Day two of the Banff World Media Festival kicked off with a bang, as Troy Reeb, EVP, networks and content at Corus Entertainment, spoke candidly during a Canadian industry panel about a dramatic shift in the domestic linear broadcasting sector.

His remarks referred to the news that Rogers Communications has inked deals with Warner Bros. Discovery to assume the HGTV, Food Network, Magnolia Network and Cooking Channel brands in Canada, which have been under the Corus fold since 2016.

The deal also included the Bravo brand from NBCUniversal, which was previously under Bell Media before its rebrand to CTV Drama in 2019, and Discovery brands such as MotorTrend, Science, Animal Planet and ID, which are currently licensed as brands under Bell Media.

“In this new world, you have players of such massive market scale that can go directly to U.S. studios and simply snap up agreements that undermine those of Canadian broadcasters,” said Reeb. “I think that’s an abuse of the system, because there are no channels at Rogers right now to put those services on, they will need to launch services.”

“The only result is that the same content from U.S. studios will be flowing to Canadians with tens of millions of dollars pouring into the U.S. system and out of the Canadian system,” he continued. “It is not only a thumb in the eye to Corus, it is a thumb in the eye to independent broadcasters, the regulators who are supposed to protect against undue preference, and to the independent production community.

Reeb also alluded to some of Corus’ plans once the brand change is in place. “Today, 11 of the top 20 shows on HGTV Canada are Canadian shows. Mark my words, that service, even when it can no longer operate with the HGTV brand, will have a distinct Canadian brand that will continue to lean into its Canadian talent,” he said.

Best/worst case scenarios

The panel, titled Best Case Scenario: Canadian Industry Perspectives, gathered a variety of perspectives from domestic broadcasters, producers and creatives on what an ideal content system might look like in Canada as regulatory changes start rolling in.

First, moderator Glenn Cockburn, founder of talent agency Meridian Artists, asked panelists to pose their worst case scenario, with Jocelyn Hamilton, president, television at Lionsgate Canada, putting forward a world where Canada became solely a service hub for foreign producers. 

“There was a [time when] the tax credits were meant to remain with the producers so they could build robust production companies,” said Hamilton. “That was the initial intent, and over the years that got whittled down and now tax credits are part of our financing… And so, if ownership gets taken away from us, what’s left? People have to defer their producer fees in order to get things financed. If you take the last thing that you have, which is ownership … then how do you remain stable as an industry?”

APTN CEO Monika Ille warned of consequences if the momentum of support for Indigenous content slows, especially online, where the CRTC cannot set the terms for wholesale rates the way it does for linear. “At APTN, we saw a year-over-year increase of 23% of our ratings, while other broadcasters are declining,” she said. “There’s a shift happening, so we need to keep that [momentum], and if we don’t have the support as everything is going online, we’re going to lose all of that.”

Writer-producer Anthony Q. Farrell voiced concerns about whether new regulations will simply see streamers replacing the role of traditional broadcasters in the system, instead of being a value-add, referring to the base contributions decision from the CRTC.

“If the people who are responsible for deciding what shows get made don’t see people of colour as part of Canada, then your show is not going to get made, because they don’t think of it as something that Canadians will watch,” said Farrell. “That’s a big barrier that we keep on having to battle through.”

One benefit he flagged, however, was the support for equity-deserving groups in the contributions, with organizations such as the Black Screen Office receiving dedicated support. “It doesn’t mean that you’re going to get something put on to these broadcasters, but what it does mean is that there will be funds to help create more content like that,” he said.

Reeb said the current state of things is already close to the worst case scenario, at least where advertising is concerned, with Meta and Google taking in the bulk of ad revenues and threatening ad-supported platforms. 

“The biggest advertising platforms in this country and globally, gobbling up to 70% of every ad dollar, have no cost of goods against them at all,” said Reeb. “They are putting ads against user-generated content and algorithmic-generated search impressions, and it is undercutting the very value of what all of us in this room do.”

But there are hopeful things on the horizon, with Ille pointing to the injection of money the Indigenous community will be receiving through the foreign-owned streamer contributions, and the CRTC allowing APTN to streamline its channels into two main feeds, with APTN Languages supporting Indigenous-language content.

Both Farrell and Hamilton proposed opportunities within the upcoming consultations on the definition of Canadian content. Farrell said the definition should weigh the identity of the writer, noting that the Writers Guild of Canada is looking at the importance of supporting Canadian residents more closely, as opposed to Canadian citizens living abroad. 

Hamilton proposed increasing the traditional points system from 10 to 14 and adding options such as distributors or Canadian-made IP to increase flexibility. She also called for a change in the system to allow distributors to trigger funding, not just broadcasters.

Ille also said there’s an opportunity with the definition of Indigenous content to not keep producers and creators within colonial borders, since First Nations communities precede the Canadian borders producers work in today.

Moving mountains

Later in the day, the panel Moving Mountains: Canadian Producers Tackle the Rocky Landscape, moderated by C21’s North American editor Jordan Pinto, demonstrated how the current landscape of slowed commissions in Canada is impacting even the most prolific of producers.

“Renewals have never been more important in our company’s history, as greenlights are harder and harder to find,” said Jordy Randall, executive producer at Heartland and Family Law prodco SEVEN24 Films.

Even with the support coming from the base contributions, Eagle Vision founder Lisa Meeches says the money won’t be flowing through quickly enough. “In the meantime, Indigenous producers are not getting greenlit, and if they are, where are they gonna stay? Because APTN does not have the air time,” she said.

Meeches added that it has been beneficial for Indigenous producers to be involved in conversations around regulation, after being historically excluded. “We’re very grateful,” she says, “but let’s see what happens in the next two years.”

Carolyn Newman, EVP, global scripted at Blink49 Studios, echoed Meeches’ sentiments on the need for expediency.

“Having worked at some of these multinational corporations, I’ll say the most important thing for the CRTC to do is act with clarity, conviction and timeliness,” she said. “It’s so important to make sure they understand how to operate in the country, what you expect from them, and say it as quickly as possible, that way they can know how to operate and what to do, otherwise it just flies back down again in terms of their priorities.”

Attraction president Richard Speer said his Quebec-based company has tried to tackle budgetary concerns early on in the writing stage.

As an example, one of the episodes of Mégantic, produced with Also Productions, about the deadly train disaster in Lac-Mégantic, Que., was set in one room as the conductor was interrogated. “By cutting [the budget] massively in one episode, it gave us the means to actually do the other episodes,” he said.

Photo by Kristian Bogner Photography; Pictured (L-R): Anthony Q. Farrell, Jocelyn Hamilton, Monika Ille, Troy Reeb and Glenn Cockburn