The way of the world

It comes as no surprise that the pink-slip tally vis-a-vis the merger of Alliance and Atlantis is going to be greater than originally projected and the production slate reduced to enhance the margins on programming. Consolidation is a relatively simple equation: larger means smaller. Use the words ‘efficiencies’ and ‘synergy’ often. Mergers and buyouts are us this year apparently, paralleling the machinations of much of the business world.

With the new Canadian Television Fund guidelines expected next month and the fallout from the Canadian Television Policy Hearing not far behind, it’ll be interesting to track where the wheat separates from the chaff. It’s been crazy this year. Bigger, better, stronger seems to be the mantra, and none of this bodes well for small and medium-sized producers.

The tide is moving towards a class system; those with access to the network broadcasters and large production companies and those without. Word on the street is the broadcasters are shopping for production companies, leaving producers weighing the pros and cons of guaranteed access to slots and financing versus depleted autonomy and control. Tough choice. Feels like the time to get in is now or never.

If – or more likely when – the crtc decides to increase the number of hours of indigenous primetime drama on the networks, the broadcasters will have to stop seeing Cancon as the ‘cost of doing business’ and start demanding that it make money. The most obvious way to go about this is to participate in the back end (i.e. international sales and distribution). Since they’re in the business of buying tv and not the murky business of selling it, it makes sense to take over the folks who already know what they’re doing.

Although some producers have reportedly said no to a network pitch, it’s only a matter of time until ctv makes a move similar to CanWest Global’s purchase of Fireworks Entertainment. chum could go national and buy Salter Street Films (Lexx: The Series). The list of potential partnerships creating mini-studios in Canada is long.

The more optimistic among us will say there are rules in place governing self-dealing and equitable access that prevent broadcaster/producers from front-loading their channels with their own product. Yes, there are. But in this business, where there’s a loophole, there’s a way, and without naming names, we know how well the rules work on the channels that are already a product of supplier/distributor partnerships. There’s the crtc world and there’s reality. When Rogers squeezes 20% out of chum for Cable Pulse 24 and Shaw owns some or all of dth provider Star Choice, one has to wonder exactly how adept are any of the artificially imposed conditions from the crtc attempting to stymie vertical integration.

No one is saying that the sky is falling. The members list of the cftpa numbers some 300, and if only 10 are the chosen few of the networks, the other 290 have the option of the specialty channels and their substantially lesser licence fees.

The point is that if primetime drama is the brass ring, the momentum towards consolidation and vertical integration is making it progressively harder for any producer not willing to sign his or her rights away to a broadcaster, to make the cut.

As the ctf powers that be will begin telling producers and broadcasters at length Dec. 10, ‘Welcome to the new reality.’