Source : Globe & Mail

The vice-president of the CBC wants roughly $100-million a year -- or 50 per cent of the Canadian Television Fund's annual budget -- to be given exclusively to the Crown corporation.

Richard Stursberg, head of CBC's English-language TV, told the committee on Canadian Heritage yesterday that dramatic programming is on its last legs in this country and audiences are asking for more local and regional news and other programming. If CBC was to get the $100-million, it would be earmarked to hire independent producers to make more home-grown programming, he said.

Also disclosed yesterday were details of CBC's proposal for $83-million in new money to be spent on local and regional services in "underserved" markets, such as Hamilton and Saskatoon.

In other news:

Film and TV production in Canada declined slightly more than 2 per cent, to $4.92-billion, in the fiscal year ended last March 31, according to a report released at the annual conference of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA) and Quebec's Association des producteurs de films et de télévision. It was the first such decline since statistics started to be gathered in 1994-95. The only bright spot in the report was a 5-per-cent hike, to $1.04-billion, in in-house production by broadcasters such as CBC and CTV and various specialty services.

Canadian Heritage Minister Liza Frulla announced a 56-per-cent increase to the New Media Fund for 2005-06, to $14-million.

Wayne Clarkson, the new executive director of Telefilm Canada, indicated he's going to pull the federal agency out of a controversial deal struck last year by his predecessor, Richard Stursberg, with Creative Artists Agency in Los Angeles. Speaking at the CFTPA conference, Clarkson said a commitment to "stable financial support" will result in more and better Canadian films and increased audiences for them, "not...some association with Hollywood agencies."

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