OTTAWA – Integrating digital and traditional television platforms, leveraging international financing, and giving consumers choice in their TV services. These were some of the major themes explored during the first panel session at the Canadian Media Production Association’s annual Prime Time event in Ottawa which featured executives from the production, distribution, and programming sectors, all of whom have their own, often differing, views on what needs to be done to the system.
It was agreed, though, that the broadcasting sector must take a longer term view and decide where it wants to be in three to five years, rather than just trying to fix immediate and narrow problems. Figuring how to effectively use new digital platforms where viewers have tremendous choice, but also attempting to align the traditional broadcast model with consumer preferences, were big issues explored during the session.
Raja Khana, CEO of television and digital at Blue Ant Media, noted that even though it’s difficult to make any money from the digital platform now, it should not simply be shunted off to the side. From a content generation perspective there are “two different ecosystems of content creation and that is not a sustainable (situation),” he said.
“So long as we’re talking about a content industry, what do we care three years from now what screen it’s on or what technology is used or whether Google financed it or CTV financed it, it’s content creation in Canada. So we need to find a way to merge the regimes from a regulatory point of view,” he added.
There are isolated cases of people making, some may say considerable, sums of money solely using the digital platform. But by and large, the business model for the digital environment remains elusive.
Christina Jennings, chairman and CEO at Shaftesbury Films, knows a few things about trying to make money through the digital platform. She said the business case still isn’t there, even with a huge amount of online content viewing.
“About 75% of 16 to 24 year olds are actually downloading or watching content online and so there is this massive shift to digital ,“ she said. “But interestingly there is no financial model still. Shaftesbury spent six years in the digital story telling realm and it’s no easier now than it was.”
Not only did the discussion explore the idea of integrating the digital and traditional worlds, it also looked at leveraging international financing to produce compelling content about Canada, as well as selling Canadian content to the world.
“Discovery in the U.S. will pay four times or 10 times the licence fee for a show… that money makes up more than the loss of Canadian funding.” – John Morayniss, Entertainment One
For John Morayniss, CEO at Entertainment One Television, it comes down to making quality content, that there is a demand for it and that it can work in all markets not just Canada. He spoke about the three-part mini series Klondike. He said Discovery Channel in the U.S. stepped up the plate, and it didn’t matter that the project would receive less access to funding in Canada. “So Discovery in the U.S. will pay four times or 10 times the licence fee for a show,” he said, adding that “that money makes up more than the loss of Canadian funding.”
Discussion during the session ultimately turned to consumer choice, pick and pay channel packaging and regulation. Of course, all of those are hot topics right now with the CRTC currently undergoing its Let’s Talk TV conservation with Canadians, and the CRTC being asked by the federal government to prepare a report on the a-la-carte packaging. Of course with Louis Audet, president and CEO at Cogeco Cable, and Kevin Crull, president of Bell Media on the panel, you knew they would be trading some barbs.
Audet took aim at Bell by rehashing the highlights of a two-year dispute between the two companies over their main programming distribution agreement. He noted, while Cogeco has been offering pick and pay and smaller packages for more than eight years, it could have happened sooner if it were not for the programmer's negotiating tactics.
Crull shot back by saying that consumers don’t need additional choice, they already have plenty just by using their remote.
“I like to think of consumer choice not in terms of calling Louis and making a change to my packaging lineup. That’s not the choice that really matters. I think of choice in exploring with your remote, what’s on the screen, having access to all of the great content, niche programming and mainstream big productions as well, and having it available in front of me. That’s where the choice should be made.” – Kevin Crull, Bell Media
“I like to think of consumer choice not in terms of calling Louis and making a change to my packaging lineup. That’s not the choice that really matters,” he argued. “I think of choice in exploring with your remote, what’s on the screen, having access to all of the great content, niche programming and mainstream big productions as well, and having it available in front of me. That’s where the choice should be made.”
While Crull suggested that much choice is readily available on the dial, others suggested there is already a lot of choice in the system for Canadians. Michael Hennessy, president and CEO at the CMPA, said that he could get his fill of TV for upwards of $40 per month by using Apple TV. “It’s not like we have to introduce competition to give people a choice, people have already taken the choice. They’re doing free over the air, they’re doing the internet, they’re doing Google channels, they’re masking their IP address and continue to steal,” he said.
Perhaps Blue Ant's Khanna best explained the challenge facing the Canadian broadcasting system when he asked about the impact of making iTunes work like cable TV.
“If iTunes said you have to stop buying these apps and you have to pay us $300 a month and we’re going to give you 300 apps, how would you react? And we’re going to tell which 300, mostly, we’ll give you a little bit of wiggle room but for the most part we’re going to tell you which 300. It doesn’t work anymore. The new generation of content consumers don’t think that way, so there has to be more choice.”
