Two new programs will air after the current TV season ends in May. CBS, which introduced the Canadian drama “Flashpoint” last year, is adding “The Bridge,” a police series also filmed in Toronto. NBC nabbed “The Listener,” about a telepathic paramedic in the same city.

U.S. networks have made shows in Canada for years to gain tax benefits. Now they are buying dramas written and produced for Canadian TV and set north of the border. CTV, the nations largest private broadcaster, is sharing costs and will air shows at the same time. The results are licensing fees for new dramas that are about half the typical $1.6 million per episode.

“We may, in five years, look back upon all this and its a blip, but I dont think so,” said Peter Sussman, partner at Toronto-based Aver Media LP, which financed “Flashpoint.” “The economics of Canadian and U.S. co-production create a model that cant be ignored.”

Canadian productions also are more palatable to U.S. audiences than shows from other countries, including the U.K., Sussman said in an interview.

“Flashpoint,” about an elite tactical squad, was the most- watched original new drama last summer, providing a boost to CBS after a strike by TV and film writers shut down production on most series.

“Canadians drive on the same side of the street and talk the same and play the same sports,” Sussman said. “Its not hard to embrace content in Canada and make it work and get ratings in the U.S. market.”

Labors Loss

The American Federation of Television & Radio Artists, the second-largest actors union, considers the new programs a loss for the U.S. industry, said spokesman Chris de Haan.

“Its still runaway in the sense that its not being done here,” de Haan said in an interview. “It detracts from the number of Aftra-covered performers who are working.”

Television advertising fell 5.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 and may decline 11 percent this year, Michael Nathanson, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York, wrote in a March 4 report.

CBS, the most-watched U.S. television network this season, will make six fewer pilot episodes this year than in 2008, when 15 were produced. The move is part of the New York-based companys effort to cut costs, Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves said March 3 at an investor conference. The network has room for three to four new shows in its schedule, he said.

“Were going to make sure we have plenty in the pipeline,” Moonves said at the conference in Palm Beach, Florida.

Walt Disney Co.s ABC will produce about 26 pilots, the most of any U.S. TV network, NBC is making 11, similar to before the writers strike, and News Corp.s Fox plans 16 pilots compared with 21 two years ago, according to the networks.

Executives of NBC, a unit of Fairfield, Connecticut-based General Electric Co., werent available to comment, spokeswoman Deborah Thomas said. CBS spokesman Chris Ender also declined to comment.

NBC is also lowering the cost of its prime-time schedule by giving comedian Jay Leno a variety show at 10 p.m. weeknights, filling an hour normally taken up by dramas that can cost as much as 10 times more.

CBS, the only network to add viewers this season, fell 7 cents, or 2 percent, to $3.36 on March 6 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have dropped 59 percent this year. GE climbed 40 cents to $7.06 and has declined 56 percent this year.

Full Series

In addition to “Flashpoint,” CBS in February ordered 13 episodes of “The Bridge.” NBC will broadcast 13 episodes of “The Listener” after May, the company said.

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