity.

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For more information, please contact:
Susan Smith
Bluesky Strategy Group
Tel: (613) 371-0624