‘Flagging it’

The pairing of Viacom and Canada has been met with gruff snorts and circumspect looks from the beginning of this outfit’s existence less than a month ago. Even in infancy – at its friendly, snazzy launch at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto – press were demonstrating healthy quotas of skepticism.

There is a nagging concern running through some of the Canadian production community that Viacom Canada’s (vci) young and already-pumped profile may not match its accomplishments in the end.

Initially, the Canadian-based, American-funded organization arrived with a five-year lease and bubbling with a no-strings-attached pot of $5 million to spill all over Canadian culture. But the timing – smack dab in the middle of the company’s term awaiting Investment Canada approval of its takeover bid of Paramount’s Canadian assets – was, to say the least, curious.

When it came time to unveil the structure of vci, things got murkier. It’s a corporate entity, and as such has no aim to create assets or revenue. Allan Gregg, president of vci, is outraged that people would expect revenue or assets from this corporate entity, exclaiming that ‘it shows a fundamental ignorance of how business operates.’

This week, an impressive announcement was released by vci, boasting of a $50 million investment in the Toronto production community. Yet the deal is entirely the work of Viacom International’s cable network Showtime. There ain’t no connection to vci. Even an American Viacom spokesperson put vci’s involvement in the Showtime deal down to nothing more than ‘flagging it.’ vci winds up looking like it’s just pumping hot, promotional air again.

Although Gregg says that vci is set up to ‘facilitate relationships between independent producers here and Viacom operations,’ no one is discussing just what Viacom is up to with this new Canuck face. We’re told that the behemoth company finds the time to keep abreast of what the Canadian production community is up to. According to one employee of a Canadian production company, Viacom International wants to see everything that goes out in the way of production news up here. Everything about Viacom? No, everything.

Gregg says novelty is the cause of fear and trembling over vci’s intentions: ‘(Other) corporations have treated Canada like the 51st State. No one has done this before.’

There is no doubt that Viacom is bold, and that it dares tread where no other media conglomerate has. At the end of the trek, three weeks later and with millions of dollars spelled out on vci letterhead, just what this corporate entity has in mind for Canada’s production community remains a mystery. We will be watching.