Whether it’s Schitt’s Creek, The Book of Negroes, Vikings, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell or The Stanley Dynamic, Canadian TV shows and copros were jockeying for the attention of foreign buyers at the recent MIPCOM TV market in Cannes.

But John Morayniss, CEO of Entertainment One Television, had a concern as the producers of Canadian shows like Camp Lakebottom, Murdoch Mysteries and Hip-Gags with Messmer shopped their series in the Palais bunker or held meetings in hotels along the palm-lined Croisette.

To produce global hits like The Walking Dead and House of Cards, Morayniss said Canada’s TV rules must focus less on the copyright ownership of creators at home and more on how shows are commercially made and work globally.

“There has to be less black and white perspective where it’s all or nothing. It’s beyond six out of ten point. It’s about a combination of who owns these shows, who’s taking the creative risk on these shows, who’s taking the financial risk and what’s my upside,” he told Playback Daily during a sit-down interview at the eOne beachfront sales booth.

With the CRTC’s recent Let’s Talk TV hearings in mind, Moryaniss talked about a Canadian TV industry where new digital technologies increasingly render traditional regulatory rules irrelevant when protecting homegrown players and encouraging creative innovation and risk.

“We have to step back and ask how does Canada survive going forward, when we’re still next to the biggest exporter of entertainment in the world. And we consume a lot of that content,” he said, framing the debate.

Currently, Canadian TV rules are dominated by a points system where a show becomes Canadian content based on the assembled talent, including writers, directors and actors. “That’s a simplistic view of what makes a show Canadian,” Morayniss said.

His concern is Canadian producers may retain the copyright for shows they develop, but they lay off rights to a foreign studio or distributor to get shows made or sold into the world market.

And that leaves the upside profits from Canadian TV shows whose rights are stripped out of the copyright to move abroad to non-Canadian companies.

“At the end of the day, the Canadian producer has a show that qualifies as Canadian content because [it] owns the copyright, but meanwhile the distribution rights have been sold off for 25 years, [the] merchandise and licensing rights are held by a non-Canadian entity, and the truth is the first dollars coming in from the shows are being collected by non-Canadian companies that own the rights,” Morayniss argued.

“All we’re saying is, let’s step back and say that’s an element to what defines what is Canadian (content) as much, or more, as whether you have a Canadian actor that happens to have a Canadian passport and lives in the United States,” he added.

Morayniss then points to an eOne show like Klondike for the U.S. Discovery channel, which is based on a Canadian novel, set and shot in Canada, and was deficit-financed by eOne. But Klondike doesn’t qualify as Canadian because the director is British, the writer is American and the cast is a mix of Canadians, Americans, Brits and Australians.

“When it was decided to spend more money because we felt we wanted a better show, we wanted more extras, more helicopter and crane shots, it was our decision, not a distribution company that had to cut a cheque somewhere else,” Morayniss said.

“Our voice was more influential on that show than a minority treaty coproduction, yet, for whatever reason, Klondike doesn’t qualify as Canadian content,” he added.

The eOne TV boss urges the Canadian TV industry to focus more on development.

“We have to have a mentality of creating hits in Canada, as opposed to singles and doubles. How that plays out, that’s something that needs to be discussed over time. But we have to start with a set of goals for ourselves, which calls for creating a creatively driven industry in Canada, not one driven by a discounted production strategy,” Morayniss added, mindful how foreign studios and producers eye Canada for its tax credits and other subsidies to limit budget costs.

And he urged a portfolio approach to Canadian content investment, allowing broadcasters more leeway to invest in homegrown TV shows.

“We’re in a global business. Netflix is buying shows for multiple territories, for the world. That gives them leverage. AMC has channels all over the world. And in Canada, we’re a smaller territory. We need those kinds of partnerships,” he urged.