By Etan Vlessing
“It’s really important to make shows we produce and buy programs that resonate with Canadians from coast to coast to coast, in front and behind the camera, and that tell stories that are Canadian stories,” Moses, senior vice-president of content development and news and vice-chair, Quebec at Bell Media, said during a fireside chat moderated by Melissa Grelo (above, left), co-host of CTV’s The Social.
In January 2021, Moses was promoted to oversee programming creation and delivery for the broadcaster’s English and French language TV, radio and digital platforms countrywide.
Her first year overseeing programming at Bell Media has been overshadowed by her ascent coming as part of a management cull by new Bell Media chief Wade Oosterman, who replaced a departing Randy Lennox.
So, as she laid out her new vision, Moses was very much flying the flag at Prime Time for a traditional broadcaster with not only an entirely new management regime in place, but one facing the Herculean task of trying to compete in a fast-changing digital space with American competition like Netflix, Amazon Studios and Apple TV+.
As a differentiator to that American competition, Moses pointed to Crave – the main weapon in Bell Media’s programming arsenal – being the only digital platform that resonates with Canadians in its key English- and French-speaking markets.
“It’s a bilingual platform, a multi-language platform, and the audience we reach with a streaming service is way broader than what we reach with a linear service,” Moses explained during an address that veered well away from Canadian primetime schedules to focus more on digital eco-systems and global markets.
Crave also allows Bell Media to offer edgier fare to Canadians than what is available on conventional TV channels, she added.
That is the industry backdrop facing Moses as she looks to make Bell Media’s bet on Crave work, as the Canadian media player combines the streaming platform and its pricey American fare like HBO, Showtime and Starz with its legacy linear TV channels to offer viewers a stickier TV package amid cord-cutting, jarring digital change and stiff foreign competition.
As Moses touted Bell Media’s homegrown series like Jann, Children Ruin Everything and Mary Makes It Easy, she had to point out the obvious: U.S. TV series, especially in English Canada, continue to dominate the attention of Canadians.
“What works very well in the English market are the big U.S. shows. People hunger for the big, big U.S. show,” she explained.
In French-speaking Quebec, by contrast, TV viewers want to see local original series, scripted or unscripted. “What works and what drives audiences is original programming done within the province,” Moses said.
To take advantage of Canada’s bi-cameral TV markets, Bell Media is looking to do more homegrown series from indie producers that plays in both Quebec and the rest of the country. An example is the Quebec sketch comedy series Entre Deux Draps, or Pillow Talk in English speaking Canada, which airs on Noovo.
“That’s a good example of a show that proved itself in Quebec, we redid it with English actors and an English crew,” Moses said ahead of Pillow Talk debuting on Crave later this month.
She added Bell Media is open to English Canadian producers wanting to produce content for Quebec via Crave.
And Bell Media is keen to air and stream more homegrown shows that also sell into the U.S. and globally.
“We’ve seen it, with Transplant, the show is amazing. It was bought by NBC. So, we are able to produce shows at that level, with international quality, and we should do it more and we will do more,” Moses argued. She also pointed to Letterkenny, which is carried by Hulu stateside. “This is a very unique comedy that is super popular,” Moses insisted.
As for program development, Bell Media is looking for “event with a winner” content, Moses explained. She said TV fare hitting with conventional TV audiences in recent years includes buzzy reality series, competition format series, and Bell Media is eyeing more of that.
The broadcaster is also big on procedural dramas, comedy and especially Canadian stories.
“It’s always nice to have comedy done by Canadian comedians because we have our own humour in Canada,” Moses said.
