The `convention of choice’ for

local television station execs

he trip to Can Pro ’95, running April 1-4 in historic Quebec City, offers a welcome break for local television station executives consumed with the day-to-day battles in the trenches.

‘People in our business have been brought to the edge of the cliff,’ says one Can Pro veteran. ‘Whatever is coming up in the next five years, it’s nothing we’ve ever seen before.’

Since its founding in 1974 in Regina, Can Pro has emerged as the definitive venue – both on the informal and informative fronts – for Canada’s private tv station managers, programmers and promotion executives. This year, delegates from about 80 local tv stations across Canada will attend.

Added to this core group is the growing participation of independent producers, syndicators, exporters and distributors, and specialty services. Educational institutions also play a role in the festival.

Can Pro ’95 chair Jean-Pierre Pampalon, news and program director at host Television Quatre Saisons station cfap-tv Quebec City, says 250 delegates will be in attendance, including private-sector producers and distributors from the u.s. studios who are looking to sell to programmers.

As for the annual programming and promotions awards competition, Pampalon says program entries are up 20% over last year to 369, while promotion entries are up an impressive 40% to 387. No wonder, for the first time this year the competition is open to specialty services and independent producers.

Time out

Can Pro may be preoccupied with the uncertain future facing private stations, but delegates can also look forward to some serious amusement and a chance to get away for a fine meal in a tres French-sounding eatery somewhere along the maze of narrow streets in Old Quebec.

One of the social highlights of the 1995 confab is a ‘dress warm’ mid-afternoon cruise down the St. Lawrence River on Sunday, April 2.

Delegates will spend a few hours at the Manoir Richelieu ‘visiting’ the Casino, and our host promises to have everybody back at the majestic Chateau Frontenac before midnight.

Originally mandated to honor local tv program and promotion production, Can Pro has become an important meeting place for private television to reflect on the changing landscape of Canadian and international broadcasting.

Perhaps Can Pro’s best asset is its genuine pan-Canadian makeup.

For producers with hard-won syndication skills, the festival is an important opportunity to tap into creative talent at the local market level, in-house, or from the community.

Can Pro ’95 chair Jerry MacLeod, vice-president of operations at BBS Saskatchewan, a regional six-station network in the Baton Broadcasting System, says networking and ‘learning how others do things’ is at the heart of Can Pro’s agenda.

‘As (Canadian Association of Broadcasters president) Michael McCabe has said: `The future is in people and program production, not in the owners of the cables and the wires.’ ‘

Program trends

As for program trends, MacLeod, who remains national chair through to 1997, says local station programming is becoming ‘less local’ in character, with a marked reduction in performance-style shows and growth in areas such as shared-cost documentaries and public affairs programs.

The level of networking between tv stations and independent producers is one of the festival’s most exciting growth areas.

Lauron Productions chairman Ron Lillie is a panelist at a Tuesday morning workshop called ‘Stop Calling it Canadian Programming!: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Making Money.’

Also on the panel are Toronto-based producers Steve Smith, president of S&S Productions, Peter Emerson, president of Oasis Pictures, and Bill Johnston, chairman of Summerhill Entertainment.

‘The theory,’ says Lillie, ‘is that people in our business (independent production) want to make money, but historically part of the problem has been that Canadian broadcasters see Canadian programming as a tax.’

Lillie says the stigma attached to the ‘Canadian’ label no longer holds true, mainly because tv stations now have to show profits for their Canadian programs.

Growth in syndication

He says the deal is for producers of first-run syndicated programs to provide quality, cost-effective shows which succeed through a partnership with broadcasters who provide the promotion and selling.

So far, says Lillie, the syndication landscape in Canada remains uneven, although tv programmers are embracing the trend to acquire national-style programming ‘without having to pay all the freight.’

A recent example of a successful first-run syndicated series in Canada is The New Red Green Show, a zany sitcom produced by Smith and executive produced by Lillie and Johnston. The show costs about $75,000 per half-hour, and the producers are able to recoup production and talent costs, but not deferrals, through sales to Global Television in Ontario and a dozen local tv stations across the country.

According to Lillie, the producer/syndicator moves into the black through second and third window licences and foreign sales.

He says first-run in its various manifestations – including barter and combined barter and licence fees – makes up a major part of the u.s. tv market, as much as 50% to 60%.

‘It’s minuscule in Canada,’ he says, ‘but it is the future.’

Lillie says shared program investment between the independent production sector and private stations reflects the decentralizing trend in broadcasting. ‘Each tv station has to live or die in the local market. Today every time slot has to count,’ he says.

Can Pro promotions chair Mary Powers, director of communication and promotion at Citytv in Toronto, says the landscape for independent stations and producers has changed dramatically since she began attending Can Pro eight years ago. With so much change at hand, the times have never been more challenging or exciting, she says.

Powers and City creative director Peter Whittington will present a video survey of the best and the different in international tv promotions.

Powers says new ideas are essential in an environment where channel capacity is set to explode, online technology is making inroads, and where, five years down the road, ratings and audience share are sure to look different. ‘It’s only going to get worse and worse,’ she says.

Can Pro workshop chair Barry Close, marketing and promotions manager with cfrn-tv Edmonton, a CTV Television Network station owned by Electrohome, says the sentiment among festival volunteers is that Can Pro has to grow.

‘At no time in my years of broadcasting has the ability to share ideas been more important than it is now,’ says Close. ‘There is so much pressure to invent value-added benefits at all local stations that no one person can come up with enough ideas.’

He says the opportunity for growth at Can Pro is strong because many local stations are less willing to pay for trips to expensive conventions and markets in the u.s. ‘This year, Can Pro is being called the convention of choice.’

Close says local tv station execs are also ready and willing to expand their horizons. ‘Those of us in the trenches doing the day-to-day work can’t always exactly see where we’re headed,’ he says.

Which is why the closing workshop, ‘Friends in High Places,’ is important, says Close. Workshop panelists include Bruce Cowie, president and ceo of Electrohome; Charles Belanger, president and ceo of cfcf-tv Montreal; Joanne McKenna, president of Global Developments; Pat McDougall, director of programming at CFCN Communications; and cab chief McCabe. CTV Weekend News anchor Sandie Rinaldo is the moderator.

‘They represent an opportunity for delegates to meet and talk with ceo-level panelists who seem the best placed to talk about the future of the industry,’ says Close.

Cowie and Belanger are cochairs of a government-mandated committee asked to make recommendations on the future of Canadian programming.

McCabe will be armed with a new study, prepared by Communications Management, calling for a better fix for private tv in Canada and a rebalancing of revenues and responsibilities in the Canadian broadcasting system.

Future promotions

Growth of revenues and audiences, always at the heart of private-sector tv’s preoccupations, will be discussed in a promotions workshop. Speakers include Jeff Eisler, promotion/marketing manager at Calgary 7 Television, and David Hamilton, director, public relations/promotions for Global.

‘Repositioning Before the Onslaught,’ a workshop that examines three 1994/95 launch efforts, is helmed by panelists Close, Johnny Michel, executive producer at bctv Vancouver, and Hugh Oliver, promotion producer/director at Edmonton’s itv.

It’s followed by a summary report on the specialty channel launch in January by presenters such as Alexandra Brown, vice-president, communications at Life Network; Bill Meldrum, director of marketing at Discovery Channel; Gilles Desjardins, director, business development, Reseau de l’Information; and John Gunn, creative director at Bravo!

Hot issues

Another timely session is ‘Hot Issues in Television Today,’ moderated by Howard Slutsken, national program manager, CanWest Global System. Panelists include Ellen Baine, director of programming at City; Bill Stevenson, vice-president programming at BBS Saskatchewan; and Vincent Leduc, tqs program director.

Can Pro, a non-profit organization with an annual budget of $150,000, is supported through entry fees and by broadcasters, the independent sector and sponsors.

Can Pro’s board of directors will meet during the festival on April 1. MacLeod says issues on the agenda include expanding the board’s regional representation, and early planning for Can Pro ’96 in Victoria, b.c., where BCTV/ WIC Western International Communications group station chek-tv is set to host.