CRTC OFFERS AD MINUTES TO ENCOURAGE CANADIAN TV DRAMAS
By Adnews Staff
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission yesterday released the details of an incentive program intended to encourage Canadian broadcasters to make and air more original English-language Canadian television dramas. Broadcasters that do so will receive permission to air more minutes of advertising than otherwise. Broadcasters will get from 30 seconds to eight minutes of extra advertising time for each hour of original Canadian drama they show. The extra ad time can be placed anywhere in the daily schedule. The amount of extra time will be dependent on the level of Canadian participation in the production. Broadcasters that increase their audience share for Canadian drama by a pre-set amount will be able to increase their total extra amount of advertising by 25%. Broadcasters that increase spending on Canadian drama by a certain amount will get the same 25% bonus. In addition, the largest time bonuses will accrue to programs that do not draw from the Canadian Television Fund. The upper limit for advertising will be 14 minutes per hour rather than 12. The CRTC expects to issue proposals for the increase of French-language dramas in the near future.