TORONTO – If top Canadian TV execs haven't watched A&E's Storage Wars, they may well after returning from the recent Los Angeles Screenings.
It was a week when Canadian broadcasters in sunny California bid, and risked overpaying, for rookie U.S. shows from their Hollywood suppliers based on little more than a pilot episode (kind of like how the stars of that show get just a short look at items they may buy at auction…)
Then, come fall when audiences sample their newly-launched shows and all hope is lost…"Wait a minute!!!!," a hit show or two may be revealed.
Corus Entertainment president and CEO Doug Murphy (pictured with one of their TV chefs, Mark McEwan) on Thursday told Cartt.ca that he set his buying goals a little lower during this year's Hollywood TV bazaar. Corus, with Global TV still number two in the ratings to CTV with a franchise-heavy lineup, invested the same dollars in new American shows as it did last year, he said.
That's a sign of how "fiscally responsible" the broadcaster was, Murphy continued, even as new digital players like Netflix and Amazon Prime came to the table to bid up digital rights in the Canadian market. "We're very ROI-focused," Murphy said of Corus' attitude to turning studio output deal finds into profits as he unveiled his fall and mid-season schedules in Toronto.
That meant standing aside as rival Bell Media offered a series of Yuuup! bids to keep two Mark Gordon dramas, Designated Survivor and Conviction, away from Netflix.
"Crazy programming inflation" is how Murphy called what Bell Media paid eOne to grab the two shows. He also disagreed with L.A. Screenings watchers who saw eOne selling Designated Survivor and Conviction to Bell Media as a sign it would pay a price with Global TV programmers, long-standing collaborators on eOne series like Rookie Blue and Haven.
While accepting CTV wanted to retain long-standing ties to The Mark Gordon Company after hits like Grey's Anatomy and Quantico, Murphy said Corus retains a firm relationship with eOne when it comes to developing new content. "eOne needs all of us to be happy customers," he said.
Besides, Murphy, a first-timer who had an assist from Barb Williams, vice president and COO, said Corus came away from Hollywood with lots of good stuff, hoping to reap huge profits when the network has its annual fall season reckoning with Global Television viewers.
"We are very excited about our fall schedule, with lots of returning shows," he said, in addition to seven new dramas and four new comedies.
"We were looking to more of a demographic balance, by pulling down the average age of the Global audience a bit.” – Barb Williams, Corus
Global TV should lure in more male viewers with dramas like Bull, starring departing NCIS star Michael Weatherly, MacGyver, and a Monday night CBS comedy block anchored by the Kevin James-starrer Kevin Can Wait and Man With a Plan, starring Matt LeBlanc.
Mid-season shows set for Global include Chicago Justice and The Blacklist: Redemption.
Corus' Barb Williams told Cartt.ca her network was looking less for a male-female balance on Global than to continue grabbing a younger audience with a big bet on comedies to rival CTV's blockbuster franchise The Big Bang Theory. "We were looking to more of a demographic balance, by pulling down the average age of the Global audience a bit," Williams said.
Murphy also downplays the slight shift to male viewers on Global, insisting Corus retains a big hold on female audiences across its entire suite of specialty channels. "We have a reach with women. It's not Global per se. It's more an amalgamation across all our channels, with W, HGTV and Oprah Winfrey Network," he said.
And Corus on the specialty front has its kids properties like YTV, Teletoon and Disney Channel.
The differentiator in reaching the female and kids demos with rival Bell Media and Rogers Media, said Murphy, is scale. Shaw has Global Television, and 45 specialty channels, and radio in the mix.
"Women are the CEOs of the household, women control 90% of household spending, and kids have a real say on consumption in the family homes," he argued, echoing Corus' recent pitch to investors to acquire Shaw Media.
