A panel of domestic industry leaders surmised that Canada’s screen sector will need to reckon with some fundamental structural issues to compete on the global stage.

“There are some profound structural challenges that this industry is going to have to cope with, and the hard part is maybe we [have been] producing too much programming for the past 10 years,” said Michael MacMillan, co-founder and CEO of Blue Ant Media.

MacMillan was one of six domestic broadcasting and funding executives participating in the closing panel at Content Canada in Toronto on Wednesday (Sept. 11), moderated by Barry Hertz, film editor at The Globe and Mail.

Addressing earlier comments at the conference about paralysis in the sector, MacMillan said slow regulatory changes are just one of the problems within the industry. He predicted the industry will see more cuts and downsizing in the next few years, pointing to the influx of advertising options that have disrupted broadcasting, as well as the rise and fall of peak TV due to the introduction of streaming.

Another issue in the structure is the pressure to spend more on production, said MacMillan.

“In most industries, you don’t get a reward if you spend more money on your manufacturing costs. In this industry, we do,” he said. “Some of the mechanisms of how the Canada Media Fund [CMF] works or how certain license fees might be expected from a broadcaster … all put an upward pressure to reward the spending of more money.”

This pressure is resulting in a rush to greenlight, argued John Morayniss, co-founder and CEO of Blink49 Studios.

“I don’t believe the Canadian funding model works anymore, unless we start supporting R&D, the storytelling part of the business,” said Morayniss. “We don’t take enough creative risks in Canada. We certainly don’t do it in development.”

“We have some of the most talented people in Canada, but somehow [when] we run [projects] through the system… there’s a certain level of mediocrity,” he continued. “It’s not everything, and there’s amazing shows coming out of Canada, but the system itself forces us to make some compromises. If I’m a storyteller and I want to stay in Canada, I don’t want those compromises to happen here.”

Touching on the topic of discoverability, CBC EVP Barbara Williams said the broadcasting sector “lost the thread on where the audiences went,” stating the large majority of streaming audio and audiovisual content is done on foreign-owned services.

Stewart Johnson, Bell Media’s SVP content and sales, said there is a problem of audience fragmentation, where they’re consuming a lot of content, but it’s a struggle to meet them where they are. He noted that the top two shows on Crave this summer were HBO’s House of the Dragon and the reality series Love Island, highlighting the contrast in audience demand.

“Not only are [viewers] everywhere, they’re looking for everything,” said Williams. “I don’t think there is a monolith audience out there that you can deliver a single project to anymore.”

For Mike Omelus, APTN’s executive director, content and strategy, one of the issues is the number of episodes being produced. “It used to be 13 and then it was nine and then it’s six and now four,” he said. “How are people supposed to discover this content if it’s gone in a flash? I’d love to hear from a producer who proposes a 22-episode series. That’s going to get audiences more engaged in that content over the long haul.”

CMF president and CEO Valerie Creighton argued that the structures in place won’t allow the industry to meet audiences where they are. She said the sector hasn’t been a help to the CRTC in determining how that can be fixed, referring to the multi-week hearings in November on how to implement base contributions for foreign-owned streamers.

“We didn’t get together and say, ‘Here are five things you need to keep your eye on.’ Big, principled statements on IP, or whatever we could agree on,” she said. “Everybody went up there with their own self-interest and their own little views and said, ‘this is what we need.’ And, in some ways, we got what we deserved.”

Creighton said the CMF is moving forward with its own plans to increase flexibility in its programs, with consultations planned with fall on how the funder can best use the base contributions to support creatives in Canada.

“We’re at a time in this country where we have to work collaboratively … it doesn’t matter who it is or which sector you’re from,” added Creighton. “[Or else] this rabbit hole we’re going down is just going to get worse.”

Pictured (L-R): Stewart Johnson, Valerie Creighton, Michael MacMillan, Barbara Williams, John Morayniss, Mike Omelus and Barry Hertz