PTiO: Proximity to U.S. still a major advantage: Freemantle CEO

By Perry Hoffman

OTTAWA – Jens Richter, chief executive at FreemantleMedia International, had some advice for Canadian TV producers. During an interview style session at the Canadian Media Producers Association’s annual Prime Time in Ottawa event, he suggested that Canada’s proximity to the U.S. and the fact that they understand the U.S. market better than most gives domestic producers an advantage over others.Canadian producers know so much more about the American market and have closer ties to programming there than their European counterparts and that’s an advantage to be leveraged, he said. European producers on the other hand fly to America once a...