TORONTO – Corus Entertainment's Maria Hale says she didn't sweat the small stuff at the recent Los Angeles Screenings by having to bid aggressively for digital rights to new U.S. shows against Netflix and Amazon, in addition CTV and Rogers Media.
However, cord-cutting in Canada inspired by Netflix as an increasing programming powerhouse did reshape Corus' upcoming 2018-19 primetime slate which was unveiled to local advertisers today in Toronto. "At the LA Screenings, we didn't feel their (Netflix) pressure, but we definitely feel their heat throughout the year," Hale, senior vice president of global entertainment and acquisitions at Corus, told Cartt.ca
Like rival Canadian broadcasters, Corus wants to keep TV subscribers and advertisers on side and so it has invested heavily in new premium content and ad-delivery.
That's as Hale and her programming team stare down Netflix and its $8 billion spent this year on original content in North America and elsewhere globally. It's not the size of Netflix's war chest, by the way, but how it deploys its programming dollars, that rescripted Corus' package buying on Hollywood studio lots.
That has implications for Canadian indie producers, rival broadcasters and local TV viewers, too.
Corus picked up two new dramas – Dick Wolf's FBI and the medical thriller New Amsterdam – and four fresh comedies for Global TV's upcoming season. That's against six new dramas and four comedies nabbed during last year's Hollywood shopping expedition.
Hale said a bounty of returning series meant Global TV had fewer holes to fill with new procedurals, which play best on the main network. That said, she also picked up a slew of new The CW shows like the Charmed and Roswell, New Mexico reboots, All American and Legacies, set in The Vampire Diaries/The Originals universe, for its W Network and Showcase specialty channels.
It's these genre shows targeting younger viewers which play well on Corus' channels – and Netflix as it looks to aggressively grow its original series roster. "Typically we go down and buy for free TV. But we found over the last few years more and more cable shows were becoming available for us," Hale explained.
The CW shows may be free TV in the U.S. market, but in Canada Corus can run them on its specialty networks to grow their drama slates. "When you look at our specialty channels, and what's happening on SVODs, those two tend to blur a little bit, with U.S. cable nets and SVODs competing for the same genre shows," Hale said.
Then, with the Hollywood studios, starting with Disney, choosing not to sell shows to Netflix in order to starve an enemy (albeit while the Mouse House prepares its own Netflix rival for launch in late 2019), the streaming giant is more aggressively getting into financing and owning its own series at the earliest stages of development, rather than licensing them from third parties.
Corus' response is to continue partnering with U.S. networks like HGTV and Food Network and ABC Spark to co-develop series for its own branded channels.
The good news is Netflix is not in the market for branded lifestyle content, just yet. "It's a bit of a cat and mouse game and we're chasing ourselves up stream," Hale said.
Of course, there's nothing new in Corus focusing on its specialty assets, even as it faces investor wariness over cord cutting, ratings declines and advertising weakness – not to mention the company's ability to keep investing in new content while paying out a generous dividend.
Corus is following an increasing trend of U.S. media players in focusing on fewer, stronger brands best placed to succeed on emerging skinny bundles and VOD platforms, and bolstering under-performing channel brands, where possible.
"The big brands within the specialty portfolio in the unscripted, drama and kids genres are the ones that continue to resonate with consumers, that we can extend beyond linear to on-demand environments, that people will follow to other platforms," said Daniel Eves, senior vice president, specialty networks at Corus.
The priority is HGTV, Food Network, Slice and History, drama offerings like W and Showcase, or YTV and Teletoon on the kids TV front.
"Those big brands have the content and the wherewithal to evolve into the future of viewership and broadcasting, whatever path that takes," Eves said.
But not to the detriment of Global," Hale quickly adds. "If you look at how the money is flowing, the Global budget is definitely not less than it was last year," she insisted.
