KEITH PELLEY DOESN’T DO caffeine. He’s already wired.
“Can’t drink caffeine,” he says. “I don’t need the energy.”
Late this past summer, the unfailingly exuberant Pelley made the surprising leap from CTV to Rogers Media, jumping from the country’s biggest TV company, the highest rated national TV network and owner of TSN, the top-rated sports channel where Pelley began his TV career, to a far smaller TV business.
At the time, many considered Pelley the odds-on favourite to replace CTV CEO Ivan Fecan. Now, whether Pelley knew for sure the Bell folks were coming in and unlikely to give him the keys to the CTV empire – while he was at the same time being recruited to take the now-retired Tony Viner’s old chair – he’s not saying. At the time of his hiring by Rogers, the Bell-CTV merger had not yet been announced but it was known within CTV at the time something big was indeed, up.
However, there were other circumstances that drew Pelley to Rogers. Even though its media division is far smaller than CTV’s, it has a larger diversity of brands when its magazine stable is counted. And besides, Rogers Communications is the country’s largest wireless provider and the dominant cable company in the biggest TV market in Canada. When an app or a new channel needs distribution, Rogers has the heft to make it happen in Canada. There will be no shortage of resources under the big red machine’s umbrella.
As an added bonus, Rogers’ ownership of the Toronto Blue Jays means Pelley (who was president of the Toronto Argonauts from 2003 to 2007) will get to be part of running a sports franchise again. (If the rumours are true, he’ll get to run the Maple Leafs and Raptors too, soon, but our interview happened before that news broke and neither Rogers nor Pelley will say anything beyond how they don’t comment on speculation.)
In any event, Pelley (right) is vibrating with excitement over his new job, over the new specialty channels the company plans to launch in 2011 and all the new applications and other neat-o products Rogers Media has percolating.
Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien recently sat down with Pelley in his Toronto office. What follows is an edited transcript.
Keith Pelley: So did you drive in from the thriving metropolis of…
Greg O’Brien: Hamilton. Was a piece of cake today. Sometimes it takes two hours, sometimes it takes 45 minutes. Never can tell.
KP: What’s happening in Hamilton with the stadium? (Ed note: There is much speculation in the Steel City that the 2015 Pan American Games stadium won’t be built in Hamilton as promised since Games officials, government representatives and city leaders, including the supposed long-term tenant the CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats, can not decide on a location – or on final funding)
GOB: Well, they’re now thinking of building it right by my house.
KP: Which is good or bad for you?
GOB: As long as they don’t build it where the Innovation Park is going to be, Right now, half of the McMaster Innovation Park has been built and there’s a parcel across the street with this giant warehouse that they are going to knock down and build the other half. So they were thinking about putting the stadium in that spot instead. Now someone has come up with the idea of putting it in the CP rail yard, which is sort of kitty-corner to the whole Innovation Park. So if they put the stadium there, that would be acceptable, I think, to most people. We don’t want to lose the hundreds of high-tech jobs that would come with the rest of the Innovation Park in exchange for the stadium, which is basically a hole in the ground for most of the year.
KP: Almost all of the year… Did Bobby (Young, the Hamilton Tiger Cats owner) actually put any money down?
GOB: He said he’s going to, but only $10 million or something like that. So not a lot.
KP: Gotta love guys like Bobby. Keeping these teams and leagues alive. But anyway. So what’s up? Fire away.
GOB: People are still talking about you leaving CTV.
KP: Why?
GOB: Well, lots of people figured you were going to take over for Ivan (Fecan), the outgoing CTV CEO.
KP: I had a great time at CTV. I really enjoyed it. It was a great opportunity to do the Olympics and I had a fantastic run at TSN. This is just the greatest media job in the country. And to work for Rogers and Nadir Mohamed, it was an opportunity that was just too good to pass up.
You know, if you love the media, which I’ve always loved all facets of it, Rogers certainly has a plethora of assets in media from publishing to radio to television to digital. But it also has sports as well in terms of the Blue Jays and the stadium. I really enjoyed my time at the Argos and I really enjoyed my time at CTV and this combines the best of both worlds.
GOB: I’m happy to hear you say that because that’s actually part of the reason I suggested to a few people who have asked me about your move that a real attraction for you would be to come in run the Blue Jays.
KP: Well, I just came from a lunch with (Blue Jays CEO) Paul Beeston, where we talked about players and arbitration and free agency. Sports and putting together a team is like a jigsaw puzzle. It is absolutely fascinating… Every kid in the playground talks about trades and what they would do if they could run it when they grow up.
GOB: True.
KP: And now you’re actually doing it in real life.
And also, the timing is good. I’m at a company that certainly wants to grow the media business, and that was a key part of the decision. And the Jays are poised for success. They are a good baseball team where Paul and Alex (Anthopoulos, GM of the Jays) have put together a foundation in terms of grass roots baseball that will allow this team to be good for many years to come. So maybe I’m coming at the right time.
GOB: Now, with radio and magazines, this is something that you don’t have a background in. So, one of my first questions would be since you’ve come here, what has been some of your biggest surprises or what have you learned the most about?
KP: I think the biggest surprise has been the complex business and successful business which is The Shopping Channel. You know, it’s a network that I didn’t know very much about and a business that I didn’t know much about. It’s a retail business targeted at women, so… it has been really, really new for me. But it is so exciting.
In television, you get up every day and can’t wait to see what the ratings are. This one is every hour you want to know how the sales are. It’s a great business with a great opportunity to drive now with e-commerce. So I think that’s probably been the biggest surprise. People say, hey, a shopping channel? It’s a real serious, strong business that is run very, very well.
GOB: I’ve heard that from people who work here that it’s really a unique business – retail and TV at the same – and if something is not working in the first ten minutes, you know it. And you’re on to something else, right?
KP: And the warehouse is 58,000 square feet. It’s a very, very difficult business because you have to react quickly to sales on an hourly basis. You’re always analyzing it and they do a great job of that. I think from my consumers’ perspective, we have to continue to educate on how it’s completely secure to purchase online or over the phone and that the prices are more favorable than any retail based on just the actual medium and the lack of pure bricks and mortar like total retail has.
GOB: Now, you’ve brought Scott Moore on board now to run the broadcasting side, and I’m wondering if you have any sort of changes in mind that you can talk about. You’ve got some unlaunched specialty licenses on the books, Outdoor Life is kind of meandering along without a real identity to me… What do you have in mind to sort of alter the direction of some of the brands?
KP: You know, it was very fortunate with the timing. When I came in was right in budget planning, so it allowed me to do a deep dive on all of the businesses and to strategically look at where we need to go. So we’re in the midst of restructuring the senior management team which will allow for more integration across all platforms and all divisions. We’re going to move to more of a horizontal integrated philosophy rather than just pure vertical businesses.
But in terms of major changes and launching specialties, we hope to launch three specialty networks next year. We’re still in the process of determining which genres those will be in. With Leslie Sole, our chief content officer and with input from cable and wireless, we’ll determine in the next couple of months which ones are going to launch.
GOB: Dare I speculate there might be a sports brand in there?
KP: I think we’re pretty strong right now in sports.
GOB: You have a baseball channel license, don’t you?
KP: We do, but last year… was the very first time that all 162 games were televised when we announced Sportsnet One and picked up all the games that weren’t televised. You know, anything is possible, but that is not our focus right now. Our focus would be on the non-sports genres.
GOB: Okay. Now, when you say sort of a horizontal look at the organization, can you expand more about what you see? Are there going to be resources or personnel going back and forth from, say, Sportsnet to Citytv, or Citytv to Tech TV, or?
KP: Well, if you looked at how integrated both Rogers and CTV were – and committed to the Olympics and how they promoted and built the Believe brand, it’s probably your best example. But a tangible example for us would be on the concentration on how we launch Blue Jays season tickets, and how we ensure the entire organization and all our platforms get the message out that not only are the Blue Jays ready to contend, but how to get tickets. That talks as much about awareness and education, but it will be across all platforms.
GOB: Let’s continue to talk about platforms. Actually, when I was down at the National Broadcast Center at the Olympics in February, I saw (Bell Canada CEO) George Cope walking through and I remembered that when he made the announcement that Bell was buying CTV when he said: okay, it’s all coming together, all these platforms all under one roof. This is the way to go.
But he also talked, too, about exclusive content. What are your thoughts on that? Are there going to be new applications developed, new content developed, some available only to Rogers customer, where you get all the Rogers brands working together? I mean, I don’t foresee you saying Sportsnet is only going to be available to Rogers’ customers. That just doesn’t work. But if you were to, say, have a Sportsnet Sidney Crosby camera only available to Rogers customers. Do you envision a project like that, for example, that might be exclusive?
KP: Well, I think in many ways, you answered the question by your first comment, that you wouldn’t see linear video like Sportsnet being exclusive.
GOB: Right.
KP: I believe content of a national interest such as the Olympics or hockey or such, on a go-forward basis, won’t be exclusive. We are exploring a number of different options, and CRTC will rule in on this, and we’ll take our direction from there. But I do believe that video – regardless of the platform – won’t be exclusive.
Now, similar to linear video, you’ve got to pay for it. But I can’t see the days where a consumer has three or four different cell phones just so that they can get the different content that is available through one distributor.
GOB: What are you working on in the new platform space? Is there going to be a FAN 590 application for your iPad or something like that?
KP: Well, it’s an excellent question, and Rogers Media is so large with so many different divisions, everybody in every division is coming saying I want to launch this app. I think we need this iPad app. I think we need this mobile app. And what we have to do is actually look at it from a holistic perspective and say “okay, what is the best programming that we can launch that will satisfy the needs of the consumer, and which ones can we do at the highest level in a short period of time?”
We have some tremendous brands with the likes of Maclean’s, Chatelaine, Sportsnet, City, The FAN, across all different platforms. We are definitely going to launch more and more apps. The question is how many and when. We’re the first to launch the conventional City Television iPad app, and it’s the question that’s being asked every day. If it was easy to launch 50 or 60 tomorrow, that’s what we would do. But you have to take time, make sure that’s what the consumer wants, research it and which ones would be feasible and which ones should we do right away.
GOB: Right. Just take the iPad for example. A lot of magazines seem to be transitioning there and we’re seeing a ton of applications. If you were to say you want to do one for Chatelaine or Maclean’s, you’d be able to add a lot to that because with Maclean’s, maybe you’d bring in video content from Citytv or Sportsnet to augment magazine stories that are on there.
KP: Definitely. You know, the iPad or tablet is one that will significantly change publishing. People go online for information and video. They don’t necessarily go to read a full magazine. If you’ve read a magazine on an iPad, it’s unbelievable. It’s very easy to navigate, very easy to read. Its advertising is vibrant. Its colors are spectacular, and it’s very, very transportable. So having said all that, you could probably figure that from a publishing perspective, iPad apps will be a priority for us.
GOB: Or Samsung Galaxy apps or Playbook apps.
KP: Like I said, the space is evolving.
GOB: That’s an issue, too. There are so many form factors and devices and operating systems, how do you make it fit into everything? Which ones do you pick?
KP: If you actually look back at technology 10 years ago and you look at it now, it’s just mind boggling how quickly it has changed – and the choice for the consumer is enormous.
GOB: It’s exciting and confusing at the same time in that years ago you could serve the strong Maple Leaf fan by broadcasting the game and having a post game and talking about it on the radio. Now you still got all those same fans, but they are not necessarily all watching. You still serve the same broad base of fans but you need to serve them on the TV, the radio, the cell phone, all of that stuff just to hit the same number of people.
KP: The way that people consume media now is completely different and continues to evolve. It’s really about multiple choice and options. And it’s our job as the distributor of content to be able to supply multiple choices for the consumer. We said at the Olympics, you can watch what you want, when you want, how you want – and that wasn’t a slogan that was created by us, it was just what the consumers were demanding.
People want to be able to experience it when they want to, not have to wait to get home to see the highlights or wait till 11 o’clock. It’s about being immediate. It’s not something that the distributors are determining. Consumers are asking for it.
GOB: Sure. You have the season ticket holders who may describe themselves as diehard Blue Jay fans and if you took 10 of them, they all may be getting their Blue Jays content differently. Some of them may not have a TV or get it over the radio, and they may be 70 years old, or else they’re maybe 15 and don’t have a TV either but they get it over their phone. And to be able to keep track of all this and serve up all the content in all different ways and form factors and operating systems of the new media must be bewildering.
KP: From our perspective, we want to provide as much opportunity for them to get that Blue Jays content so that they don’t have to worry about when they are getting it. We just allow them to have maximum flexibility to experience it on the platform that suits their needs. It is different. It’s incredible.
GOB: A lot different from your original days at TSN when –
KP: Oh, back then, you go back to 1988… sending e-mails was foreign. Now, I can’t imagine not going an hour without my Blackberry. Although I think my wife would like to see that happen more often. You think back, and it’s really not that long ago. Twenty years ago cell phones were just in the infancy stages. They were huge. They were big and bulbous. There was no such thing as e-mail. Internet was a tool people were just starting to learn, and everyone was watching everything linear. Now, in 20 years, it’s evolved where people want their content how they want it in so many different ways, and they want it when they want it.
GOB: And back then – the traditional job of being a sports producer or producing a highlight package was more difficult and took a far longer time. Now, people can do it on their own.
KP: Being a journalist has changed dramatically. You know it has. You can actually produce stories, shoot stories, edit them all on your own. You need to be – and we’ve talked about this – you need to be a multiple platform journalist now where you can blog, you can do radio, you can do television, you can do print. So the whole industry has changed from the journalist’s perspective for sure. And it’s incredible the resolution that you can get now from a portable device as far as video and pictures. Everything from still photography to moving pictures has changed which has certainly changed the role of the journalist.
…And you have to be able to take your skills and transfer them to all kinds of different mediums. And so I would tell today’s youth that are trying to get into the business to understand all platforms, and that’s what you are going to be if you are going to be a journalist.
GOB: I talked to Robert Rabinovitch a couple months ago and he referenced the Saturday Night NHL hockey package being “toast” for CBC. They just won’t be able to keep it in the future. And that expires in 2013 I think.
KP: That’s correct, yeah. Three years.
GOB: Do you envision more and more of those types of sports happenings things coming over to the companies with so many more platforms, so many other ways to get their content out?
KP: Well, I can’t comment on CBC’s programming philosophy. But I think that from what I’ve seen in the last little bit, there doesn’t seem to be an apparent move for them to get out of sports. Just looking from the outside in – and maybe I’ll know a little bit more after Mr. Moore starts.
GOB: Some have theorized that him joining you is the writing on the wall that CBC Sports will be less and less pro sports.
KP: I don’t know. I can only say that the Hockey Night package… CBC has done a remarkable job over the years. It is part of the fabric of our country and we’ll see what happens three years down the road. I haven’t, in the first two months, to be honest with you, thought too much about the national hockey package.
GOB: The Rogers-CTV Olympics Broadcast Consortium stays together through 2012, right?
KP: Absolutely. Adam Ashton is running it on behalf of Rogers and CTV, and there were a lot of things that came out of Vancouver. One is, obviously, the great awareness internationally as Canada as a great country. I think we showcased Canadians now want to experience the Games and the coverage that we set certainly really raised the bar for not only the Olympics, but for all events to come.
But the third thing that came out of the Olympics was the initiative of Own The Podium, which I’m fortunate now to be on the board of, and the support that the government has given which allows our athletes to continue to do well. We’ll do very well in 2012, and we’ll do well in ’14 and ’16. And that bodes well for the broadcaster – or content distributor as they like to call it now.
For the content distributor – we certainly saw Canadians’ appetite to watch their stars, to watch their hometown, home country success. And that’s a huge pride building that came out of Vancouver. Only 400,000 people experienced the games in Vancouver, and the other 33 million Canadians experienced it through one of our platforms – and that’s a pretty powerful privilege and responsibility to capture the imagination of all Canadians and to showcase your country, your culture, your people. It was a great thing to be a part of.
GOB: And do you envision partnerships like that continuing?
KP: I think anything is possible. Partnerships work if they’re thought through from a strategic perspective – and this was one that really, really worked. And it was two companies that feverishly compete every other time that came together and really pulled on the same rope for 17 days. It was really neat to see.
GOB: Did it break even in the end?
KP: Well, you know, the finances were never disclosed, but there were so many intangible benefits that have brought to both companies. We had 215 partners at the end of the day, and I can’t imagine how many more would have wanted to be a part of it if we had not been going through the most economically challenged time in years.
