U.S. streaming giant has Canadian broadcasters rethinking how they shop in Hollywood
TORONTO – Netflix helps drive broadband revenues at BCE, Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications.
Yet, as Cartt.ca recently reported, Netflix this year began bidding in earnest, and aggressively, against broadcast divisions Bell Media, Rogers Media and Corus Entertainment for new U.S. network shows at the Los Angeles Screenings.
That move means Canadian broadcasters have started to rethink how they will buy rookie U.S. series from the studios going forward if Netflix can get a jump on picking up new network shows. "We weren't upset that Netflix was at the negotiating table," Mike Cosentino, senior vice president of programming at CTV Networks and CraveTV, told Cartt.ca on Wednesday as he unveiled Bell Media's fall season schedules.
"We were concerned that the studios were possibly getting offers from Netflix ahead of (the Canadian) deal-day," he added. Traditionally, Bell Media, Corus and Rogers Media have agreed to complete screening new pilot episodes on studio lots before Hollywood suppliers fire a proverbial gun to signal negotiations on new show purchases is underway.
And later that night, the Canadians gather after their deal-making at the Polo Lounge in The Beverly Hills Hotel to compare their shopping carts. Netflix has changed all that.
"There may be no deal-day," Cosentino warned after Canadian broadcasters voiced concerns to studio suppliers that Netflix has an advantage. "Deal-day as we've known it probably needs to be reinvented in recognition of how the L.A. buy actually unfolds," he added.
Barb Williams, executive vice-president and COO at Corus Entertainment, agrees Netflix, and the possible entrant of additional U.S. digital competitors like Amazon Prime, threatens to up-end traditional buying patterns at the L.A. Screenings. "I think the world is changing and who can tell how this unfolds," she told Cartt.ca on Wednesday.
Any changes to the Canadians' annual Hollywood shopping expedition would be constrained by the U.S. networks not making final pick-up decisions until close to the Upfronts in mid-May, and the Canadians viewing pilot episodes soon after they're completed.
"There's not a huge calendar opportunity to shift this deal-making very much, until the studios truly start to produce on a 52-week basis and the network respond to that 52-week opportunity," Williams argued.
The developing consensus is that the start of bidding for new shows could get underway directly after the Upfronts conclude in New York City, meaning the Canadians would no longer wait five days for pilot screenings to be completed.
Of course, with Netflix not being part of any ratings systems and never disclosing audience numbers, the Hollywood studios continue to see great value in an exclusive, first Canadian broadcast window to launch new U.S. network shows, not least to drive home entertainment, digital download and other ancillary revenues down the road.
“When I think of competition with an SVOD service, in a first window negotiation for a TV show, I don't look at them as a streaming service. I look at them as if I'm looking at a network.” – Mike Cosentino, Bell Media
That helped top-rated CTV deliver an upcoming primetime schedule with 19.5 hours in simulcast, more than rival Canadian networks, Bell Media said Wednesday. If anything, CTV's Cosentino characterized Netflix at the L.A. Screenings more as just another TV competitor, rather than a streaming service.
"When I think of competition with an SVOD service, in a first window negotiation for a TV show, I don't look at them as a streaming service. I look at them as if I'm looking at a network," he said.
Despite Netflix flexing its muscles at the L.A. Screenings, CTV secured multi-studio deals for five new dramas and one new comedy this fall, and four new dramas and a dramedy for its mid-season campaign.
And Bell Media struck a multi-title exclusive SVOD deal with Warner Bros. International Television for CraveTV, while a key studio deal with Entertainment One for the linear and digital rights to two rookie shows from The Mark Gordon Company, the Kiefer Sutherland-starrer Designated Survivor and Conviction.
Besides paying top dollar for the two shows against competing bids from Netflix and Corus Entertainment, Cosentino argues eOne opted for strong Canadian launch-pads for the new series in CTV and CraveTV.
"We have two pieces of an eco-system to deliver a strong offer to eOne, and it's important for eOne to have a broadcast home in the first window, where a broadcaster is committed to the promotion and the excellence of the promotion for that series," he said.
CTV also wanted to retain the Mark Gordon brand after having earlier success with his ABC shows like Grey's Anatomy, Criminal Minds and Quantico. "These being the next Mark Gordon series, for us it was critical that the Mark Gordon legacy stay alive for CTV," Cosentino said.
Bell Media will also broaden its Canadian production ties to eOne as the media giant looks to air more homegrown shows like the new CraveTV four-part scripted series Russell Peters is the Indian Detective. (Russel Peters is pictured above in an image from CTV’s Upfront party, borrowed from Bell Media’s Twitter account.)
Cosentino said Bell Media is close to greenlighting a new drama from eOne, and is already in development on other series for a range of specialty channels.
Here Tracey Pearce, senior vice president of specialty and pay, told Cartt.ca that Bell Media is looking to build on the strong brands it offers audiences and advertisers with channels like Space with Dr. Who and Orphan Black and E! with its Kardashian-Jenner clan.
"If we get it right, the viewer, and by extension the advertiser, knows what they will get when they go there," Pearce explained.
So Cosentino, while not disclosing the nature of recent negotiations at the L.A. Screenings to secure Designated Survivor and Conviction (but we heard from other sources it was taut), confirmed that eOne will be a bigger supplier of programming to the media group.
"In a way, yes, there's a scenario where our business with eOne grows, but I'd call that organic," he said.
