Inuit Broadcasting Corporation - Growth

Growth

One of the new broadcaster’s first actions was the release of a discussion paper in 1981 setting out its long-term vision and goals in a discussion paper. Both the Department of Communications and the CRTC were seeking appropriate responses to the recommendations of the Therrien Report. IBC provided them with a number of recommendations, including: • A funding program for all Inuit broadcasters (IBC, Taqramiut Nipingat in northern Quebec, the newly formed OkalaKatiget Society in Labrador); • Recognition of Aboriginal broadcasters in the Broadcast Act; • A special CRTC policy acknowledging and supporting Aboriginal broadcasters; • The creation of a dedicated northern transponder (a satellite channel committed exclusively to northern programming).

The first of IBC’s goals was realized with the announcement on March 10, 1983 of the Northern Native Broadcast Access Program (NNBAP), which provided $33.1M over four years to thirteen northern Aboriginal organizations for the production of radio and/or television programming. Unlike other contribution programs for Aboriginal media, which tended to fund specific projects, the NNBAP allowed broadcasters to build permanent organizations, establish governance and management infrastructures, prepare production facilities, and design program schedules.

The program was not without its limitations. Funding was based on the assumption that an hour of television costs $5,000 to produce. However, the actual cost of an hour of programming at CBC in 1983 was $36,000.00, more than five times as much as the NNBAP formula. Funding was also tied to levels of production: IBC was required to produce five hours of Inuktitut language programming per week. Still, for the first time, IBC and the other indigenous broadcasters had a relatively solid funding base to build on, and a guarantee of at least four years of support.

In order to produce five hours of broadcast-quality television each week, IBC established five Inuit-staffed production centres through a two-year training program,including Inuit camera people, editors, switchers, sound recordists, lighting technicians, content producers (researchers, writers, directors, producers, journalists, on-air personnel), managers, administrators, and a governing Board. Eighteen trainees from five communities began the intensive program in 1983, and sixteen completed the course two years later.

The new network's first major trial was the 1983 Inuit Circumpolar Conference in Iqaluit, when IBC provided both live gavel-to-gavel coverage of the proceedings and pool video to journalists from around the world.

Over the next three years IBC refined many elements of the look and style that defines the network to this day. Its programs were being carried on CBC, which required thirty minutes formats and a higher level of technical quality than had been the norm during Inukshuk. For the first time recurring weekly series were designed and produced. Two of IBC’s longest-running programs were first broadcast in those early years; these were Qaqqiq, a regional current affairs program, and Kippingujautiit, entertainment and storytelling.

One of IBC’s best-known programs was launched in 1986. From its creation, IBC had targeted children as an essential audience in their overall goal of language promotion and preservation. After two years of research, focus group testing and specialized training for an Iqaluit-based crew, the network launched Takuginai, its award-winning series for Inuit children. Using puppets, graphic stories, live action, animation and special effects, Takuginai taught language, traditional and modern skills, and Inuit values and traditions. Takuginai has spun off books, posters, sunglasses, public service announcements, and even a celebrity tour for the puppets. In 2000 Leetia Ineak, the program’s producer, received a National Aboriginal Achievement award for her years of puppet design on the series.