SEED, THE NEW CITYV SITCOM now shooting in Halifax, will debut in Atlantic Canada, as across the country, early in 2013.
Citytv just won’t simsub the sperm donor comedy in the Maritimes, and local TV viewers will see Citytv Toronto commercials when the series bows. The broadcaster wanted to simsub it, but the CRTC said no to the company’s request last month. That’s a challenge for the braintrust at Rogers Media, where Atlantic Canada remains the one Canadian market where Citytv has no simsub privileges, and so depends on distant-signal carriage via BDUs.
To be sure, John Richie, executive producer at Force Four Entertainment, which is producing Seed for Citytv, said Nova Scotia¹s generous production tax credits played the bigger part in Halifax landing the Canadian TV shoot.
But raising Citytv’s presence locally so it can move closer to national representation also figured in the mix. “Rogers Media is trying to make Citytv a national network, and we looked at where it could be economical and would work for them, and the tax credits here are excellent,” Richie told Cartt.ca from the Seed set in Halifax.
A more coy Malcolm Dunlop, executive vice president of programming and operations, broadcast, Rogers Media, also played up cutting production costs and tapping local talent when shooting Seed in Halifax, over being helped to expand in Atlantic Canada. But it won¹t hurt either. “We’re happy that we could do that (shoot in Halifax). And if it helps us get into the East coast, we¹d be ecstatic about that,” Dunlop added.
Seed portrays a prolific sperm donor, played by Los Angeles-based Canadian actor Adam Korson, who is ill-equipped for fatherhood.
Rogers is also looking to get better fitted as it battles Global and CTV in the Maritimes, where it relies on a hodge-podge of distant-signal arrangements for its Citytv signal. For example, Rogers Cable carries Citytv Toronto into much of New Brunswick and Newfoundland, while Bragg gets Citytv Toronto into Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island as part of theme packages.
The company’s recent SCN acquisition in Saskatchewan and affiliate agreement with three Jim Pattison Group TV stations in western Canada, plus its current CJNT-TV takeover application before the CRTC, helped Citytv in its quest to compete against CTV and Global Television by building out a countrywide network.
But Rogers was dealt a major setback in October when the CRTC said it could not simsub the broadcast feeds of U.S. border stations on its New Brunswick and Newfoundland cable systems, something the regulator reserves only for local and regional stations that provide local programming, which is mostly news. So the broadcaster must now work its way through options for a plan B to secure simulcast privileges for Citytv in the Maritimes.
Dunlop is holding his cards close to the vest, talking only about other viable options for the region, without specifying whether that includes establishing a local TV station presence in the region. That would leave Citytv with simulcast privileges, but also local programming expenditures.
A Maritimes platform, possibly to include an over-the-air station or repeater where Citytv wants to simsub, can’t come too soon. Rogers needs to spread the cost of its expensive new shows, U.S. and Canadian series included, by being able to simulcast them over an expanding national network and advertisers demand coast-to-coast coverage for national buys.
As for those new shows, Rogers has ex-Corus executive Claire Freeland on board to raise its game in Canadian content.
And besides Seed, Freeland has another homegrown sitcom, the multi-camera Package Deal, currently shooting in Vancouver, and Citytv just concluded an inaugural run for The Bachelor Canada, an expensive competition reality series based on the Bachelor franchise, which has proved popular.
