Re-tuning Canadian media for an era of opportunity

1. 14 Summer 2014
op-ed
Canada’s $14 billionmediaindustryis punchingabove
itsweight in Marshall McLuhan’s global village, but the clock is ticking
on our protectionist enclave.
Our walled gardens have enabled vertical integration that continues,
contrary to global trends. The Harper government is countering by
signaling openness to foreign ownership. This may come from the right
motivation (more competition), but it ignores the need for restructuring.
The walls are crumbling; 2013 was the first year in which Canadian
television subscriptions declined.
The elephant in the room has a Netflix tattoo; as media moves online
and on demand, Canadian content must evolve from a legislated national
percentage to an international consumer choice. Canada has all the
ingredients for star status in global media’s next act. Our emergent system
just needs tuning.
Encourage entrepreneurialism: Bell, Rogers, Telus and Shaw have
the scale to compete with foreign entrants, but it makes little sense today
for internet and cable providers to be content creators. Their focus should
be on developing next-generation infrastructure and services. In the
U.S., provider-creator integration has become the exception (Comcast’s
ownership of NBCUniversal) rather than the rule. The reasons are both
quantitative (the tendency for providers to favour their own content), and
qualitative (when focusing on more lucrative telecom services, content
quality becomes a secondary concern).
More importantly, content creators need a more entrepreneurial
mindset, one that treats productions as startups and pivots focus from
fund administrators to consumers. And we’ll need to establish a more
entrepreneurial playbook, one where all parties – producers, distributors,
networks, government agencies and financiers – share financial and
creative risks and rewards flexibly.
In a redefined Cancon, the minimum percentage of viewing schedule
for Canadian productions could be replaced by a minimum percentage of
Canadian business interest in network programming. If a Canadian helps
finance a U.S. production, as Alliance Atlantis did with CSI, the points
from that deal could accrue to that program’s Canadian broadcaster,
making a production anywhere utilizing Canadian talent, services or
financing in part Canadian.
Champion new business models: Rigid intellectual property rules have
led to studios suing teenagers and spawned privacy and market-throttling
measures such as the Copyright “Modernization” Act and the secretive
Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. The EU has leveled the playing
field with its net neutrality law and Canada could take it a step further. I
propose a private/public task force to create a landmark set of IP licences
that go beyond Creative Commons licences – which support sharing but
not commerce – to include a range of ownership options for content, across
multiple platforms and viewing windows. The licences would incorporate
three trends driving global media today:
Transpersonal: “In the electric age, we wear all mankind as our skin,”
McLuhan said. This immediacy and intimacy holds real business potential.
A range of pre-defined CC-like permissions for viewer interaction (such
as monetized crowdsourcing and remixing) would help creators build
audiences and revenues.
Transnational: Canada has 55 treaties and a strong legacy of international
coproduction yielding high production values – and huge amounts of red
tape. Baked into the new IP licenses could be simple formulas for defining
the relationship between international soft monies (government incentives
like Telefilm) and equity investment.
Transmedia: The new models could help film, television, gaming, print
and online companies cross-pollinate and multiply revenue streams.
Focus public institutions: Media plays a vital role across all sectors.
Digital Canada 150 shifted the centre of gravity from Canadian Heritage
to the Industry portfolio, while retaining a cumbersome divide. In the
U.K., the integrated Ministry for Culture, Communications and Creative
Industries covers media oversight across a range of industries: we should
replicate this model. Meanwhile, the CBC, NFB, and Telefilm/CMF should
remain as vibrant non-commercial producers, distributors, incubators and
angel investors.
Cut out the middleman: In this world of targeted media, speed is
critical and gatekeepers inefficient. The voodoo of ratings services like BBM
and Nielsen is being replaced by the comprehensive, real-time audience
metrics that Netflix uses. By basing content decisions on sophisticated user
data, network execs could spend less time guessing and more time curating,
improving the odds for Canadian hits.
Reboot the brand: Until recently, our media was tasked with forging
a national identity from a kind of invented nostalgia. Now we need a more
commercial focus, not on Canadian stories, but on great stories told by
Canadians, sold everywhere. Canada’s diversity is its true strength. Our
identity doesn’t lie in our brief history, but in an emerging potential to
redefine ourselves in a culture of tolerance – ironically making us truer to
the American dream than today’s America. Canadian media should reflect
this new identity, and proclaim it to the world.
The Elephant’s Tattoo
Retuning Canadian media for an era of opportunity
B y S t e p h e n R o l o f f
Stephen Roloff
is an award-winning producer, production designer, writer, entrepreneur and
strategic consultant in Toronto and San Francisco.