By Ken Kelley
AS THE WORLD continues to grapple with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, the television industry mostly remains in a holding pattern that has executives attempting to plot their next move amongst a backdrop of uncertainty on multiple fronts.
That topic and how broadcasters and producers are dealing with systemic racism were at the centre of Media Leaders 2020: The Path Forward, a discussion held Tuesday at the virtual Banff World Media Festival. Moderated by Variety Magazine’s Manori Ravindran, guests on the panel included Lionsgate Television group chairman Kevin Beggs; Sandra Dewey, president, business operations and productions HBO Max, TNT, TBS and truTV; Danna Stern, managing director of Yes Studios in Israel; and CBC president and CEO Catherine Tait.
“With all of the complexity of our universe and everything that’s happening in the world right now, our mission remains the same,” Dewey began. “We had the launch of HBO Max on May 27 and made the decision to go forward during all this complexity. I think we are trying to live up to the promise of our new platform, which is to deliver to the quality that HBO is the standard bearer of. For us, success is trying to maintain that mandate and that story through all of the challenges we didn’t expect along the way.”
With just under 20,000 coronavirus cases confirmed in Israel, Stern acknowledged the pandemic’s impact there has been relatively minimal compared to the U.S.
“The pandemic is kind of contained at this point, we’ve gone back to work,” she said. “We’re looking to restart production in a couple of weeks. We are gearing up to start shows that were pushed back as well as things we have planned for the summer. Like everybody else, we’ve had our ups and downs and when this started, it was this existential crisis of ‘what is our role in the world?’ But I think we’re coming out of that now and can see a ray of sun peeking through. We have come through this and are starting to look at some of the opportunities arising from this time.”
At the CBC, Tait said time was of the essence as the corporation moved swiftly to move 80% of its 7,500-strong workforce to remote locations amid a fluid situation unlike anything they had seen before.
“The big challenge for us was how we deliver local, regional, national and international news without interruption. That was really the priority,” Tait said. “After that, we focused on how we could continue giving Canadians not just their usual information but also incremental information on Covid-19 in addition to more ‘normal’ programming. Augmenting our children’s programming was a big priority, and opening Curio, our educational platform, to all Canadian families so they had access to educational programming for kids. I think we proved the true value of the role of the public broadcaster to Canadians during these very difficult months.”
“For Lionsgate, the challenge has been two-fold,” Beggs started. “First, folding all the productions but then the next phase has been how do we go back into production. And then separate and apart from that has been protecting employees’ health as well as our production partners all over the world. So that’s really been the focus.”
“In our organization, as storytellers and journalists, I think we feel a heightened sense of responsibility at times like this, both with the pandemic as well as looking into the face of systemic racism in our country.” – Sandra Dewey, HBO
As television companies continue navigating the tricky waters of the pandemic, Ravindran also noted the massive outcry for social change springing from the racist killing of George Floyd by police has caused many providers to rethink their content strategies, both in terms of what is being commissioned but also the product currently in their libraries. Ravindran cited HBO’s recent decision to remove Gone With The Wind from its streaming platform at this time (the company has said it will return, but with an accompanying contextual explanation of the film) as an example of how broadcasters and producers need to rethink their product offerings in light of world events.
“In our organization, as storytellers and journalists, I think we feel a heightened sense of responsibility at times like this, both with the pandemic as well as looking into the face of systemic racism in our country,” HBO’s Dewey stated.
“I think we feel a heightened sense of responsibility to have a deeper, better understanding of the world, and to make sure that we are telling the stories and reporting. With respect to Gone With The Wind, I know we’re having a discussion around the history of Looney Tunes and those cartoons, which is on our platform. There were things portrayed in those cartoons that were insensitive in many different aspects so what do you do with that? You do not want to put that messaging in front of children who can’t contextualize.
“I think that’s really the critical piece with Gone with the Wind: it’s an epic, famous, beloved story and yet contains issues of extreme racial sensitivity so I think as a company, what we would like to do is not take that away from people but to present it with the appropriate context and framing of those sensitive issues.”
As a public broadcaster, Tait said the CBC is not only required to contemplate how it reflects and represents Canada’s diverse citizenry in its programming, the corporation also needs to make similar considerations in the programming it commissions. She pointed out it was at the 2019 edition of the Banff World Media festival where it announced plans requiring at least one of the key creatives in all scripted and factual commissioned programs be held by a person from a diverse background.
“It’s not enough to just hire people from underrepresented groups, you have to have promotion and retention and ensure you’re moving people throughout the organization.” – Catherine Tait, CBC
“It’s absolutely critical for us that we start to see a revolution in the faces of the people and creators that we are supporting and commissioning from,” she said. “We successfully changed the face of our programming through a commitment to gender parity in our commission programming. But it’s not enough to just hire people from underrepresented groups, you have to have promotion and retention and ensure you’re moving people throughout the organization.”
Another important piece of the puzzle is CBC’s commitment to workplace safety, which includes paying close attention to the microaggressions that Black or Indigenous employees have told management they experience, added Tait. “It’s complicated, but it’s the single most important thing our company will be working on in the coming months.”
Stern said that at Yes Studios, they have been working to incorporate Arab writers and Arab actors and are also taking a hard look at the creative storytelling aspect of roles to ensure they aren’t stereotyping or stigmatizing their contributions to society.
“It’s about breaking apart from the kind of storytelling we’ve been used to. It’s important we really try on that front, because this is a life-changing moment for all of us. It’s a time to reflect and learn and do what we can to work on implementing change.”
As the television industry at home and abroad attempts to move forward, one of the most daunting challenges it is facing is something a bit more mundane: insurance. As we reported last week, production companies aren’t able to return to work without new agreements with their insurance companies over potential coronavirus impacts, who are so far resisting extending coverage.
“We will work with our network partners to figure out how we divvy up the cost so we can maintain our insurance when we resume,” Lionsgate’s Beggs said. “There really isn’t a government plan at the moment, although I think Canada is at the forefront of all governments trying to figure something out. We probably have to look at the risk tolerance on each production TV as a little different than movies and protect ourselves as best we can with protocols and get back into production.”
In Israel, Stern flat-out stated insurance is entirely out of the question. “Basically, production now is uninsurable because this is a pre-known condition. We’re taking precautions as much as we can, but our productions are quite small to begin with, so we don’t have a lot of crew – even that’s going to be scaled back a little bit. And we’re going to try to keep it as safe as an environment as possible, but we are asking people to sign in and sign up, knowing full well there might not be insurance for them personally in the event something happens.”
Tait added any increase to the cost of productions is bound to negatively impact the CBC. “We have a finite number of dollars, and if there’s any incremental cost, it’s going to mean fewer productions,” she said.
“There are some real hard choices that each of us has to make and, and we’re trying to do the right thing. We absolutely want production to get rolling again; we need it for our schedules and need it to maintain our audiences.”
