But there are drawbacks
CANNES – It's peak TV, silly.
That's the prevailing talk at MIPCOM in Cannes this week as Canadian deal-making is on an upswing, thanks to a still-fast-growing OTT SVOD market with more buying outlets like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon. (Speculation is rampant here, too, that Amazon desperately wants to launch Prime Video in Canada before the end of November, when shomi winds down, but has work to do on clearing content here.)
"The deals are changing. There's more buyers and unlimited shelf space available for producers," Michael Hirsh, a co-founder of Nelvana and currently chairman of The Entertainment and Media Finance Group, told Cartt.ca.
With the number of scripted series for sale surpassing 400 in 2015, many at the global television market which wraps up Thursday questioned this week whether the apex of the golden age of TV is near.
"While some worry and complain about the future of TV, and reaching peak TV, we believe there is an almost unlimited appetite and audience for truly great television that transcends borders," Ben Sherwood, president of Disney-ABC Television Group, said, striking an optimistic note during a keynote as persistent rumours about Disney being a possible buyer of Netflix rumbled through the Palais des Festivals.
At the nearby TV bazaar, J.J. Johnson, an executive producer at Toronto-based producer Sinking Ship Productions, was touting Bookaboo, a kids series that inspires kids and parents to share books now headed to Amazon in the U.S. and the U.K. as an original show for the U.S.-based streamer.
"We can sell books we feature on the series through Amazon, and even commission our own books,” an enthusiastic Johnson told Cartt.ca about the convenience of the Amazon retail tie-up.
But it's worth asking whether, with the sheer number of very expensive dramas like Entertainment One's Designated Survivor and Conviction being made on Toronto and Vancouver sound-stages, they have a chance to make their money back in the U.S. and world market.
Conviction star Hayley Atwell brushed off the soft ratings launch for her ABC drama, which leaves the drama from eOne’s The Mark Gordon Company facing possible cancellation. "I just understand that's how the industry works, and I can become independent of the reception of the show and that's a liberating place to be," Atwell told Cartt.ca.
With today's TV business being all about finding stories and concepts that travel globally, and extend to digital platforms, the importance of pre-sales was stressed time and again this week in Cannes to help cover development and production costs before a possible payday down a road.
"If you always stick to the traditional production model, it is difficult (to deficit finance)," Ira Levy, president and executive producer at Breakthrough Films & Television, said from his sales booth in the Palais des Festivals.
Sure, everyone talked optimistically this week about more outlets being out there for indie producers, given the Netflixes and Amazons of this world now looking to more original series to differentiate their offerings from those of rivals.
What that does though is shrink the back-end payoff that long ago was assured by a lucrative syndication deal.
But the streaming giants aren't paying big license fees when they do acquire dramas, which in turn are increasingly costly to produce, as top-tier writers, actors and directors want more and more money to make the leap from film to TV.
And the overall drama spend isn't spread evenly.
The top 50 or so popular U.S. network dramas can cover their production costs, given their U.S. ratings and studio backing internationally, but that means, with the 400 or so scripted series out there vying for the attention of international buyers, many TV producers are simply struggling to cover production costs.
All of which points to the importance of raising financing through foreign partners and pre-sales before even looking to a sales agent to close yet more crucial territory deals.
"You're here at MIPCOM – meet programming execs for France and Germany who pay more and get pre-sales and reduce your deficit, and then go back to the distributor to cover off the world," TEAM's Michael Hirsh advised a British TV producer during a MIP Junior financing workshop who faced a big budget deficit – even after securing a distribution advance and a broadcast license fee for her project.
Canadian producers enjoy generous tax credits and access to TV funds, so deficits on their projects tend to be smaller when compared to those of their peers elsewhere.
Also, while there's good news in selling TV shows to Netflix and other U.S. streamers to cover off much of the world, the downside is they don't work by ratings or even offer much in the way of viewing metrics to producers. They want to sell subscriptions to their own service, period.
What that does though is shrink the back-end payoff that long ago was assured by a lucrative syndication deal.
But Breakthrough's Levy insists launching a show on Netflix or another streaming giant helps bring a larger profile, which in turns promises a potentially bigger return on your investment.
"It's a good way, in many cases, to do a worldwide marketing campaign," Levy insisted.
