HEATHER CONWAY, CBC EXECUTIVE vice-president, English Services, likes drinking from the Netflix co-production tap.
The pubcaster hit ratings gold with high-profile Netflix collaborations like Alias Grace and Anne as it grows its originals slate and on Thursday the CBC unveiled another upscale, internationally driven series co-produced with Netflix in Northern Rescue, which stars William Baldwin and Kathleen Robertson, for its 2018-19 schedule.
The way Conway tells it, a CBC steadily breaking free of its traditional linear TV moorings and floating in an expanding digital space atop its new OTT app has found offering homegrown property – or talent-driven content to Netflix, Hulu and other digital insurgents is an increasingly appealing production strategy in the golden age of TV.
"In a 200-, 300-, 400-competitor world, to have a distinctive (Canadian) offering is a huge asset," Conway argued.
Netflix Canada has been a fierce competitor against Canadian broadcasters since launching in late 2010, and Bell Media, Rogers Media and Corus Entertainment have rolled out their own Netflix competitors in the streaming space, with only CraveTV surviving.
So CBC embracing a creative partnership with Netflix stands in contrast to how Hollywood studios are fretting over deep-pocketed Netflix nabbing top TV producers like Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy away from them, and how rival Canadian commercial broadcasters are keeping the U.S. streaming giant mostly at a distance to protect their linear TV windows.
Conway told Cartt.ca at the CBC’s upfront launch in Toronto Thursday that it has an edge over local rivals as it fills its primetime schedule with Canadian content with international appeal, which that makes it a unique local partner for Netflix as the U.S. streamer ramps up its own investments in Canadian content that crosses borders.
"If you only have one Canadian show in primetime, and you can't make the deal, well that was your one shot because you're running rented American shows.” – Heather Conway, CBC
"If you only have one Canadian show in primetime, and you can't make the deal, well that was your one shot because you're running rented American shows," she said of her Canadian commercial rivals.
Netflix also has deep pockets the CBC needs to tap. "I look at something like ten episodes of The Crown – that's the entire CBC non-news budget for a year," Conway observes.
The pubcaster also rolled out other original series during its 2018-19 Season Preview event in Toronto, including the procedural drama Coroner, legal dramas Diggstown and a Street Legal reboot (pictured above is the 80s version, courtesy CBC), plus new comedies like Cavendish from creators Andrew Bush and Mark Little.
At the same time, the CBC is also co-producing the new limited series Unspeakable with Sundance TV and AMC Studios, and elsewhere the sci-fi series Endlings with Hulu – and is open to collaborating with Amazon Studios to help push its highest-profile series to the next level.
"Partnerships will be vital to tell Canadian stories on the scope and scale you saw with Anne with an E and Alias Grace," Conway insists.
For local indies, that means ditching the traditional broadcast-focused Canadian TV model that saw them exclusively banging on doors at Rogers, CTV and Global to pitch their dramas and comedies because now a combined CBC/Netflix partnership is a new option.
Don Carmody Television's David Cormican, who co-created and executive produces Northern Rescue, said the series is his fourth for Netflix. "We have a long history of doing this. And we're proud to bring this home to the CBC. They were early adopters of this project, and a family drama is a natural fit," he said.
Sally Catto, general manager of programming at the CBC, said Netflix, Hulu and other digital players are also helping her attract other top drawer Canadian talent. "The creative talent we work with are attracting international partners. We're certainly not adjusting or compromising our strategy in any way to attract partners. We haven't needed to do that, and we won't do that," she told Cartt.ca.
The irony is the CBC's distinctively Canadian schedule is an experiment long-in-the-making, and a risky one at, that as the pubcaster felt pushed into distinguishing itself in a crowded media landscape by the Internet and technological innovation.
"I'm really proud. When I think of when we started the shift to a programming strategy that was much more distinctively Canadian – investing in arts and documentaries, incredible news brands, high-performance sport – that was out of necessity – and necessity has become an advantage," Conway told the 2018-19 season preview event.
Canadians are more digital and diverse, she added, and being distinctively Canadian has helped the CBC pursue an on-the-go audience across multiple platforms.
"We have to set the stage for the digital CBC that will ultimately replace the traditional CBC," Conway argued as the pubcaster, like all traditional players, increasingly goes up against Google, Apple and Facebook in the digital space.
