CTS 2008: A new way to do TV shows?
By Greg O’Brien
TORONTO – If he’d known then what he knows now, the mega-popular TV franchise Canadian Idol might have been brought to market with an entirely different business plan, said John Brunton, president and CEO of Insight Production, the company that makes the program for CTV.
Given the way the media market has grown and fragmented, perhaps the reality show could have first or also been sold to a telco or an ISP, he said, during a panel discussion on entertainment on broadband.
Noting that Rogers’ portal agreement with Yahoo! and Bell’s with Microsoft to build SympaticoMSN shows “they want to avoid being reduced to the dumb pipe,” according to Rory Altman founder and director of consultants Altman Vilandrie and Co., what they need is original content.
That may come through all the Rogers Sportsnet content on the Rogers Yahoo! site or the exclusive NHL content on SympaticoMSN – or something much more exciting.
Last season, 36 million votes were cast over the weeks of the Canadian Idol broadcast and while every season the TV ratings get just a little smaller, the number of votes cast on line or via cell phone have continued to climb. “If I could do it all over again I would have created a different business model from the get-go,” said Brunton, who wishes he could better monetize all those votes.
“It’s a completely new world,” he added.
While noting that network TV would still have to underwrite a costly concept like Canadian Idol, Brunton said “instead of starting at the network, we might start at the phone company or Sympatico or Rogers” where maybe CI is an exclusive property to their customers for backstage looks or various branding elements.
“We might start doing the product in reverse,” he added. In the meantime, “we’re taking our Idol business and circulating it in every direction.”
For example, each of the 15,000-plus CI auditions are now available on line and viewers will soon be able to download the clips and share them.
But Brunton also showed a sneak preview of a new reality game show concept called The Phone, where two random strangers, reached on cell phones, are asked if they want to get rich and have to team up to follow clues phoned in to them to locate a million dollars. The clues could use the features of a smart phone, like GPS and web search, too, making it perhaps the ultimate product placement where the handset could be the star of the show.
“It’s an interesting dilemma and opportunity,” said Brunton. “We may start by going directly to Telus or Rogers and so forth.” Or maybe he’ll approach Apple and make it an iPhone-driven game. Perhaps it’s a Rogers or Bell exclusive where the game even starts at a Blue Jays game in the Rogers Centre or a Habs game inside the Bell Centre.
“The business model I’ve been using as a showmaker for 25 years… I’m going to smash that template and think of new ways of doing it.
“We’re exploring this program in a whole different head space.”
