By Etan Vlessing
TORONTO – As U.S. studios increasingly promote their streaming strategies, Bell Media is touting mainstream storytelling during this year’s upfront season as it markets a mix of linear TV and streaming content to Canadians.
The media giant, after all, is playing for time as it continues to retool its broadcast strategy in response to competition from Netflix and other over-the-top streaming players dominating the Canadian TV market.
The goal is extracting value from its legacy CTV and specialty channels — ad-supported linear TV assets bequeathed from the age of airwaves and cable TV – just as Crave, its subscriber video-on-demand platform, helps chase audiences and advertisers increasingly headed online.
So going into its 2022-23 TV campaign, Justin Stockman, vice-president of content development and programming at Bell Media, talked up a balance of appointment and binge viewing.
“We’re trying to please two different patterns at the same time. A ton of our viewership for CTV is still coming from people tuning in to watch on the night it’s on. So how we schedule is super important to retain the viewership. Then we need good content that goes for watching on-demand TV,” Stockman told Cartt.ca ahead of Bell Media’s upfront presentation to advertisers next week.
“It’s edgy, it’s interesting, but not so edgy and interesting that if you miss an episode you’re done. It’s digestible” – Justin Stockman, Bell Media vice-president of content development and programming, on East New York
Stockman points to an easy-flowing drama like East New York (pictured above), a CBS cop drama picked up at the recent LA Screenings and screened to select media this week in Toronto.
The Warner Bros. Television series builds towards commercial breaks and what happens next, not later on as with slower and often dark and disturbing premium cable and streaming dramas from HBO and Showtime that Canadians can binge over a weekend on Crave.
For Stockman, the U.S. studios have begun recognizing consumers have different viewing preferences when coming to incumbent TV networks like CTV and new on-demand streaming platforms.
So programmers need to stay in their lanes to engage and not lose those viewers across multiple platforms, he advises.
“CTV is broad and lean-back viewing where you can digest in a different way, where streaming shows are often niche,” Stockman explained.
East New York as a less complex procedural plays to the strengths of CTV.
“It’s edgy, it’s interesting, but not so edgy and interesting that if you miss an episode you’re done. It’s digestible,” he said.
Stockman argues streaming is no longer considered just a complement to linear TV for catch-up viewing, as the Bell Media exec sees an end to just shifting a conventional TV series between platforms to drive maximum viewership — except, of course, when it comes to streaming’s most durable binge-worthy hits like Friends and Seinfeld that first caught fire on U.S. networks in scheduled primetime.
“We’ve seen what’s driving streaming is almost the opposite type of shows. It’s the ones where you’re maybe more likely to watch it alone because a couple may not agree on which show to watch because it’s so specific. But they’re going to drive a lot of conversation and become part of the ether, but the numbers overall might be smaller because they’re not made for a mass audience,” he insisted.
All of which underlines the challenges Canadian broadcasters face amid competition from bigger players like Disney+ and Amazon Prime, which enjoy streaming dominance north of the border.
“For CTV, we’re thinking about the broad audience, what’s going to bring a large number of people to tune in for co-viewing, not something you do alone on your iPad, but something you do in a living room with a bunch of people” – Stockman
They have to sweat legacy linear TV assets while ramping up for the streaming age.
That means facing down streaming players that spend heavily on slower-burn dramas and comedies that take longer to feel like they’ve begun. Because the U.S. streamers want Canadian subscribers to ideally watch, keep watching and not stop watching pricey content on their platforms.
But with obligations to its conventional TV channels, Bell Media needs to keep chasing big audience numbers for advertisers.
“Grab them, keep them and if they (viewers) get bored, they’re going to turn the channel,” Stockman said of why CTV will give pride of place to procedurals like East New York at next week’s upfront pitch to TV commercial buyers.
Where Netflix can assemble a slew of niche series that may not appeal to everyone, but which generate buzz and award season kudos and as such audiences, conventional TV continues to embrace mainstream storytelling as with shows like East New York.
“For CTV, we’re thinking about the broad audience, what’s going to bring a large number of people to tune in for co-viewing, not something you do alone on your iPad, but something you do in a living room with a bunch of people,” Stockman said.
And, fresh from the Canadian broadcaster’s annual Hollywood shopping expedition in Los Angeles, Stockman adds the U.S. studios have a better grip these days on what works in the conventional TV and streaming spaces, and what does not.
“I think everyone is in a much clearer headspace than they were a few years ago, when you saw streaming really picking up,” he said.
Pat DiVittorio, vice-president of programming, CTV and specialty, at Bell Media, added the U.S. studios – on which the Canadian broadcaster continue to depend for new and returning primetime series – have simplified their series development and production pipelines.
“The network broadcasters and the studios behind them have really understood that networks need to go back to basic, which is procedurals… They’re not trying to be everything. They’re trying to be general, but in a specific genre, like a variety of programming for a broad audience,” DiVittorio said.
Image provided by Bell Media.
