Barry Kiefl is the president of Canadian Media Research, based in Ottawa. Viewing statistics in the article are based on Nielsen Media Research data and have been analyzed using a proprietary statistical model.

Which network had the largest primetime audience for Canadian drama series in 2004/05? I doubt any reader would guess that it was Space: The Imagination Station!

In a recent speech, CBC president Robert Rabinovitch said about Canadian TV: "There's something missing, and that something is drama - televised English-language drama." Yet, in the next breath he said, "What we are talking about is dramatic series, comedy and entertainment programming..."

I don't think that comedy or entertainment should be categorized as drama. The CRTC, which has been working on program classification for almost 50 years, defines drama as ongoing dramatic series, MOWs, miniseries, feature films and anthology drama.

In a recent Globe and Mail column, John Doyle questioned the veracity of an analysis we recently conducted of Canadian drama series on CBC versus CTV.

Our data, based on CRTC program categories, were absolutely correct, but Mr. Doyle wanted to quibble about whether one of the shows on CTV should be counted as Canadian, since it is set in the United States and has references to the U.S. By these criteria, a futuristic science fiction series or a historical series pre-Confederation shouldn't be counted as Canadian. Maybe a drama with a faux beach setting shouldn't count either?

If Mr. Rabinovitch and Mr. Doyle have trouble defining what they are really talking about when it comes to TV drama, how can we ever develop policy, funding and a program strategy that will change things?

The real truth about Canadian drama is that neither the CBC nor its private counterparts are investing enough in ongoing dramatic series, which account for some 25.9% of all primetime TV viewing - far more than comedy, news, sports, etc.

Drama series in 2004/05 had a larger share of primetime viewing than MOWs, drama specials, feature films, sitcoms, sketch comedy, and stand-up comedy combined. Drama series are the most important program category to audiences, even in an age when reality programming seems so omnipresent.

What about comedy and entertainment programming? The fact is that Canadian producers do compete successfully in these program categories. Shows such as Corner Gas, The Rick Mercer Report and This Hour Has 22 Minutes are among the best TV comedy in the world. Canadian Idol, meanwhile, draws millions of viewers.

We can also equal the best the U.S. and the rest of the world has to offer when it comes to MOWs and miniseries, as demonstrated by such examples as Anne of Green Gables, Trudeau and Plague City: SARS in Toronto. MOWs such as Love and Hate even sold to U.S. networks, attracting big American audiences there as well.

However, the Canadian production sector has never been able to compete in the most important category of TV, ongoing dramatic series.