The number of Canadian dramas landing a U.S. broadcast deal these days has grown into a parade.

The Bridge, The Border, The Guard – that’s just the latest short list of Canadian dramas to assure their future with an American partner.

But when is a U.S. broadcast deal not enough to secure a drama’s future?

When you’re trying to assemble second-season financing for Soul, VisionTV’s first original hour-long drama about young black Canadians from Halifax Films that debuted Feb. 11.

Floyd Kane, Halifax Films’ VP of creative and business affairs, is near to inking a deal with BET Networks for Soul, which would represent the first foreign acquisition by the popular U.S. cable channel aimed at black and urban audiences.

But in a Canadian TV business that, by necessity, requires patchwork financing, where producers must stitch together investment from a half-dozen sources, the BET licence fee won’t be enough to secure a second season for Soul.

‘It’s complicated, and interesting,’ Kane sighs in between conference calls.

For starters, the first season of Soul represented a major investment for Vision, which joined up with the National Screen Institute to enable Andy Marshall and Abi Marshall to create their own TV series as visible-minority writers.

HF managed to produce six episodes of Soul in Halifax for $800,000 an hour – with Canadian R&B star Keshia Chanté as a lead – only by shooting on location in Nova Scotia.

But the message from Vision is it cannot repeat its generous season-one licence fee in a second year.

‘For next year, we can’t have that level of commitment,’ Joan Jenkinson, director of independent productions at Vision parent S-VOX, explains.

So Kane has to find a second-window Canadian partner to meet the Canadian Television Fund threshold for a homegrown drama.

And as he prepares his overture to Canuck broadcasters, Kane is raising the siren call of a U.S. broadcast deal, with its promise of prestige and fortune.

As it happens, BET earlier passed on Soul at the script stage. But Loretha Jones, the newly installed president of programming at the U.S. caster, was a champion of Chanté in her former post as SVP of development at Paramount/MTV Films.

Believing she might finally have found a vehicle for the Canadian R&B songstress in Soul, Jones invited Kane down to Washington, DC for a December meeting.

‘Keshia Chanté gives us a great vehicle for marketing the show. And that’s not just in terms of TV show content, but through music, soundtrack albums and concerts. Soul is a perfect blending of TV and music,’ Kane says, recalling his well-rehearsed pitch.

You could potentially have a Hannah Montana on your hands,’ he adds excitedly.

The pitch evidently worked on Jones, because she and Kane have performed a delicate pas de deux in recent months to conclude a deal.

After all, Canadian dramas may currently be the flavor of the month in Los Angeles, but U.S. broadcasters know they have Canadian producers over a barrel. They know their brand’s value as a platform on which to launch a Canadian drama into the international market.

Sure, the Canadians have their own leverage. Cost-conscious U.S. networks see in a Flashpoint or The Listener an affordable hour they can place on their primetime schedule that won’t require as high a rating as a one-hour their affiliate studios may produce on their own.

And while BET airs Christian programming on Sundays, a Canadian drama about a gutsy choir girl on the path to pop stardom could fulfil a longstanding ambition for the U.S. channel to air a gospel-themed drama.

It also helps that the Americans like those Canadian government subsidies on offer to local producers.

‘What’s attractive to BET is we can access so much Canadian money,’ says Vision’s Jenkinson.

‘With the CTF contribution and tax credits and equity money, we can deliver something very economical to an American broadcaster,’ she adds.

But it’s not so much the modest licence fee from a U.S. broadcaster as its ancillary value that counts for the Canadians.

‘Obviously, if a U.S. network comes on board, it enhances the show, and more money goes on screen,’ explains John Morayniss, president of E1 Television, which recently sold The Bridge to CBS.

Then there’s the marketing clout of an American partner.

With BET on board, Kane knows there’s priceless publicity to be had for Soul as series leads like Chanté get splashed over Entertainment Weekly or People magazine.

What’s more, a U.S. deal means precious notes in the margins on scripts from the American partner, and the prospect of a Canadian drama selling more widely and profitably into the world market.

As things stand, Kane is banking on an ad revenue-sharing deal with BET to get him, over time, to the licence fee he originally requested of his U.S. partner.

But even with that sweetner, his challenge remains to line up a second-window Canadian investor to meet the CTF threshold for homegrown dramas.

‘We all know where we want the show to go. Part of the pitch is, we have a show that can go anywhere,’ Kane insists, ever the optimistic Canadian producer, whatever the challenge.