LAST WEEK’S 9(1)(h) renewal hearing was the fourth such one for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network and each one has been a new test for APTN’s leadership.
“The challenge we face every time for APTN is to justify its existence – and obviously it generates a fair amount of reaction from the rest of the industry, especially the BDUs,” said CEO Jean La Rose in an interview last week.
“Many are supportive of the network, but it has an impact on their bottom lines and they would rather not have that… We are asked the same questions but as we grow and mature, the level of questions are changing and the Commission pushes us not only to justify to a greater extent but also to get a sense of is there ever an opportunity for us to move beyond the 9(1)(h).”
When APTN launched, there were only few Aboriginal producers with TV-ready content and experience, but as the Winnipeg-based channel grew and matured, expectations began to run higher in the Native production community. “We have to reinvent ourselves in this changing environment,” said La Rose (pictured). “We have built a very strong 
production community, with 110 active producers right now. The industry needs us to expand to maintain itself (because) at the same time their opportunity with other networks are negligible to nil.”
The Department
During last week’s hearing, Monika Ille, APTN’s executive director of programming, illustrated some of the unusual programming challenges the channel can face when she mentioned a high-end documentary series it has in mind called The Department; about Canada’s Indian Affairs Department. They did two RFPs initially (request for proposals) and nobody would bid.
“This production required an extensive research from an archival point of view, going back in history and we had to bring in a few researchers and to go in national archives and go to other repositories of information to look at old internal memos, to look at policy documents to see how the Department evolved, operated and… really create from a story perspective something fair and accurate,” she told commissioners.
“One producer bluntly told me: I will not sign my name to this (or) I will never get work from the feds again.” – Monika Ille, APTN
“One producer bluntly told me: I will not sign my name to this (or) I will never get work from the feds again. That is the other reality, we have a production house to develop the series over four years, we put in some funds every year to build some and now we are talking to some producers and we hope to find one that will take on the challenge because it is an important story.”
What’s next for APTN?
Radio. APTN’s First Peoples Radio was licenced by the CRTC last June, said La Rose in our interview, with the hopes of a summer 2018 launch. “Two licences, in Ottawa and Toronto, we are getting the studios ready, the Toronto studio is shared space at Corus Quay. (Corus has been) very supportive. They gave us preferential rate on the rent – same with Ottawa we’ve been getting studio ready.
“We have been posting for the positions, so we hope to launch by sometime this summer, a soft launch to sort of get the staff ready to move forward. A lot of the staff are new to the industry and Indigenous people are not overrepresented in the radio industry. (The radio stations) will also provide us the opportunity to cross-promote APTN on radio and FPR on TV so that we can strengthen our audience numbers,” added La Rose.
The CEO also noted that APTN has long talked with their American Indigenous counterparts in the hopes of working together on a linear TV channel – or even an over-the-top service. However, new, independent linear TV channels are a difficult thing to launch, so “right now, we are looking at establishing a OTT approach for it… and if we manage to launch with sufficient levels of revenue, down the road, we want to expand that and we want to approach other carriers, and eventually working with Indigenous producers in the U.S…
“That’s the goal. Will it work? We can’t say but obviously the reality is that there are six million Native Americans and another 18 million that identify as Native but not living on a reserve or having a formal status – so it is a sufficient viewership base to make the project worthwhile,” explains La Rose. There is no such channel in the States like APTN.
How about some NHL hockey?
When Rogers won the NHL rights (for the bulk of the National Hockey League games, until 2024), La Rose approached the company about televising some games on APTN, perhaps in Aboriginal languages.
“Some of the language did not even exist for some of the activities so they had to go back to their community elders and those knowledge-keepers on ‘how do I say a bobsled’?” – LaRose
They said no at first, but the company is now interested in us carrying some of the games, “but they wanted to do in (Native) languages,” said La Rose.
APTN would like some games, but to also make them available in English, too. Besides, it’s not so easy to find an on-air broadcast team who are ready to go live on TV in their own language covering an NHL game
“We must decide where to find the talent in the language,” explained La Rose. “When we did the Olympics in 2010, it took us almost a year to find the talent for play by play and we had to train them – and some of the language did not even exist for some of the activities so they had to go back to their community elders and those knowledge-keepers on ‘how do I say a bobsled’? It became a much greater exercise that we had anticipated in the beginning.
“Hockey was a bit easier because they play hockey and some of the words were already there, but for others like figure skating and snowboarding there was no vocabulary, they had to create words,” recalled La Rose.
“So, to get back to hockey we would have to decide who we would get and what language and with everything else we are involved in we had to put it on the back burner but depending on the outcome of the hearing we would be open to Rogers again to see if they have an appetite.”
