Between pending new legislation and the increased number of content buyers, Canada’s screen sector is poised for a seismic shift in 2022.

Still in recovery from the production shutdown in 2020, producers are cautiously optimistic about the road ahead after the highs and lows of the previous year.

For a look ahead, Playback spoke with a number of indie producers on their core concerns heading into the new year.

How will new legislation aid the recovering screen sector?

Top of mind for the industry is the prospect of an amended Broadcasting Act coming in the first half of the year. After Bill C-10 died on the order paper in fall 2021, the Liberal government vowed to re-table the legislation within 100 days of being re-elected last September, with the deadline swiftly approaching.

The industry made it loud and clear in 2021 how urgently the legislation is needed, with myriad unions and associations signing a joint letter asking the House of Commons to push Bill C-10 through. For producers, a core issue is around bringing more money into the system to aid the development of Canadian-owned IP. “The fact that people come here to use our talent, to partner with our talent to create shows, says everything you need to know,” Vince Commisso (picture, right), president and CEO of 9 Story Media Group, tells Playback Daily. “Now it’s just about supporting it and directing it in places where the monetization of the IP stays in Canada.”

The Liberal government has also made clear its intent to modernize Canada’s funding organizations, opening up the possibility of a potential merger between the Canada Media Fund and Telefilm. Shant Joshi, president of Fae Pictures (pictured, left), says he believes producers are open to the idea, particularly if it means a more platform-agnostic approach to triggering funding. “We do see a future where the broadcasters play a role, but we are just consuming more content digitally than ever before, so we have to meet the moment,” he says.

Even more pressing is whether Telefilm’s Short-Term Compensation Fund for Canadian Audiovisual Productions will be extended in light of the recent Omicron-fueled wave of the pandemic, which has seen a record number of infections across the country. The fund is currently set to expire on March 31 and the Department of Heritage has not provided an update as of press time.

What will the mergers and acquisitions landscape look like?

The first half of 2022 will see whether the proposed $26-billion Rogers and Shaw merger will go through, which Commisso says will largely set the tone for M&A activity in Canada. He also points to AT&T’s plan to spin out WarnerMedia, which it acquired in 2018, to merge with Discovery Inc. this year as a major indicator for future mergers in the global market.

“Being in the content business today requires a much bigger spend than it used to, as does investing in infrastructure for the telecom business,” he says. “No matter how big the company, you have a finite number of resources. I think that will go a long way to determining what the nature of mergers and acquisitions are [in 2022].”

What that means for indie producers, according to Commisso, is they’ll need to scale up. He says that production companies who aim to work with the biggest content buyers globally may see strategic value in merging to meet the premium demand.

Thunderbird Entertainment and Atomic Cartoons CEO Jennifer Twiner McCarron (pictured, right) says the growing company’s M&A strategy is based around increasing their international footprint. “The world is getting smaller and companies like Netflix and Disney have announced they want to have more of an international presence in places like Europe or Southeast Asia. We would love to have a presence there as well,” she says, adding that they’re being careful to locate “like-minded companies sharing cultural and strategic values that make financial sense.”

How will the distribution disruption impact film financing?

Financing a project has never been a simple task, but the continued disruption of the theatrical market has thrown a wrench into how to raise capital for a feature film.

Joshi says pre-sales for films are diminishing, making it more difficult for indie producers to complete production financing, while even finished products are losing value. “The buyers are going to dictate their own numbers and values for films that are probably very much not going to be in alignment with what the budget of the film is,” he says.

He predicts that 2022 will see a greater push for private equity investors in Canada. “Our high net worth individuals local to Canada are not participating in financing feature films the way they participate in funding the ballet, the art gallery or being donors to an institution like the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF),” he says. “We should start looking at that more deeply because [financing is] not going be found, I don’t think, in the distribution space.”

What are the strategic content moves in 2022?

Clique Pictures founder Lauren Grant (pictured, left) says the difficulties with financing may mean indie producers will keep their content slates on the leaner side, focusing on quality over quantity. “The business part is so hard and it’s gotten harder in the pandemic,” she says, adding that producers are prioritizing passion projects. “I hope that continues to open the door for voices that have been historically excluded. TIFF was a great example, having Scarborough be right up there in audience choice numbers. I think there are some really exciting storytellers that are still to come.”

Twiner McCarron says she doesn’t believe demand for diverse content will wane. “We have a responsibility to get it right and lift new and authentic voices,” she says. “Not only is that the right thing to do, it’s proving to be good for business as all of the streamers and buyers are required to buy more diverse and inclusive content.”

One type of content that producers say will continue to be in demand in 2022 is children’s programming. “Kids content increases subscribers and kids tend to be serial bingers,” says Commisso, adding that the rewatchability of kid-targeted content makes it more valuable to streaming services trying to attract and retain subscribers, especially when an episode of a children’s series is a fraction of the cost of a premium drama.

Grant also says the conversation about work/life balance sparked by the averted IATSE strike in the U.S. needs to continue into 2022. “People are expected to give absolutely every part of themselves to this business,” she says. “I think we’ve realized that, [during] a global pandemic, that’s not the most important thing and that… fighting to just get back to [12-hour work days] is not where we should end. I would love to see shorter hours. I would love to see more care around mental health in this industry. People are getting burnt out.”