BANFF – Vertically integrated media companies in Canada are essential to the long term health and viability of the Canadian production industry, delegates at the 2011 Banff World Media Festival heard Sunday afternoon.
Speaking at a panel discussion called ‘Canadian Media Leaders: The State of the Nation’ here on opening day, it wasn’t a shock that representatives from Bell Media, Rogers Media and Shaw Media took that tack. But it was somewhat surprising that CBC and Astral, neither of whom is affiliated with a BDU, would agree so readily.
“There’s a lot to be said for how’s this industry has been working these past few years and how it’s been working since some of these (acquisitions) have been made”, said Kirstine Stewart, executive vice president of English services at CBC, to the standing room only crowd. “Our world has changed, and if anything, there is actually a need and a desire for more Canadian content now. And our focus at CBC is on making great content, so we’re actually a supplier in many ways to a number of these vertically integrated companies. The stronger they are, the better we can be, and the more supportive we can all be of the Canadian production industry.”
John Riley, president of Astral Television Networks and Astral Télé Réseaux, concurred albeit cautiously.
“As far as business structures and business models go, we think that the industry is best served by having divergent structures. We are independent, we’re confident in our business plan, we see growth coming, so in our view, we’re ideally situated”, he said. “Our primary focus is that there be a certain set of rules established to ensure that there’s fair and equitable access and that the playing fields are level, but that would apply in any set of circumstances. We just need to make sure that independent players that may not have certain advantages are not disadvantaged in that environment. And the same thing would apply to new players, for example, foreign over-the-top players, that the playing field is level.”
Phil Lind, vice chairman of Rogers Communications, described vertical integration as “absolutely necessary” for the Canadian production industry because of the scale that it can provide, while Paul Robertson, group vice president, broadcasting and president of Shaw Media, said that it allows his company to utilize a broader marketing platform to promote programming.
Looking ahead to the CRTC’s vertical hearing scheduled to begin on June 20, (and Cartt.ca will be there), Bell Media president Kevin Crull expressed concern that possible new regulation around vertical integration could cut short its potential.
“I do worry that all of sudden the bogeyman is now around the corner of everything that happens in our industry because of vertical integration”, he added. “It’s like all of a sudden we have a label for everything that bothers us. I worry that the heavy hand of regulation will cause us… where vertical integration was a necessary step forward to get off the brink of disaster, that regulation will make us take two steps back.”
And what about those over-the-top players, moderator Gordon Pitts asked. Friend or foe? Rogers and Bell, who earlier in the panel sparred good naturedly about fee-for-carriage/value for signal and distant signals, were unanimous in their responses.
“I think that the current posture of some, especially in government, is ‘let the flowers bloom, let’s let everybody have everything and go to it guys’”, said Rogers’ Lind. “The problem is that may have serious implications down the road. I’m not warning everybody that it’s around the corner, but down the road it could have serious implications for the Canadian content industry.”
“We have a broadcasting policy where those of us on the panel and in every part of the business have a significant obligations to support Canadian production, Canadian expression and to have an environment that maintains our culture given the proximity that we have to the U.S.”, Crull chimed in. “That environment, from a business model is very costly to do. If you’re competing with someone that doesn’t have that obligation, you can’t compete.”
Once again, CBC’s Stewart responded from a different angle.
“We did a deal with Netflix”, she said. “They purchased quite a few hours of good Canadian content from us, and who knows in their overall strategy and their overall plan where CanCon lies for them, but whether it was market force-driven or trying to look good in adding content to their lineup, we did do a deal, and in that way, it benefits the producers and is yet another outlet for Canadians to get their Canadian programming.”
Cartt.ca senior editor Lesley Hunter is in Banff this week covering the 2011 Banff World Media Festival.
